BushLin wrote:My mid 90's PC was an "upgrade" from an Amiga, it was like trading in a Vespa for a big heavy truck. Sure I could do more with […]
Show full quote
My mid 90's PC was an "upgrade" from an Amiga, it was like trading in a Vespa for a big heavy truck. Sure I could do more with it but it felt less nimble, slower to do the same tasks. Up until relatively recently I was never satisfied with the performance of consumer PC hardware.
dave343 wrote:So I know we all build period correct PC's on here, and limit builds to what was available in a given month/year...
Well, you can count at least one person on here out of that tribe. I'm nostalgic for the software mostly. I looked to see how good I can make a system with no compatibility issues; taking into consideration heat and noise, meaning a modern case with large fans running at low RPM and wonderful Noctua coolers I would have killed for back when the software was current.
Sony CRTs, IBM PS/2 keyboards and early optical Microsoft mice get the thumbs up for compatibility and standing the test of time. Crappy gameport gamepads are unavoidable for some DOS games but running a SATA SSD on DOS/98/NT is bliss and I have no desire to re-create the exact PC experience of the 90s when it's just an arbitrary choice for something worse.
When I found out about Asrock's 775i65 board I was stoked, supporting 45nm CPUs, SATA, DDR400 and 8x AGP while running the Intel 865 chipset with all the compatibility which comes with it. Nvidia's GPU's from 2000-2003 stomp on period correct; delivering the perfect minimum frame times that mean I'm enjoying the experience rather than recalling what was considered acceptable back in the day. The only real compromise was having to use a Soundblaster Live but that has its upsides too.
There's no need to go overboard, stick to sensible limits for what can actually run reliably; like 512MB RAM and 16GB partitions for Win98, Nvidia GPUs which run the 45.23 drivers, 800mhz bus CPUs for the 865 chipset (1066mhz actually runs slower). This wasn't meant to be a long post and I've always shied away from anything that could be seen as showing off but I just wanted to illustrate just how far period correct is from what's possible. I understand everyone has nostalgia for different things but personally I'm happy to not have to use most 90s PC hardware. Just a shame that Theme Park only wants to run on a 386, that's where there's an actual need for period correct.
I'm with you there - currently trying to figure out if I want to make my retro PC essentially the 'best version' of what I could have purchased when I built my first all-new rig in late 2000, or go for maxing out this board completely.
Currently I have an ASUS TUSL2-C motherboard, Pentium III S 1.13ghz, 512mb PC133 SDRAM, Elsa Gloria III (Nvidia Quadro 2 Pro) graphics card, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card, Intel 1Gbit NIC (for convenience), Vantec (Sil3114 chip) SATA II RAID card, Star Tech 6 port USB 2.0 card, Kingston 120gb SATA SSD, Asus 24x DVD-RW SATA drive currently on a SATA-> IDE converter, and USB floppy drive emulator.
I've also got a USB 3.0 PCI-E 1x card with a PCI-E to PCI adapter to see if I can get working in Windows 2000, a Quadro FX 4000 SDI that I bought before I had thought to maybe keep this thing ~ 2000 era (I know the Tualatin P3 is cheating, but there was a 1.13ghz chip that year, and I believe the original SB Audigy as well), and an Aureal Vortex 2 supposedly on its way from Russia.
This will all be going in a modern case for space and cooling convenience (as well as quiet!)
Like you said - we can be enthusiasts of the software experience without needing to include the slow load times, loud noises, etc. I consider those more just things we had to put up with, but running with quieter cooling, cases that don't slice your hands up just for looking at them, and "quality of life" upgrades such as SSDs, faster USB and ethernet etc don't detract from enjoying the old software running on period-accurate hardware at all. If anything, I feel like bringing these old rigs up a bit with more modern tech only improve the experience - you can go back and play Quake, or play a CD-ROM game with a virtual CD drive loading the disc ISO from an SSD and not have to sit around all night waiting for loud optical drives to spin up, old slow clunky mechanical HDDs to clatter around, etc.
Retro: Win2k/98SE - P3 1.13ghz, 512mb PC133 SDRAM, Quadro4 980XGL, Aureal Vortex 2
modern:i9 10980XE, 64gb DDR4, 2x Titan RTX | i9 9900KS, 32gb DDR4, RTX 2080 Ti | '19 Razer Blade Pro