AlexZ wrote on 2025-06-26, 07:27:

A major limit of CRTs is refresh rate and image quality at higher resolutions. I have 19" AOC that can do 1600x1200 at 65Hz but the maximum practical limit is 1280x960 at 85Hz. Good enough for Athlon XP or Athlon 64 but not great for a Phenom with Geforce 980. For Windows you essentially need an LCD that does 1600x1200 natively as that it has a 4:3 aspect ratio. It also scales down to 800x600 nicely. 1920x1440 will not be supported by many old games.

1600x1200 on 9x/XP/2K/NT without modern windows scaling is all but impossible to use, I've tried it even with a LCD and fucked if I can read anything on the screen, even glasses don't help there 🤣. (1280x960 is tolerable)

1280x960 at 85Hz is not that great to look at either. 100Hz is needed for completely flicker free experience. Very few CRTs can do that at 1280x960.

I must be weird, given how many people are obsessed with CRTs, but i never wanted to return to one. Using it back when LCDs were not a thing was more than enough for me.

I am also not too bothered about scaling in modern(ish) LCD screens, as long as aspect ratio can be preserved. So for me regular 1920x1080 screen is sufficient. I can run games at 1280x1024 without scaling which would be somewhere between 17 and 19 inch screen, or i can scale 1280x1024 or 1024x768 with aspect ratio preserved to get larger but softer image.

Given that i see no point in getting 17 or 19 inch 4:3 LCD, which many people do. Especially with resolutions higher than 1280x1024 or 1280x960, as stuff will be too small and old software does not support scaling in most cases.

Also just for fun - here are rough estimates on how much i've spent on my "ultimate socketA system" (keep in mind - "ultimate" is subjective):

Modern stuff:

1. PSU. Modern inexpensive 400W one. $50.
2. 240GB SSD - $20. I've actually used an old one, but this is how much they cost.
3. IDE-SATA adapter - $5
4. Case - $30.
5. Fans - 120mm case + 80mm CPU - $15

Total: $120

Old stuff:

1. CPU - AthlonXP 3200+ - $35
2. Motherboard - EPoX EP-8RDA3I - roughly $25, but i also got 2500+ barton, somewhat decent heatsink and 1GB of RAM with it. Fun thing - this CPU overclocks to 3200+ and i could have saved some money just using it
3. GPU - GF7600GT 256MB GDDR3 - $80
4. CPU heatsink i liked - Igloo 2520pro - $20
5. 2x1GB samsung RAM (which works with this board) - $30. I actually got whole box of RAM for this money, but it was needed for this system, given amazing nforce2 RAM compatibility.
6. Audigy4 - $20

Total: $210

Both of this combined ends up being $330.

This is excluding failed experiments like gigabyte motherboard and AMD videocard.

I also bought most of the stuff from trusted resellers in "tested, working" condition, so it is possible to get many of this things cheaper or basically for free. It would be a lottery though, which i did not want. Reusing old parts like case, storage, PSU, etc can also reduce price significantly. Again - i did not want that.

Is this expensive? Honestly i do not think so. You can easily pay as much for a single voodoo card, or modern low-mid range card for that matter. This hardware is still relatively cheap and given some experience relatively easy to work with.

Biggest issues are:

- GPU, late AGP cards are from bumpgate era, so relatively rare (a lot died already), expensive and failure prone.

- Motherboard capacitors. On most boards they are going to be dead either right away or very soon. Have to recap, or find already recapped.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-26, 08:56:

I must be weird, given how many people are obsessed with CRTs, but i never wanted to return to one. Using it back when LCDs were not a thing was more than enough for me.

I am also not too bothered about scaling in modern(ish) LCD screens, as long as aspect ratio can be preserved. So for me regular 1920x1080 screen is sufficient. I can run games at 1280x1024 without scaling which would be somewhere between 17 and 19 inch screen, or i can scale 1280x1024 or 1024x768 with aspect ratio preserved to get larger but softer image.

Given that i see no point in getting 17 or 19 inch 4:3 LCD, which many people do. Especially with resolutions higher than 1280x1024 or 1280x960, as stuff will be too small and old software does not support scaling in most cases.

I don't like them but DOS does which is really the only reason I have the two I own, call me weird but DOS resolutions don't look right on LCD panels and the CRT allows DOS graphics to look correct as they were designed with scanlines and phosphor in mind. Once you hit SVGA beyond 1024x768 then LCDs come into their own and leave CRTs in the dust.

All that said DOS really doesnt need 17 or 19 inch CRTs either and is better suited to 14/15 inch screens.

I have 3 CRTs, from few years back when owners were getting rid of them for a few beers. All modern ones manufactured after 2000. I have them mainly for Pentium III and Athlon 64.

