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First post, by C0deHunter

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Dear all,
I am about to hunt down for a "period correct" Windows 7 gaming desktop components, and I need your amazing insight and recommendations:

Note: I am watching 3 of Phil's Computer Labs Windows XP videos and they have given me some ideas, but I wanted to ask you guy for more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAt6g9lVxww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjR2X39BVyo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlGsffEoWOM
----------------------------------------------

CPU
RAM
MoBo
GPU
PSU
Hdd
Sound

As always, your amazing insights and comments are appreciated in advance!

Last edited by C0deHunter on 2024-11-15, 13:28. Edited 1 time in total.

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 1 of 31, by waterbeesje

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Technically you could aim for 2014. Say you'd skip Windows 8 and 8.1 you would be on 7, just one year before 10 came out.

Let's start with the i7 4770k. AMD had the afX8350 which was not too interesting.
Go with the GTX980.
For the motherboard I'd go for any decen to LGA1150. MSI Z87-G45 Gaming or ASUS Z87-PLUS come to mind. Solid and lots of features.
Pair this with a nice Samsung 850 pro ssd. Probably 250GB. Fast, reliable and plenty capacity.
As for sound: it's on the motherboard present. I wouldn't change this.
PSU is a hard one, just take any decent brand with enough power...

Stuck at 10MHz...

Reply 2 of 31, by revolstar

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waterbeesje wrote on 2024-11-15, 10:14:
Technically you could aim for 2014. Say you'd skip Windows 8 and 8.1 you would be on 7, just one year before 10 came out. […]
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Technically you could aim for 2014. Say you'd skip Windows 8 and 8.1 you would be on 7, just one year before 10 came out.

Let's start with the i7 4770k. AMD had the afX8350 which was not too interesting.
Go with the GTX980.
For the motherboard I'd go for any decen to LGA1150. MSI Z87-G45 Gaming or ASUS Z87-PLUS come to mind. Solid and lots of features.
Pair this with a nice Samsung 850 pro ssd. Probably 250GB. Fast, reliable and plenty capacity.
As for sound: it's on the motherboard present. I wouldn't change this.
PSU is a hard one, just take any decent brand with enough power...

This is pretty solid! At first I thought I'd go for a GTX 1080/1080ti but the CPU might bottleneck it a tad.

Side note: sooooo, Windows 7 is retro now, eh?

Win98 rig: Athlon XP 2500+/512MB RAM/Gigabyte GA-7VT600/SB Live!/GF FX5700/Voodoo2 12MB
WinXP rig: HP RP5800 - Pentium G850/2GB RAM/GF GT530 1GB
Amiga: A600/2MB RAM
PS3: 500GB HDD Slim, mostly for RetroArch, PSX & PS2 games

Reply 3 of 31, by C0deHunter

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waterbeesje wrote on 2024-11-15, 10:14:

As for sound: it's on the motherboard present. I wouldn't change this.

What about EAX games, are there any EAX enabled Win7/XP games? F.E.A.R. was one of them

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 4 of 31, by Joseph_Joestar

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C0deHunter wrote on 2024-11-15, 11:32:

What about EAX games, are there any EAX enabled Win7/XP games? F.E.A.R. was one of them

Any game that implements EAX via OpenAL should work fine on Vista and Win7. Notable examples include BioShock, Colin McRae: Dirt and Mass Effect. However, most games implement EAX via DirectSound3D, and they need something like Creative's ALchemy to work properly on the aforementioned operating systems.

For that reason, I'd still recommend using a Creative card under Win7, preferably an X-Fi. It won't make a huge difference for later games, but it can be helpful for stuff released during the WinXP > Vista > Win7 transitional period. That said, EAX support started dropping off around 2010, so if you only want to play newer games on your Win7 system, you can get by with just on-board audio.

Last edited by Joseph_Joestar on 2024-11-15, 11:53. Edited 1 time in total.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 5 of 31, by Shponglefan

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My Windows 7 gaming rig used a 4790k, 980 Ti and 16GB of RAM. I think the sound card used was a Sound Blaster Z.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 6 of 31, by C0deHunter

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Please refresh my memory:
For Intel CPUs, what are the pin-counts / numbers? And the year they released (i.e. LGA 1150, etc.)
Thanks!
https://www.buildcomputers.net/intel-cpu-socket.html
https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/?mfgr=I … =2009&sort=name
https://computercity.com/hardware/processors/ … tel-cpu-sockets

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 7 of 31, by VivienM

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revolstar wrote on 2024-11-15, 10:24:

Side note: sooooo, Windows 7 is retro now, eh?

