Nice build to waste on something like XP, and a pirated version of it, to be sure. 😎

Is this 'Black edition' 64-bit, or does it not include SP2, or has a hack that allows >4GB RAM to be used?

dr_st wrote:

Nice build to waste on something like XP, and a pirated version of it, to be sure. 😎

Is this 'Black edition' 64-bit, or does it not include SP2, or has a hack that allows >4GB RAM to be used?

32bit xp from tpb

Soon others will tell you that your build ain't retro and piracy is wrong! 😁

The way I see it everyone owns an XP licence and the "Black" fully updated XP ISOs saves alot of hassle compared to installng from an original XP disc.

Technicality may matter or may not. Whether "piracy" is wrong is a long and never-ending debate into which we should not go here, but VOGONS does have a rule against discussing pirated software, no matter whether you have some license or not.

That everyone has an XP license is both true and untrue. Most Windows licenses out there are OEM licenses, and as such, are non-transferable to new systems according to the EULA. Nobody really cares, including Microsoft.

Personally, I'm just annoyed at the apparent stupidity of this build. 16 GB of physical memory for an OS that can not use more than 4? If this was a multi-boot machine that keeps XP as a side-OS for specific things, I could understand it. But a "dedicated XP build"? WinXP is a solid OS that has its strong points, and I still use it on a few contemporary systems, but it has no business running on hardware of that generation, even if it technically can because there were enough dinosaurs still not extinct back then to get manufacturers release working drivers.

That people keep coming up with such ridiculous builds tells me that they have too much junk on their hands, too much space in their house to store that junk, and too much free time to tinker with it. Maybe I'm just jealous. 🤣

You can find XP drivers for parts as late as Z77? All of the drivers are installed and working? That would be something cool to see. I imagine that this build is better than some people's main up-to-date build.

dr_st wrote:

Personally, I'm just annoyed at the apparent stupidity of this build.

If others who do this hobby annoy you why do you force yourself into it?

--

Well, there are XP drivers! Go Gigabyte?
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z77-D … v-10#support-dl

This hardware could also at some point in time (2030?) be a high end Win 7 64bit DX11 "retro" gaming PC if you get a better video card.

Auzner wrote:

dr_st wrote:

Personally, I'm just annoyed at the apparent stupidity of this build.

If others who do this hobby annoy you why do you force yourself into it?

The hobby doesn't annoy me, obviously. Just people who do it in what I perceive to be a stupid way. If you contemplate it, I think you will find it's the case with every hobby - the people with the most passion ger irked to see others "not do it right". 😀

Auzner wrote:

This hardware could also at some point in time (2030?) be a high end Win 7 64bit DX11 "retro" gaming PC if you get a better video card.

Is there even a single directX 10/11 game that wont work on a modern dx12 system? Doubt it. I think WinXP/dx9 is the last retro build needed - everything after that will run fine on the current state of the art. Until VR completely replaces computers as we know them, maybe by 2025.

Then all we will need is Retro pcs for;

DOS, 286/386
Win95, 486/pentium
Win98, pentium3/athlon XP
WinXP, core2duo/athlon64x2
Win17, coreXXV/ryzen7

squiggly wrote:

Auzner wrote:

Win95, 486/pentium
Win98, pentium3/athlon XP

In the spirit of your question - is there anything that requires Win95 and does not run on Win98? Or is it just about the hardware speed/compatibility?

Lol, seems someone has got their knickers in a twist. I flip computers and have spares laying around. My current skylake system does not use ddr3 so I've bunged that with the xp build as it came with the z77. I thought ivy bridge z77 is the last chipset supporting xp on the Intel side otherwise I would have opted for a cheap h81 on hand. The 3570k came with the z77 and the great thing is it can over clock as a quad core perfect for xp. Wrt the GPU I could co even more overkill but had a 750ti spare in my inventory. The 750 ti does great in farcry etc at max settings.

dr_st wrote:

squiggly wrote:

Auzner wrote:

Win95, 486/pentium
Win98, pentium3/athlon XP

In the spirit of your question - is there anything that requires Win95 and does not run on Win98? Or is it just about the hardware speed/compatibility?

Good question. Yes its about hardware. In truth I run Win98sp3 as my "win95" box and use it for very late DOS games and of course early windows games. I also separate to get good glide support, matching vidsound are:

Voodoo1/riva128agp/audio galaxy isa
Voodoo2sli/gf4mx440agp/awe32isa/sblive pci
Gf4ti4200agp/voodoo3 3000pci/soundstorm or audigy2pci
Radeon hd5770pcix/xifi pciz

On a side note, the 750ti I bought used in this build evga 750ti sc for £30 was absolutely fiithy. Smokers and their tar filled hardware gross. Had to disassemble it, clean wipe, brush, just filthy black tar disgusting. Wd40 the hell out of it. Now squeaky clean, doesn't require power connector. Thermal pasted with mx4.
Protip, update bios as soon as you can. With 750 to got 3 long interval spaced beeps at splash screen but after bios flash no issues.
With the fast CPU everything is snappy. Was thinking of getting a sshd firecuda but can't justify the cost because the the Samsung f3 which came with the z77 does a fine job.

I'm baffled at 16GB RAM for XP 32 bit.

oeuvre wrote:

I'm baffled at 16GB RAM for XP 32 bit.

two sticks of a kit of matching ram, came with the z77 system originally, not useable elsewhere. i cant use it because my motherboard (sabretooth z170 mark 1) iss ddr4. so just added it in.

so i've heeded the advice. I've installed ssd, win10 pro and will give it a sibling. better than keeping it in storage. in the future can install xp on it.

I think I've just been talking on a different thread about how "retro" builds get weird after Pentium 3 and here you are with a Core i5 build. 🤣

I realise that if you need a rig to run Windows XP (and I guess there are some issues with games that can be remedied by using WinXP), any hardware will do as long as you can get proper drivers. But yeah, that's a weird build for this forum 😀

I like it and intend to do something similar.
End of XP Days kind of build with the final hardware supported by that OS. It'll duel boot with something more fitting no doubt most likely Win7.
Already got the X-Fi Titanium, rest of the hardware isnt obsolete enough to be cheep enough for me yet!

Much better!

chinny22 wrote:

I like it and intend to do something similar.
End of XP Days kind of build with the final hardware supported by that OS. It'll duel boot with something more fitting no doubt most likely Win7.
Already got the X-Fi Titanium, rest of the hardware isnt obsolete enough to be cheep enough for me yet!

The sound is gorgeous using x-fi titanium via my JBL LSR-305's and focusrite scarlett 2i4. Really punchy sound. Farcry and F.E.A.R sound awesome. Funny thing is I missed the mid to late 2000's FPS era (not really my cup of tea. I was busy playing dota 1 on garena, gta4, dragon age origins, mass effect etc). Watching my little brother play this was worth it. he remembers playing it on a 6800gs a decade ago and enjoyed a quick run on farcry. interesting watching his multiple attempts through the 1st level, 🤣..