VOGONS


First post, by volhn

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Hi everyone! My first post! Just discovered this place and it inspired me to build a retro gaming PC.

I'll follow up with pics and 3D Mark scores, but it was running something like 14000 on 3D Mark 1999 at 800x600

Here's what I ended up with:
- Windows 98 SE
- Motherboard: ASUS P5GL-MX - Intel 915GL micro ATX board
-- 915 chipset (drivers are go! except for some 'motherboard resources' )
-- Intel GMA (disabled)
-- Realtek 10/100 NIC (works! w/ drivers)
-- On-board sound (disabled)
-- No IO Shield (DOH!)

- CPU: 3.0 Ghz P4 800Mhz FSB

- Mem: 256MB X 3 DDR

- GPU: GeForce 6800GS 256MB PCIe (Works, selected the 6800GT from driver list)

- Sound: SB Audigy 2ZS (WDM... but trying to change to VXD)

- Disk: SATA to CF card converter + 32GB CF card
-- Mobo runs SATA in IDE compatibility mode

- Case: Silverstone SG10 (I hate this case)
-- USB 3 front converted to USB 2

What I like:
It runs super well... games are a blast. The mobo does a great job getting USB and SATA mangled into something Win 98 can deal with, even if the mobo doesn't officially support Win 98. 6800 series PCIe GPUs are super cheap and VERY fast... for some reason AGP boards are all 2x the price on eBay.

What I dislike:
The case has THE most annoying PSU support ever. I don't wish it on anyone ever. I was looking to build the smallest thing possible since I don't have a ton of space. Still need lots of bits to get DOS support... keyboards, mice, VXD sound drivers.

What I'm trying to do:
Play my old games from about 1995 - 2002. I tried out PCEmu's awesome SLI voodoo setup which works beautifully but doesn't have enough oompf for later 90s games. I also couldn't get various builds of DosBox to scale Glide windows... seems to lock to 640x480. As soon as I solve the emulation stuff, I'll probably look to sell/part out/donate the retro pc since I really hate clutter, but for now its fun.