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Thank you for the tip, i shall download and try it soon and post some results too. (for the 775 cooler effect on socket 370 P3) as i am very curious what temp it shows. The c2d machine is ok, it shows the temps and its quite stable around 47-55 *c. The oem bios are very limited and i have not been able to get advanced settings despite trying different key combos. Thanks again!

Hi there! The only dos games i played were-paratrooper, digdug, dangerous dave and 2-3 more. So I don't fancy a dedicated dos machine and hence i did not invest in a p2 or older slot one system. Although i had computers at school since 1991 but i dint get mine till 1999 and it was a 370 socket p3 933 mhz, hence the same built :-). That machine i build myself. So as i run my favorite games upwards on a p3, i will limit myself at these machines. I used to have a Nintendo for games in mid 90s so i have couple of Nintendo systems for that. Yes, i will post some pictures soon! I only use 1 system at a time due to 4 system desks limit in my study and 3 are taken by modern machines so... i will find time to pull out each, open and take some detailed shots and post soon! Good day/night!

Thanks, those are some nice to knows! I love the ME interface but always fear its stability. Oddly, the feature I used to love was that barn/shed wallpaper it came with. I have since installed that theme in 98. I think the dos dual boot option is the best one. One can get a cheap CF card for it in case one wants a dedicated dos boot disk! I want the ME just for taking a feel of it, guess i will install it as dual boot someday along with NT4 as well as it was my 1st PC at work.

Hello again everyone! Parts arrive late so i am taking time to build the 98 systems. Here are 2 finished machines: 1.) The core2duo machine: C2D 3.2Ghz with the Asus board stated above, Geforce 6800 Vanilla 256ram, 2Gb ddr2, Sound blaster audigy, 120gb WIn 98se, 256gb winxp dual boot, sata cd drive, native sata hard disks. [machine has exact backup components, so ideally 1 more machine can be built] This next machine is a build i had earlier in life :-) i got the parts again not listed in posts above: 2.) Pentium 3 933 on socket 370 compaq board 815 chip, Elsa Eraser3, Riva TnT2 Pro, additional cooling on ram, native clocks. 512MB SD ram, 120gb sata ssd on ssd-ide converter, native ide dvd drive, THIS IS SPECIAL: the cooler is socket 775 new cooler, i personally modded, ask me how and i will share images if you want. The p3 runs cool i can tell but mobo does not show temps. This machine is only for windows 98se with full old dos game support! (again with 1 hardware backup but different agp cards and via board) Not there is 3rd machine in the works for this i have p4 and based on 478 fujitsu board. i have fx5700, 6600 vanilla agp, radeon 9600 atlantis for this build. any suggestions for this one? I have these 3 builds to address 3 generations of HW for all the fun... i still have lot of hw stashed as backup.. any questions or suggestions.. please shoot!

Thanks @RainyShadow I Wish your wishes come true!

ragnargd: Thanks for the reply again.... I replaced the processor with E5800 and that fixed the FSB and its running at 3.2ghz now. i did not disable the second core and its not an issue with 98, just runs one core and when i boot into xp it uses both. in 98se i got a boost in 3d marks. So now out of all the parts this machine is running on c2d 3.2ghz with 2 ssds and one DVD-drive. The dvd does not work in 98 as it shows non atapi in bios. its LG M-disc the proper retail one, and i have that in all my computers but 98 does not like it. I have 2 ide drives on order but i dont think i will need optical drive as most cds i have made iso and mount in alcohol/daemon tools. So yes just like you my optical does not work in 98se. it works well in xp though. i tries using it with ide adapter and all, but no luck. so let it be. I understand you logic behind the broken heart :-). Let me say a few things about it: i have backup hardware, so i usually buy in 2-3 pcs to keep failure insurance. I keep all hardware in my office, in proper office trays. It is a low dust and low moisture, temperature stable place. I think the biggest enemy of HW is moisture, dust and heat. Yet i have solder station, multi meters and electrical repair stuff in case i need in future lol :-D. I have leased out a few shops to mobile repair people and they can usually fix things in case i dont have time. Still, if things fail its ok, I am a spiritual person and dont get too attached to things. I am getting old but i really like to keep memories, i have stocked up a lot of nintendo stuff, an xbox gears ice edition, a switch, all games that i like. I have 2X3ds xl, 2 new 3ds and 2 new 3ds LL japan import and some joycons, controllers etc etc etc.. And yes i plan to build an arcade machine too. In my earlier life i have been a L1, L2 and L3 tech, a tech manager with IBM and dell for 12 years in total. Now i am 40 and i plan to be done with work in about 5-7 years. I don't get enough time to play and i am currently designing a game for release. I want to get over with all work and retire early and go live in my own resort in the forest or the mountains. All this (literally old garbage :-D) that i accumulate, i will keep in a big room and remember my old life and have fun and kill some time... maybe invite some friends once in a while for party sometimes! I know it sounds odd but nostalgia is all that drives it i guess. One reason i stayed away from socket 478 is because i think there was more capacitor plague at that time than the socket 370 or 775 which are more durable overall. About further testing on windows, i will get some time and try the cf cards and the socket 370 stuff once i get the packages and keep posting details of how it worked out. Why i want to try cf card is because its natively IDE interface and most compatible with ide interface. Do keep in touch!

