First post, by athlon-power
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Because none of my Pentium III builds have been working for the past 287.652 years, I've decided to switch gears. I've burned my eyes out completely on Slot 1 based motherboards and CPUs. I've seen so much Slot 1 in my time working with vintage computers that I might as well just specialize in Slot 1 systems at this point and throw all other x86 eras, sockets, and form-factors in the garbage because the only thing I see when I close my eyes are Slot 1 CPU sockets and card CPUs.
The last part is (probably) an exaggeration, but you get my point. Unfortunately, this also means no more Half-Life. I've spent a year and a half trying to build a time-accurate system that can "smoothly," play Half-Life WON, which I nearly was able to do once I got my 32MB TNT2 (non-M64). At this rate, I've been cursed with Slot 1 motherboards, as I now have five of these things in my possession, all of which are in various states of failure and death, or in various states of gaining sentience and craving recycling after realizing that they are being used far out of their prime, and are tired, thus, acting out in ways which they foresee will cause their demise.
I'm in the mood for a PC that uses Windows 95, however, that covers such a broad spectrum that saying I want "a windoz ninti fiv computur," helps nobody. I don't think I want a 486-era machine as if I ever wanted to ever attempt to play GLQuake, or a similar game, I would be met with 15fps gameplay. So, I'm looking at something Socket 7 based, as getting a Socket 5 system with my budget and situation seems to be about as easy as acquiring an M1A1 Abrams tank. I was originally going to build an earlier Pentium II based system, but with the luck I have with Slot 1 motherboards, and the fact that I am honestly getting nearly sick of getting them and having them die for no apparent reason or having them just crash at any opportune time, or having them be essentially DOA. I'm nearly going insane trying to work on this Pentium III build that apparently refuses to work no matter what I do. If I were to keep working on my current project, I'd probably end up ripping my hair out and living out the entirety of the rest of my projected lifespan trying to fix it.
To be honest, this may not even be specific to Slot 1 motherboards. I've also worked on a 2008-era computer, which you would expect to work as it's far more modern, but I somehow buy the components that are just incompatible enough with each other to cause insanity in those who attempt to work on them when they are combined. Maybe I should just buy OEM systems and use them as they were 20 years ago. I still haven't had much bad luck with projects like that, knock on wood. Maybe I should instead ask, "What old OEM systems would you recommend that performed well during their time, in the late-ish Windows 95 era?"
Where am I?
