I originally put in a PNY 7600GS which has 512mb DDR2. At stock it seemed quite poor, only running Unreal 2 without lag at 1024x768 at max details. But the native res of the LCD monitor is 1280x1024.

The 7600GS clocked in 6450 in 3Dmark 2003 at stock. After playing with it (purely riva tuner and 4 little ramsinks) I managed to get it up from 350core 333memory to 519core 505memory, giving a 3Dmark 2003 score of 8150. But alas, it still couldn't run Battlefield 2 at 1280x1024 without stuttering.

After I whacked in the x1950xt 3Dmark scores went to 19000. But I'm pretty sure it's a good match for the Prescott. The board won't take a better CPU. So am I maxed out do you think?

Sounds like a good build since you won't be gaming on it all the time. At this point the CPU could be overclocked but I wouldn't do so. There are better videocards out there from ATI but then the CPU would be a bigger bottleneck.

I got lucky and got a rare PCI-E 16x socket 478 mobo (3.2GHz northwood w/HT). I have it paired with a 7800GT 256MB currently. I bet the northwood even bottlenecks the 7800GT.

For XP I would just go for a Core 2 Duo or Athlon II setup. No need for vintage hardware because everything is XP and PCI.

W98SE is the OS where you need specific hardware.

I'd drop the X1950 for a low-end RadeonHD AGP card for stablity (mid 2010 drivers = ATI's peak) and the sake of cooling.

I use my main PC (see sig) for windows XP gaming. I still haven't installed windows 7 yet despite having owned a copy for 3 months. There are games out there that look good under directx 10 no doubt, and my 4770's are apparently a little faster in dx10 than dx9, but I really don't need to as the latest games still run under XP and look great. I also prefer having most of my RAM available after windows loads.

The problem with lowering the GFX card to something older is that the Prescott 3.4 is the fastest spare machine I can build. I do have an Athlon 2 380 dual core lying around but no AM3 board to put it in. The only other machines I have are a socket 775 with a P4 3.06 (and the mobo will not take dual 775's, so I am limited to an overly expensive 3.6 P4 2MB upgrade for not a lot of gain). And also the next least powerful AGP card I have is the 7600GS which can't cut it. I suppose I could invest in a 6800 ultra or something but the AGP versions are very rare and overpriced.

I have my pimped out P200MMX. I have a totally awesome Athlon Tbird + Geforce 3 VooDoo 2 SLI windows 98 machine. This P4 is supposed to fill in the gap between the end of Windows 98se gaming and the start of HD gaming. That is, to run the games the Athlon Tbird can't handle and the games that would be pointless running on my main i3 machine. I just want to make the beast directx 9 machine before games were supposed to be run in widescreen resolutions. 😏 🤣

Nice!

W7 is awesome. I was in IT sales when Vista shipped and it was a really really challenging time. But W7 was very well received.

Your machine would be awesome with W7 and remember, you can dual boot!

Just shrink your current partition, or install another HDD.

Things such as the snipping tool and the window dock feature will grow on you and you will miss them every time you need to use XP again...

"I prefer having most of my RAM after I boot"

You state that you have 4GB of RAM in your signature, however XP, being a 32-bit OS, can only access 3GB of RAM. Therefore, you are "wasting" 1GB of RAM. This means that even if Windows 7 took 512MB MORE than Windows XP, you'd still have more usable RAM. (Assuming you install 64-bit W7)

That is true, but I remember the days when upgrading to windows XP from 98se left my 128MB PC crippled, and before the game even started it was running from a page file. Similarly, as games like gothic 3 needed more than 1 gig of RAM to run smoothly, I had to upgrade again.

Once you have loaded all drivers, network and useful tools into the tray, you're talking another 512mb. Then for some reason starting a mozilla firefox page now take over 50MB, along with the latest version of winamp sitting at 20MB (even though the perfectly good winamp 2.9.1 was half that size by the installer), it all starts to add up. So yes windows 7 might only take 512-786mb more than XP, but once I've started a few web pages, put on a playlist and what not, I've suddenly got no RAM, and playing SC2 becomes impossible unless I shut down everything. And I don't think I want to buy ANOTHER 4 gig just to be able to use my PC, when it absolutely flies in XP with 3 gig atm.

In short, we are forever getting skanked. And I refuse to abide, instead living a few years behind with much more money in my pocket and playing older games at full HD - totally content.

Transparent menus and shaking my mouse to select a window is not worth building a computer that wasn't even imagined when Doom 3 was released, a game which is probably better than 90% of the fancy pants tessalated HDR4 pixel shader 12 console port nonsense than gets spewed out of publisher houses today.

🙄

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

For XP I would just go for a Core 2 Duo or Athlon II setup. No need for vintage hardware because everything is XP and PCI.

