VOGONS


First post, by BoYan

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Hello guys, maybe the first post of mine on this forum, but been reading you for a while now... 😀

Well, I am soon to move to a new apartment (finally) and along with that, I will get to fix myself 1 (more 😁) retro station of my pleasing, since there will be more room.

I got into PCs around 1999, and got my 1st PC in 2003, so I'm mostly interested in hardware and games of that era, and stopped following what's new regarding games around 2007-8, only been playing WoT from actual games (even that is very little lately).

I have a plan to have 1 compact baby AT PC based on DFI P5BV3+ mobo, with K6-2 500, or slower CPU/s, and one of early AGP cards + probably a Voodoo2, for DOS/WIN 95/ early 98 games, which will be a definitive build, also using some 3D printing of case stand and an open air vertical case.. it will be an interesting build and definitely an interesting thing to see...

But the dilemma is not there, but in my 2nd, more contemporary build... I'd like something faster, good for Win XP games, and able to do some overclocking (also a happy memory from 2003-2005 period).
I've just got myself an MS Industrial V700 case with glass window and some RGB (hah), and like to put some (visually) interesting hardware inside, based on AGP platform. and here are some of my options (been collecting for quite some time):

  • a system based on Tualatin CPU, with universal AGP slot... but I think CPU will be limiting here
  • a system based on AMD s462 build - Abit NF7-S mobo and either an 1700+ TBredB (crazy good overclocker) or a Barton 2500+ or even 3200+, with some fast DDR500 memory, but also not too fast AGP system
  • a system based on 754 - I've recently got a DFI LanParty nf3 250gb mobo - could be an interesting PC for overclocking, but like above not too strong for later games (got an Athlon 3000+ with 90nm process build which should do just OK)
  • a system based on AsRock 939-DualSATA mobo, with either a single core 4000+ or an Opteron (crazy overclocker) or 4800+ x2 (but probably limited overclock) - this could stretch the usage to even strongest AGP cards
  • OR and Intel based system - AsRock 4Core mobo with an QX6700 (unlocked multiplier, should hit ~3,5 GHz with a good cooler) - this seems to me as an overkill for Win XP games

I've also got a working Abit BP6, but seems to me it is too close to that K6-2, to consider for this build, though visual moment would be very good... Also, there's some concern that I'd like to keep it in working condition.

So idea is to be able to play everything (or mostly everything), with a period correct AGP card - I've got almost all from GF256 to GF7800, including the strongest AGP cards HD3850 and HD4670, though I'd say they're both overkill for Win XP.

Use your imagination and help me choose...

Reply 1 of 10, by PC-Engineer

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Build what you enjoy. Usually the journey is the destination. There is no right answer for you. You have all the components and think about it. Sooner or later you will build them all and more ...

Technically, the fastest WinXP system possible for you would be most logical in addition to your K6-2.

Epox 7KXA Slot A / Athlon 950MHz / Voodoo 5 5500 / PowerVR / 512 MB / AWE32 / SCSI - Windows 98SE

Reply 2 of 10, by BoYan

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Well, technically, agree with you, but if so strong Win XP system, why not go PCIe? Where's the fun in going the usual way?
I could much more easily find a newer cheaper board that would support Win XP, and save these for to never be used at all...

I also have a concern for each of these systems that they should work long and with low probability of dying on me.

Reply 3 of 10, by Bendejo

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From what you listed, I think I would go with either the last two builds. Two very flexible systems and strong systems. I could tell you though that the AMD 4800 X2 paired with the ATI HD3850 will struggle with Crysis, but pretty much everything did for years. Though the 3850 is a DX10 card and you will need windows vista to utilize that. The Intel will be faster, and that is even before you OC. They both should be about as flexible as anything.

