How to choose a motherboard?

[Don Phillipson]

Win98SE meets very nearly all current needs (inc. EMACS
for DOS and its DOS printer) and
some of my apps are not fully compatible with XP
(e.g. Quattro v.8 and Paradox v.7)
and I have had 3 hardware breakdowns (dead sound-on-
board circuit and two power supplies) -- so I must plan to
replace with something equally functional the ASUS P4P800S
motherboard, running Win98SE on a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz and
512 Mb RAM.

1. How do I evaluate motherboards for functionality
and durability?
2. Drives: most MBs now seem to offer only two
or three card slots. My (year 2004) ASUS has six
populated by video card, modem, TV receiver, audio
card, etc. and I should like to have as many, so as
to use the Audigy sound card (2 cards) etc.
2b. I have been assured that MBs set up for SATA
drives can also connect IDE drives.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

 

[Bob Harris]

Functionality? Do you mean whether they support win98? If that is the
question, then go to the manufacture's support website and see whether they
offer downloadable drivers for win98. If all they talk about is XP or
Vista, then you have your answer: No.

Durability? I have seen a lot of MB tests in magzines and on the web, but
none about durability. Pick a name brand and hope for the best.

Slots on modern motherboards? First, do not look at a really new
motherboard, since it probably will not support win98 anyways. Look for an
older model with many PCI slots, maybe one AGP slot for a video card. Avoid
PCI-X slots, as they are probably too new for win98 to use. An older model
motherboard (plus CPU and RAM) will be cheaper, too.

SATA? That is even newer than XP, so I do not know about win98. Again,
check for drivers, since SATA is built into the motherboard. Note that I
can run DOS (from a floppy) and see my SATA hard drives, but running win98
in windows mode may be something else. Some flavors of free LINUX also runs
OK with my SATA hard drives.

IDE (or parallel ATA) is becoming less popular. If a motherboard has many
SATA controllers, it may have fewer IDE controllers. However, you can
always add IDE controllers via a PCI add-in card, if you have an available
PCI slot.

"Don Phillipson" <e925@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:OGq7TSIgIHA.5996@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Win98SE meets very nearly all current needs (inc. EMACS
> for DOS and its DOS printer) and
> some of my apps are not fully compatible with XP
> (e.g. Quattro v.8 and Paradox v.7)
> and I have had 3 hardware breakdowns (dead sound-on-
> board circuit and two power supplies) -- so I must plan to
> replace with something equally functional the ASUS P4P800S
> motherboard, running Win98SE on a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz and
> 512 Mb RAM.
>
> 1. How do I evaluate motherboards for functionality
> and durability?
> 2. Drives: most MBs now seem to offer only two
> or three card slots. My (year 2004) ASUS has six
> populated by video card, modem, TV receiver, audio
> card, etc. and I should like to have as many, so as
> to use the Audigy sound card (2 cards) etc.
> 2b. I have been assured that MBs set up for SATA
> drives can also connect IDE drives.
>
> --
> Don Phillipson
> Carlsbad Springs
> (Ottawa, Canada)
>
>
>

 

[philo]

"Don Phillipson" <e925@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:OGq7TSIgIHA.5996@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Win98SE meets very nearly all current needs (inc. EMACS
> for DOS and its DOS printer) and
> some of my apps are not fully compatible with XP
> (e.g. Quattro v.8 and Paradox v.7)
> and I have had 3 hardware breakdowns (dead sound-on-
> board circuit and two power supplies) -- so I must plan to
> replace with something equally functional the ASUS P4P800S
> motherboard, running Win98SE on a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz and
> 512 Mb RAM.
>
> 1. How do I evaluate motherboards for functionality
> and durability?
> 2. Drives: most MBs now seem to offer only two
> or three card slots. My (year 2004) ASUS has six
> populated by video card, modem, TV receiver, audio
> card, etc. and I should like to have as many, so as
> to use the Audigy sound card (2 cards) etc.
> 2b. I have been assured that MBs set up for SATA
> drives can also connect IDE drives.
>


Very doubful if you could get chipset drivers for the newer boards...
why not grab a few older boards from ebay?

 

[98 Guy]

Don Phillipson wrote:

> 1. How do I evaluate motherboards for functionality and durability?