Thanks for the suggestion, this part looks very interesting and nice to buy. If you are using on your system maybe it will work on mine too. When I tried using 2 different sata to ide adapters, the dreaded jmb controller onboard did not detect any devices. maybe this this will get detected if i can find it locally. I also ordered ide to cf card adapters for the socket 370 build i have taken up separately.

@RainyShadow: Thank you, i will do that and see what happens with these. All data on these is first downloaded on my main pc so i will keep a copy there based on your advice. This is the first time i am using these. On my main computer i have WD drives both flash and spinning.

ragnargd : Thank you for taking the time to explain a lot of things, i really appreciate it!! The JMB is a pain, it does not detect drives connected with IDE>SATA converter etc. I am using adata SU650 drives 2 of them. 1 is 120gb for 98 and 240 for windows xp, 120 is divided into 40-80 and the 80gb one i am using to put data, drivers, games dump so if i want to format again, that is there with the 98 setup and everything. The sata drives work fine and boot very fast but show in compatibility mode. There is no compatibility mode in BIOS for drives to put them into IDE but i am not facing any disk issues so i dont know if i want to do anything? your suggestions? Its showing in fifo mode in device manager in 98. with xp its all working fine. Processor i am using is c2d E8400 for this build and i have more as stated above, even p4 at 3.0 and 3.2. The problem i have in processor is it showing as 2.4 ghz instead of 3.0 My 6600 GT was working fine and i swapped with 6800 vanilla, it performs a bit better. As i have now 2 pcs of 6600GT, 1 6600 vanilla and 1 6800 vanilla, i am pretty set on this series (reason why i chose this is because easy install as its native 98 drivers blocked artificially perform flawlessly and also back in the day i was drooling to get a 6600 but dint have the time and money) i got 33000 marks in 3d marks 2000 with it. all games run fine and no crashes so far touchwood! Also, no external power connector on these cards as they are PCIe and only agp models of these need external power. I got 2 of these asus boards from refurbisher and they are in good shape. so sticking with them for the 775 build. Meanwhile to get really native old windows 98, i purchased 2 boards of socket 370 and pentium 3 processors again 2 pcs along with half a dozen graphics card lot with riva tnt 2 pro and mx400 and 9200 and then got radeon 9600 along with 6600nvidia agp. i plan to build this new system for just windows 98. I do not have ide disks so thinking about ide to cf card adapter as its native ide. your suggestions? i dont know if my sata>ide converters will work but i will try those too. in the end i want to have these 2 machines, 1 high performing and 1 older native 98. Appreciate your reply!

Update: got the Asus P5B-VM-SE boards, 1 came with cpu pins bent and no IO shield, ordered shield from another seller. Otherwise ok condition, sent and got pins repaired. Paired one board with E5800 C2D and other with E8400 C2D. Installed Windows 98SE and all patches with SP3. Installed WinXP on second SATA 3d Nand HDD. Disabled sound and Lan for 98. using 6800 GT and Guru3d Driver in 98se failed in dxdiag draw tests in fullscreen. Winxp tests worked fine. Turns that the guru3d driver has some issue. Extracted 81.98 drivers and replaced the nvaml.ini with a patched one that includes device iD and it works flawless. 3d marks 2000 gave me more than 37000 points!! Next steps: Waiting on the other 6600GT, vanilla 6800, vanilla 6600 card and soundblaster sound cards (audigy and audigy 2). Lan works in xp, dont need in 98! infact dont need in xp i dont want to go online with this machine, this is just for old games. but i have 2 pcie 1x lan cards win98 compatible if i need. waiting for noctua fans to close the elite 361 and gotek floppy cable on way. in win98 i have missing pci device driver and sata drives show exclamation with compatibility mode. will see how to fix still, ordered an iDE hard disk just in case. your thoughts?

