First post, by mbarszcz
I'm putting together a high end P3 rig with a 1.4GHz Tualatin S and I'm looking for some input regarding soundcards. Being from 2001, the tualaking is starting to encroach on the Windows XP era, but I'd rather have the Tualatin than a P4, in which case I might as well just use my modern PC and install Windows XP on it. I realize it's going to be different for everyone, but for me a Tualatin build/Win98 is where retro computing ends for me.
My current PIII build has the following specs and has been generally a great, flexible build.
Asus P3B-F
PIII Coppermine Slot 1 850MHz (OC to 1020MHz, but it seems a bit flaky at that speed, probably would be happier <1000MHz)
512MB SDRAM
Asus GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB AGP
Yamaha YMF-719 w/ DreamBlaster X2GS Wavetable
Intel Pro/1000 GT PCI NIC
40GB Maxtor Hard Drive
Windows 98 SE
This has been a very versatile setup for me, playing everything from Doom to Roller Coaster tycoon and UT99. It does have some limitations though and starts to run out of speed in the CPU department --bottleneck the Geforce 4 on games in the 2001/2002+ era. I'm hoping the new build with its 1.4GHz CPU, AGP 4x, ATA/100 will help open things up a bit for some of the later titles that will still run under Win98 and on a PIII (Halo CE, NFS Hot Pursuit II, Warcraft 3, Tony Hawk 2, Midtown Madness 2, etc).
One of my favorite things about my current rig though is the sound setup. I love old sound chips in vintage computers, they're part of what makes the system special, whether its a C64's SID chip, Amiga's Paula, Yamaha FM Synth, or General MIDI, each has its own personality. My current setup with its real OPL3 and Dreamblaster with the Roland GS MIDI sounds has great support under DOS, plus it still works in Windows with DirectSound really provides a lot of flexibility. It doesn't support EAX, but I never noticed much real world benefits with EAX even back in the day, so I'm not bothered by that.
So all this brings me to my question about what to do about sound in my new Tualatin rig. With the Intel 815 chipset, the ISA slots are gone, so no more YMF719, SB16s, wavetable headers, and any sound card has to be PCI 🙁. Although I'm assuming that's pretty much the end to native DOS MIDI compatibility due to the lack of ISA slot/SBLink/DMA/etc, there is still Windows 98 DOS mode, and I think the FM Synth still does have a place under Windows for some games that use MIDI soundtracks (Like that banging soundtrack to 3D Ultra Minigolf Deluxe or Maxis' Full Tilt Pinball). An Apollo 133T chipset is an option I suppose as that would bring back the ISA slot, but that brings AGP 4x issues to the table. Not sure how much of an issue that is though with a Ti4200/Ti4400.
The PCI options I'm considering (and already have in my collection) would be:
1. A Cobra YMF-744B. This seems like a pretty good option, and the Phil's computer lab video on it shows it being quite compatible with DOS games under Windows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNCg_zy1_d4
It has OPL3 support, but no wavetable header. Perhaps I could connect the dreamblaster to the external 15 pin MPU-401 and pass it back in through the line in. This would provide a PCI option with real OPL3, MIDI, and Windows support similar to the YMF-719 I'm using now. It also seems to have some decent MIDI capabilities of its own.
2. An Audigy 2 ZS
This card is a great PCI sound card, but drops the FM Synth and most any hope for DOS compatibility all together in favor of sound fonts, EAX, firewire, 24 bit audio, etc. It is very much a card of a later era.
What do you guys do for sound in the Tualatin era? What have you tried that's worked well (or hasn't) for you?
