Want to build best windows 98 COmputer

[sean1326]

I want to build the best Windows 98 computer, But, I dont know where to start as far as the parts and this computer will be for gaming anyone have any ideas?

 

[aford10]

Windows 98??? If you don't mind me asking, why Windows 98?

 

[sean1326]

well there was a game that I play that with woindows 98 you get the best performace and ret controll
its roguespear its a tom clancy game. I found one on craigslist but, I really want to build one my self.

 

[snowgoer1998]

step 1: go to eBay

Step 2: Look for Pentium 4 computer

Step 3: look for pentium 4 computer with all parts intact...

Step 4: buy computer

Step 5: Gaming bliss!!!

NOTE: All steps can be consolidated into going to local computer resale shop and testing (make sure it turns on/works/etc) cheap Pentium 4 PC


Total cost: ~$100 maybe

 

[sean1326]

yeah, but I want the best one I can build man.

 

[mavroxur]

Cheap 98 gaming machine? Anything High P3 / any P4 range. Drop in 256-512mb RAM (Win98 acts weird sometimes with 1gb+). A cheapo graphics card (being it's a P4 it'll probably be AGP. Get a Radeon 9600 or a GeForce FX 5200 or something. Sound card.....any basically, if your MB doesn't already have it integrated. Hard drive....anything reasonable, as long as the motherboard supports it. The FDISK that shipped with Win98 doesn't report the drive size properly on drives > 64gb, but it still works.

 

[walterm]

ok Look for a pc bundle without operating system. Be prepared to junk power supply if included. or pick case and look at bundles without one.
Basically Windows 98 does not take much to run.
A 2.4 to 3.2 or so Pentium 4 with 512mb or 1gb would work fine. Problem is AGP video cards are expensive and obsolete, as is DDR memory.
FOR NEW:
ANYWAY an AMD SAGAS 140 SINGLE CORE is about $30-40, Athlon2 250 +/- 5 $55-65, an Athlon2 x3 440 about $75.
I would go with a Gigabyte 785 mb easy to build with, reliable, upgradable to six cores. and hd4200 video.about $70
LITEON Burner$20-25
WD Caviar black or best 7200 rpm on sale$60-70
Antec 500 psu or see various respected lists$55
Memory check for combo deal with mb 98 won't recognize more than 3 gig or so, 2x2 will do you $40-50
Cases are learn as you go like power supplies
The Cooler Master HAF is probaby best price/feature now.$80+/- 10
Cheap cases are that, useable, sometimes awkward, usually need decent fans and fiters added fans $10 ea, filters 6-10
i THINK (caution) you could double boot from bios say win98 and Linux or win7, not my area
Depending on monitor you have video would be fine for 98, aim for 5770 or better $140+/- 25 or so
There ate a number of sites that have build offs at various price levels, look for them and read..
Monitors Ilike the ASUS 24 on sale now, bought a viewsonic 24 for Christmas
So what can you spent? What else will you do?

 

[aford10]

I think it's going to cost you more than it's worth, but here goes....

MSI P4M900M3-L
http://www.pcplanetsystems.com/abc/product_details.php?category_id=124&item_id=3316

Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146526&cm_re=ddr2_667-_-20-146-526-_-Product

JATON VIDEO-PX558-DT GeForce 8400 GS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139035

CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 CMPSU-430CX 430W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139017

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD740HLFS 74GB 10000 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136543

Intel Pentium E6800 Wolfdale 3.33GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116371

ASUS Black CD/DVD burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

You can pick a case of your choice. Obviously, there's some parts that you could scale back on. You don't really need the 10k RPM velociraptor. You could get a lower model C2D CPU. If you search around, you could find some better deals for the models above. But I'll leave that to you.

 

[snowgoer1998]

Ok, here's the thing...and I don't know the answer, which is why I pose the question...

Will Windows 98 even recognize and run on newer hardware?? Are drivers even available?

 

[aford10]

It depends on what you mean by 'newer.' The motherboard I linked above, is about as high end as it will run on. It also has a hard drive cap size.

