The first step was to restore the original case, which included a full cleanup, retrobrightening of the front panel with hydrogen peroxide, and a new paint job by my girlfriend. The cleaning process brought the power button back to life, even though at first glance it seemed broken 😀

In the meantime, I started getting some new parts, like a new CPU cooler, PSU, and a better GPU (I have plenty from different eras, most of them new old stock). I also decided to switch the original Duron 700 to one of the fastest CPUs that my motherboard supports: the Duron 1300. Then the build process began.

I like this era - and the Duron is excellent, i have 2 Duron 800 PCs, one with 98se and another with win XP and they both work great. Your build sounds like it will be excellent for all things 90's and some early 2000's too. Great nto see such care and focus on it 😀

And here is the final result—for now, at least, until I move out on my own and can finally set up a proper early-2000s battle station desk 😉

As I mentioned before, during the process I was wondering which GPU would be best for this build, and just like that, instead of the original S3 ViRGE/DX, I ended up with plenty of mostly new old stock GPUs from the early 2000s. But for now, I think the Hercules 3D Prophet II MX will do 😀 The next step is to build a proper, time-accurate battle station. In the near future, I’ll probably share my 2007 build as well.