Dinosaur resurrection / upgrade

[pdqcarrera]

I have to keep this old dinosaur PC running with it's current WIN98 OS and old vintage proprietary engineering programs and the Abit BH6 motherboard just kicked the bucket.

Gotta replace 'er & wondering if I should replace with another BH6 (not easy to find) or perhaps look for a newer one that will work with same peripherals. The Brea tar pits don't have much ... so wondering if any "old timers" like me out there (or should I say in here?) that remember the old daze of P3 MB's and have recommendations?


Dead ABIT BH6 (RIP ol' friend)
P3-700 (P6 A370 w/ Slot 1 adapter)
Windows 98 OS
(2) x 128mb Crucial 133mhz CAS2 SDRAM
PCI Maxtor ATA100 Controller Card
(2) Maxtor 30GB ATA100 Hard Drives
Liteon CD-R/W Drive
AGP Voodoo 5 Video
PCI S3 Legacy 3D Audio Card
PCI Dolphin Multi I/O Expansion Controller Card
PCI Creative ModemBlaster Fax Modem

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

 

[coolpurplefan]

I'm going to try to remember but I think it goes like this: Win98SE is not compatible with nForce 4 chipsets (has to be nForce3 and below), PCI-E, dual cores (I might be wrong on this one) and SATA.

I guess those motherboards are still available but harder to find. I know Compuvest sells "old technology" stuff that's still brand new.

Maybe they buy wholesale lots of liquidations or something. I mean, they have like 500 MHz processors. Good luck.

edit: Actually, I might be wrong on the SATA too. Turns out you can install Win98SE on a SATA drive. I do know there are no Win98SE drivers for the latest PCI-E video cards though.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: coolpurplefan
I'm going to try to remember but I think it goes like this: Win98SE is not compatible with nForce 4 chipsets (has to be nForce3 and below), PCI-E, dual cores (I might be wrong on this one) and SATA.

I guess those motherboards are still available but harder to find. I know Compuvest sells "old technology" stuff that's still brand new.

Maybe they buy wholesale lots of liquidations or something. I mean, they have like 500 MHz processors. Good luck.

i know for a fact an nf2 setup will work, i ran win 98 on my barton rig for awhile. why not look for an old axp setup? they're old enough to be dirt cheap but not old enough to be "rare" and expensive. plus you'll get a huge performance boost over a p3.

of course, if an nf3 board will work, that would be ideal; socket 754 athlon 64's are dirt cheap and would be worlds faster than that p3, and even notably faster than an athlon xp setup.

 

[pdqcarrera]

Thanks for the reference to Compuvest, while don't have exactly what I'm looking for right now, they look like a good source to keep in mind for future needs.

My first shot is to replace MB only so that I can reuse everything as is and get this rig happening again ASAP so I can get some work done. The fewer component changes and driver installs the better. In any case, I'll keep my eyes open to all the options. So thanks again!

 

[tcsenter]

You have little choice but to find a used/refurbished replacement, but it doesn't necessarily have to be something as old as the SECC BH6.

Socket 478 Intel 845 and 865 boards were the last 'generation' with mature W98 driver and BIOS support. I would recommend a genuine Intel board due to Intel's excellent BIOS refinement and the installed base that Intel has in specialty segments like industrial PCs or professional workstations. You might even be able to find surplus Intel 845 boards that have never been used. I remember seeing some Intel 845 boards available at an internet reseller/discounter several months ago that were described as 'new OEM' but I cannot recall where.

Newer chipsets aren't 'incompatible' with W98, its just that vendors began to drop driver and BIOS support for W9x a good three years ago. Also, check the capacitors on your BH6 for leaking, corrosion, bulging, or venting. If your BH6 died from bad caps, it might be possible to bring it back to life with some new replacement caps and a little soldering, provided the failing caps didn't cause some other component to fail.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Today is your lucky day.

I got what amounts to be a mint BH6. I only had it for a few months before I upgraded to a Tiger 133 smp rig. As much as P II/II's cost back then I didn't have any other choice but to snag the cpu (and agp&ram) out of the BH6. Pretty much been 2-socket guy since then

I live in NC. email me at biff.highland1 at earthlink.net if yah wanna a pic. I may even have an old elsa opengl agp4x card lying around - be hard to top that Voodoo 5 though . . .

 

[VirtualLarry]

I answered a similar question in an older thread about Win98se compatiblity with modern rigs here: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...t_key=y&keyword1=win98

You can upgrade to a C2D and still keep Win98se. The problem is too much RAM, you would be better off sticking with 1GB or less.

 

[pdqcarrera]

Thanks, but I found a BH6 already and while I'll be using it for the quick fix ... I'm going to also look at bldg a newer WIN98 rig based on some other recommendations. BTW thanks tcsenter you nailed it. Cheers, PDQ