Archsan:
I started losing interest in most PC games right around the time that DX9 went mainstream. TRON 2.0, Mafia, and the newer iterations of IL-2 Sturmovik are the only DX9 games that will likely see any action on my legacy Win98SE rig. The FX 5900 Ultra should be sufficient for all of those, since I last played those games on a GF3 Ti500 and they all ran pretty decent on that card too.
My biggest concerns are with two older flight sims:
Red Baron 3D with the unofficial Full Canvas Jacket mod and other community-created mods. This game is the reason I'm keeping the Voodoo 2 cards in the machine. I also bought a copy of Independence War years ago and I'd like to finally try it out. Again, I need the Voodoo 2 cards for that.
European Air War. As I mentioned before, this game is known to have problems with the GeForce 6800GT. It also has problems with the Radeon 9800XT, but a recent fan-made patch seems to have corrected the Radeon issues. Anyway, I wanted a system that can run it in its original glory with some FSAA. The 5900 Ultra should be perfect for this.
I actually have a semi-modern PC with a Phenom II X2 560 at 3.3ghz. On Black Friday, I got an EVGA 560Ti for it. I'm going to turn this one into my (soon to be) legacy WinXP machine. Although, this one can run Win7 really well too, so I may set it up for dual-booting. Anyway, this PC is good for anything DX9 and later.
I really think it's a good idea to build several legacy boxes to meet your needs for various "eras" of PC gaming that interest you. My old P200 with a Diamond Monster 3D Voodoo 1 card is also purpose built: EF2000 v2.0 Gfx+, MechWarrior 3D 3DFX, Archimedean Dynasty, and some old DOS games. I know there has been some progress with DOSBox and EF2000, but really, those 3 games still cannot be run well without a real, original Voodoo card.
Anyway, it looks like this thread is winding down, so I thought I'd let everybody know that I've decided not to use the Antec Basiq 350W power supply. See the other thread for details. Mostly, I really don't want any nagging thoughts about power issues in the back of my mind while using this PC. So, I ordered a 600W Rosewill PSU that provides 45A on the 5V rail. I'm also going to use the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra for the primary video.
I'm really looking forward to this new build. I've never really been into benchmarks or anything, but if anybody is interested and they can tell me how to do it, I'll run some and post the results.
Thank you all for your thoughts, opinions and insights! This site is a fantastic resource!
Thanks again!