Help me building a legacy system - dual video card, etc

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The BIOS setting should be....

PCI video card as primary display
0
No votes
AGP video card as primary display
1
33%
stomp KAN's testicles
2
67%
 
Total votes: 3

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KAN
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Help me building a legacy system - dual video card, etc

Post by KAN »

I plan to built a legacy system where I could shoehorn everything into it; a system where I can boot in DOS (to play DOS GLide games like Archimedean Dynasty), but can still play "newer" games (like WarCraft III) with reasonable performance.

Here's the plan for my system:
- Soyo SY845PE Motherboard (P4 mobo with ISA slots)
- Sound Blaster AWE 64 Gold
- Yamaha SW60XG WaveForce MIDI Card
- Voodoo5 5500 PCI Mac (BIOS flashed to PC)
- nVidia GeForce 6800 GT - AGP version
- A Pentium 4 CPU, preferrably non-HT
- 512 Mb of RAM
- MS DOS 6.22 / Windows 98 dual boot
- A KVM to switch between the two video cards

The Voodoo5 PCI is for playing DOS games (especially DOS GLide games) and Windows GLide games, while the GeForce 6800 GT is to play all Direct3D and OpenGL games. Thus, the V5 5500 is exclusively to play GLide games, whether they're DOS or Windows games.


The questions are:

(1) Which video card should I set as Primary in the motherboard BIOS? The Voodoo5 5500 (PCI) or the GeForce 6800 (AGP)?

(2) If I set the AGP card as Primary, can I still play DOS GLide games using the Voodoo5 5500 PCI?

(3) Likewise, if I set the PCI card as Primary, can I still play Direct3D and OpenGL games using the GeForce 6800 without too many hassles?

(4) What is the biggest challenge in building my dream legacy system? IRQ conflicts? etc?

(5) What is the best ForceWare driver to run the GeForce 6800 in Windows 98? And where to get it?

(6) What Pentium 4 Processor should I use? Since I'm using the SY845PE Mobo, of course my choice is limited to Northwood. Can I go with the highest CPU allowed (3.06 GHz) without conflicting with older devices like the Voodoo5 or the Sound Blaster AWE 64?

(7) Any further tips?

Thanks,
-Kresh
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Kazer0
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Post by Kazer0 »

I wouldnt bother to get the 6800gt. It will be so severly bottlenecked by your CPU, you wont even be using most of its power.

If you dont set the 6800gt as primary, everything will run on the Voodoo 5. Similarly the other way around. One solution I can think of is to use VMWare and have the system in VMWare use the voodoo5. Or, dualboot and disable the 6800gt in one of them.
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Vangar
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Post by Vangar »

Dude, you can't even buy PCI Graphics Cards anymore. AGP is much faster.
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Kazer0
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Post by Kazer0 »

Vangar wrote:Dude, you can't even buy PCI Graphics Cards anymore. AGP is much faster.
Um, yes you can. nVidai 6200 PCI
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Wally
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Post by Wally »

WTF would you want ISA for...


I doubt P4 MBS would come with that (Chances are it would be very rare)

PCI would be the only option mate.


You could get an intel mac and still run Warcraft III without any problems :)
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Post by Vangar »

Kazer0 wrote:
Vangar wrote:Dude, you can't even buy PCI Graphics Cards anymore. AGP is much faster.
Um, yes you can. nVidai 6200 PCI
Fair enough. but he wants a fast computer, i got this info from that card:
Video Memory Installed: 128MB
Get something along the 256Mb :D
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Kazer0
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Post by Kazer0 »

Vangar wrote:
Kazer0 wrote:
Vangar wrote:Dude, you can't even buy PCI Graphics Cards anymore. AGP is much faster.
Um, yes you can. nVidai 6200 PCI
Fair enough. but he wants a fast computer, i got this info from that card:
Video Memory Installed: 128MB
Get something along the 256Mb :D
There are 256mb versions of that card.

On a side note, the memory size doesnt mean much. My 9800Pro 128mb could smoke any 256mb card below a 6600gt.
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