It's been out of support for almost 4 years... but yes, compared to XP or 98SE it feels much less retro.

Second greatest version of Windows ever, I might add. (Win2000 will always have a special place in my heart...)

Reply 8 of 31, by Shponglefan

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I'm already starting to feel nostalgic for Windows 7. In my books, that makes it retro.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 9 of 31, by Sombrero

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waterbeesje wrote on 2024-11-15, 10:14:

As for sound: it's on the motherboard present. I wouldn't change this.

If you use speakers I'd agree the integrated sound chip is fine for Win Vista + systems, but if you use headphones I'd definitely go for a sound card. Speaking as headphone user with a haswell system an amplified headphone out on a sound card really does make a difference, when Sound Blaster Z in my system croaked I ordered a replacement card within hours after trying to live with the integrated.

Also if dual booting to WinXP is on the table then I'd highly recommend a Sound Blaster X-Fi.

Reply 10 of 31, by revolstar

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VivienM wrote on 2024-11-15, 13:58:
revolstar wrote on 2024-11-15, 10:24:

Side note: sooooo, Windows 7 is retro now, eh?

It's been out of support for almost 4 years... but yes, compared to XP or 98SE it feels much less retro.

Second greatest version of Windows ever, I might add. (Win2000 will always have a special place in my heart...)

Hey, I still use Win7 in my daily driver laptop! It's my fav OS <3 😜

Win98 rig: Athlon XP 2500+/512MB RAM/Gigabyte GA-7VT600/SB Live!/GF FX5700/Voodoo2 12MB
WinXP rig: HP RP5800 - Pentium G850/2GB RAM/GF GT530 1GB
Amiga: A600/2MB RAM
PS3: 500GB HDD Slim, mostly for RetroArch, PSX & PS2 games

Reply 11 of 31, by fosterwj03

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I'm mulit-booting Windows 7, Vista, and XP on my XP retro rocket (H97, i7-4790k, 16GB DDR3, GTX 980 Ti, X-Fi Titanium). I've got Windows 7 on an 1TB NVMe drive using a PCIE x4 adapter (the board's UEFI will boot from it).

Reply 12 of 31, by Hoping

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For Windows 7, I have two computers, one with Windows 7 32, for compatibility, DX10/9/8/7, always with floppy disk to transfer files to older computers because Windows 7 32 still has full internet functionality. (I use R3dfox in Windows 7)
Asrock 980DE3/U3S3 FX6300 16GB GTX1060 3GB SSD NVME W7 32 Pro
Another one with Windows 7 64 to cover gaming until 2015-2016, DX10/11, after that date I consider it is Windows 10/11, DX12, terrain, and that means newer hardware, nowadays, I'm not certain if there is any major difference in gaming between Windows 10 and 11.
Gigabyte Z270P-D3 I5-6500 32GB RX580 8GB SSD NVME. W7 64 Pro
The computer for Windows 7 64, I have it in the process of upgrading the hardware, and I'm still not totally clear on what it will look like, The one with Windows 7 32 is likely to remain unchanged.
I do not like dual boot at all, for that reason I have several computers.
The issue of corresponding to the period of Windows 7, is more complicated than for the case of XP in my opinion, because Windows 7 ended the official support in 2020, but years before there was already hardware without official support for Windows 7, or so I think, while XP ended in 2014, and I think most hardware until that date has official support for XP, but my limit for XP is 2005-2006, Windows 7 32 covers all the games between 2005-2013 and a lot of games I have between 1998-2006, so Windows 7 32 is the most compatible OS for my needs.

Reply 14 of 31, by fosterwj03

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"Period Correct Windows 7" does generate a lot of interesting questions. What period best represents an OS with a lifespan of over 10 years that included several CPU architecture overhauls, multiple GPU generations, and a number of storage innovations?

Personally, I think of Core 2 CPUs, SATA SSDs, and Radeon HD 4000/5000 series when I feel nostalgic for Windows 7. I had a Core 2 Duo 8500, a Radeon HD 5570, and a 90GB SSD as my daily driver with Windows 7 until just before I upgraded the hardware to prep for Windows 10 in late 2014. That setup reminds me of Windows 7 the most, but that was hardware from early in Windows 7's life.