 

[pacioli]

Last month I built 2 win98 machines for a client.
There is only one modern MOBO on newegg that has win98 drivers for it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157115
It is now out of stock and deactivated. The board aford10 mentions should work with the onboard video but I doubt there are PCI express drivers for Win 98.
Also remember to keep the install partition to 120Gb or less on a Win98 machine or it will crash and you will lose all your data. SATA drives don't work with Win98 unless you set the Bios to run the drives in legacy/IDE mode.
Another thing to remember is to install no more ram than 512mb or you will have stability issues.
Finding drivers that work will be your biggest task. It really is a pain to install Win98
Your best bet would be to buld a PC and install Win XP on a modern PC and then use the free VMware player to make a Microsoft Virtual Machine.
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

 

[BeCoolBro]

Just a tip:
If the game can run on an fx 5200 then it can run on a VM.So download virtualbox and make a windows 98 virtual machine on your newer pc.Then try the game there.

 

[mavroxur]

Don't go with new hardware like some of the previous posters mentioned. You will have a hard time getting windows 98 drivers for new hardware, because most manufacturers don't write drivers for 98 any more. Go with used hardware, like i previously mentioned. You don't need epic ram, super video cards, or dual/quad core CPU's. You need to install a utility called "Rain" though, since Windows 98 doesn't support the CPU HLT instruction. You install Win98 on a modern processor system, it will run the CPU at 100% all the time, becuase the OS isn't aware of the instruction to idle the CPU, and you'll have a HOT running system. Another thing to mention, is that Windows 98 does NOT support multiple processors or hyperthreading, so if you use a C2D or C2Q/Phenom, you will only be using one core. Choose the CPU with the fastest, fewest cores. 1 fast core will outrun 2 slower cores in Win98.

 

[megamanx00]

You're going to need to get parts from ebay so here goes. You're going to need

1) a socket A board, preferably KT333 or nForce 2, With an Athlon XP or a Socket 478 Pentium 4 board and CPU. KT400 boards sucked and KT600 & 880 boards generally don't have win 9x drivers. I don't know which P4 chipsets are supported by win 9x so you need to research that yourself :-/.

2) An AGP video card for your Socket A or 478 board. The best option would be a GeForce 6800 GT/Ultra or X800 series card. If the game isn't too demanding you could go with a GeForce 6600GT, FX 5700, or perhaps even a 9600 AGP card. You can't get drivers for newer X1000 series cards with an AGP hotfix for Win 98 and the same for the more rare 7900 AGP cards. I don't know about the 7600GT.

3) Be aware of the Windows 9x RAM limit. Even though it can theoretically accept 2GB it has problems with more than 512MB if you don't edit your Win.ini file. Google the problem for more info. Also, you need to boot it with 512 or less the first time so you can edit the file, save it, turn it off, put in the rest of the RAM, and turn it back on .

4) You will probably have to go with IDE drives. Don't use RAID, just don't.

5) If your game supports EAX get a Creative sound card. I'm sure someone will part with an SB live platinum, ZX, or something like that for cheap on eBay. Try and get one with the driver CD because hunting for them is a big pain >_<. Vortex cards are cool too .

6) Any decent case and PSU will do. Just make sure you get a decent PSU with enough Molex connectors.

 

[megamanx00]

Oh yeah, if you get a KT333, KT266, or early P4 board research it first. If you boot it with a power hungry card, notably the Radeon 8500 and above, you will kill the AGP slot. I did this myself. This had to do with manufacturers cutting corners on the AGP specification (darn Epox). Many boards, like my trusty MSI KT333, had BIOS updates to address the issue. Of course, you will need a vanilla PCI card to POST and then update the BIOS

 

[pjmelect]

If you build a Windows 98 machine it is important to install the latest up dates. They totally transform how Windows 98 looks and behaves. To get the updates go to this web site http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/91-windows-9x-member-projects/
I suggest that you try autopatcher.

