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Choosing a sound card for 98se


Bee4See64

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Hey there, I just finished setting up an older machine with Windows 98SE and also used the unofficial service pack found in the 98se subforum. I am now thinking about adding in a sound card with gaming in mind. I do not need dos compatibility, I just want to play some older games and some slightly newer games as well, but need that sound card to make them play smoother and offload some cpu resources, if ya know what I mean. The integrated audio works great for TFC, but in HL2 the sound goes out completely after 5 or 10 minutes which can get annoying.

System Specs:

Motherboard: Intel D815EEA2 (latest BIOS)

Processor: Intel Pentium 3 1GHz (socket 370)

Memory: 512MB PC133 (cas 2, the good stuff :lol: )

Graphics: PNY nVidia GeForce FX 5500 128MB AGP (Forceware 81.98)

Hard Drive: 80GB Maxtor DM80

DVD-ROM: Pioneer DVD-116 (latest firmware)

Power Supply: PCP&C 275w Silencer

I am looking for recommendations on what to buy. I have checked the Creative website to see what cards are compatible with 98se and so far I have come up with a couple of variations of SB Live! and the original Audigy line. I would prefer something from Creative, but am not opposed to another brand if there is something better out there. I have heard of some using an audigy 2 ZS with 98se, but I don't recall seeing any updated drivers for 98se on the creative website, so I can only assume that the drivers must be on the CD (?).

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I have another machine running XP, but that's not what I am trying to do here. Sure, I can spend $200 on another copy of XP and a X-fi card, or I can spend $50 or less on an older sound card. Which one do you think I am gonna choose? ;) Thanks for the input.

Anyone else care to share their experience? Surely somebody reading this has a machine similiar to mine, running 98se with a sound card in it.

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I was looking for general recommendations on what might be compatible with the computer I posted the specs for. I was looking for a sound card recommendation based on the specs I listed. If I wanted recommendations for an OS, then I would have posted in another forum. Forgive me if I am coming off a little rude, but I am tired of seeing the standard, "just install XP" responses that are so common these days, especially when not relevant to the topic.

Again, if anyone out there has actual first-hand knowlegde of which sound cards are known to run well on w98se, please do chime in. I'm not looking for manufacturer recommended specs here, as I already know how to find that information.

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Hmm, just so happens I have an audigy 2 zs in my p4 rig. I will yank it and see how it goes in the p3. If it does then perhaps I will be buying an x-fi to replace the yanked card. Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. :)

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