So I just ordered parts to upgrade that Dell Dimension 4100. I bought a slot 1 Pentium III clocked at 1 GHz and I've ordered a 3DFX Voodoo 3 3000. I also upgraded the ram from 256 MBs to 512 MBs. I just want to be able to play some old PC games I had laying around and did not want to repurchase them on steam. Plus emulation I've heard isn't always accurate, some games run fine while others flat out don't work at all. Plus its nice to be able to use old PC joysticks and peripherals.

GilboyNerd1997 wrote:

Plus emulation I've heard isn't always accurate

I'm starting to wonder what exactly you may have heard.

some games run fine while others flat out don't work at all.

You will probably have the same problem with whatever hardware you end up purchasing. Compatibility problems have been a thing for decades. Such is the nature of PC hardware.

Plus its nice to be able to use old PC joysticks and peripherals.

I guess? Is there one you are particularly fond of?

I'm done with this forum...

GilboyNerd1997 wrote:

I'm done with this forum...

Can't blame you, honestly. Some people are being unnecessary harsh in this thread. It certainly wasn't my experience my first time here.
If you need any additional help/suggestions, PM me and I'll try to assist as well as I can. It's finals week for me so I won't be able to get to you right away.

Jorpho, I don't understand your aversion to OP's wish to have a dedicated Win9x machine. This is a vintage hardware forum, having dedicated machines for different eras of computing is sort of what we're all about. Quake III will run fine on modern hardware, sure, but that doesn't mean every other game will. A good example of a game that necessitates something like this is MechWarrior 3, it is very notorious for not playing well with modern hardware, and even on P4/Athlons with Windows XP.. There's an array of workarounds and fan patches that get around some of the problems, but not all. The fact of the matter is that game will not run as intended on anything but Win9x with a P3 or slower.

ElementalChaos wrote:

I don't understand your aversion to OP's wish to have a dedicated Win9x machine.

Is it not difficult to offer advice without knowing the goal, as in "I want to this machine to do X, because Y cannot do X" ? If someone wants to run MechWarrior 3, then it is pointless to select components that will not run MechWarrior 3. If you are dead-set on using an old joystick, then you'd better be sure your components will support that joystick.

Otherwise, as the old song goes: if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.