Hello, Jack here. I'm in the market for a new gaming rig and would like to go with the X79 (or Z77 if more suited). I am currently looking for a gaming-oriented motherboard from a respectable company such as ASUS, EVGA or Gigabyte for my Voodoo 5500 PCI. Currently Gigabyte X79 UD3 and UD5 are the only boards I know of that have the legacy PCI slot. I was wondering if anyone could kindly recommend the best motherboard for Voodoo 5500 pci. I need a new rig that can play the latest games but also capable of playing some of my all-time-favorites such as Dungeon Keeper 2.... which runs great on 5500. I'm not too keen on getting the PCIe to PCI converter... mainly because 1) the adapter is expensive and hard to find here and 2) problem with mounting the 5500 inside the computer case with that extra adapter in place... Any advise will be greatly appreciated Edit: I forgot to mention some MSI Z77 boards also have PCI ports (3 of them in fact). But having zero experience I most likely will shy away from MSI. Thanks for the prompt replies to the 2 posts down below. But can we please stay to the topic here as to finding the best X79 or Z77 boards for Voodoo 5500?
This may be a better solution than running it on an old Voodoo: http://www.gog.com/gamecard/dungeon_keeper_2
What OS are you planning on running to use with the old games? A lot of the newer hardware is not even going to work with anything below Windows XP.. and even XP may be pushing it to try and find drivers for the motherboard. You could always try running a Virtual Machine on top of Windows 7/8 to run the OS you need to run your old games... if the hardware passthrough works properly for the Voodoo 5500. In any case, I would go with Gigabyte out of those companies you listed.
there is almost no popular game from the past that doesn't work on win 7. its all out there on google. you don't need ancient hardware and ancient OS'es.
My Gigabyte X79-UD5 has a PCI slot ,but really the Voodoo 5500 PCI has done seen it's day and then some.I still have my 3DFX Voodoo 5500 PCI in the closet ,but have not played with it in years.I think I would move on up with a new video card IMHO.
I have the ASUS X-79 Sabertooth but it does not support WinXP if that's important and it does have PCI in addition to PCI-E. I think the X-77 boards are the last WinXP boards to be marketed.
M1 Tank Platoon 2 by MicroProse does not work on anything but Win98. European Air War does but it is not easy. They both support Glide so a Voodoo card comes in handy. I know Battlezone was a Glide game and was recently patched to work on Win7 but you would probably lose the 3DFX in the process. This is one reason I resurrected a Win98 computer as I have all three games and many others. You can still buy new or nearly new parts to build one. I got everything I needed from a company called Saitech and the rest on eBay.
Not an X79 but I have a PCI slot in my Asus Crosshair V Formula (non-Z). That PCI slot was one of the reasons I bought that perticular board. And yes, I DO own a mint boxed brand-new V5 5500 PCI But not tested yet in the Crosshair setup.
Gotta Say Glide looked so much better then Direct 3D. I have a Voodoo 5500 AGP working i believe just can't find a motherboard that supports AGP 2.0 or has a universal AGP slot. Gave up in the end still have it sitting here pretty much unused as the mother board i have for the Athlon XP is 4x slot and the card won't function correctly in it.
Legacy builds are still some-what popular. Can't blame him though, some games just refuse to work good on windows 7+.
GOG.com and/or virtual machine with Windows 98 I think is a more suitable option these days. Also, if you happen to like even older, like old dos games and don't wanna mess with emulators, you can play them in your web browser here: http://www.xtdos.com/
You might not believe it, but i'm running Dungeon Keeper 2 with the original CDs on the system in my details without any special tricks. (with Patch 1.7) It's even working with Hardware Enabled @ 1024x768 and no crashes. The only file i use that's different is the QMixer.dll.
having a old rig is like having an old car... there is even some specialist shop that change caps on Atari ST or Amiga 500 in 2015... retro gaming is nice btw. most game work with DOS or W95 virtual machine you might try it is addictive.