Best W98SE PC

[stinky]

Howdy,

 

I'm looking at building a W98SE rig, with the best/most durable hardware components, the case being that of a Compaq Presario 7360, for nostalgic purposes.

 

I know that there is a lot of unstability with W98 when it comes to the newer hardware and whatnot, so I've come asking for your knowledge and advice.

 

From what I could gather, the mobo that came with the 7360 is an ATX, so at least I have that to start from.

 

I was thinking about a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73Ghz for the processor, FAT32 under 137GB (so files won't get corrupted).

 

I was thinking about a ASUS P5PE-VM mobo, but I don't think that it would be compatible (seeing how it's a micro-ATX, unless if I'm stopid)

 

Thanks for reading, and for the advice,

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Jimmy

 

[JaKSLaP]

Watch this video it will help you out alot

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr2r_mvKfuQ

Edited February 16, 2016 by JaKSLaP

[pangoomis]

One of the best motherboards I've looked online is this one:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i915P-SATA2/

Win98SE will benefit from PCI-E/SATA2/DDR2 memory support. Though this MoBo requires an additional USB 2.0 card, since manual states on this chipset, the inbox USB 2.0 don't work on 98SE :/

There is also this one, but only AGP/DDR1/SATA1, though you can put a Q6600 on it because why not? Win98SE mostly will benefit from increased L2 Cache, though 2MB is enough. I have 256KB in my 98SE rig, and it already feels snappy.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i65G%20R3.0/

You can put up to 3GB of RAM, with the commercial RAM patch.

GPU choice is either GeForce 6800 series, or Radeon X850 series.

And before anyone tells me that GeForce 7000 series (don't know which exactly) can also work, tell me if there's an actual difference between 6800 and 7000's cards in 3D performance, like Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005), or GTA: SA, or The Sims 2.

I don't really care about synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark anymore.

The rest is mostly integrated in motherboard.

[stinky]

One of the best motherboards I've looked online is this one:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i915P-SATA2/

Win98SE will benefit from PCI-E/SATA2/DDR2 memory support. Though this MoBo requires an additional USB 2.0 card, since manual states on this chipset, the inbox USB 2.0 don't work on 98SE :/

There is also this one, but only AGP/DDR1/SATA1, though you can put a Q6600 on it because why not? Win98SE mostly will benefit from increased L2 Cache, though 2MB is enough. I have 256KB in my 98SE rig, and it already feels snappy.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i65G%20R3.0/

You can put up to 3GB of RAM, with the commercial RAM patch.

GPU choice is either GeForce 6800 series, or Radeon X850 series.

And before anyone tells me that GeForce 7000 series (don't know which exactly) can also work, tell me if there's an actual difference between 6800 and 7000's cards in 3D performance, like Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005), or GTA: SA, or The Sims 2.

I don't really care about synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark anymore.

The rest is mostly integrated in motherboard.

Thank you for the information- where could I acquire this commercial 3GB Ram patch, my friend?

[Tommy]

Contact Rloew

 

http://rloew.x10host.com/

or

http://rloew.x10host.com/Programs/Patchm.htm (more specifically with information to his patch)

 

He'll get you set up. I highly recommend his patch. It's $21 but well worth it and actually pretty much necessary for using over a gig of RAM. But please note that the link on his site is only for a demo, but it at least gives you enough time to test out the patch to make sure it works out for you.

[stinky]

One of the best motherboards I've looked online is this one:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i915P-SATA2/

Win98SE will benefit from PCI-E/SATA2/DDR2 memory support. Though this MoBo requires an additional USB 2.0 card, since manual states on this chipset, the inbox USB 2.0 don't work on 98SE :/

There is also this one, but only AGP/DDR1/SATA1, though you can put a Q6600 on it because why not? Win98SE mostly will benefit from increased L2 Cache, though 2MB is enough. I have 256KB in my 98SE rig, and it already feels snappy.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i65G%20R3.0/

You can put up to 3GB of RAM, with the commercial RAM patch.

GPU choice is either GeForce 6800 series, or Radeon X850 series.

And before anyone tells me that GeForce 7000 series (don't know which exactly) can also work, tell me if there's an actual difference between 6800 and 7000's cards in 3D performance, like Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005), or GTA: SA, or The Sims 2.

I don't really care about synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark anymore.

The rest is mostly integrated in motherboard.

Also, if I were to play games such as Commandos, wouldn't the game be running freaklishly fast because of this rigs' build being too powerful?

 

Contact Rloew

 

http://rloew.x10host.com/

or

http://rloew.x10host.com/Programs/Patchm.htm (more specifically with information to his patch)

 

He'll get you set up. I highly recommend his patch. It's $21 but well worth it and actually pretty much necessary for using over a gig of RAM. But please note that the link on his site is only for a demo, but it at least gives you enough time to test out the patch to make sure it works out for you.

Thank you!

[jumper]

> Also, if I were to play games such as Commandos, wouldn't the game be running freaklishly fast because of this rigs' build being too powerful?

More likely a freakishly high frame rate.

Edited February 26, 2016 by jumper

[pangoomis]

Some games do infact run too fast when run on a fast CPU.

But there's no rule which ones, it depends how they were programmed.

Is there a way to limit CPU frequency/limit FPS of a game under 98SE?

[stinky]

Some games do infact run too fast when run on a fast CPU.

But there's no rule which ones, it depends how they were programmed.

Is there a way to limit CPU frequency/limit FPS of a game under 98SE?

I'd like to know the answer to that as well.

 

Also, I was thinking about using this psu. Good idea or would it being 600w fry this mobo?

[pangoomis]

A reputable 400W/450W PSU is enough for a maxed out system on this board, depending on the GPU you want to use. No need for a 600W one.

Edited February 27, 2016 by MrMateczko

[stinky]

I'm to go with a geforce 78000 gs, apparently it only needs 400-450w. That's why I was looking at that 600w, just to have that extra buffer of power just in case.

Edited February 28, 2016 by stinky

[Tommy]

I've never had problems using a 450watt power supply, even with a GeForce 8600GT, so you should be good to go as long as you have something close to that.

[TELVM]

I'm to go with a geforce 7800 GS, apparently it only needs 400-450w ...

 

Even a 300W PSU would be enough.

 

 

http://techreport.com/review/9335/bfg-tech-geforce-7800-gs-oc-agp-graphics-card/10

 

 

 

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/XFX-GeForce-7800-GS-XT-Edition-AGP-Upgrade/Power-Consumption-and-Conclusions

[nostaglic98]

Period hardware could be something if you can find it for "curbside discount" or cheaply at the goodwill. It has the benefit of obviously behaving a lot better - although there is also the issue of age these days. Some of that hardware is at or over 20yrs of age now. 

 

I'm not sure what works great, although I can't say I was impressed by my system, equipped with an Asus P4P800MX, a P4 Prescott (2.8GHz), 512mb of ram and a nVidia GeForce FX5500. It just seemed sluggish, compared to Windows 2000 or XP.

When I used a wireless network connection, the Netgear drivers made Windows Explorer very unstable. Even with a wired connection, the browsing experience was slow and the system just didn't seem to like it very much. 

 

Perhaps the motherboard isn't great or working as it should. But Windows 2000 / XP work far better on this system.