First post, by JayPointSystems
- Rank
- Newbie
Hey folks,
I’ve been into retro PCs for more than a decade now. After plenty of “show and tell” in various groups, I caught the bug again in summer 2023 and picked up a hardware bundle. That was supposed to be my one and only system – but of course it didn’t stop there. By the end of 2023 nostalgia hit hard, I went on a little buying spree, and ended up building and documenting one system after another: starting with a classic Super Socket 7 and going all the way up to Intel’s Nehalem on LGA 1156. Most recently, I wrapped things up with my Frankenstein PC running Windows Neptune, which marked the end* of this project.
Out of this series came a small collection that I’d like to share here in one post. Nine different retro PCs that paint a pretty broad picture of hardware development from 1997 to 2009 – including fails and oddballs. I’ll just leave this here as a personal diary entry.
1st overview
+10 years of PC history in one place...
2nd overview
A time‑travel lineup, arranged clockwise…
System #1
Super Socket 7 High-End PC (summer 1997)
MSI MS-5169 Rev. 4.0
Intel Pentium MMX 233 (SL27S)
64 MB SD-RAM PC133
Diamond Monster 3D (3dfx Voodoo) & ELSA Victory Erazor (Riva 128)
6.4 GB Western Digital Caviar 26400
Windows 95 C
PLUS “swap‑out hardware” for Mid‑End (spring 1999)
AMD K6‑III 450 (AHX)
128 MB SD‑RAM PC133
ELSA Erazor II A16SD (Riva TNT)
20 GB Western Digital WD200
Windows 98 SE
This marks the typical limit that Super Socket 7 realistically reached.
System #2
Slot 1 High-End PC (autumn 1998)
ASUS P2B Rev. 1.02
Intel Pentium II 450 (SL358)
128 MB SD-RAM PC133
ELSA Erazor II A16SD (Riva TNT)
20 GB Western Digital WD200
Windows 98 SE
System #3
Socket 370 "Discounter" High-End PC (summer 2000)
ASUS CUV4X-M Rev. 1.02
Intel Pentium III 1.0B (SL4C8)
256 MB SD-RAM PC133
ASUS V7700 32M (GeForce 2 GTS)
40 GB Western Digital WD400
Windows ME
Because this very system hit the shelves at ALDI Nord on March 28, 2001 – and at ALDI Süd the next day – nestled between canned ravioli and toilet paper.
System #4
Socket 423 "Disaster PC" (summer 2001)
MSI MS-6385 Rev. 1.0
Intel Pentium 4 1.7 (SL57W)
2x 128 MB Samsung RD-RAM PC800-45
MSI MS-8838 (GeForce 3 Ti 200)
40 GB Western Digital WD400
Windows ME
System #5
Socket 478 "Prestige" High-End PC (winter 2003)
ASUS P4P800 Rev. 1.02
Intel Pentium 4 C 3.4 HT (SL793)
2x 512 MB Corsair CMX512 DDR-RAM PC3200
GeCube Radeon 9800 XT
80 GB Western Digital WD800JD
Windows XP Professional SP1
System #6
Socket 479 "Hybrid" High-End PC (summer 2005)
AOpen i915GMm-HFS
Intel Pentium M 780 (SL7VB)
2x 1024 MB OCZ Gold Series DDR2-RAM PC6400
Leadtek GeForce 7800 GTX
160 GB Western Digital WD1600AAJS
Windows XP Professional SP2
System #7
LGA 775 "Ultimate" High-End PC (winter 2006)
ASUS P5B Deluxe Rev. 1.03G
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (SL9UL)
2x 2048 MB OCZ Reaper Series DDR2-RAM PC8500
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
250 GB Western Digital WD2500AAKX
Windows XP Professional SP2 with Vista Transformation Pack 9.0.1
System #8
LGA 1156 "Luxury" High-End PC (autumn 2009)
ASUS P7P55D Rev. 1.02G
Intel Core i7 870 (SLBJG)
2x 4096 MB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-RAM PC12800
HIS Radeon HD 5870
160 GB Intel X25-M SSDSA2M160G2GC
Windows 7 Professional RTM x64
System #9
Socket 370 "Frankenstein" High-End PC (winter 1999)
ASUS CUV4X-M Rev. 1.02
Intel Celeron 950 QHB6QS (QS Coppermine-128 with unlocked Multi)
256 MB SD-RAM PC133
ELSA GLoria II 32 Engineering Release (NVIDIA Quadro SDR / GeForce 256 NV10GL)
40 GB Western Digital WD400
Windows Neptune Alpha Build 5.00.5111
Spare‑Part Box
A simple box...
...filled with identical CPUs, graphics cards, RAM, and storage devices – kept as a 1:1 reserve to preserve my curated collection.
*maybe there’ll be more down the road with AMD