 

[walterm]

Hope this isn't reguarded as spamming, geeks.com has a selection of new/old and refurbished motherboards, cpu's, and combo's, today's 1/22 deal of day E6300 minitower
I believe AMD might support old operating systems better than intel, at least it seems to work better on upgrades lol.
THE AMD Sagas 140 chip is single core 2.9 anout $30-40 w/ cooler 45 watt.
IF an AM2 or newer board would work.
jUST DO NOT KNOW

 

[PudgyChicken]

My best advice is to just go on Ebay and find a rig from when win 98 was prevalent. It's cheaper than assembling a whole new system.

 

[walterm]

Where oh where.. and what..?

 

[Ivahsi9yuduin]

Why do this for just one game, just run it in Virtual PC. I play Myst in it all the time in it. [:bilbat:6]

 

[joelmartinez]

+1 for VM

 

[Buck041]

If you are going to go through with it (or already have), I have the Windows 98 Security Update disk from Feb 2004. It had almost every hotfix you would need, and keep in mind.. you will have a ton of problems getting online with Win98. Most of the website use Flash and Java... which will not install, so be prepared to copy everything to another PC, and then move it over to the Win98 machine.

Email me at spelingchampeon@rocketmail.com if you want the files, I can make a ISO file for you and put it on my http server.

 

[xaephod]

How about installing 98 on on a virtual machine?

 

[thejohnkerrys]

This topic is just up my alley..

1.OS:The best legacy OS to use is 98se or winME..
2.RAM:No matter what system board or CPU combo you are going to use you will be stuck with a MAX of 512MB of system ram because 98/98se/ME had stability issues with more then 512MB.
3.CPU:NO dual cores!!Single core only!!If the CPU has hyperthreading(p4) it will have to be shut off in the bios options otherwise you will have stability issues.
4.Motherboards:From my reasearch into maxing win me/98 the 2 highest CPU speed sockets will be intels 478 and 775 & highest FSB you will be able to go is 800FSB.The use of win98/me will be determined by the company that makes the board,go to the site that makes the board you are thinking of using and see if they have system drivers(Usb,Lan,Chipset,Audio) for me/98 ..if they do ya all set,it they dont that board wont work.
5.Graphics Slotci and agp only!!No pcie!!double check that the motherboards AGP slot is keyed to the card you are using..the keying determins the voltage the card will use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AGP_%26_AGP_Pro_Keying.svg
6.GPU:If using a nvidia video card the 6800xt is the last supported product with drivers..If using ATI video card the Radeon X850 is the last card with 98/ME drivers.Any card before the models ive listed will be fine..Just make sure to check the AGP slot keying.
7.Hard Drives:Any IDE will work no problem..but from what ive seen without using a PCI sata card most of onboard sata supplied motherboards dont have drivers for 98/ME.
8.OS Updates:If ya using 98/98se and you want to update the OS from microsoft update you will have problems if you dont have the mobo drivers on hand because youll have no lan to connect online.I fixed this issue by using an old pre 1998 lan card that windows 98se gave a driver to and i setup my connection from the internet setup option in control panel.But to get online to get the updates ya need to update to explorer 6.
9.USB:Usb KB and mice dont work too good with 98/ME when ya first installing the OS..make sure ya got adapters for ya usb stuff to serial ports untill ya get all the drivers in and then pull off the adapters plug in ya usb stuff.
10.Good Luck

 

[thejohnkerrys]

Heres my current Win/ME game box

Windows ME
Intel 845gebv2/Intel P4 2.4/533fsb/512 L2/Socket 478
Micron 512mb/DDR333
BFG 6600gtOC
600w Dual 12V+ PSU
Creative labs Soundblaster Live! 5.1

I will be rebuilding again in a few weeks to a Intel d865glc/2.8 P4 800fsb/1mbL2 and DDR400 system ram.I can play almost all of teh 100+ 95/98/Dos game i got with a few exceptiions cranked settings.As soon as i finish teh update to teh build ill post a few link to some vids to show how out of my mind iam.