My 486's most modern parts are:

- a newer, 1998 AT case
- 1999 Maxtor hard drives

rest is as 94-95 as it can get. 😀

leileilol wrote:

My 486's most modern parts are: […]
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My 486's most modern parts are:

- a newer, 1998 AT case
- 1999 Maxtor hard drives

rest is as 94-95 as it can get. 😀

Similar with mine. Mine is around 95-96 with the exception of old design new manufacture parts, and a modern ATX case since AT cases are hard to get due to their size.

I prefer to use the actual hardware, but I do tend to optimize the amount of RAM and whenever I need a DVD drive, I'll just use whatever I happen to grab first that has matching front bezel color.

And I tend to use harddrives that are more modern compared to the rest of the system, but more so because they are either quieter or faster or both of those (like using a 2k3-ish 20GB laptop drive for a Slot 1 rig) but I tend to leave the size the smallest that I feel comfortable using.

My 486 rig actually used some 20x-ish CDROM drive and a 1GB harddrive, but I did use the most recent (and according to some online reviews and forums) and least sluggish one.

For s7 I don't mind using a beefier s370 HSF and for s370 I often use sA HSFs.

The same with cases: I'll use something that's at least somehow period-correct, but only if it doesn't hamper performance too much or has other issues (like having too poor case cooling).

So I don't mind using something that's a bit more modern, but I don't like to overdo it, so to say.

I use CF cards alongside real period HDDs in my 286 / 486 / P166 for ease of file transfer and backup, and I use new AT PSUs (i.e made in the last couple of years by Startec) in all of them too, but everything else is as period correct as I can make it.

Sometimes,

I will usually overpower the ram for the era, my K6-3 has 384mb of ram for instance instead of the normal 64-96mb of ram on those types of systems, and usually I go with modern 80gb SATA drives onto a SATA PCI card because you know reliability 🤣

Ampera wrote:

Personally I only use modern tech if I absolutely have to.

- I use AT cases and PSUs as much as possible for my AT builds. Using ATX to AT converters can lead to strange issues. In fact all my current AT builds (286, 386, 2x486 and P1) use AT cases and PSUs. They also give the systems a period-correct look witch tickle my nostalgia bone.

- I use small old IDE HDDs in place of CF cards or disk-on-modules. I like the noise old HDDs make, and I find CF cards slow and troublesome at times (will hang for a few seconds when doing lots of read operations at the same time) There are issues with newer HDDs, particularly 10 to 80 GB IDE drives and some cheaper ATX PSUs (divers will stop spinning for no reason). It doesn't happen when using small capacity older drives - for some reason these seem to be build more responsibly or are more reliable due to less data density inherent to smaller drives.

- I use traditional 3.5" and 5.25" floppies and drives, and I will continue to do so for as long as I have working floppy disks. Floppy emulators are a touch on the expensive side if you ask me, so I stay away from them. Besides, they change the look of the machine and I don't really like it.

- I buy original games on / or burn CDs and DVDs when I can, and I use CD/DVD drives when I can. I try to match the computer with an age appropriate optical drive, but even I try to stay away from really old / slow / proprietary stuff. I like the feel of putting a CD / DVD in to load a game.

Frankly the only modern hardware I use for all my builds are LCD monitors - usually newish 5:4 1280x1024 led backlit business class (you can get these new) displays from 2010-2016 like the Iiyama Prolite B1980SD or 4:3 1600x1200 MVA LCDs from 2006-2010 like the Samsung SyncMaster 214T because CRTs give me headaches and take up way to much space.

kanecvr wrote:

- I use traditional 3.5" and 5.25" floppies and drives, and I will continue to do so for as long as I have working floppy disks. Floppy emulators are a touch on the expensive side if you ask me, so I stay away from them. Besides, they change the look of the machine and I don't really like it.

- I buy original games on / or burn CDs and DVDs when I can, and I use CD/DVD drives when I can. I try to match the computer with an age appropriate optical drive, but even I try to stay away from really old / slow / proprietary stuff. I like the feel of putting a CD / DVD in to load a game.

While I'm using old hardware everywhere I can, my floppy disks aren't healthy ... (I've got hundreds of them, but I keep having issues with them. I know people that don't, but I do.) Looks like I'm really unlucky with floppy disks, but I'm not trying to use a floppy emulator, I'm trying something else that was possible too back then such as network booting. As some of you may have seen, I'm looking for every technique that could allow me to boot any PC connected to a network to boot whithout having to use any kind of disk which can make the installation run way faster and can also avoid any disk error. My server isn't retro though : it's a simple Raspberry Pi. (But who knows, I may own a Pentium Pro someday, so I could use it just like people did back then)

However, I like to collect games, and so I do like to have the original ones and use them with their original media. The only game I own that I'm launching with daemon tools under windows 98 is carmageddon because the CD is badly damaged and on some PCs, the game do not install properly. But I'm still using the CD to play the game because it contains the music, which doesn't make through dt for some reasons

It all depends. If I can not get replacement parts, I am forced to use modern replacements.
About that modding. I mount fans on my V3's just as anyone else on this forum.
Finally. I have build an AT system into an ATX case, because I can not find any cases around.

brostenen wrote:

It all depends. If I can not get replacement parts, I am forced to use modern replacements.
About that modding. I mount fans on my V3's just as anyone else on this forum.
Finally. I have build an AT system into an ATX case, because I can not find any cases around.

remind me to sent you a nice AT case when I get a spare 😀

Deksor wrote:

kanecvr wrote:

- I use traditional 3.5" and 5.25" floppies and drives, and I will continue to do so for as long as I have working floppy disks. Floppy emulators are a touch on the expensive side if you ask me, so I stay away from them. Besides, they change the look of the machine and I don't really like it.

