I have many dream builds but the computer that I couldn't afford when I bought my first own computer is one of my real dream builds.

It was the summer 1999. I had finished my first summer job and got some money left to get my first computer. The computer I had back then was a Pentium 133 that wasn't really that fast, but it was better then the 386 I had before.

What I wanted the most was a AMD Athlon that just had been released and it was crazy fast. That was enough for me to want one. The only problem was that a Athlon build would have costed me about three times the money I had earned by working this summer.

On my wish list was...
AMD Athlon 600 or 650
Asus K7M
256mb PC100 ram
TNT2 Ultra
Voodoo II SLI
Large hard drive (s)
Soundblaster live
CD-Rom and a CD-RW
3com 905 networking card
22" monitor
Full tower, Appen HX08 i think it was...

What I ended up with was a K6-2 450, Asus P5A and 128mb ram. I still have it 😀

And I also have a Athlon 650 and a Asus K7M in my collection since a few months ago so the only thing to do now is to build it and see how much faster it would have been.

I want to own something that was extremely high end and basically at the brink of technological limits when it was released. I'm thinking a 386 from 1987, with a full AT Micronics motherboard with no chipset, a full length board for the system RAM with a dedicated 32-bit slot, and a caching ESDI controller running a full height drive storing 150 or more megabytes. Video would be an ATI Mach 8 8514/A setup for Windows paired with a Video 7 VRAM VGA card.

My dream build if I could afford the CPU would be

Asus PVI-486SP3 (already got)
Cyrix 5x86 133
128MB 50ns FPM
ET4000/W32
Startech 3.5 bay IDE-CF adapter with a few 4GB CF cards (one for each OS I would play around with, one for coding, one for each brand of graphics card I plan to test from that era)
3Com nic (pretty sure I have 5 or 6 x 509)
Best CD drive that I have at hand (probably a 16x).

No sound card, as I'm deaf in one ear and tone deaf in the other (but I do have a couple of SB live sitting around).

-Trinitron or SyncMaster (I have the SyncMaster)
-Pentium III 1ghz
-Voodoo5 5500
-or TNT2 Ultra w/ Voodoo2 SLI (I have the two V2s)
-512mb Ram (have)
-Diamond Monster Sound card (have one but its missing its backplate)
-a nice beige case (still looking)

Good question ! Not sure if I have a true dream build but would like to find NOS in perfect condition (as it was in early 1996) the following:
Minmau AT mid tower w/300watt PC Power and Cooling PSU and a Pinnacle Micro 4x2CDR 5040i
That way could rebuild my 1996 P.Pro machine exactly as it was back then.

I don't have a dream build, but I'd like to have a system working with all SCSI drives. Maybe a Pentium III, with a couple 36GB drives (with mirror if possible), internal SCSI DVD drive with caddy, and SCSI iomega zip drive (internal). Currently I only have a couple Ultra 160 SCSI cards and a lot of 68 and 50-pin cables but no drives at all.

The build I have is my dream build . See Jack of several trades, master of some (hopefully)

Of course, it's ever evolving and (OSSC and Philips 252B9 monitor added, CT3670 replaced with CT4500 with Simmconn Revival, Samsung 860 EVO SSD, etc), but it's basically what I want from a retro machine that spawns early 90s (and a bit earlier) up to Windows 98SE, inclusively .

I consider myself both very lucky (I have about every rare/expensive part I ever wanted) and a bit sad as there is practically nothing major left for me to hunt down . Though TBH, I can't wait to get my Orpheus sound card and my Roland VS- 880EX multi-track recorder (to hopefully replace my Akai DPS12) . AWE64 Legacy is also very much on my mind .

My dream build is 99% done:

It's a Y2K build with (almost) all components manufactured the year 2000 or older.

MB: ABIT KG7, the only exception but the chipset (and other MB's with it) was available in 2000.
CPU: Athlon Thunderbird 1200MHz.
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master HHC, probably not available 2000 (more like late 2001) but its looks so good and who can resist heat-pipes!
Memory: 2x512MB Fast TwinMOS DDR, dated 2000.
Graphics: Geforce 2 GTS Ultra.
HDD: IBM GXP 75 GB, yea i found a working one (!) lets see how long that fun lasts.
NIC: 3C905-C, also dates 2000.
ODD: Pioneer slot-in DVD-105SZ, dated 2000.
Sound card: SB Live!, dated 2000, looking for a Live! 5.1 tho.
And the crown jewel in the build: The Cooler Master ATCs (gen1?) also from 2000!

Some work remains (some systems are never really done), but its looking pretty and works perfectly.
Runs W2k (obvious choice!) like a dream.

