I'm thinking of building a Win98 box, but it's mainly for DOS games.  I plan on getting 2 V2s and SLI them.  I want to get an ISA soundcard for true DOS sound emulation.  

What is the best motherboard that supports the highest CPU speed and has 1 ISA slot?

There are a few motherboards for Pentium4 and Athlons with 1 ISA slots, but I don't see the point for such a motherboard. I think that if you build a PC for DOS or Windows 98, you should stick with parts from that timeframe, because Athlon or P4 may cause problems in DOS and Windows 98 (driver issues and others).

Personally, I would go with a P2 or P3 slot CPU and 256 MB RAM, be warned : Windows 98 crashes with more than 512 MB RAM, it can be fixed with a patch to work with 1 GB, more is unfixable, I know, I had an Athlon with 1.5 GB RAM, it wouldn't enter in Win98.

For sound, Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 is one of the best cards for DOS, if you can get one, if not, clasic Creative Sound Blaster 16 is good too.

The AWE64 lacks YMF262, so it wouldn't be "true". What you want is an *early* not-ViBRA16 Sound Blaster 16, or a nice long AWE32 from 1994. (Later AWE32s and SB16s lack the YMF262 chip)

Another thing to note, is that Voodoo2 SLI support under DOS is very iffy.

OPL3 ? For midi there's special midi daughterboards. Yamaha DB50XG rocks. Anyway, it's already offtopic, all I wanted to say it's that a DOS box shouldn't made with too new components. Hell, if he wants DOS games, a Pentium 233 MMX with Voodoo1 is the way to go, or, for more recent glide games, let's say a P2 400 with V2 sli is a golden rig, anything more than that is waste, games more recent that that can use D3D and OpenGL.

As far as I know SLI is not possible under DOS (could be wrong) :-X

Most Voodoo games for DOS either require a patch or will only work in single card mode. :P

Even then most are designed for Voodoo 1 and require bach files to run properly on a V2. ::)

Oh and Yamaha DB50XG does indeed ROCK! 8-)

I have one attached to my DMX-Xfire in my Athlon X2 gaming rig! ;)

WHEEE! :)

Thanks for everyone's reply.  :)

So I should go for a Voodoo 1 card for this setup then.  I will see if I can get my hands on a Pure 3D card.  That was my first 3dfx card I owned.  If anyone knows someone who has one let me know.

As far as the rest of the hardware, I was going to go with a P3 1Ghz & 1GB ram.  I already have the ram.  

Orchid Righteous 3D is also an unusual Voodoo 1 card. ;)

The earlier models use RELAYS to switch into "Voodoo" rendering mode. 8-)

Clicky, clicky Voodoo 1 - LOL! ;D

I didn't know about the relays and clicking.  LOL

I did read that the Orchids were first to market, but are very buggy cards.

They are unusual cards.

razrx wrote on 22.07.08 at 19:48:49:

I didn't know about the relays and clicking.  LOL I did read that the Orchids were first to market, but are very buggy cards. They are unusual cards.

Actually they were no worse than a Diamond board with one exception- Some had below grade ram or bad ram and the "fix" was a new set of drivers that downclocked the boards!

Consumers were not amused.

Never had a problem with the relays, they were unusual and sorta neat to hear click/clack.

Yup, I like my clacky-clicky Orchid card! :D

If I get a Soundblaster AWE32, does it matter if it's PNP or not?

razrx wrote on 24.07.08 at 07:34:25:

If I get a Soundblaster AWE32, does it matter if it's PNP or not?

Well it matters when installing the drivers under win98. For the non-PNP the card will not be automaticly detected by the OS so you will have to use the Add Hw wizard and then install the drivers to use it. PNP makes it easier  ;)

If you are looking for fastest P3 board, I am using an MSI 694T motherboard.

It will take P3 up to 1.4Ghz and still room for clocking, mine runs 1.63Ghz, and it will also accept ECC Reg ram, which was a big suprise to me.

I have 3 x 1GB Micron 133Mhz sdram in there and it all works.

Thanks for the advice Ultima!

Actually I did pickup a 694T motherboard.

I am not a fan of MSI.  I did see the board you mentioned, but once I saw this Soyo mobo, I had to get the Soyo board.  Mainly as it has and extra ISA slot than the MSI version.  Just in case I need another ISA card.   8-)

SOYO MOTHERBOARD SOCKET 370 SY-7VBA133U
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=350081910932&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=022

yeah, that's practically the same motherboard, except for the extra isa slot.

Hope you have fun with it, mine is running the tuallie @ 1.63Ghz, the 3D Prophet 4500 (KyroII) and a voodoo2.

I noticed that the MSI 694T runs stable up to 166Mhz fsb,so it is nice for overclocking.
Will you be overclocking on that soyo??

Hey!  :)

They are just about the same mobos.  I hadn't thought of overclocking it yet as the parts are still coming in for the build.  But, that will be an idea once the PC is up and running on stock speeds.

I'm sure our BIOS is the same.  What are your settings?

well, I have a P3-S 1.4Ghz, default voltage is 1.475V if I'm not mistaken. I have the fsb set to 155Mhz, which makes 1.63Ghz in total.
The ram I set to fsb -33Mhz, to keep it safe. :)

I think I have the voltage for the cpu 1.55V, but I'm not sure.

I'll check tonight.

My old V2Sli pc was a P3-S 1.4 (TUSL2-C) now is a P4 2.0 (P4B)
It's a crime to use an agp 2x/4x motherboard with a couple of Voodoo 2 in Sli when you can use it with a Voodoo 4/5 series board :D

@ ultima if you get some faster ram you could reach higher clock speeds. Also the intel chipsets have better performance compared to VIA.
I've managed to use i815ep board with a P3-S1.4 @1.7Ghz using 256mb SDRAM PC150CL2@162CL3 from Mushkin. After some tests it turned out better performing than athlonXP or P4 at same speeds or slightly above.

if I didn't have any ram left over, I might get other ram, but since I have like 6 sticks of 1GB PC133 leftover, I think I'll be sticking with this.

Besides, a P3 @ 1.63Ghz is more then fast enough.

And I haven't tried any higher, so who knows, maybe I can get 166Mhz fsb without a problem.

well you could reach higher clocks for the P3 but you get better performance if the ratio cpu fsb/ram clock is 1:1. In this case faster ram modules are a must. There were some PC 166mhz made but are quite rare.

indeed, quite rare, which can be read as mucho dinero.

this is an old rig, I have the stuff to make it complete. I don't care if the fsb and ram run outta sync, the rig is way faster then what was available at that time anyway, so......

I am not putting extra cash in a rig that is already fine.

And I'll be checking the rig to see how far I can get it, maybe I'll get past your 1.7Ghz, I'm already @ 1.63Ghz, so not too far to go anymore. I just need to get the fsb stable @ 162Mhz and I'll be @ 1.7Ghz