Really nice setup. I love Notctua fans since they are so quiet and efficient. Good case airflow should keep those Voodoo2s reasonably cool. I ended up having a dedicated DOS rig as well, and keeping my most powerful retro system as Windows only.

BTW, are you dual booting with WinXP or just using Win98?

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-04-24, 02:07:

Really nice setup. I love Notctua fans since they are so quiet and efficient. Good case airflow should keep those Voodoo2s reasonably cool. I ended up having a dedicated DOS rig as well, and keeping my most powerful retro system as Windows only.

BTW, are you dual booting with WinXP or just using Win98?

Thanks!

I'm only running Windows 98 on this P4 build, but would consider dual booting and possibly building "one more" retro rig as a dedicated Windows XP machine. I even have a GTX 960 and most of the stuff I'd need to pull off a separate XP build.

With that said, I'm on the fence about assembling a rig dedicated to XP since it seems like there's a narrow timeframe of games that didn't run on Windows 98 and that can't be coaxed into running well on Windows 10. Because of this, I end up using my Windows 10 rig primarily as a "retro" computer kind of like what Phil referred to in his "Windows 10 Retro Gaming PC" video.

Any recommendations?

- Pentium 4 HT 670 3.8GHz (LGA775 Prescott 2M)

Meh, go Cedar Mill.

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-24, 02:33:

Thanks! I'm only running Windows 98 on this machine, but am considering dual booting and possibly even just building "one more" retro rig as a dedicated Windows XP machine. I actually have a GTX 960 and most of the stuff I'd need to pull it off. Any recommendations?

For the sound card, I would go with an X-Fi Titanium PCIe model SB0880. It's the latest one that still has WinXP drivers and supports all EAX versions in hardware.

I would also look for a monitor which can do 4:3 scaling so that your older games don't end up stretched to widescreen. Most pre-2005 WinXP titles don't support windscreen resolutions natively and later Nvidia drivers don't offer GPU scaling under WinXP, so having a monitor which can handle this is helpful.

Personally, I just go with a 5:4 monitor for WinXP since it's less of a hassle that way, but to each their own.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-04-24, 03:25:

- Pentium 4 HT 670 3.8GHz (LGA775 Prescott 2M)

Meh, go Cedar Mill.

I already had the Prescott chip in my collection, the system is already built, and I personally haven't had any issues with Prescott if it's in a well-ventilated case with a good cooler.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-04-24, 03:31:

For the sound card, I would go with an X-Fi Titanium PCIe model SB0880. It's the latest one that still has WinXP drivers and supports all EAX versions in hardware.

I would also look for a monitor which can do 4:3 scaling so that your older games don't end up stretched to widescreen. Most pre-2005 WinXP titles don't support windscreen resolutions natively and later Nvidia drivers don't offer GPU scaling under WinXP, so having a monitor which can handle this is helpful. Personally, I just go with a 5:4 monitor for WinXP since it's less of a hassle that way, but to each their own.

I actually already have an X-Fi Titanium that's in my Windows 10 "Retro" build so I guess I could always pull it out of that and put in a potential Windows XP build.

I also run all these retro builds on a 4:3 CRT so scaling definitely isn't an issue!

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-24, 03:36:

I actually already have an X-Fi Titanium that's in my Windows 10 "Retro" build so I guess I could always pull it out of that and put in a potential Windows XP build.

Be vary of the different models though. Titanium HD doesn't have XP drivers. And Xtreme Audio varieties process EAX in software, which you want to avoid.

For me, EAX is the main draw of a WinXP rig. Later Windows versions dropped native EAX support, and wrappers like Creative's Alchemy are only compatible with a small number of games.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-04-24, 03:47:

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-24, 03:36:

I actually already have an X-Fi Titanium that's in my Windows 10 "Retro" build so I guess I could always pull it out of that and put in a potential Windows XP build.

Be vary of the different models though. Titanium HD doesn't have XP drivers. And Xtreme Audio varieties process EAX in software, which you want to avoid.

For me, EAX is the main draw of a WinXP rig. Later Windows versions dropped native EAX support, and wrappers like Creative's Alchemy are only compatible with a small number of games.

Thanks, that's helpful. I didn't realize the TiHD wasn't XP compatible.

I'd probably keep things simple and not bother with XP on the P4, It'll run but really what's the point unless you wanted another XP build for gaming or something.
You definitely have all the important 9x era technology's coved, A3D, EAX, Glide, D3D
I'd also think the Socket 7 build is much better for 99.9% of dos games so no real loss of OPL here.

Also agree XP is all about EAX titles more then compatibility issues, it also allows for the really late 9x titles to have AA, AF, etc turned up to the max which the FX5990 may struggle with.

i wish this board can be ran with cedar mill. only reason i havent bought one yet. clean build bro.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-04-24, 03:47:

For me, EAX is the main draw of a WinXP rig. Later Windows versions dropped native EAX support, and wrappers like Creative's Alchemy are only compatible with a small number of games.

chinny22 wrote on 2022-04-24, 11:46:

Also agree XP is all about EAX titles more then compatibility issues, it also allows for the really late 9x titles to have AA, AF, etc turned up to the max which the FX5990 may struggle with.