My dream build would be a dedicated DOS 6.22 + Win 3.11 rig, with high end components. It's very unlikely that I'll get my hands on all of these, but here goes:

Intel Pentium MMX 233 MHz
Gigabyte GA-5AX REV 5.2
32 MB SDRAM
CF to IDE adapter with an industrial grade CF card
Teac 4x CD-ROM Drive
Sony 3.5" Floppy Drive
S3 Virge GX2 4MB AGP + 3DFX Voodoo 1 PCI
Orpheus sound card + PCMIDI
Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold
Roland SC-55 mkII
Roland MT-32 (old)
Roland MA-12C speakers
AOpen 350W PSU
Sony CPD-G420 Trinitron 19" CRT Monitor
Logitech MX300 PS2 optical mouse
SteelSeries 6Gv2 mechanical PS2 keyboard
MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows 3.11

With SetMul this machine could slowed down practically to any speed you desire. The Super Socket 7 motherboard isn't really necessary, I just don't want to deal with AT motherboards/PSUs/cases and those crappy PS2 brackets that may or may not work.

The Orpheus would be the primary sound card for its SBPro and WSS compatibility, genuine OPL3 and bug-free MIDI as provided by the SC-55 and the MT-32. The AWE64 Gold would be there for late DOS games that actually benefit from a SB16. Also having AWE music as a backup option is nice and the ability to load soundfonts is kinda neat, but admittedly not that useful in pure DOS.

The Virge + Voodoo1 combo should provide excellent compatibility with DOS games, ranging from the early stuff up to the latest 3D accelerated titles. And the Trinitron CRT monitor caps it all of with a gorgeous display.

My dream build is fully assembled with only 1 critical component missing!
CPU: Athlon XP 3200
M/B: Abit AN7
RAM: Corsair 2*1gb CAS2
GPU: Leadtek geforce 6600gt black edition because 5950 ultra in is incredibly expensive and hard to find!
HDD: WD Raptor 74gb
PSU: Antec 650w - NOT period correct!
Case: Antec Atlas with FDD and IDE DVD.
Windows XP SP3 fully patched that is running like a dream - and yes there are no slowdowns or lost performance on this machine compared to Win98SE; as long as you are not browsing the internet all period correct games and software run perfectly!

I realise I don't have one. Whatever I can imagine at a point in time in the past was superseded in capability soon after and so there can always be better if i just push the date forward slightly until I end up in the present with the most capable machine of 'now'. On such a PC now I would then emulate, virtual PC and Dosbox everything I could!

For the actual PCs of the past that I do have I am mostly content, I really don't mind if one doesn't have the best graphics card of the time or some such, I'm usually happy enough with it as it is.

The only type of PC I don't have but would quite like is something like an 80386, that would be nice - but its not a dream build really, just something that would be nice to have

I built my dream builds for each era....what else would I build? Modern parts like CF cards and new creations like HardMPU have made true dream builds a reality. About the only things I don't have are GUS sound cards (dont really care for them), Roland ISA midi boards (too rare), nice CRTs and cases (hard to find locally).

Parts I love include the AWE32 CT3900, s3 virge, cpus that can be controlled with setmul (k6plus, via c3), voodoo2 SLI, athlon XP platforms with voodoo5, the fx5900 for high end pre dx9 gaming, x-fi titanium, and lots more.

It's hard to narrow to just 1. Best I can do is 3 with extra parts.

I'm lucky that I still own our very first PC which I think features on alot of people's list. The fact its a 486 VLB scratches the VLB itch as well.
It never got the AWE I always wanted but got a SC-55 instead which I didn't know about at the time.
Got another high end 486 which covers the CPU and AWE I always dreamed about, really I just need a GUS and think I've happy on the dos/ISA side of things

Win9x I've got covered with my Slot 1 with Voodoo 2 SLI. Ti4600 and Audigy 2 been late additions to that list but obtained.
Own a AGP GF6800 Ultra which also belongs in my Win9x list even if rest of that P4 doesnt. (its nice but not dream status)

I'm still dreaming of my high end XP build, Slowly collecting parts as prices for the hardware I have in mind are only starting to fall.

I have alot of other very nice PC's but wouldn't categorize them as dream and if I had to pick one that 486 that kicked off my computer obsession would be it, even if it meant loosing the ability to play Winx games

My "Dream" build has always been just wanting to rebuild my 1st PC exactly, however the case is not likely to be found again (pic attached - the one with speakers)
The components as good as I can remember:
486 motherboard with PCI
dx4-100mhz
16mb ram
No idea what soundcard I had but it was SB2.0 compatible I can remember from dos settings.
2MB S3 Virge/DX PCI
1GB HDD
Windows 95 (and later 98)

However without the rose tinted glasses I have found from building similar dx4 systems that the games I played on that system are not really what I would describe as playable now!

