> For this reason alone, I would recommend separate machines for 98 and XP (unless you are aiming only for the very early XP era) .

This should be stickied at the top of this entire site.

kolderman wrote on 2020-04-11, 22:58:

> For this reason alone, I would recommend separate machines for 98 and XP (unless you are aiming only for the very early XP era) .

This should be stickied at the top of this entire site.

I am not interested in beyond Crysis era of PC gaming with Product Keys, DRM and all that crap. I already have a modern pc for that and late Xp games are better played off of Steam and Windows 7/10 for the most part. I used to have Core2Dou and a Core2Quad Machine for that reason but i used my Skylake build a lot more for modern gaming than those. So yes this is mainly for PS2/Dreamcast era and before. As far back as it can go.

iVirtualZero wrote on 2020-04-11, 23:18:

kolderman wrote on 2020-04-11, 22:58:

> For this reason alone, I would recommend separate machines for 98 and XP (unless you are aiming only for the very early XP era) .

This should be stickied at the top of this entire site.

I am not interested in beyond Crysis era of PC gaming. I already have a modern pc for that and late Xp games are better played off of Steam and Windows 10 for the most part. I used to have Core2Dou and a Core2Quad Machine for that reason but i used my Skylake build a lot more for modern gaming than those. So yes this is mainly for PS2/Dreamcast era and before. As far back as it can go.

Wait...you are planning Crysis on s370? What kind of framerates are you getting?

kolderman wrote on 2020-04-11, 23:20:

iVirtualZero wrote on 2020-04-11, 23:18:

kolderman wrote on 2020-04-11, 22:58:

> For this reason alone, I would recommend separate machines for 98 and XP (unless you are aiming only for the very early XP era) .

This should be stickied at the top of this entire site.

I am not interested in beyond Crysis era of PC gaming. I already have a modern pc for that and late Xp games are better played off of Steam and Windows 10 for the most part. I used to have Core2Dou and a Core2Quad Machine for that reason but i used my Skylake build a lot more for modern gaming than those. So yes this is mainly for PS2/Dreamcast era and before. As far back as it can go.

Wait...you are planning Crysis on s370? What kind of framerates are you getting?

Oh no 🤣. I didn’t meant it that way. Now that i look at it i was meant to say Far Cry and Before with the other motherboard that i’m going to buy they can barely hold a gig of ram. Though to be honest my current build with a Geforce 4, Dual Tualatin and 4gb of ram would fair pretty well with Crysis when it comes minimum requirement gaming.

darry wrote on 2020-04-11, 20:29:

Though I find it interesting to see dual socket 370 boards with ISA do exist (I learned something!), I still do not think that t […]
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Though I find it interesting to see dual socket 370 boards with ISA do exist (I learned something!), I still do not think that they are an optimal solution to having a Windows 98/XP dual booter .

In fact, I believe any system trying to do both Windows 98 (DOS) and XP will result in a compromised Windows XP experience .
Windows XP had a very long life (2001 to 2014), so any XP-compatible hardware that is also 98 compatible will not fare well with software from the later XP era .
For this reason alone, I would recommend separate machines for 98 and XP (unless you are aiming only for the very early XP era) .

On a different note, you never did mention DOS gaming (did you?) ? The reason I ask is because ISA cards are only useful for DOS games. They are of no use under Windows 95 and up if not playing with DOS software .

I just learned of ISA and yes i couldn’t care less about modern era gaming on this build. That’s what i have my modern pc for. I really just want this build to be Retro. And yes DOS compatibility would be great. I can’t get my copy of Screamer to work with my sound card on my current build because of these PCI slots. Tried SB16 emulation on my Audigy and couldn’t get it to work and i’m not messing with that again. I would have go with a motherboard with isa support. As for the dual slot thing. It’s mainly just to do with me being obsessed with power and rare parts. I got a really good deal on the current board i have. So when i sell this it should pay for another dual slot motherboard and maybe some profit made on top.

If you're looking for ISA slots for DOS sound card support, it's worth mentioning the Asus CUV4X-D has one of the most effortlessly DOS-compatible onboard sound chips there is. It looks like not all of them have the onboard sound header though.

For Win98/XP just use a PCI sound card with EAX+A3D, you'll have a far better experience.

xjas wrote on 2020-04-11, 23:39:

If you're looking for ISA slots for DOS sound card support, it's worth mentioning the Asus CUV4X-D has one of the most effortlessly DOS-compatible onboard sound chips there is. It looks like not all of them have the onboard sound header though.

For Win98/XP just use a PCI sound card with EAX+A3D, you'll have a far better experience.

Thanks but it ain’t going to change my mind by this point. I already have my eyes set on a Epox EP-D3VA Dual motherboard or the ATX AGP Gigabyte ga-6vxdc7 motherboard. With a SoundBlaster 16 on the way.

iVirtualZero wrote on 2020-04-11, 23:32:

I just learned of ISA and yes i couldn’t care less about modern era gaming on this build. That’s what i have my modern pc for. I really just want this build to be Retro. And yes DOS compatibility would be great.

That is great ! It is always good to learn about older computer hardware if you have the time. When you do get your motherboard please post some pictures. Good Luck on your new "old " build.

Another 'nearly' board is the Gigabyte GA-6VTXD (native Tualatin + AGP, but no ISA). It's the dual version of the GA-6VTXE which did have one shared ISA. The dual board lost that, but still has the pads on the PCB, so maybe one for the skilled solderer.