This PC project took a completely unplanned course:
A few years ago, I acquired a “Medion PC-MT6, MD 8030” to cannibalize for parts, as it had been replaced by a new PC. That’s exactly what I did, without giving it much thought—motherboard including CPU and RAM, cards, hard drives, power supply—everything out. Just cannibalizing it—my opinion of Medion is still not the best, based on past problems and quality issues.
The empty case ended up in the attic along with a few others. The remaining components went to their respective storage areas. That was the state of this Medion Titanium prebuilt computer for years.
So far, so clear.
A few years after cannibalizing this PC, I came across a similar model—a Medion PC-MT6, MD 8083. Shortly before I was able to cannibalize this one as well, I had been planning for some time to get rid of space-consuming and unused items via bulk waste collection. My primary concern was disposing of various types of computer cases. In the process, I came across the case of the model I had cannibalized years ago.
Due to previous retro projects (RetroBooks and the Quad SLI PC) with a focus on Windows XP compatibility, I had the idea of doing the same for another Windows version that was once very widespread and popular: Windows 98 SE. The first OS I had serious contact with.
The Pentium 4 built into the newer PC-MT6 seemed familiar to me – as the last platform with driver support from Windows 98. After a very quick search, it was clear – both Medion computers are fully compatible with Windows 98 SE!
Why 98?
There are good reasons why I was not satisfied with “just” Windows XP alone:
- Windows 98 SE is the best DOS-based Windows operating system (apart from ME) and will always remain so.
- This means that all DOS-compatible software runs flawlessly.
- Anno 1602, The Settlers I and II, LEGO Rock Raiders, LEGO Racers, and Traffic Giant Gold are good examples of games that simply don’t run well on NT-based Windows. (if at all).
- I found the hardware interesting, with no PCI Express or SATA in sight.
What does that mean?
I wanted to have two computers to enable network gaming, which is now potentially possible if I can reassemble the dismantled PC. That was the first step, and I got everything back together as it was originally (except for the HDD). Apparently, even I don’t have anywhere to store such old hardware.
So now I had two visually identical Medion complete PCs that could be booted live with Linux Mint and seemed to be in working order.