Windows 98 Concept

[DiahreabetesMan]

I want to build a legacy Windows 98 computer. Obviously Windows 98 is obsolete, but I want to build a system that can run that OS to check it out and learn a thing or two. Being born in 1998, this time period of Operating Systems interests me, so if anyone could post me a link to where I can get parts to build this system. When I say parts I mean specific parts that would have been top of the line back in 1998, because I really don't know what was good back then, but today's hardware is not compatible with the older Operating Systems. Also is Windows 98 available for free anywhere legal being such an old operating system or would I need to purchase it? Thanks for any help.

Update: Dug into my closet, found an Intel Pentium 4 and Intel Celeron something both dated '04 and I have Floppy drives in a box too. I have a spare PC that is sporting a P4S800D-X mobo, but the manual states no Windows 98 support, so that would leave me with the Pentium's mobo or the Celeron's mobo which could be broken for all I know...

Update 2: I ended up finding a Dell Dimension and creating a 98 Machine. I gave up when I couldn't get drivers on the system without burning them to a CD and using the CD for file transfer. Very cool project, but I'm definitely glad we have good plug and play support. Thanks all for the input!

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Let's start with the last question first. No, Windows 98 is not free just because Microsoft no longer supports it, it is still copyrighted and belongs to Microsoft, so you may not freely, or legally download it.

As to the first question. I highly doubt that you are going to find many operational PC's from 18 years ago. Your best bet is to run in a VM (VMWare or VirtualBox), that is of course assuming that you can find installation media for Windows 98.

 

[DiahreabetesMan]

Let's start with the last question first. No, Windows 98 is not free just because Microsoft no longer supports it, it is still copyrighted and belongs to Microsoft, so you may not freely, or legally download it.

As to the first question. I highly doubt that you are going to find many operational PC's from 18 years ago. Your best bet is to run in a VM (VMWare or VirtualBox), that is of course assuming that you can find installation media for Windows 98.

I'm not really interested in the Virtual Ware, I'm nowhere near proficient with advanced computer applications and I tried it on my Current rig and ended up messing a few things up resulting in a clean wipe. I have this old computer hooked up to my right (Has XP on it so I'll call it XP build) and I'm ready to throw some things in it and check it out. I dug in my closet and found that I have an intel Pentium 4 and an Intel celeron ( Couldnt see much after celeron since the paste was blocking it) and both are dated '04. Im not sure whats in the XP build since I'm having some gpu issues and no extra AGP cards, so I guess if there's any part suggestions. My main issue is I don't know what was the thing to get back then, if I knew what people got, I could ebay and take my chances and money there and maybe get a working piece of hardware or maybe not.

 

[ragnar-gd]

This one may be interesting for you, then:
http://asrock.com/mb/Intel/775i65G%20R3.0/?cat=Specifications
Still in production, still in shops, dual-boots with XP perfectly, driver-support for W98SE and XP.
A Core 2 Quad, or a good Core 2 Duo, an SSD on the SATA1.5 port, 2GB Ram DDR400, any GeForce 6800, any SoundBlaster PCI with EAX 2.0, an Intel MT 1000 PCI for Gigabit, and you are ready to rock.

 

[ImperialGuardsman]

There are still some new-old stock around! I purchased this board: http://www.amazon.com/MOTHERBOARD-MS-6167-VER-1-ISA-SLOTS/dp/B00B871BUW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464654574&sr=8-1&keywords=msi+6167

Then, get a 700mhz Athlon Slot A, PC 100 RAM, and an old HD off of ebay (I got a Quantum Bigfoot TS).
You will also need an older style AGP graphics card. Look for universal models (two notches) or the earlier ones (one notch near the back of the card). Then, get some old IDE optical drives (beige, of course), a 3.5 inch floppy, and a 5.25 inch floppy drive (just for kicks).

Then all you need is a solid power supply and a 24 pin to 20 pin plus -5 volt adapter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-6-ATX-24PIN-NEW-NO-5V-TO-OLD-20-PIN-W-5V-PWR-CONVERTER-MADE-IN-USA-/251854771572?hash=item3aa3b6d574:g:rtoAAOSweW5U7MKW

Get yourself a sound card too and you are ready to roll!

 

[ragnar-gd]

There are still some new-old stock around! I purchased this board: http://www.amazon.com/MOTHERBOARD-MS-6167-VER-1-ISA-SLOTS/dp/B00B871BUW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464654574&sr=8-1&keywords=msi+6167

Get yourself a sound card too and you are ready to roll!

I see what you did there. Well played, good Sir!
(and besides: Cool finding...)

 

[ImperialGuardsman]

There are still some new-old stock around! I purchased this board: http://www.amazon.com/MOTHERBOARD-MS-6167-VER-1-ISA-SLOTS/dp/B00B871BUW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464654574&sr=8-1&keywords=msi+6167

Get yourself a sound card too and you are ready to roll!

I see what you did there. Well played, good Sir!
(and besides: Cool finding...)

Thanks ;-)

Well, he should have a few good choices now.

