First post, by AlphaDangerDen
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Hey everybody! I've recently ordered a crap ton of parts on eBay to build a kick ass (somewhat) old school gaming rig from around ~2006/2007-ish.
So what's the purpose of this rig? Well, I'm a big fan of old FPS and tycoon games from the early to mid 2000s, and running them on my main rig (FX-8350 w/ GTX 770, Windows 8.1) is a huge pain, and Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 😁 it sadly hangs after about an hour on my main rig. I will be installing three operating systems: Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit, Windows 10 64-bit, and Ubuntu 15.04 (or whatever the latest is when this rig is built). Pretty odd OS selection for a rig like this, right? Well yeah. This rig is also going to be used for tinkering around with newer OSes and games. One thing I have always been curious about is how older SLI system perform in new(er) games. Granted, I won't be running games like GTA V on this rig (~60GB download, and won't run on DX9 🤣), so this machine doubles as, lets say, a tinkerer build 😀 what do you think? Thoughts?
System Specs (as of 9/29/2015):
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.20GHz, Socket AM2) with an AMD FX Stock Cooler (same mounting system as AM3+)
MOBO: Biostar TPower N750 (ATX, Socket AM2, DDR2, Dual PCIe x16, will check BIOS rev. when it arrives)
RAM: Super Talent 4GB (4x1GB) DDR2-667 (PC5300, CL5)
GPU(s): 2 x Nvidia GeForce 7950GX2 (Dell OEM, 1GB/card, has full length card bracket, not OC'd)
PPU: Ageia PhysX Card (Dell OEM, 128MB, PCI)
Sound: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy (PCI, SB0090, no live drive or expansion brackets)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Blackout (Windowed, mid-tower, gonna have lots of 120mm fans)
PSU: Ultra LSP-750 (750w, 45 amps on single 12v rail)
Storage: 3 x 32GB SSDs, 500GB HDD, IDE DVD-RW Drive (with IDE -> SATA converter)
Misc: Lots of Fans (120mm and 80mm with bracket adapter), 2 x Green 12v LED Strips
One OS per SSD, and yes I know Windows XP doesn't natively support TRIM or any garbage collection, but I would like to tinker with SSD optimization, and worse case scenario if all else fails I will use an HDD for XP. The 500GB HDD is a general storage drive. Also, I'm using the 32-bit version of XP Pro because I've heard of the 64-bit version being a bit unstable/wonky, could be completely wrong about that but didn't wanna risk getting everything installed and then start having constant crashes/BSOD screens. On a different note, once I get this rig going, this will be a photo-heavy thread (cropped properly for forum viewing, of course), so ***56K warning*** for all the dial-up folks. I'm very excited to do a build like this, been wanting to do it for years. One aspect that does worry me a bit is the PSU, whether it can handle two dual GPU cards. My LSP-750 has handled a 3870x2 then an OC'd 4870x2 in the past, so maybe it can handle two 7950GX2 cards, which there's one 6-pin PCIe power connector per card. We'll find out soon.
Updates:
9/29/2015: I have the first 7950GX2, PhysX card, Case, PSU, RAM, and Storage. I will update this post when I receive items. Feel free to discuss what games/benchmarks I should run!
9/30/2015: Motherboard has arrived! Currently running Memtest86+. Will post pics soon, promise! 😀 Fedex should be bringing my 120mm fans any moment now.
10/1/2015: October is here in Kentucky and so is my Sound Blaster Audigy (SB0090), Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 4 x 120mm fans, and IDE -> SATA converter (for the optical drive). I'm surprised how many views this thread has gotten in the short amount of time (less than 3 days).