- I buy original games on / or burn CDs and DVDs when I can, and I use CD/DVD drives when I can. I try to match the computer with an age appropriate optical drive, but even I try to stay away from really old / slow / proprietary stuff. I like the feel of putting a CD / DVD in to load a game.

While I'm using old hardware everywhere I can, my floppy disks aren't healthy ... (I've got hundreds of them, but I keep having issues with them. I know people that don't, but I do.) Looks like I'm really unlucky with floppy disks, but I'm not trying to use a floppy emulator, I'm trying something else that was possible too back then such as network booting. As some of you may have seen, I'm looking for every technique that could allow me to boot any PC connected to a network to boot whithout having to use any kind of disk which can make the installation run way faster and can also avoid any disk error. My server isn't retro though : it's a simple Raspberry Pi. (But who knows, I may own a Pentium Pro someday, so I could use it just like people did back then)

However, I like to collect games, and so I do like to have the original ones and use them with their original media. The only game I own that I'm launching with daemon tools under windows 98 is carmageddon because the CD is badly damaged and on some PCs, the game do not install properly. But I'm still using the CD to play the game because it contains the music, which doesn't make through dt for some reasons

Use old floppies. As old as you can reasonably get. This may seem counter-intuitive, but the older the floppy, the longer it lasts. I have most of my C64 disks working in perfect nick, but probably 50% of my 1.44MB floppies are dead.

I know, but the only floppies I can get my hands on are late 90's/2000's junk that has bad sectors even when they are still sealed ... I've got a few 720k floppies too, but I think some of them are dead too ...

Actually I'm still using floppy disks (not munch, but still) but I'm looking for the network booting because I can experiment it now while floppies are still alive. Once they'll be dead, it would be way harder to do, but at that moment, I should be ready

There was a similar thread going around. Do you prefer "Objectively fast" over "Properly dated"? I know it's not exactly the same but it's a similar mindset about being true to the technology of the day vs doing other things.

For me the answer its always it depends. I like tinkering too much. Some builds I min-max to the max. I go for as much nostalgia part of the time, and othertimes I sqeeze every mhz, every gigabyte, and every FPS I can out of a system.

There really needs to be a manufacturer of old floppies. I'd buy them, and I am sure some people would too. It's a niche market, but it exists and I think money could be made off of it.

Rhuwyn wrote:

There was a similar thread going around. Do you prefer "Objectively fast" over "Properly dated"? I know it's not exactly the same but it's a similar mindset about being true to the technology of the day vs doing other things.

For me the answer its always it depends. I like tinkering too much. Some builds I min-max to the max. I go for as much nostalgia part of the time, and othertimes I sqeeze every mhz, every gigabyte, and every FPS I can out of a system.

Modern != fast.

Take the CF card example, it has practically non-existent access times, but read speeds are poor.

I rebuilt my Windows 98 PC with the parts I had available. I had my ORIGINAL 1999 ASUS P2B (440BX) ATX MB, the ORIGINAL 128MB PC-100 stick, and the ORIGINAL Intel Pentium II 350MHz Deschutes. I also have THE ORIGINAL beige ATX case from 1999 that the system lived in. Still have the original 100MB Iomega ZIP ATAPI/IDE drive that was in that system too and it still works.

I picked up on Ebay the Diamond Viper V770 32MB Riva TNT2 AGP card, the two STB V-1000 Voodoo2 12MB PCI cards, and the Creative Labs AWE64 Standard ISA card. I had an old 10/100 Ethernet PCI card laying around I put in there. Got a 1.44MB Floppy drive and used an old CD-RW IDE drive out of some Compaq computer I found at work. Used a new-ish 400-watt power supply and tucked the unusable SATA and 4-pin CPU power cables out of the way (above the CD drive). That case even has the original 2" speaker and 80mm case fans I had put in in 2000 as well, all MB powered.

This past year, I got ahold of my original AMD Athlon XP system that still had the original Windows XP installed on it. Of course, I had to update it to SP3, but whatever. I also took out the two 256MB DDR sticks and put in a single 1GB DDR stick. Base clock is 166MHz. The Athlon XP 1800+ is at 1.53GHz. Runs XP pretty well, but I really don't use it for much. The graphics card is a sub-standard ATI Radeon 9550 256MB AGP card. "AT THE TIME" I thought that the higher the number, the more powerful the card. I know a lot better now. I'd love to stick something really appropriate for gaming into that AGP 4x slot, but I don't want to pay $80 USD for a Radeon 9700 Pro (they still command a high price on Ebay) or a 9800XT (overkill for the CPU, I think). If I found one for around $40, it might be worth it.

