moved to marvin

Ugh. I have no idea who the guy is that made that video, but he is everything wrong with the Retro PC scene today... Why am I not surprised that phreakindee *cough* sellout *cough* as the top comment. Poseur hipster wastes of biological systems... Anyway, yeah, where was I.

If you're going for Windows 98 era stuff, you'll adapt quickly to working with it. I guess your main choice here is Intel or AMD? You could be adventurous and go Cyrix but they're a little slower from that era.

AMD, at the time used Super Socket 7 for their K6-2 whereas Intel used Slot 1 for the Pentium II/Celeron. More Intel compatible boards seem to have AGP available, though if you're going to jam a paperweight... err... I mean, Voodoo 2 in there that won't mean much. Do make sure your board is ATX though as it will be a pain in the ass to find a case for one that isn't. Intel's P2 maxed out at 450MHz and AMD's at 500MHz (Of course, both can be pointlessly overclocked) but AMD chips are easier to find at higher clocks whilst Intel branded ones perform better clock-for-clock. Both options were priced similarly last I checked and I can't recommend any particular models of anything on this.

Late Win98-era stuff would be P3 and K7 which are a totally different ball game, but as you're referring to the 90's I'm assuming you're after earlier Win98-era gear.

SDRAM was pretty much a given. No real reason to exceed 128MB, I usually run 256MB on systems from this era. Just get PC133 (133mhz) even if your motherboard only supports 100MHz RAM, the RAM won't mind running under it's rated speed.

Hard drives are whatever works. You can try butchering a new one into it or tracking an old 20-40GB IDE drive down.

With graphics I usually rely on the ATI Rage Pro or failing that, an nVidia RIVA TNT 2 as both are cheap and common. Any game worth it's time supported Direct3D in my opinion. I think the Rage is usually cheaper, so probably go with that if you're going to put a Voodoo in... In fact, if you're putting the Voodoo in there for 3D you can probably cheap out entirely and look out for an AGP S3 Trio card which would be more than adequate for 2D (Though they sucked major ass in the world of 3D).

Sound cards are less important for Windows games, your motherboard will probably have ISA so track down an AWE64 as that will let you play late DOS games too and they're not very expensive. If none of your games run in DOS, try a Sound Blaster Live 5.1, cheap, common and more than capable of running anything in Windows.

I think that's the basics.

HighTreason wrote:

Late Win98-era stuff would be P3 and K7 which are a totally different ball game, but as you're referring to the 90's I'm assuming you're after earlier Win98-era gear.

Yeah I'm looking for something that can run as wide of a range of 90s titles as possible. For brands I've always been an Nvidia / Intel guy. I have no idea what that would translate into in terms of the motherboard though. From what I've assumed a P2 should work just fine? I don't mind spending a bit more cash to get something really solid, (even waiting to afford different more rare parts). I want to get something that's powerful for the 90s as long as it doesn't put a heavy damper on being able to run DOS games.

Also would SLI be a yay/nay in terms of best performance?

Other than that the big things I'm seeing to start with is lining up a motherboard that fits the right specs, and the right chassis to house the whole build.

P2 should be fine.

As for examples, look out for stuff like this; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-TESTED-GUARANTE … =item4ae3b9422f

That particular board (Intel SE440BX) will take P2 and early P3 processors which leaves you a vast upgrade path - that one comes with a P3 450MHz which should be good for anything up to Y2K... Could always be swapped for a P2 or faster P3 (Up to 800MHz) later. Priced reasonably too and the same guy has one with a P3 650MHz if you want to go overboard. This board has a Yamaha audio chip onboard which should run DOS stuff as well as Windows stuff OK. You have ISA slots though so you could always turn the onboard one off if something doesn't work out. Other boards will, of course, have different audio controllers if any and they can almost always be disabled if required.

These should even fit a modern case, though an eBay search for a generic "Beige ATX Case" should yield something more period correct. Any board from Intel will work to spec, ASUS and ABit are probably the best brands overall for most people. QDI are solid too, they used those in workstations. Avoid PCChips / PC100 branded stuff, the latter of which is not to be confused with the standards for memory.

nVida graphics would indicate something like a TNT 2 - make sure it's AGP; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NVIDIA-RIVA-TNT2-TN … =item4d2c63ea42

Wasted for the most part if you're putting in a Voodoo, but it'll be there if you need the D3D performance. I cant advise you on the Voodoo 2 as I have no real experience with 3DFX's stuff, though I know some games had specific support for SLI.

Any generic 40GB HDD; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SEAGATE-BARRACUDA-S … =item2a4908ca20
Just don't buy Maxtor or Hitachi Deathstar drives... Whilst I think none are left out there, any that are probably won't last five minutes.