I'm also selling multiple GeForce 7600 GT AGP, I wonder how much people will be willing to pay. Initially very high price, but going down very slowly in search for market price.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-06-26, 10:33:

I'm also selling multiple GeForce 7600 GT AGP, I wonder how much people will be willing to pay. Initially very high price, but going down very slowly in search for market price.

At least from what i've seen locally they go for roughly around a hundred, but they are also uncommon and tend to stay around trying to sell for a long time.

Honestly the only reason i got one is because i really wanted high-end socketA system and was able to get one from a person i know and trust in good condition. Otherwise i would not pay this much money for known defective hardware which, realistically, is quite easy to replace with much better pci-e alternatives, capable of running all the same stuff better.

This cards are only useful for someone who, for some reason, wants specific AGP platform. Probably not very common thing and you probably have to go down in price very slowly because otherwise you may overshoot quite a bit before finding a person who is interested.

This is the system info. As you can see I used older drivers as they are better suited for the hardware: VIA chipset driver 4.56v; VIA audio driver 7.00b; geforce driver 93.71, VIA rhine lan driver 4.6. Memory timings are nothing special at 2.5-3-3-7 CR 1T. Latest BIOS installed as can be seen in screenshot 2 underlined in red.

And this is the performance in 3dmark 2001 which is representative for games from 2000 up to 2003 and generally DirectX8 games:

The best price to performance socket A system will not attract a lot of attention on the forums because all components are pretty common and there is nothing extraordinary about it! Anyone can build it with cheap enough parts. However you will be able to enjoy a lot of games on it.
After I put up the exact components for what I consider to be the best price to performance system for socket A it is time for the last reveal: the ultimate socket A PC! All price considerations are thrown out of the windows and using an unlimited budget the goal is to build the best of the best regardless of price.
Although most of you already know the parts, here they are.

CPU: Athlon XP 3200, top socket A processor that I bought many years ago for: Price - 30 USD

RAM: Corsair bought from some eBay seller in bulk some years ago that work just fine an ALL socket 462 Abit boards: Price - 20 USD

CPU COOLER: some Cooler master model with a copper plate at the base that I got from old systems: Price - 0 USD

MOTHERBOARD: the one and only Abit AN7; nforce2 ultra with MCP-T: Price - 60 USD

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 09:07:

CPU: Athlon XP 3200, top socket A processor that I bought many years ago for: Price - 30 USD

Thats one of the super locked ones, if you ever get the hankering for an unlocked one youll need a date code before 0339, I have two and they overclock rather well with one caveat....You need a beefy as hell cooler, took me quite a while to modify one of the copper coolers I have to fit the 462 socket.

By unlock it can go both ways ..so you can slow it down, which could be super useful.

Thermaltake Volcano were great full copper coolers for Socket 462. They can cool Athlon XP at 2.3Ghz or more with ease.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-06-28, 10:24:

Thermaltake Volcano were great full copper coolers for Socket 462. They can cool Athlon XP at 2.3Ghz or more with ease.

I have to be honest here . .I hate them on open die CPUs, ..I may have cracked a P3 or two due to the shitty way they attach, I have two Golden Orb coolers so I could use them but I really don't want to risk an unlocked 3200+

The need for unlocked CPU depends on if OC is wanted or not. I personally do like to play with OC, but for 20 year old hardware i am actually going to use... i prefer to leave everything stock, may be drop voltage a bit. Longevity is bigger concern than with new hardware here.

Also i hate NB fans, those are annoying, small, noisy hard to replace ones, just like on some old GPUs. And they often lead to NB failure too, if the user does not notice the fan died. Have to be careful buying boards with one.

And i do prefer lighter, aluminum + copper plate coolers for socketA. Full copper ones exceed AMD spec for max cooler weight and may break the CPU even if you just move the computer around. Also may break socket. What is, IMO, more important is fan size. Larger aluminum coolers with 80mm fan work well and are sufficient.

I have yet to crack an Athlon XP or Pentium III die. You just have to be careful when you install the cooler and use one with 3 hooks as I used to spread the load.

VIDEO CARD: geforce 7600GT from Leadtek. While it may seem as a step down from the "best of the best"this card is a perfect match to the 3200. Always in front of the geforce 6800GT which actually bottlenecks the XP 3200 it allows me to play all games from 2000 up to 2004 at max details and the highest resolution. Farcry 1, Halflife 2 and so on look beautiful at 1280*1024 with max AA & AF - played last night when I made a very small lanparty with my best friend.
After changing the thermal paste an cleaning the small fan it is relatively quiet.
Price: 40 USD on eBay before 2020.

HDD: the fastest and noisiest SATA1 drive: WD raptor 150gb. A seller on eBay got a whole bunch of them and I snatched 10 for 20 USD a piece.