Socket3 wrote on 2023-10-02, 14:32:If you're targeting period correct hardware, then the Best builds you can have are Athlon 1200 + VIA KT133A chipset board or a Pentium 4 1500 + Intel i850 chipset board.
Former owner of a s. 478 1.9GHz Willamette and an i850 board here. Would discourage the i850 platform, especially on socket 423 (which is the more period-correct of the two sockets here). Need RDRAM, four modules or two modules + continuity RIMMs, finding socket 423-friendly coolers may be a challenge, also wasn't there something about cases for the early P4? I remember seeking a P4-friendly case that my 478 didn't end up needing - I think 423 expected to have HSFs mounted behind the board in some weird way or something. Now, if you can find a full system, or least case/CPU/HSF/RAM/motherboard, that's a different story...
How much better does a 1.5GHz Willamette perform compared to say, a PIII 933 with an i815 and some PC133 SDRAM?
Socket3 wrote on 2023-10-02, 14:32:
If you're using an LCD monitor, especially a 20-21" 1600x1200, then you'll want a Geforce 4 Ti4200 or a Radeon 9500/9700. Out of the two I prefer the ATi alternative for it's superior image quality, lack of driver "performance tricks" and excelent DVI support.
I had a 1600x1200 LCD starting in late Dec. 2001 (you don't want to ask how much those cost back then), and I was always happy with the gaming performance, but I went GF3 Ti500 (which died less than two years in...), ATI 9800 Pro, then (now getting much outside the OP's time range) 7900GT and 8800 GT. IMO, that level of high-endness were the cards you wanted for 1600x1200. Switched to 1920x1200 monitors after that.... and somewhat late.
More for the OP's benefit, 1280x1024 LCDs were expensive until... 2004-5ish. And I think most serious gamers stuck to CRTs in part so they could go lower resolutions...
Socket3 wrote on 2023-10-02, 14:32:
If you want period correct and top end hardware, it will cost you. If you just want to be practical, then any Socket A or 478 DDR motherboard with a fast CPU, even socket 754/939 and LGA 775 (Intel 865/VIA KT800 only) boards with AGP are great budget options. Mostly any 754/939 CPU will work well for these games, same for most single core LGA775 CPUs.
Question as someone who is about to pull the trigger on one such motherboard - in the practical category, what about the rareish boards with AM2 and the VIA K8M800 chipset? Seems to me like it's the AMD equivalent of the i865/LGA775 combo (i.e. plentiful/cheap CPUs but better-than-expected-for-the-time backwards-compatibility) with the additional benefit of using DDR2 RAM, yet I don't see those talked about anywhere.