The reason why I don't want to bother with BYOD is because it can be a major pain in the ass to get other people's computers to all work together, in my experience. What can make it even worse is when people bring their machines at the last minute, which they tend to do, which ends up stalling things even more. 😜

Just thinking about it now, Pentium 4 systems would probably work well for what I want to do, though I would like to find some decent video cards for them that aren't FX 5200s. Performance wise they're alright for most of the games on my list, but I've noticed that they can have speed issues with MOHAA and Serious Sam TSE, and the ones I own also tend to run hot, but that's probably because most of them are Dell OEM models with crappy cooling. 😜

I wasn't trying to oversell BYOD just documented how I tried to mitigate what could go wrong (poor setup, broken kit) as much as possible.

A commercial setup would have 'identical' machines all prepared and ready to rock and roll. Whether you'll ever 'recoup' the cost/time/effort required to provide a bunch of cranky old machines is something to think about.

I agree a reasonable speed P4 would cope with the games you've selected. The graphics cards would have to be much better than a 5200 😀

Above all, enjoy them while you can - people grow old, get attached, do other things and the LAN session quickly becomes a thing of the past.

Here's my oldschool permanent setup:

machines 1 and 2 are tualatin 1.4s/tusl2/gf6800ultra/98se, machines 3 and 4 are coppermine 1000/cusl2-c/gfti4600/98se. Machine 5 is a dual tualatin 1.4/win2k dedicated server. The machine between the two groups of old machines is one of my main machines, then there's the new game dedicated server above old machines 1 and 2, also to the right out of the picture is another main machine. On the opposite wall are the wife and I's main MAIN machines. 10 computers in one room. It gets hot. Also worth mentioning, there's two stand alone networks in the room. No way am I letting the old machines anywhere near the internet. 🤣

I've always had my own lan setups all the way back into the late 90s. Every time people bring their own machines, most of the lan party is setup time. No good. This way, I take care of all the machines so I know they're in good shape. A couple friends come over almost ever weekend and LAN with the wife and I. We choose new or old beforehand. 😀

I love the grumpy dog in the bottom left corner. ^.^

luckybob wrote:

I love the grumpy dog in the bottom left corner. ^.^

"y u take my picture?!" 🤣

Why widescreens with 98SE?

d1stortion wrote:

Why widescreens with 98SE?

Must be the angle of the photo. They're NEC 1560v+ 1024x768 panels.

Yawnald wrote:

Here's my oldschool permanent setup: […]
Show full quote

Here's my oldschool permanent setup:

machines 1 and 2 are tualatin 1.4s/tusl2/gf6800ultra/98se, machines 3 and 4 are coppermine 1000/cusl2-c/gfti4600/98se. Machine 5 is a dual tualatin 1.4/win2k dedicated server. The machine between the two groups of old machines is one of my main machines, then there's the new game dedicated server above old machines 1 and 2, also to the right out of the picture is another main machine. On the opposite wall are the wife and I's main MAIN machines. 10 computers in one room. It gets hot. Also worth mentioning, there's two stand alone networks in the room. No way am I letting the old machines anywhere near the internet. 🤣

I've always had my own lan setups all the way back into the late 90s. Every time people bring their own machines, most of the lan party is setup time. No good. This way, I take care of all the machines so I know they're in good shape. A couple friends come over almost ever weekend and LAN with the wife and I. We choose new or old beforehand. 😀

You've got a killer setup! 😁 One thing I'd like to ask, where did you get all of those desktop formfactor cases? I understand they're not really in "style" anymore, but I like them for some reason.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Yawnald wrote:

Here's my oldschool permanent setup: […]
Show full quote

Here's my oldschool permanent setup:

machines 1 and 2 are tualatin 1.4s/tusl2/gf6800ultra/98se, machines 3 and 4 are coppermine 1000/cusl2-c/gfti4600/98se. Machine 5 is a dual tualatin 1.4/win2k dedicated server. The machine between the two groups of old machines is one of my main machines, then there's the new game dedicated server above old machines 1 and 2, also to the right out of the picture is another main machine. On the opposite wall are the wife and I's main MAIN machines. 10 computers in one room. It gets hot. Also worth mentioning, there's two stand alone networks in the room. No way am I letting the old machines anywhere near the internet. 🤣

I've always had my own lan setups all the way back into the late 90s. Every time people bring their own machines, most of the lan party is setup time. No good. This way, I take care of all the machines so I know they're in good shape. A couple friends come over almost ever weekend and LAN with the wife and I. We choose new or old beforehand. 😀

You've got a killer setup! 😁 One thing I'd like to ask, where did you get all of those desktop formfactor cases? I understand they're not really in "style" anymore, but I like them for some reason.

I think they're the only desktop cases left in production! 🤣

I got 'em from newegg, here's the links:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16811121011

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16811121010

Sometimes they go out of stock for months at a time. Very solid cases.

Yawnald wrote:

d1stortion wrote:

Why widescreens with 98SE?

Must be the angle of the photo. They're NEC 1560v+ 1024x768 panels.

Oh... I really thought they were 16:10 or something. Must be cause I'm somewhat used to 5:4 screens 🤣

Yawnald wrote:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16811121011

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16811121010

Sometimes they go out of stock for months at a time. Very solid cases.

I should definitely pick one of those up some time. 😁