The reason I haven't tried to do anything with that XP system is because I also have a Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 laptop with Windows XP that is so far beyond that system in terms of hardware that it's silly. A 2.1GHz Pentium M, 2GB of DDR2-533 RAM, an nVidia GeForce 7800GTX 256MB PCI-Express graphics card, and a 1920x1200 17" LCD panel. The thing smokes all Windows XP-era games. I wish I could put an SSD in there, but 1) the drive controller is IDE, not SATA and 2) XP isn't set up for SSDs because it lacks TRIM support. It runs a 250 GB hard drive I have partitioned into two logical drives: a 40GB C: partition and a ~200GB D: partition. This keeps ALL Windows XP files on the first 40GB of drive space and makes sure XP can boot. It took me years to figure that one out - the BIOS only supports up to 137GB drives, so at some point, XP would put a file past that limit and would refuse to boot after that. The only fix was to delete the entire partition and re-install XP from the ground up. This is no longer an issue.

I happen to have lying around a Socket 7 motherboard with a 200MHz Pentium processor installed. I replaced the heatsink with a fanned-one and used Arctic Silver thermal paste. Should stay really cool. I also have a Diamond Monster 3D II 8MB Voodoo2 PCI card that I'll pair with a Matrox PCI card someone on this forum sent me (thanks, by the way). I just found me a 250W ATX power supply from that era that should work and the MB has built-in sound. I also just found a 20.4 GB Maxtor IDE drive on my shelf. I'll have to try it and see if it works. If so, I plan to install Windows 95 on it and use it for a DOS/early Windows gaming box. I know, the Voodoo2 will be heavily constrained, but I already had the card and didn't see the point in spending more money for an older Voodoo1 4MB card that would have been more period-correct. Besides, I've read the Voodoo2 is 95% backwards compatible and will run those games FASTER because of the increased clockspeed of the chips.

Wow, I really do ramble, don't I? I'll bet most of you haven't even read this far. So, with that in mind.... I'm a chunky monkey from Funky Town!

The 9700 Pro is overkill for a 1800+ as well... it's not that much slower than a 9800XT

kanecvr wrote:

remind me to sent you a nice AT case when I get a spare 😀

Sweet..... Yeah. All of Denmark is dry land now, when speaking of AT Cases.
If you ship one, I will respond by shipping an AWE64-Gold to you in return. 😀
I have one that is clean (no dirt and scratches), and without any pins bent.

brostenen wrote:

Sweet..... Yeah. All of Denmark is dry land now, when speaking of AT Cases. If you ship one, I will respond by shipping an AWE64 […]
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kanecvr wrote:

remind me to sent you a nice AT case when I get a spare 😀

Sweet..... Yeah. All of Denmark is dry land now, when speaking of AT Cases.
If you ship one, I will respond by shipping an AWE64-Gold to you in return. 😀
I have one that is clean (no dirt and scratches), and without any pins bent.

Hah, yea, I need to find myself an AT case. They are expensive to get.

I have 1 PC I cant bring my self to upgrade. My very 1st PC ever.
Its a DX2 66, I have a Pod83 or a 586 133 I could drop in, but its being a DX2 this long if feel like it losses something if I swap it now.
Same with the Floppy, I added a gotek, but it just didn't look or sound right when turning on without the seek test so put the original back in.
Its even got the original Creative Panasonic/MKE CD-ROM that has FINALLY died. That started to go in the late 90's but played music CD's ok so left it in and just added a IDE drive (its been though about 3 now) but now I need that IDE channel for a 2nd HDD.
I did think about swapping the SB16 with an AWE32 which I always wanted to do growing up, and even have one with a IDE interface so I could add a working CD-ROM but yet again screwed by sentimental value.

other then that I actually enjoy "modernising"? my builds. but have rules.

CPU
I like to Max out to whatever the motherboard can handle.
RAM
Also max out, even if its counter productive, e.g. past the cacheable limit
FDD
Love Gotek's, Got Dos on numbers 61-63 Win3x on 31-39 (39 being TCP) 6.22 boot disk on 60, Win95 boot disk on 95, Win98 on disk 98, etc.
No more "error reading from drive A" or not being able to find a disk, out weights the lack of sound or physically inserting disks for me
HDD's
I like putting in the largest HDD the motherboard will support but will always use the on board controller, and no drive overlay software allowed.
IDE to sata adaptors are OK (but haven't had to use one yet) but not adding a controller card unless its for RAID or something special like that.
CF cards are ok for storage but OS needs to be on a real HDD for that authentic sound.
CD-ROM
Will use whatever I already have that matches the case best.
PSU
No problem using modern PSU's, usually go for modular so I can remove any unneeded power cables, funny enough my 2 AT systems are running fine on AT power supply's so haven't had to even think about them yet.

Video/Sound
Usually go for whatever is the best, which will mean its a good few years later then the rest of the system