 

[ficler1977]

simply go to Ebay.
and find computer that originally had windows 98 on it. gonna cost You maybe £30 without screen,
windows 98 key should be included but if not You can buy CD and key on ebay also. or goto carboot/carboot online/ there are many PC that people want to simply get a rid of for a bottle of cheap whisky.

This is the best solution as many hardware that was released after 2000 will not have proper drivers.

if You can go for Microsoft Windows 98 SE (yes SE) as this is the best version of 98.

dont bother buying new screen as Your old pc will have VGA graphic port. just buy adapter(HDMI to VGA or DVI to VGA) depends what your monitor is.

I grown up onto windows 95 and than 98 / 98se.

PEACE

 

[BrianVS]

I have several Laptops made around the time you were born, all running quite well. Micron Trek II is a Pentium 2 333MHz machine, 256MBytes RAM, 6GByte hard drive. You can find them for under $50 on Ebay, drivers can be downloaded. I have the original install disks. COA's for Windows 98 are easy to come by off Ebay and in old computer stores, and thrift stores. I used to buy up all that I'd come across. The Micron- even the 18 year old battery packs hold a good charge, run on battery for ~1.5 hours. Longer than this HP I7 laptop...

 

[BrianVS]

For a tower- I've been using a Syntax P4S651M motherboard in a "Northgate" Celeron 2.4Ghz machine for 10 years now. The motherboard comes with a full set of drivers for Win98Se and XP. I have 1.2GBytes of RAM in it- which requires setting Win98 init files to NOT use all of memory. You can find the details on the Microsoft website, "maxphyspage" must be set to limit Win98 to just under a GByte of real memory. . I installed W98se on it to use real-mode with the Phar Lap DOS extenders. A case where DOS can use all of memory, but Windows 98 cannot. With this motherboard- if booting into Real-Mode DOS, set the BIOS to DISABLE Ultra-DMA mode for the disk if you run into problems. I have a 2GByte disk that works fine with it, another 40GByte drive that came with the computer that did NOT work in real-mode. Both work fine when booted into Windows without disabling Ultra-DMA mode.

Win98 is "old", but is quite useful for developing software for modern embedded x86 systems, such as those based on the Vortex processor. These embedded controllers are typically 300Mhz processors with 256MBytes of RAM, 512MByte SSD.

 

[ImperialGuardsman]

For a tower- I've been using a Syntax P4S651M motherboard in a "Northgate" Celeron 2.4Ghz machine for 10 years now. The motherboard comes with a full set of drivers for Win98Se and XP. I have 1.2GBytes of RAM in it- which requires setting Win98 init files to NOT use all of memory. You can find the details on the Microsoft website, "maxphyspage" must be set to limit Win98 to just under a GByte of real memory. . I installed W98se on it to use real-mode with the Phar Lap DOS extenders. A case where DOS can use all of memory, but Windows 98 cannot. With this motherboard- if booting into Real-Mode DOS, set the BIOS to DISABLE Ultra-DMA mode for the disk if you run into problems. I have a 2GByte disk that works fine with it, another 40GByte drive that came with the computer that did NOT work in real-mode. Both work fine when booted into Windows without disabling Ultra-DMA mode.

Win98 is "old", but is quite useful for developing software for modern embedded x86 systems, such as those based on the Vortex processor. These embedded controllers are typically 300Mhz processors with 256MBytes of RAM, 512MByte SSD.

I can use a full Gig of ram in my Windows 98 machine. If you want to use more than that, a man named Rudolph Loew made a patch so that Windows 98 can use much more! I used in in my machine for a time and was using 2 Gigs. The only reason I stopped using it was because some of my games would fail to launch/crash immediately. I cannot blame the patch though, since that motherboard had a weak memory controller (used to fail to post with over a gig prior to a bios update) and my Windows 98 install has been modified via KernelEx. The patch costs $20 and is well worth it I think, at least to try it.

 

[jeffredo]

You may want to put out a query in the various hardware forums on websites such as this (Anandtech, HardOCP, TechPowerUp!, etc...). They all have a WTS/WTB/Freebies sub forum. Just ask if there is anyone with hardware that will run such a system. You might be pleasantly surprised how many people will respond with working gear they just want to give away. I did this last year with an Athlon XP CPU/Motherboard/RAM system I had just sitting in a closet for years. I'd rather have someone enjoy it rather than take it to an e-waste facility.

 

[BrianVS]

Agree with Jeff! I'm sending out another box with a P-III running DOS, sent out a bunch of 8-bit stuff two weeks ago. Clear out the basement and let some students play with this stuff.

 

[maxwellmelon]

windows 98 was typically a Pentium 1 Pentium 2 or the low freq end of pentum 3 or amd k6 cpu range with most people considering 64mb-256mb of sdram as good though some ran with just 32mb of ram. most computers had a basic pci video cards with gaming systems running 1x 2x or 4x agp slots. 8x slots was more of windows xp was out also.

higher end Pent 3 and the pentimum 4 or the amd xp cpus where around the time of windows xp even though some did run windows 98 on them.

there are plenty of windows 98 machines out there. I would recommend craigslist and other classified sites to find the parts cheap. drivers for windows 98 will be the biggest issue though as almost all hardware you had to use the cd that came with it to install them. windows 98 didn't have the best plug and play support even for basic devices.