This listing is for a BRAND-NEW, custom-built, Beige Tower PC with Windows 98/XP/DOS all selectable on startup.Included:-Computer-Power Cord-DMS-59 to dual-VGA adapter (not pictured)-Optitech Beige mouse w/ball & scroll wheel-D-Link DSB-650TX USB to ethernet adapter (needed only for a network connection in Windows 98)
Specs:-Lenovo a58 OEM Motherbaord w/G41 and ICH7 chipsets-Intel Celeron E1200 Socket 775 Dual-core Processor @ 1.60 GHZ (Windows 98 only sees 1 core)-128GB Lexar solid state hard drive (BIOS-configured to run in IDE mode)-1 GB PC2 Ram-Radeon x600 Pro video card w/256MB vRam-Aureal Vortex 1 Sound Card w/FM and Soundblaster support-15-pin gameport-CD/DVD RW drive-6x USB 2.0 ports (4 rear, 2 front)-Serial port-Parallel port-SD/CF Card Reader-Super heavy-duty custom BTX beige case-350-watt OEM Powerman Power Supply-Ethernet (onboard works in XP, included USB adapter needed under 98)
Setup:Upon startup, you will be greeted with a Windows 98/DOS or XP selection menu. If you choose 98/DOS, you will be taken to a second menu where you can choose either 98 or DOS. DOS will boot with the Aureal Vortex drivers initialized on IRQ 5. You also have the choice (during boot) to load a mouse driver and a CD drive driver (CD drive will be assigned letter D). Basically, everything is ready to go right out of the box.
Sound Card:Installed is a PCI sound card with an Aureal Vortex 1 sound chip. Full compatibility with Windows 98 and XP as well as some later-generation DOS games that use FM/Soundblaster
Video Card:I'm a huge fan of the Radeon x600-800-series of cards for retro builds. They offer solid compatibility for most Windows 98 games and are fast enough to support most early-generation XP games and even some mid-XP-generation. The closest nVidia comparison to the x600 Pro is something between a GeForce 6200 and 6600. Below are some benchmarks:
3dMark9915,936 - Overall Score182 FPS - Race141 FPS - First Person
3dMark0111,256 - Overall Score69 FPS - Car Chase (High Detail)104 FPS - Dragothic (High Detail)57 FPS - Lobby (High Detail)56 FPS - Nature
3dMark033,538 - Overall Score132 FPS - Wings of Fury19 FPS - Battle of Proxycon19 FPS - Troll's Lair26 FPS - Mother Nature
Ethernet:Because the onboard ethernet is not compatible with Windows 98, I have additionally included a USB-to-ethernet adapter in case you need network connectivity under Windows 98. The onboard adapter is a Marvell Yukon Gigabit adapter that works fine in Windows XP. The throughput of the USB adapter has a throughput of about 5.5 MBPS in Windows 98.
Hard Drive:Lexar 128GB solid state hard drive. Roughly 32 GB allocated to Windows 98 and the remainder to XP.
CPU:Intel Celeron E1200. Plenty of horsepower for both Windows 98 and 2000 as it is a Socket 775 CPU and Windows 2000 can utilize the 2nd core.
RAM:1 GB of DDR2 (800mhz) ram installed.
Mouse:I'm including a beige Labtec PS/2 Mouse. You can use any USB or PS/2 keyboard, though if you use a USB keyboard in Windows 98, you will need to use the mouse to point it to a few system files the first time you plug it in to finish driver installation (they're located in the system folder, system32 folder, and system32/drivers folder).
Chipset Drivers for Windows 98:The G41/ICH7 chipset came out well after Windows 98 was obsolete, but there have since been released some modified drivers that give 100% functionality to Windows 98. The drivers work great as I have managed to completely eliminate all red-X's and exclamation points in the Device Manager (once disabling the onboard audio and onboard video in the BIOS and replacing those functions with the add-on cards), with the exception being the ethernet, which I left enabled for use in Windows XP but disabled in Windows 98's device manager - and as I noted above, I am including a compatible USB-based ethernet card. Bottom line is there appears to be 100 percent device compatibility under Windows 98 and I have yet to encounter a single blue screen or stability issue.
Software (Windows 98):All drivers (except for the onboard ethernet as it isn't supported) are installed. DirectX was upgraded to v8.1. Sea Monkey Web browser, an unzip utility, and the universal external drive driver (for flash drives) are also installed.
Software (Windows XP):SP3 along with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and K-Meleon web browsers, along with c++ redistributables, .net framework, and all drivers.
Game Compatibility:Overall, this system should play a large percentage of games released roughly between 1995 and 2003. If you have any specific games you would like tested on this system, please message me and if I can track the game down, I'll do my best to test it.