Building a Win98 gaming machine, using more modern parts.

Yeah.... Time goes by, you still play that old game? Once in a while something break's and you find that parts are getting more and more expensive. They get more and more difficult to buy and when you find them. Yeah... They are just that fucking expensive. Voodoo3/4/5 cards at 70 to 200 (at least) US Dollars???? FUCK NO!!! Time to get something new on the line. Something a bit more recent, that are plentifull and still cheap. Stuff that can run Win98 and games from the late 90's. Time to save parts that were thrown you'r way at the most fair price of: "Take it for free".

Yes....
Old parts are a treat to find, a treat if they are working and cheap. And a real treat to use.
They are just not that common any more.

Now... Wait! What to choose?? Something are bound not to work with Win98 at all.
(more specific games on Win98)

I did a computer some time ago. A real beast of a Win98 gaming rig. So fast it is rediculous. So fast that UT99 would actually do some kind of wierd ass "reversed" lag. More specific, it would actually run a couple of frames faster than it should. Not allways, just some times in-game. (just like lag, yet the opposite in this case) I fixed that by enabling V-Sync, in order to keep the powers a'bay.

Another thing to consider, is what soundcard and what GFX card to use on a beast like this. One GFX card could be something like a GeForce FX-5XXX (5000-series), and another choice could be something like a Radeon 9000-series. Something in the range of an Radeon 9800 pro. The main differences can be summed up on the GeForce being more compatible than the Radeon, because of the support for more technologies. And the Radeon has the most versatile drivers, when it comes to settings, and the drivers are more easy to work with. Uhh... Yeah... Forgot to mention, that you REALLY need to know nVidia driver's like the pockets in you'r pant's. They COULD be that difficult, as like in: "Giving up and going for Radeon". Just be patient and study those drivers in dept and do a lot of testing. Then it will be all right. (I like Radeon better. Yeah. Im a pussy and fucktard. I know)

For a soundcard, there is no way around PCI cards, because high-end Win98 hardware have ditched the support for ISA. That said, I have personally held a Socket 478-Board, with one single ISA slot. It was around 2009 or 2010. Now.... No ISA slot. No SB16/AWE/Gus/other old school soundcards. Hmmm.... Now what then? Why, here comes 3 possible good sollutions to this horrid dilemma of despair.

You could find an AWE64-D/PCI-something (lovely child, many names), yet they are one of the most difficult cards to come by. The second one is a SB-Live. Though it has it's major downs like bad stereo and no really good SB16 emulation, it has some solid Win98-Drivers and it is cheap as dirt these days. The last would be an Yamaha YMF-724, wich is the possible best one of all three. The midi part just kicks ass, and it is one of the best SB-Pro campatible cards and most of the 3 variants (possible more then 3 variants exists), have a genuine OPL3 (Adlib) core build in to it. YAY!!!

Motherboards... Well... Make shure it has drivers for Win98 and for memmory, you can go for eighter DDR1 or DDR2. Just don't go higher than 512mb. Yet again.... Dirt cheap memmory sollution, if one should pick 512mb DDR1.
My board ran a Sempron Socket-754 at 2ghz, wich just kicked some serious fucking ass, when running an Radeon 9800-XXL (yes, it is out there and is Medion ONLY branded).
Big ass card, runs hot as hell, Radeon-9600 was a better choice, as I feared the 9800 would run so hot that it would die on me.

The motherboard have SATA, so I just used a WD 80gb Harddrive. Fast, low noise and good.

All in all. A great machine, wich I paid nothing more than the equivelant of nearly 15 US Dollars for. Fucking cheap, fucking fast and well.... Too fast. Even cheaper and less powerfull parts can be used. Sooooo...... Happy fucking hunting for cheap parts. Get them now, before those who are in their 20's today, turn's 30 and want to relive their computing youth.