I take it you are asking how to evaluate functionality in terms of
Windows-98se. The answer (for a new motherboard) is to look for a
board with a VIA chipset. You want a motherboard that has chipset
support (drivers) for Windows 98.

Evaluation in terms of durability is not straightforward. Some
manufacturers (like Asus) have web-based support forums where you can
read how some motherboards have known issues. There are
usenet-specific motherboard groups as well.

> 2. Drives: most MBs now seem to offer only two or three card
> slots. My (year 2004) ASUS has six populated by video card,
> modem, TV receiver, audio card, etc. and I should like to have
> as many, so as to use the Audigy sound card (2 cards) etc.

Your TV receiver card will become useless to you once NTSC
broadcasting is replaced by Hi-def. For over-the-air terrestrial
broadcasting, that will happen in the US in less than a year, and in 2
to 3 years in Canada. I'm not sure about the phase-out of NTSC on
cable TV.

Are you saying that you have 2 sound card? Why?

Do you really still use dial-up?

I recommend this board:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4COREDUAL-VSTA

It has 4 pci slots and it's one of a very few boards that still has
AGP. Win-98 will function on it, with all components except the audio
portion (there are no win-98 HD-audio drivers for any motherboard that
I'm aware of).

Win-98 functions just fine with SATA drives BTW.

> 2b. I have been assured that MBs set up for SATA
> drives can also connect IDE drives.

Yes they can, assuming they have 40-pin IDE (aka PATA) connectors on
the board. There may very well be some new motherboards today that
don't have connectors for IDE drives, but I'd think it's rare.

If you are going to buy a new hard drive to go along with a new
motherboard, I'd choose SATA anyways (there are some good reasons to
do so - especially for Windows 98).

Read the following for more information:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Modern-motherboards-working-Windows-98-t97588.html

http://www.msfn.org/board/Compatible-Hardware-Windows-9x-t107001.html

 

[Don Phillipson]

"98 Guy" <98@Guy.com> wrote in message news:47D372CB.63AA8B62@Guy.com...

> > 1. How do I evaluate motherboards for functionality and durability?
>
> > 2. Drives: most MBs now seem to offer only two or three card
> > slots. My (year 2004) ASUS has six populated by video card,
> > modem, TV receiver, audio card, etc. and I should like to have
> > as many, so as to use the Audigy sound card (2 cards) etc.
>
> Are you saying that you have 2 sound card? Why?

Thanks for helpful comments.
Current problems seem now solved: (were annoying in
Dec.-Jan. when both UPS and power supply died
simultaneously, first replacement UPS battery was
itself faulty, then the brand-new power supply failed
in less than 6 weeks. Free replacements hardly
compensated for weeks of puzzlement. . .

The Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX is an elaborate kit
with extra components I do not need (e.g. TV remote control)
and some I simply do not understand e.g. the "External
Sound Blaster Audigy Drive." This unit was bought when the
MB audio circuitry failed and I had to add a sound card. I
wanted highest possible fidelity under Win98SE (for music
recording and editing) and this seemed the only truly hi-fi system
with Win98 drivers. It has an "extension card" that slots
next to the audio card.
http://193.95.171.84/SRVS/CGI-BIN/W...english_add,VARSET=ws:http://us.creative.com/

> Do you really still use dial-up?

1. No cable at this address.
2. The cell phone/cable TV/ISP company did not know
wireless Internet service was available just here until
badgered by both municipal politicians and mysellf.
3. Wireless service was in 2006 notoriously faulty,
e.g. would simply be unavailable at least one day
every month. No one ever knew why. Service now is
satisfactory but speed varies hugely, from 0.5 to 10
Mb. per min.
4. My spouse's private PC was in 2006 a Pentium2
without an ethernet card, i.e. connected only dial-up
3b. which was useful for urgent email when wireless
high speed failed.

My spouse's PC now is WinXP (acquired because we
needed to display a CD of medical scans written with
XML code) that enables both Ethernet and (with a
wireless card) network connections with the Win98
PC elsewhere (and we have also reanimated a WinXP
laptop discarded by a friend at this rural location mains
electricity fails a couple of times a year, usually for less
than 12 hours but we need to feel prepared.)

> I recommend this board:

Recommendations copied with thanks for future use.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)