I am trying to put together a vintage Windows 3.1 system using the best parts that can still be utilized by Win3.x. My CPU is 500mhz and I have 64MB of RAM which I understand is the most DOS 6.22 can read. So the rest of the componets I need suggestions and exact names (brands, etc)of hardware that is the aboslute best for this and only this OS CPU: Pentium 500mhz RAM: 64MB Sound Card: ? Video Card: ? Hard Drive: ? CD-ROM: ? CDRW and DVD-ROM: ? Wireless Keyboard and Mouse: ? Any other hardware or software that y'all would reccommend. Thanks

Sound card: Creative labs is pretty much the only choice.Any should be fine for win 3.1 since sound quality shouldnt be a problem. hard drive: fat 16 can only support 2 gig so any drive over that will have to be partitioned into 2 gig sections. Cd-rom: any standard cd drive should work with the genaric drivers.Might as well get a 52x since they are so cheap these days cd-rw: agine any one should work and go as fast as you can afford.I find lite-on to be a very good deal and very reliable. dvd-rom: as far as i know no one has gotten win 3.1 to play dvds.realy its not 3.1 its the limitations of fat 16 to not be able to access partitions over 2 gig.Most dvds are much larger.If anyone knows different please let me know im very interseted in getting a dvd to play under 3.1 or dos in gerneral.

Jake: You stated "I am trying to put together a vintage Windows 3.1 system using the best parts that can still be utilized by Win3.x." "Best" is a subjective term. In this context most people would think you mean speed. In that case, why not use a 3Ghz CPU? It will still work with DOS and Windows 3.1. Let's think about video cards for a moment; you can spend over $100 video card, that does not have its own 3.1 driver, but can use the generic driver (and only display 16 colors), but at that resolution an color depth it may be faster than anything else. However, I suspect you want 256 colors, so in that case you want an older card that has 3.1 drivers available. What I'm trying to say is some things will be a trade off. CDRom drive: If you are going to buy a brand new one, considering the trivial price difference, nowadays, I would get a CD-RW drive instead. What I have seen of DOS/Windows 3.1 burning utilities, indicate they are very limited in their capabilities (mostly they copy CDs or make images but little more, research it yourself to be sure.) I have not seen any DOS/Windows 3.1 DVD player software. Wireless Keyboard and Mouse? You will be extremely "hard pressed" to find any with Windows 3.1 drivers. The best video card I was able to find for my 3.1 system (for under $60, did at least 640 x 480, 256 colors and eventually I found a 3.1 driver for it) was an ATI Xpert 98 (8mb) AGP. Most AGP cards do not have 3.1 drivers available.

this is my system it goes really fast, this thing can allmost fly: - Pentium2 @ 266Mhz - 64mb ram - Quantum bigfoot 2.1GB harddisk - S3 virge videocard with 4mb 600x800 24bit true color - 3Com etherlink 10/100 NIC network card connected to the highspeed internet - Crystal 3D soundcard 16bit ISA - 52x cd-rom Softawre installed: - MS-DOS 6.22 - Windows for workgroups 3.11 - Microsoft office 4.3 - Microsoft visual basic - WIN32s and updated msvrt20.dll and shell32.dll files from windows95 - Internet explorer 5.0 incl outlook express - ICQ instant messenger for win3.x This pc is very fast and i can do anything with it exept for the newer games and stuff

that sounds a lot like my setup (ok, i've a P1, but an unusually fast one...) the 3com (is it a 509b?) should work like a charm, and the virge dx/gx (i assume thats what it is as you said it's 4megs)works fine with the proper drivers (theres only one, tho that will work..i think gaby's got it - cant remember the addrtess but will put it up when i do..). If you plan to use calmira with that card be forewarned that it's a little finicky..ive had video related crashes with calmira as the shell... I know s.grossklass (not sure i spelt it right ) had a link to some rewritten msvcrt20.dll and shell32.dll's for win32s, optimized for w'95 apps...i cant seem to access his site however..Are these the ones you're referring to? or are you using ones right from win95...if using the '95 ones you may get some nasty error messages. Be forewarned... However i can mail off the rewritten dll's if you want...still have them somewhere... Good luck....although i dont boot into WfW much anymore (preferring nt351) i still keep it as a showpiece ( i do tweaks on older os's s a day job and it's fun watching peoples reactions when they see what 31 can look like!)

Just curious as to why no one is recommending running Windows 3.X under MS-DOS 7.10 which has FAT32 support? Is there some inherent problem in the 3Xstart patch? -Michael