ancientPC

I'm trying to build the best and most windows98 compatible gaming system possible. Please don't say it's pointless, waste of money, use virtual machine instead, etc. Whenever people ask this on other forums they are bombarded with people saying their idiots and to use windows 7 instead, etc. I've made my decision so if you can't help please don't post. to better understand my mindset/intentions see this link http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Editorial/Gaming-Its-1999-Building-Legacy-Windows-Gaming-PC my current PC specs: MOBO - MSI KT7266 Pro2 (AGP 4x) CPU - AMD Athlon 1GHz (I think) RAM - 256Mb DDR (x1 stick) HDD - 80Gb (Seagate, I think) VIDEO - nVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 (AGP 4x, 64Mb RAM) SOUND - Creative SB Live! CDR - 32x Burner (can't remember brand) FDD - 3.5" black CASE - Tower MONITOR - BenQ 17" LCD 5:4 Issues: - occasional freezing, happens more often when more stuff is installed - some games have a background crackling noise such as Gabriel Knight Sins of the Father - video performance is poor with newer win98 games such as Deus Ex, Morrowind, Combat Flight Sim, The Sims, Battlefield 1942, etc - can't detect TV tuner card in win98 but works in 2000 (used to take screenshots/video) I want to build a PC to alleviate at least the first 3 issues, last one doesn't matter so much. here is what I found out from my research, please give your opinions: so I need a better motherboard, preferably top of line in 2003-2004ish era but comptability and stability is most important needs to have AGP 8x (not sure PCIe is supported or even desirable?) 5 PCI slots and onboard 1000mbps LAN would be nice ATX form, PS/2 keyboard and mouse port, parallel port not sure what other features are available that windows98 can utilise - hyper transport? I found that an ASUS K8V SE Deluxe ticks all the boxes and has good reviews on newegg (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131490) CPU not that critical, too fast is bad. perhaps a 2GHz one that fits the board? RAM max supported by 98 is 512Mb but can be modified to take up to 2Gb so I was thinking getting two 1Gb DDR 400 or just sticking with the 256Mb I already got not sure about what sound card is best, I thought the SB Live! was one of the best available at the time. maybe a SB16/32 would be more compatible especially with DOS games might see how I go sticking with the SB Live! but if I still get sound crackle might downgrade to a more compatible one HDD the most Win98 can recognise is 160Gb is that correct? not sure if I should I get SATA or IDE Video card has to be AGP 8x but maybe PCIe is preferable I don't know. The best AGP 8x card I found is ASUS V9570/TD/N/256M/A NVIDIA GeForce FX5700. Apparently win98 won't work with a video card more than 256Mb RAM. so please let me know what you think especially about the motherboard and video cards. I really don't know much about what I'm doing, it's hard to research there is so much conflicting and incorrect information out there. hopefully there are some knowledgable like minded win98 afficionados here that can help me find a solution