Building a Legacy PC

[Tom_05]

Hello all! I'm relatively new to building systems but i know the basics. Im trying to build a Legacy system that will be able to play all my old games. Here are the specs i need, the rest can be anything compatible with these.

- A decent processor good enough to run win98.
- 64MB of RAM
- 4 DVD/CD drives for copying stuff
- 2 3.5 floppy drives for loading games and copying stuff (Floppy drives must support the high density versions of the disks)
- 2 5.25 floppy drives for documents
- 1 8 inch floppy drive to see what is inside all these 8 inch disks someone gave me.
- 3 parallel ports for printers and external ZIP drives
- 4 serial ports for peripherals.
- PS/2 ports for keyboard/mice
- A few USB ports wouldn't hurt
- External Graphics Card (Not embedded in motherboard)
- Sound Input/Output
- A couple spare PCI slots for ethernet card and other stuff
- A 2-40 GB spinning hard drive
- Game Controller port for the controllers for the games

 

[runswindows95]

At this day and age, there's no new hardware that will allow you to even come close. All the ports you require are almost nonexistent on new motherboards. It's even hard to find a new motherboard that supports a floppy drive these days, and most only have one IDE port if you're lucky. Plus no one makes drivers for Windows 98. If you really want to run Windows 98 on a modern system, the best way to do it is run it as a virtual machine.

Far as the 8" floppy, if it's IDE, you can get a IDE to USB adapter, and run it that way. Then again, if it's that old of a device, you might not be able to either read the discs, and/or even open the files.

 

[Tom_05]

I don't care if the hardware is new or old, i just want those specs with a decent speed even slow would be fine.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

wow.

you are probly best off buying some used pentium 4s from tiger direct. you'd be able to have at least one cd rom, a 3.5 floppy, and a small hard drive, and will run win 98.

5.25 floppies are 1980s tech, and I'm not sure if they use the same floppy interface, if so, it'll work at least. 8" floppies are 1970s tech, and you will need to seek out a tech museum to read them, assuming the data isn't completely degraded by now, because they don't use the traditional floppy interface

 

[Tom_05]

I was looking for something a bit closer. But from what i have seen the external 5.25 inch drives use a parallel port to connect if I'm correct.

 

[Paperdoc]

I don't think any mobo made would accommodate all those devices. I have an old Pentium-2 class system still operating with a Matsonic mobo, an AMD K6-III+ CPU running at 550 MHZ, and 768 MB RAM (3 DIMM slots each with 256 MB modules). Like many of that era, it has ONE floppy drive port (handles two floppies on one shared cable), TWO IDE ports (2 devices per port), one Parallel port, 2 Serial ports, 2 USB ports (I use an external powered USB hub for more - these are all "USB 1"), one PS/2 port for a mouse, one older Keyboard port, a Game port and 2-channel (stereo) Audio in/out. It has 3 PCI slots and 2 Extended ISA (EISA) slots for add-on cards, and a AGP slot. In one PCI slot I had a card to add a second Parallel port; my video card was in another.

One floppy port handles two floppy drives on a shared cable. Both 5¼" and 3½" floppy drives use the same 4-pin Molex power input connectors from the PSU, and the same data connectors from the ribbon cable. (Automatically, the drive on the end of the cable is A:, and the other is B:, unless you reverse these in BIOS.) I have one drive of each type n this machine. To use more than two floppy units, you'd need to add a controller card in an ISA slot, and then you'd still have some trouble assigning port addresses and IRQ numbers which are limited. And don't forget to get floppy drive head cleaners for all 3 sizes. In my experience, dust and dirt accumulated on the heads is the most common cause of trouble with floppy drives, and it can permanently ruin a disk by gouging a scratch into the surface.

Similarly, to add more than 4 IDE devices (HDD's and opticals), you would need to add controller card(s) to a PCI slot. Now add in your wish for a graphics card, 8" floppy drive (and where do you get a driver for this device?), more parallel and serial ports, ethernet card, etc., and you really don't have enough bus slots of either type to cover it all. And you'd have to consider the PSU capacity in planning all these extra devices.

By the way, on systems of this age you typically do NOT have support for 48-bit LBA on the IDE ports, so you are limited to HDD's of no more than 137 GB (128 GB the way Windows sees that). Oh, another thought re: Win 98. Use the last Win 98 SE version for better support for USB and optical devices.

 

[Tom_05]

Hmm ok

 

[Tom_05]

I infact have a very similar motherboard with the only difference being that its got a built in parallel port, no ISA slots but 6 PCI slots and 1 CNR slot. The motherboard has a ISA 01 slot thing printed in and all the pins but the actual female connector is missing/not soldered on together with the chip that drives it. Is there such thing as a PCI floppy controller?

Also about the PSU, the 8 inch floppy drives will have their own 120 watt "wall wart / power brick" that plugs into them as most PSUs do not support that kind of device.

EDIT: Found out what the Mobo is called, its a "PlatiniX 2A"

 

[ScrewySqrl]

there was a review of that very motherboard, right here on Tom's Hardware, in Jan 2002:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/The-Next-BX-13-Motherboards-For-Pentium-4-With-Intel-s-845-Chipset-and-Socket-mPGA478,419-12.html

 

[Tom_05]

Wow thanks! See, there is a place for an ISA slot to be soldered onto, is there a different version of that mobo with the ISA slot soldered on or do i have to take it to my local computer guys to get the chip and ISA slot soldered onto?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

you can get pci cards with ISA slots:

http://www.costronic.com/Ev71p.htm

http://www.alancomputech.com/146875.html?gclid=CJLLsIrA87ECFYOc7QodylkA9A

http://compare.ebay.com/like/220789699567?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

 

[Tom_05]

Awesome, do these items exist in Europe?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

no idea

they wou;d have been designed in the early-mid 90s when ISA was going away, moight find them in europe, but no guarantee of finding them anywhere

 

[Paperdoc]

Here's a thought for someone trying to construct on older PC. Near me is a business that simply accepts old electronics for free and disposes of them - in an environmentally responsible manner, so they say. It occurs to me they will get, from time to time, old machines with parts that could be salvaged and still work. So, look around for such a place and visit them from time to time, see what they've received recently but old.

 

[Tom_05]

Hmm ok