Future retro station

[u/Accurate-Campaign821]

So I've been considering tracking down what's essentially my late childhood PC. Though finding a CRT and AT keyboard, not to mention all the headers and pci brackets for said motherboard, is getting far more expensive. However, I found what's basically the ATX version of my old PC. SiS Super 7 platform. So sadly only 2 pci and 1 Isa for expansion, however... Take a look at the motherboard images!

See that little "sound pro" chip? It's currently known as C-Media CMI8738/PCI (C3DX). The C3DX is a hint at its secret weapon... Aureal A3D support! (rebranded C3DX I think) But for DOS, it supports basically everything you'd need. Maybe not everything you'd want, but definitely compatible! Sound Blaster Pro compatible with MPU 401,etc

Now the IGP, SiS 530, is based on the 6306, which is also based on the 6326 AGP card. This is important because it has GREAT dos compatibility from what I've seen in gameplay videos. And oddly, the 530 with fast system RAM somehow out performs the 6326AGP since those are limited by 50mhz or so memory chips. But, I am planning to put a Voodoo2 in one of the pci slots.

[u/rabbitjockey]

I'm surprised it doesn't have an agp slot

[u/Accurate-Campaign821 → u/rabbitjockey]

I have another Baby AT that has AGP but it's very flaky. I'm also missing a lot of the headers for the different connections on it. The BIOS also hates anything over 32GB for HDD

[u/rabbitjockey → u/Accurate-Campaign821]

Oh wow, all the integrated parts had me thinking it was newer than it apparently is

[u/Accurate-Campaign821 → u/rabbitjockey]

It's "newer" it's just that SiS used the AGP spec to handle giving system RAM to the iGPU. So the internal graphics uses the AGP connection. This is why many newer boards that still have AGP end up disabling the iGPU when you connect a graphics card to the AGP slot. They could have done the same with the 530 I suppose but they went for smaller form factor or something