@jumper: Yes, thank you, i will get a new Dell 19 then! @Goodmaneuver: Thanks, I like the 4:3 kind of ratio for the old retro look, I have couple of TVs but i am ok with a 19 inch i guess. Part of the reason is that i want the early 2000s or late 90s wallpapers in their native look. I have tonnes of collection on CDs from my old webshots subscription, I still have webshots subscribed today (but now they make new software all new "not that good" wallpapers are widescreen) I just love their old wallpaper collections from 99-2002! So the Intel board and zebronics i tried as the others are in shipping. Intel DG31PR turned out to be crap but the zebronics G41 based one worked as expected. No sound and one exclamation on PCI bus. 6600GT works well, but as there are no other pci slots i cant really use this board beyond the experiments. USB works and nvidia control panel works well. When i try to do a dxdiag test on 9.c that i installed, the 9 version draw tests crawl to a freeze so no go there. Rest everything including SATA disks etc are good. Shutdown was not working but now works. Using guru3d driver. Waiting for the new boards from a Poland reseller. Same company sold me the 6600 but crazy people here at customs charged me so much, the whole thing with shipping and duty now cost me as much as a 1050Ti !! I dint care because the money goes to the gvt. and they are doing some good things with it, so considering its gone for good cause. I am sure they will rip me again for the 2 asus motherboards that are coming in a day or 2. anyhow. I am not worried about DX performance, but maybe it will be different on 965 chip. I will be installing games on windows xp disk. there are drivers for that there, so no worries. I am thinking windows XP 32, what do you suggest? I have plenty of keys from my MSDN subscription for xp and 7 and they still work fine. Meanwhile i also ordered 3 noctua fans and some high end thermal paste to reapply the cards and mobo chipsets, also got some alchohol to clean but the reseller has cleaned them well for the refurb parts. The GT6600 silencer is sitting at around 60 degree C, which i feel is high? I don't remember the average card temperature from those days.

Hello, I currently work on dual machines due to nature of my work, 1 is a retina imac and the other windows 10 with i5 and 1660TI both systems maxed out on rams and hdds. I have couple of computers more and my home/office runs on a file/media/Automation server 24x7 with wired network on cat6 and wifi hotspots. BUT... Out of Nostalgia, I am building windows 98 cpu(S) and i did not have all the components so i went out and got these (half of them are in shipping from around the world) so please suggest anything that you think will help. I will keep everyone updated here on the progress. HW coming in and present: MOTHERBOARDS: GIGABYTE GA-945GCMX-S2 refurbished ASUS P5B-VM 2pcs NEW SRARE MOTHERBOARDS: Intel DG31PR , Zebronics G41 and ICH7 with pciex16 and 1x ports, ami bios, i got windows 98 running on this for experiments PROCESSORS: P4 3.2 and 3.0 NEW tray, from last generation, C2D E8400, C2D E7500 Both refurb. /edit: added E5800 GRAPHICS CARDS: All on PCIe, 6600 vanilla X 1pc, 6600 GT with arctic cooler, 6600 GT with asus silencer cooling, the one that has turnable heat sink /edit: added 6800 vanilla HDD: ADATA SU - 120GB (formatted 40 and 80gb and 256 (for winxp dual)) SOUND CARD: SB0240 Audigy 2, one more spare card that is no brand but works on windows 98 RAM: simtronics 1GB x 2 sticks at 800mhz DDR2, NEW. Spare 2 sticks of 1GB each. SATA DVD writer Monitor: 17 inch 4:3 LCD Samsung, will get 19 inch 4:3 Dell? OTHERS: elite 361 cabinet was spare, so using it (update: switched to a bigger case for a more airy build, from coolermaster). The asus silencer does not fit, so waiting for the arctic cooler model, working with open case till then. PSU is corsair 550CV, SATA to IDE converter, SATA><IDE two way converter, 2X pci 1x lan cards that have win98 drivers, GOTEK floppy emulator, darn cannot find a floppy connector, hope it comes with motherboards that are on the way. I have read the forums and understand that i have to use non official chipset drivers and do some patching.