So with that adjustment this becomes my "dream" system(pic attached), which is also somewhat true as during my 486 days I was extremely jealous of a friend with a 166mmx. This was built this week and has had several hours of gaming already!

Socket 7 motherboard: GA - 586ATS
166mmx
64mb ram
Awe32
S3 Virge/DX 2mb
Voodoo 1 4mb.
2GB HDD + 2GB CF
windows 95.

The only thing I really would like to add but dont want to pay the money they go for is some form of wavetable midi..

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-09-23, 11:45:

The only thing I really would like to add but dont want to pay the money they go for is some form of wavetable midi..

That's a very nice MMX system.

If you want a cheap wavetable solution, you could always add a PCI sound card and use that to play DOS games under Win9x. For example, the Yamaha YMF7x4 cards come with an awesome sounding software wavetable.

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-09-23, 11:45:

My "Dream" build has always been just wanting to rebuild my 1st PC exactly, however the case is not likely to be found again (pic attached - the one with speakers)

^this pretty much, but same can be said for the case, as it was vendor specific, and I haven't seen any around ever since I started looking.
I still own the original motherboard, MFM hard drive and monitor we had back then, and since managed to acquire the same model EGA graphics card and keyboard.
the case seems to have gotten thrown out at some point :c when we upgraded to a pentium around the end of 1996 probably.
some parts are unfortunately not really identifyable, like which ram expansion card was installed exactly... and well yeah, the case seems impossible to find.
we had upgraded the PC with a different motherboard (hence why the original motherboard was removed and still exists ^^) to a 386DX40 but I have so far failed to identify these components as well.

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-09-23, 11:45:

However without the rose tinted glasses I have found from building similar dx4 systems that the games I played on that system are not really what I would describe as playable now!

This is often the case, Even back then I was always trying to convince my parents to upgrade. Now it's an option our own nostalgia doesn't allow us.
it's a nice luxury if you can have both the original spec machine and another more suitable to actually play the games.

Very hard to say just one dream build.

In my opinion you can have multiple dream builds depending on what you want to do.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-09-23, 11:53:

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-09-23, 11:45:

The only thing I really would like to add but dont want to pay the money they go for is some form of wavetable midi..

That's a very nice MMX system.

If you want a cheap wavetable solution, you could always add a PCI sound card and use that to play DOS games under Win9x. For example, the Yamaha YMF7x4 cards come with an awesome sounding software wavetable.

I did mess with that briefly on my P3 system although that machine isnt really playing anything with midi. I hadnt considered it for the mmx as I would have expected it to cause use a bit of CPU?

imi wrote on 2020-09-23, 11:59:

^this pretty much, but same can be said for the case, as it was vendor specific, and I haven't seen any around ever since I star […]
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LewisRaz wrote on 2020-09-23, 11:45:

My "Dream" build has always been just wanting to rebuild my 1st PC exactly, however the case is not likely to be found again (pic attached - the one with speakers)

^this pretty much, but same can be said for the case, as it was vendor specific, and I haven't seen any around ever since I started looking.
I still own the original motherboard, MFM hard drive and monitor we had back then, and since managed to acquire the same model EGA graphics card and keyboard.
the case seems to have gotten thrown out at some point :c when we upgraded to a pentium around the end of 1996 probably.
some parts are unfortunately not really identifyable, like which ram expansion card was installed exactly... and well yeah, the case seems impossible to find.
we had upgraded the PC with a different motherboard (hence why the original motherboard was removed and still exists ^^) to a 386DX40 but I have so far failed to identify these components as well.

ARC386s_skyscraper.jpg

386s.jpg

Thats good you managed to retain most of the components! I have no idea what the eventual fate of my 486 was. I know it was handed to my sibling for some time but after that I have no idea... I would go nuts if it was still in my parents loft!(highly unlikely as they are anti hoarders and had the loft re-done... But not impossible and they are too old to get in there and look now)

chinny22 wrote on 2020-09-23, 12:04:

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-09-23, 11:45:

However without the rose tinted glasses I have found from building similar dx4 systems that the games I played on that system are not really what I would describe as playable now!

This is often the case, Even back then I was always trying to convince my parents to upgrade. Now it's an option our own nostalgia doesn't allow us.
it's a nice luxury if you can have both the original spec machine and another more suitable to actually play the games.

I never had the option of upgrades! The fact we had even got a PC back then was pure chance.. (Bailiffs at next doors house.. Sold us the PC for silly money to get rid of the bailiffs). However I do find it odd that I can remember almost completing dungeon keeper on that pc but yet all dx4 machines I have made recently really struggle to play it at all! With only the pure dos version really standing a chance. I am not sure a very young me would have managed to get to a pure dos setting with it.