I'm debating skipping the optical drive so I can keep the build smaller.

How important do you feel Redbook audio is for an XP build? Were games still streaming audio directly off the CD at that point or do you think I could get away with a USB ODD or even mounting ISOs?

I would say not important at all.

An USB ODD should be perfectly fine.

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-24, 23:44:

How important do you feel Redbook audio is for an XP build? Were games still streaming audio directly off the CD at that point or do you think I could get away with a USB ODD or even mounting ISOs?

Game music based on CD audio tracks went out of style in the late 90s, around the time when MP3 came onto the scene.

You don't have to worry about WinXP games using Redbook audio for music.

I think Deamon tools supports redbook in XP anyway if you did have any games that needed it

Although personally I usually sacrifice redbook even in earlier builds for the convenience of iso's so I say go for it

I tried putting together a Z270 based Windows XP system over the weekend and that was a recipe for pure frustration. I mostly tried this since I already had a Z270 system assembled. I was able to get it to install XP, but I couldn't locate drivers for most devices, and it crashed after installing the NVIDIA driver for my GTX 960, so I gave up on that.

Next weekend, I'm thinking about taking one of my Z77 boards and assembling an XP system around that. I'm thinking Z77, i7-3770K, 4GB RAM, GTX 960, and X-Fi Ti. Does that seem like a good XP build?

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-25, 22:13:

I tried putting together a Z270 based Windows XP system over the weekend and that was a recipe for pure frustration. I mostly tried this since I already had a Z270 system assembled. I was able to get it to install XP, but I couldn't locate drivers for most devices, and it crashed after installing the NVIDIA driver for my GTX 960, so I gave up on that.

Next weekend, I'm thinking about taking one of my Z77 boards and assembling an XP system around that. I'm thinking Z77, i7-3770K, 4GB RAM, GTX 960, and X-Fi Ti. Does that seem like a good XP build?

That would make quite the speedy XP system with those parts.

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-25, 22:13:

I tried putting together a Z270 based Windows XP system over the weekend and that was a recipe for pure frustration. I mostly tried this since I already had a Z270 system assembled. I was able to get it to install XP, but I couldn't locate drivers for most devices, and it crashed after installing the NVIDIA driver for my GTX 960, so I gave up on that.

Next weekend, I'm thinking about taking one of my Z77 boards and assembling an XP system around that. I'm thinking Z77, i7-3770K, 4GB RAM, GTX 960, and X-Fi Ti. Does that seem like a good XP build?

Strange, I was able to get xp running with a 1950x with ported windows 8 drivers and it runs fine.

mastergamma12 wrote on 2022-04-26, 10:02:

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-25, 22:13:

I tried putting together a Z270 based Windows XP system over the weekend and that was a recipe for pure frustration. I mostly tried this since I already had a Z270 system assembled. I was able to get it to install XP, but I couldn't locate drivers for most devices, and it crashed after installing the NVIDIA driver for my GTX 960, so I gave up on that.

Next weekend, I'm thinking about taking one of my Z77 boards and assembling an XP system around that. I'm thinking Z77, i7-3770K, 4GB RAM, GTX 960, and X-Fi Ti. Does that seem like a good XP build?

Strange, I was able to get xp running of a 1950x with ported windows 8 drivers and it runs fine.

How did you port the drivers?

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-26, 17:57:

mastergamma12 wrote on 2022-04-26, 10:02:

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-25, 22:13:

I tried putting together a Z270 based Windows XP system over the weekend and that was a recipe for pure frustration. I mostly tried this since I already had a Z270 system assembled. I was able to get it to install XP, but I couldn't locate drivers for most devices, and it crashed after installing the NVIDIA driver for my GTX 960, so I gave up on that.

Next weekend, I'm thinking about taking one of my Z77 boards and assembling an XP system around that. I'm thinking Z77, i7-3770K, 4GB RAM, GTX 960, and X-Fi Ti. Does that seem like a good XP build?

Strange, I was able to get xp running of a 1950x with ported windows 8 drivers and it runs fine.

How did you port the drivers?

Ended up using a modified version of XP.

mastergamma12 wrote on 2022-04-26, 19:21:

speeddemon wrote on 2022-04-26, 17:57:

mastergamma12 wrote on 2022-04-26, 10:02:

Strange, I was able to get xp running of a 1950x with ported windows 8 drivers and it runs fine.

How did you port the drivers?

Ended up using a modified version of XP.

That worked for me too. I followed your signature links to this page which links to a modified version of Windows XP POSReady 2009: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Optional+P … rator+script%22

I now have Windows XP running stable on my Z270 with USB3 and Ethernet (via USB Ethernet adapter). I'm still going to try my Z77 board this weekend since I'd prefer to be on a board that doesn't have additional unrecognized devices, but this was interesting/cool to figure out.