Be aware of early 90's games. The DOS kind of games, as some would require 486 class machines.
I have had a rough time getting Dynablaster working on 133+ mhz systems, just as an example.
The only way I could get it to run, was to take my Pentium-133 and disable both L1 and L2 cache.
Just consider if most of the games you will run, are pre or post 1995 games.

I think "90s games" is too broad. You should better define what exactly you need to run, or you're likely going to end up with two systems. Games that fit into the "early 90s" criteria I would absolutely agree with brostenen - a 486 or similarly older machine would probably be the best idea (you may also look into emulation if you have a modern/powerful machine and depending on the game(s) - it may actually work out well). But on the other hand if we're looking into "late 90s" games, I wouldn't bother with a Pentium II or Voodoo2 configuration there either (unless you need/want Glide support; remember you can add a Voodoo2 to most anything with a PCI slot though) - get something faster and enjoy higher IQ settings, resolution, frame-rates, etc.

obobskivich wrote:

I think "90s games" is too broad. You should better define what exactly you need to run, or you're likely going to end up with two systems. Games that fit into the "early 90s" criteria I would absolutely agree with brostenen - a 486 or similarly older machine would probably be the best idea (you may also look into emulation if you have a modern/powerful machine and depending on the game(s) - it may actually work out well). But on the other hand if we're looking into "late 90s" games, I wouldn't bother with a Pentium II or Voodoo2 configuration there either (unless you need/want Glide support; remember you can add a Voodoo2 to most anything with a PCI slot though) - get something faster and enjoy higher IQ settings, resolution, frame-rates, etc.

486 systems might be a bit tough for a first PC, even a socket 7 machine with a P75/90 would be easier, and should be easy enough to slow down for speed sensitive games.

Darkman wrote:

486 systems might be a bit tough for a first PC, even a socket 7 machine with a P75/90 would be easier, and should be easy enough to slow down for speed sensitive games.

Didn't catch the "first PC" part. 😊 Good call. 😀

obobskivich wrote:

Darkman wrote:

486 systems might be a bit tough for a first PC, even a socket 7 machine with a P75/90 would be easier, and should be easy enough to slow down for speed sensitive games.

Didn't catch the "first PC" part. 😊 Good call. 😀

another option would be an SS7 board with a K6 based CPU at 400Mhz+ , pair that up with a Voodoo3 and he gets a machine that will play most games between Monkey Island and Sin

90's game speed needs varied widely, some needing 386 to not run too fast, others needing a faster cpu than was out at release time to run smoothly. Which is why I would have a set of systems to pull it off, 386 40, 486 50, pentium 200, and xp-m 3000+, setable to the gamut of clock speeds needed, and for 80s games, an xt, at, and tandy.

Darkman wrote:

another option would be an SS7 board with a K6 based CPU at 400Mhz+ , pair that up with a Voodoo3 and he gets a machine that will play most games between Monkey Island and Sin

^^ This 😀

First of all, welcome onboard!

Epifire wrote:

I don't mind spending a bit more cash to get something really solid, (even waiting to afford different more rare parts).

Hold your hourses, man! Your best bet is to find a complete working PC. This is the easiest way to start. It does not really matter what you'll find, you'll understand what you need when you start digging. Try looking for something - anything from 90s - for a few bucks locally. This will just get you started, work and play with it, get used to it, have fun. Don't invest money and time (which equals more money) unless you know what you settle for, otherwise you risk being unsatisfied with you new old PC or having not working rig that you can not fix since you don't have other machines to test the parts in.

My first two retro PCs were bought for $1 and $2 respectively, they were 386SX-40 and Pentium-100. They helped me a great deal. They helped me know exaclty what I wanted back then. The truth is, I spent more time playing with them waiting for the "good parts" to arrive, then playing with those "good parts" later. For every PC there is a big bunch of games that works fine, just stick to them, that's all.

By the way, HighTreason, Pentium II-450 is very common unlike K6-2 in our country. I've got 3 or 4 PII-450, 2 PII-333 CPUs and I have only encountered one damaged K6-2 over the years locally.

RacoonRider wrote:

Hold your hourses, man! Your best bet is to find a complete working PC. This is the easiest way to start. It does not really matter what you'll find, you'll understand what you need when you start digging. Try looking for something - anything from 90s - for a few bucks locally. This will just get you started, work and play with it, get used to it, have fun. Don't invest money and time (which equals more money) unless you know what you settle for, otherwise you risk being unsatisfied with you new old PC or having not working rig that you can not fix since you don't have other machines to test the parts in.

