First post, by twicesliced
Have worked in the industry for decades, accumulated well over 30 years' worth of old components from various sources, built many systems out of spare parts and gave them away as family and friends needed them. Got kinda bored working from home as of late, and it'd been a while since I'd sorted through it all... So I decided to build the best DOS, 9x, and XP computers out of the lot. I came across this site while looking a few things up, and wanted to share the results so far 😀
Digital Equipment Corporation DECpc LPx:
- Intel 486DX2-66
- 16MB of RAM
- 2MB ATi Graphics Ultra Pro (VLB)
- Sound Blaster 16
- 365MB HDD
- DVD-ROM (the CD drive that came with the SB16 won't spin)
- Three-button Logitech serial mouse
- MS-DOS 6.22
- Windows 3.1
Considered buying more RAM and cache, plus I have an ISA NIC and a modem; but it doesn't really need it...
Windows 98 SE custom build:
- 300MHz Pentium II
- Intel AL440LX
- 192MB SDRAM
- 128MB AGP Radeon 8500
- 16MB PCI Voodoo Banshee
- Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX
- 6.4GB HDD
- DVD-ROM
I know there're some bottlenecks and concessions in there - e.g. AGP 4X card on an AGP 2X board, 66MHz FSB - and I also could've built it around a 500Mhz K6-2 or a Socket A platform, but this PII still holds its own for Win9x gaming and has a special place in my heart 😀 Opted for no NIC since it really shouldn't be going online anyway, and the second GPU is just for Glide support. I have more era-appropriate video cards and sound cards, but these two were the best I had lying around that were still properly supported.
Finally, the Windows XP setup:
- Athlon XP 3200+
- DFI NFII Ultra Infinity
- 2GB DDR400 (dual channel)
- 512MB Radeon X1950 Pro
- Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
I have an Athlon 64 3500+, an ASUS A8V Deluxe, and probably some extra RAM lying around, but that 3200+ is dear to me like the Pentium II and not a huge performance sacrifice; so I think this is the way to go.
I also found some nifty components in the bins that I intend to sell or donate - like an AWE64 Gold, a bunch of interesting video cards, an old Pinnacle MPEG card, an M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496, 286-Pentium III laptops, a few more mostly-complete 386 and 486 desktops, SCSI controllers, FireWire and USB controllers, etc...
So... I dunno... Hi? Thanks for existing and providing useful info? Let me know if I've missed anything important?