Reply 15 of 31, by VivienM

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fosterwj03 wrote on 2024-11-16, 16:12:

"Period Correct Windows 7" does generate a lot of interesting questions. What period best represents an OS with a lifespan of over 10 years that included several CPU architecture overhauls, multiple GPU generations, and a number of storage innovations?

Personally, I think of Core 2 CPUs, SATA SSDs, and Radeon HD 4000/5000 series when I feel nostalgic for Windows 7. I had a Core 2 Duo 8500, a Radeon HD 5570, and a 90GB SSD as my daily driver with Windows 7 until just before I upgraded the hardware to prep for Windows 10 in late 2014. That setup reminds me of Windows 7 the most, but that was hardware from early in Windows 7's life.

I think it's a lot simpler than the same question for XP. 😀

My view would be that a period-correct 7 system is a 45nm Core 2 to Haswell CPU, and for an enthusiast system, an undersized boot SSD.

I'd be tempted to land on an Ivy Bridge simply because that's both a crazy insane XP system, a period-correctish 7 system, etc.

Reply 16 of 31, by Horun

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I have a late model pre-built Win7 computer from 2012 just before/or beginning of Win8.0 release. It has a Intel DQ77MK (LGA 1155) board and a i7-3770, can't remember the original video card ATM but bought a GTX750 to put in it....

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 17 of 31, by DrAnthony

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revolstar wrote on 2024-11-15, 10:24:
waterbeesje wrote on 2024-11-15, 10:14:
Technically you could aim for 2014. Say you'd skip Windows 8 and 8.1 you would be on 7, just one year before 10 came out. […]
Show full quote

Technically you could aim for 2014. Say you'd skip Windows 8 and 8.1 you would be on 7, just one year before 10 came out.

Let's start with the i7 4770k. AMD had the afX8350 which was not too interesting.
Go with the GTX980.
For the motherboard I'd go for any decen to LGA1150. MSI Z87-G45 Gaming or ASUS Z87-PLUS come to mind. Solid and lots of features.
Pair this with a nice Samsung 850 pro ssd. Probably 250GB. Fast, reliable and plenty capacity.
As for sound: it's on the motherboard present. I wouldn't change this.
PSU is a hard one, just take any decent brand with enough power...

This is pretty solid! At first I thought I'd go for a GTX 1080/1080ti but the CPU might bottleneck it a tad.

Side note: sooooo, Windows 7 is retro now, eh?

Generally speaking, I'd say say Windows 7 fits all the typical retro qualifications. It's over 10 years old, its successor has already come and gone (and 10 is nearly there as well). I think the wrinkle is that a modern desktop can easily run anything released in that era that targeted 7 and the authentic experience isn't really any different (same LCD monitors, very similar cases, mice and keyboards) so it's providing less of a unique feel.

Reply 18 of 31, by swaaye

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I guess Win7 is retro now. Aside from the people still stubbornly using it today.

LGA 1366, Radeon HD 5870 2GB, XFi Titanium or Auzentech Home Theater HD, and maybe a sketchy 2009 OCZ SSD. 😀 Dell 30" flat panel would be wholesome as well.

My Win7 nostalgia piece would probably be my old ASUS G73JH. Unfortunately it died recently after many years of keeping it going with replacement parts and a melting rubber coating.

Reply 19 of 31, by DrAnthony

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swaaye wrote on 2024-11-16, 19:06:

I guess Win7 is retro now. Aside from the people still stubbornly using it today.

LGA 1366, Radeon HD 5870 2GB, XFi Titanium or Auzentech Home Theater HD, and maybe a sketchy 2009 OCZ SSD. 😀 Dell 30" flat panel would be wholesome as well.

My Win7 nostalgia piece would probably be my old ASUS G73JH. Unfortunately it died recently after many years of keeping it going with replacement parts and a melting rubber coating.

It's interesting though, I feel nostalgia going just a tiny bit further back (say XP on my old Athlon X2 3200+) but I don't feel it for 7. I absolutely loved the build I used from that era (Phenom II X4 955 and a Radeon 4850) and it's still perfectly functional sitting in my basement, but it's also running windows 10 and had an SSD popped in so it just feels....modern~ish I'd say.