Reply 4 of 10, by stef80

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HD3850/HD4670 are definitely X2/Core2Duo material, since driver has bigger CPU overhead. AsRock 4Core mobos have 800MHz FSB chipset and not so great power regulation. Most appropriate CPU would be Pentium E5800 of which you can expect ~3.6GHz, maybe more ... depending on the chip. It makes more sense to use QX6700 on a good P35/X38/P45 board. AsRock 939-DualSATA is great choice for hig-end AGP and PCIe cards of the era. Would go fine with cheaper X2 4400+ which you can overclock. 4800 is pretty much unobtanium material unless you already have it.

I had similar dilemma recently and went with s754. Since chip was already higher-clocked ClawHammer, I went with non-overclockable but very stable VIA K8T800 chipset and GeForce 6800. Used IDE disk for possible dual-boot (Windows ME/XP). XP works great so far, even with older games (nGlide) . It covers pretty much all 3D games from mid 90s to mid 2000s.

Reply 5 of 10, by dormcat

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BoYan wrote on 2022-09-09, 21:25:

So idea is to be able to play everything (or mostly everything), with a period correct AGP card - I've got almost all from GF256 to GF7800, including the strongest AGP cards HD3850 and HD4670, though I'd say they're both overkill for Win XP.

No they are not overkill. My current main WinXP build has Core 2 Duo E7400 + 4GB (2+2) DDR2-800 + Radeon HD 5670 (30% faster than HD 4670) + 128GB SSD, but when I play Quake 3 Arena at 1600x1200 -- released almost a decade before most components of this build -- there are still stuttering when something happens in the background e.g. antivirus updating virus definitions.

Pick a motherboard with DDR2 or even early DDR3 (pre-UEFI) and PCIe in late 00's for ultimate WinXP experience. LGA775 MB of this era are easy to find and cheap to buy. Later models can be dual boot with Win10 and handle many modern games and applications. If you really need Win9x compatibility, however, you would need DDR and AGP, such as some Socket 939 MB you've mentioned or ASRock 775i65G R3.0 with a 65nm CPU, the "holy grail of Win9x" combination.

Reply 6 of 10, by Shponglefan

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I think a lot of it comes down to what display and resolution you plan on running this on, and what level of performance you are looking for.

If you're planning to run an older display @ 1024x768 or maybe 1280x1024, then you can get away with a less powerful system. But if you're to run things at 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 (for widescreen supported games), then you'll want all the power you can get.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 7 of 10, by ciornyi

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Hey
Personally i ended up with c2d 8400 with 8800gt as my main xp machine . Its provide enough power to max out every game @60+ fps with aa & af till year 2006-2007 .
If you want something less modern id stick with s478 late board and geforce 6800 and p4 presscott wich is good for overclock.

Reply 8 of 10, by PC-Engineer

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For WinXP i have a S939 Athlon FX-60 with GF9800GT SLI, plays all Win2k and WinXP compatible Games from UT99 to L4D and COD 1…5 with full graphics features incl. AA/AF in FullHD.

Epox 7KXA Slot A / Athlon 950MHz / Voodoo 5 5500 / PowerVR / 512 MB / AWE32 / SCSI - Windows 98SE

Reply 9 of 10, by H3nrik V!

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BP6 <3 Have 2 of them myself. One is going to be a "maximum build" using 2 400MHz Celerons at 600 MHz. I've bought loads of them, hoping to find 2 capable of 600, paired with 768 MiB of memory, and 2 Golden Orb Coolers modified to fit the BP6 ... Mostly for visuals ...

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 10 of 10, by BoYan

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Hello all,

I was a little bit away... so for now, I wanted to try out the limits of Sempron 2800+ on a very good motherboard (DFI LanParty nF3 250 GB), and it really surprised me (both CPU and MB), as I reached actual 2800 MHz (350x8), and also ~520 MHz DDR (CAS 2.5), so very good result from this small CPU (FSB went up 75% 😁).

I haven't checked stability very thoroughly yet, but going from 1.6 to 2.8 GHz was really impressive... Still need to install a system on it, but it will be a very fun project I expect.