April 2, 20233 yr I recently came up with the idea of building a Windows 98 SE computer from parts I have. I'd like to use 1GB of DDR2 RAM (I can allocate 256MB for the integrated graphics card if that's a problem), a Gigabyte GA-EG41MF-US2H or Asus P5G41C-M LX motherboard, an integrated graphics chip and an Intel Pentium Dual Core E2140 1.6GHz processor. Am I able to find the necessary drivers for such a setup? Thanks for the answers.
April 2, 20233 yr No drivers are available for the integrated GPU in either of those motherboards, use VBEMP or GeForce 6000/7000 series or Radeon X300/X500/X600/X1050/X700/X800/X850 PCI-E GPU, or a PCI GPU. Use PATCHMEM, user AHCI driver if you want to use a SATA HDD/SSD. Can also use IDE/PATA HDD which is the easiest option. Install 98SE with "SETUP /p i" switch to disable ACPI which causes issues. Use unofficial USB drivers for USB 2.0/Flash Drive support. No drivers available for the integrated HD Audio, use cheap USB Sound Card or PCI sound card. As for LAN, might try drivers from here: https://soggi.org/drivers/realtek.htm
April 2, 20233 yr Well, the only drivers that will work will unlock your USB ports. You can download them from here. (these drivers were originally posted on msfn, but the download some download links are broken) Having USB it's great... you can use a cheap Wi-Fi dongle (not the latest gen, but older with B/G standards), USB storage etc. USB sound is supported, but you might get some stutter so you better go with a cheap PCI sound card or something like a Sound Blaster Live! which is also dirt-cheap... As MrMateczko said get on of those video PCI-E cards, I had problems with GoForce 7 series on different configurations (they not officially supported) so it's better stick 6 series or a PCI-E ATI...
April 3, 20233 yr Are you planning to use it for gaming? If so I heavily recommend to avoid Nvidia's FX and GeForce 6 series, they not only don't support legacy graphics features that older games need and ends up confusing them a lot because of this (eg. FF7) but also have poor drivers, a Radeon X700/X800 are simply the best for an overkill 98 build even capable of being an XP build, and you won't have to break the bank like you would a GeForce 4 or Voodoo. On 98 the second core of your CPU is just gonna be ignored as 98 supported SMP but not multicore setups. I also vouch for a SB Live or Audigy, choose the Live if you don't care much about playing games. I'm not sure which one is superior for listening to MIDIs but I will eventually find out and post about it somewhere.
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