Just try checking if the system you're buying has a decent set of expansion slots. Most P3-era PCs I've seen for sale usually state how many (and what type of) expansion slots it has got.
If possible, 1x ISA, 1x AGP (preferrably compatible with AGP 2x) and a few PCI, as this will allow experimentation with sound cards (both for DOS and for hardware accelerated effects in Windows), vídeo cards, glide stuf and even things like SATA/IDE controllers if you ever feel the need to.

RacoonRider wrote:

First of all, welcome onboard! […]
Show full quote

First of all, welcome onboard!

Epifire wrote:

I don't mind spending a bit more cash to get something really solid, (even waiting to afford different more rare parts).

Hold your hourses, man! Your best bet is to find a complete working PC. This is the easiest way to start. It does not really matter what you'll find, you'll understand what you need when you start digging. Try looking for something - anything from 90s - for a few bucks locally. This will just get you started, work and play with it, get used to it, have fun. Don't invest money and time (which equals more money) unless you know what you settle for, otherwise you risk being unsatisfied with you new old PC or having not working rig that you can not fix since you don't have other machines to test the parts in.

My first two retro PCs were bought for $1 and $2 respectively, they were 386SX-40 and Pentium-100. They helped me a great deal. They helped me know exaclty what I wanted back then. The truth is, I spent more time playing with them waiting for the "good parts" to arrive, then playing with those "good parts" later. For every PC there is a big bunch of games that works fine, just stick to them, that's all.

By the way, Hightreason, Pentium II-450 is very common unlike K6-2 in our country. I've got 3 or 4 PII-450, 2 PII-333 CPUs and I have only encountered one damaged K6-2 over the years locally.

I couldn't agree more, most of my current retro computers were gotten for free because they were about to be recycled, the rest of mine I paid a only a pittance for. I think the most thing I've spent money on thus far has been my Commodore64's which I admittedly payed a bit much for. 🤣

Also I would agree with what the others said, you are most likely going to find that one retro PC compatible is not going to run absolutely every old game ever. You should probably build something to match the era of gaming you are shooting for, personally I use a Pentium 200MMX and a Pentium 100 machine for all my retro gaming. They both can run all the old dos games and most of the mid 90's games I grew up playing.
However if you are younger than me then you probably want something a bit newer probably running Windows 98SE and having a bit more power to play newer late 90's early 2000's titles.
One more thing, expect problems. No retro build ever really goes perfectly easy, you are likely to run into annoying things like IRQ conflicts and other hitches that will frustrate you. It's not at all like building a computer today, the farther you go back the more frustrating / rewarding it gets. 🤣

After reading a bit more of what the OP wants and asks for.
I will recommend a system based on a K6-2 500 or K6-2 plus 400/500 CPU.
A good ALI Aladdin V chipset (rev. E or F).
An S3 Pci Gfx plus eighter a Voodoo1 or Voodoo2. Not sli.
Then eighter an AWE32, AWE64 or a combo of both SB16 + GUS.

Games from 1990 to 1993: Disable all cache. Run from dos.
Games from 1993 to 1995: Disable eighter L1 or L2 cache. Run from dos.
Games after 1995: Run from Windows, with all cache enabled.

I'm thinking a bit later (post-95) but it would be nice if there were still some range of DOS support (I'm looking at you DooM). Like I said still focusing on a post 95 build. If this is successful I may end up getting to work on a separate earlier system (as many people have already been suggesting).

IMHO it is not difficult to get many 486-era DOS games working on a late 90's PC. In fact most should just work. You just have to be careful and do a little research about the games you want to play and see if they are speed sensitive.

You can get a cheap P3 + decent graphics card and it will cover a lot of ground. Just be sure to have an ISA slot for a DOS soundcard. You can either go with a Voodoo 3 or later if you want glide the games you want to play perform well enough on it, or a good D3D card (like an GeForce FX 5x00) and add a Voodoo² just for glide-only stuff.

Thing is you can't fit all the desired sound cards into one system.
386 40(jumper set to 16/20/25/33/40, games from 86-92) adlib, cms, innovation, mpu-401:mt-32 lpt:covox
486 50(jumper set to 16/20/25/33/50, games from 89-93) pas, sbpro, sound master, lapc-i, scc-1/mpu-401:cm-32l,sc-55mkii lpt:disney
pentium(jumper set to 75/90/133/166/200/250/292~300, games from 89(fs 4.0 /w addon, p90 for no stick scrolling)-97) gusmax, adlib gold, awe32/db50xg, scc-1a/mpu-401:sc-55mkii
xp 3200+/xp-m 3000+(same chip with different default fsb setting, dos & win games from 97-03) (software setable from 500mhz to 3000++) awe32/db50xg audigy2 vortex2

I would ignore the Pentium II.. Better go for an Pentium III class system.. I know its very nice to have a Pentium II also, but its just to limited on the games you want to play..
If you would take a pentium III 500 - 600mhz range you really get a flexible system.