W98SE is the OS where you need specific hardware.

True, but since a)between a top-end 98SE rig's hardware and the Core2Deo/Athlon II lies a whole range of pc architectures that I still want to mess with 😉

I think the last Bartons were very nice to have and I'm also liking the s754/s939 rigs I own. They have been great secondary systems for me the last couple years 😀.

The only other architecture(s) I'm considering right now that lie between AM2 and s370 are s478 (a fast Northwood rig?) and a s423 RDRAM classic, once I get a s423 board 😜

Also, I can't afford to buy low spec hardware for an XP rig if I can find the parts for a nice XP rig (Socket A's etc) for MUCH cheaper 😀

I'm with you on the s423 RDRAM classic P4. Build it as kind of an ultimate year 2000 pc with an overclocked 'willy at 2+ghz, 2gb 1066 RDRAM, raid 0 ATA100/133 and a GF2 Ultra.. woohoo!

Nobody on earth had 2gb ram in the year 2k. I mean, 512 was top end, the majority had 256mb and there were still new PC's being sold in the mid range with 128.

2gb is 2005. And that's still top end!

GREED!! 😊

Well, if you want to get technical, I don't think anybody had a S423 P4 with any amount PC1066 RDRAM, since the latter came out with the 533fsb-capable i850e in mid-2002 and S423 was discontinued in 2001.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Well, if you want to get technical, I don't think anybody had a S423 P4 with any amount PC1066 RDRAM, since the latter came out with the 533fsb-capable i850e in mid-2002 and S423 was discontinued in 2001.

Good point... the thought never crossed my mine to be honest.

Anything from 512mb onwards would be sufficient though PC1066 would help overclocking- PC800 ram doesn't like going much off spec. The crucial bits are a GF2 GTS/ Ultra or Voodoo 5, a chip crossing the all crucial 2ghz mark, and raid-0.

Since this era represents the birth of customized "gaming" rigs some nice to haves would be rounded IDE cables, copper coolers, as many period correct peripherals as possible and windowed cases to show off your 1337ness.

IMO, since most 2000-2006 stuff is throwaway now, might as well build maxxed out retro dream rigs rather than be guided by "realistic" but price constrained specs from back then.

sgt76 wrote:

IMO, since most 2000-2006 stuff is throwaway now, might as well build maxxed out retro dream rigs rather than be guided by "realistic" but price constrained specs from back then.

Yep, no need for voluntary harddrive trashing 😜

I'd put the most reasonable amount of memory in a system, mainly because of the swapfile.

My Idea ... should I ever be able to do it ... is to have all of my PC's on 2 Desks opposite each other in the 'spare' room. I have 1 large concave desk with 2 rigs on now, but while there is a bed in the room there is no point in buying another desk yet (I can barely move without breaking things as it is).

Ideally, the 98se machines would be networked with my 2 XP rigs (still not installed 7).

My idea is to mint them, buy essential spares while they are available (so in the years to come I have backups), spray them, get nice peripherals (buying some mice and keyboards over the weekend new and cheap) and then install the clutch of core games from each era on the machines.

Another plan is to make some kind of vertical perspex stands on top of the towers, 3 on each, and place on them the 3 major graphics card of that era. Cards suited to the machines. I have most of the cards already and have brought them back to like new condition. Maybe write someone on the reverse of the stands like some dates and specs.

For example, with the P200 I have an ATI Rage XL, a maxi gamer 3Dfx and a Matrox Mystique. For the Athlon T-Bird I have a Xentor 32 TNT2 Ultra, a Radeon 8500 and an Asus Geforce 3 Ti500 V8200. Above the 3.4 Prescott (AGP Gigabyte board) will be my Gainward Ti4800se, fx5950 Ultra and my Gecube x1950xt. I also have another P4 system, but LGA775 and PCI-ex, for which I only have an X1950XTX and 2900XT (overkill the last one, I know) so far. Thinking maybe of getting an x850xt pe... when they come down a bit.

So yeah, think it will look cool? If I make significant progress I will post up pics but right now I have no time. Oh and my main PC will just have to chill, I'm not stupid enough... no, I'm not RICH enough to buy 3 current cards just to sit pretty atop the case. Hahaha... 🙄

Iris030380 wrote:

My Idea ... should I ever be able to do it ... is to have all of my PC's on 2 Desks opposite each other in the 'spare' room. I have 1 large concave desk with 2 rigs on now, but while there is a bed in the room there is no point in buying another desk yet (I can barely move without breaking things as it is).

I just got a very nice-looking wooded table in the living room with place for 3 computers (for my lan parties 😁 ) and even though it has those extendable sides (you can make the table wider, dunno how to explain properly 😜) I just leave it at "unfolded" all the time 😜