The question is more what software you're running on it. Technically you could potentially go down to two. I was hoping to run everything on two PCs, but for various reasons it's three.

1) Up to date system. Runs Windows 8.1 and XP. Windows 8.1 : Modern games which need a fast graphics card. XP : Games that need EAX, Windows 9x era games. Includes an X-Fi card for EAX.
2) Main retro system (almost complete). P2 400 (or something) era. Will run XP, Windows 9x (for DOS), OS/2. Features an S3 Virge (very DOS game compatible). An AWE32 (DOS music, MIDI port for Roland modules). Voodoo 2 (for very few games, to be honest)
3) Old retro system. DOS only. For DOS games which won't work on main retro system, after Sam and Max crashed and burned.

Your systems are all too fast to run particularly old DOS games. So, if you're aiming to cover most bases in one retro box my answer is 'the fastest system with an ISA slot' (so you can put in a Soundblaster, etc).

Windows compatibility is fantastic, extremely old games will still run now, with some tweaking. Therefore the only real barrier is the loss of hardware accelerated Directsound3D after XP, and a few video mode changes. At the time I loved my Voodoo2 card, but in retrospect there are very few games that require it (i.e. Tomb Raider), the others are best run in Direct3D mode.

I'm becoming vastly less precious about old computers. I've got a Cyrix MII 300 motherboard sitting around doing nothing, that I might stick on ebay. At the time I loved it, but it's too fast for particularly old DOS games, and too slow for the newest DOS games - what's the point? Then again, I don't really care about being period correct, provided the game runs exactly or better than originally envisaged.

I'd probably keep the TNT2; I suspect it's got better DOS compatibility than later cards. However, I do have a TNT somewhere, and it doesn't support the ability to move the screen up and down used in Ultima VII, where the screen shakes in the presence of cyclops.

I got into PC gaming in 1997, my oldest games are circa 1994, Warcraft and Colonization. My first game was Star Trek Starfleet Academey

1994 Windows games? Shouldn't be a problem, then. You might even get away with one modern system dual booted between Windows 8.1 and XP. If not, just a second system running 9x.

There is another option that would make you keep you computers and a happy wife 😁
Move to a larger apartment 😁

smeezekitty wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Well the k6 machine is a def must keep due to the nostalgia factor, the fx6300 is your main pc and should be kept as well. The only real contender I could see would be the p4 setup vs the Opteron and I think the Opteron is the better system of the two and you are using it more anyways 😀

What? The Pee4 should be the first to go. Keep the P3 or the Opteron. Which one do you use more?

I was thinking in the terms of 3 systems, one for each OS. Main pc for modern games/programs, second one would be an XP machine for DX9 games and such. Out of the systems listed the Opteron and Netbust systems are the two that are the best for that, and as I stated the Opteron is a way better system anyways so no competition. The third system would of course be for 9x/DOS games and the K6 is the perfect system for those 😀

Keep only the systems with ISA slots (apart from main because I assume you need that).

I don't understand the reasoning behind such a concrete limit. Surely space occupation matters more than the quantity. A solution would be to discard the redundancy, in this case... cases.

Ok i shall keep the K6, the Opteron and the main system, I will pull certain parts to keep in the truck of my car in my parts bin. Parts being kept

6800GS, Ti 500, Soundlbaster Live 5.1 Platnium + front bay, Sound Blaster Audigy Platnium, Window's COA's, IDE DVD burners.

Im sure the Canterwood board fits in the parts bin aswell, if necessary ditch the DVD burners to make room.

Well the P4 needs to stay intact, its getting the MX 440 put into it and going to her parents with Windows 7 installed to be used by her dad to type up invoices on. I agreed to sell them the P4 for 50 bucks with a spare CRT, keyboard and mouse I have.

candle_86 wrote:

Well the P4 needs to stay intact, its getting the MX 440 put into it and going to her parents with Windows 7 installed to be used by her dad to type up invoices on. I agreed to sell them the P4 for 50 bucks with a spare CRT, keyboard and mouse I have.

Then everthing is in order, thats a perfect job for a late socket 478 system.

Very cool 😀

candle_86 wrote:

r.cade wrote:

If she is only your Fiance, this is not a good start. Dump her now before you waste money and years on someone who wants you to follow her rules and change you.

no its a problem of space, once we can afford a house, she doesn't care. Right now its a 2 bedroom apartment, me and her have the master bedroom, her daughter has the other one. This leaves my computers sitting in our living space taking up space and getting in the way of daily life, its why I don't have a 3rd desk and a 3rd LCD currently, I thought about a KVM but a good KVM only goes so far and wont for instance transfer over things like game port devices, and usb game controllers, and most wont support sending out a 5.1 audio signal or even have good audio quality or I'd have done a KVM 🤣. But me and her already talked and I do agree with her, and when we can afford a house, I will get either a room for my hobby or the garage if we buy a house with one. So leaving her over this seems rather foolish.

Isnt it better to `store` those systems elsewhere (that are to much) Later you will getting regret of selling or throwing then away.. You can always make use them again when you have a bigger house..

Why do you have so many similar systems in the first place? Like the Athlon XP and the Pentium 4. Both are very similar systems performance wise.

Anyway, I would have kept:

1. AMD FX-6300, AMD 970, GTX 660, Windows 7

2. Pentium 4 3.2 Socket 478, Intel 875P, 6800GS, Windows XP

3. Pentium 3 800, 440BX, Geforce 3 Ti 500, Windows 98 SE

It should cover all your needs and all PC games except DOS games. All you will be need is a pure DOS machine later on something like a 486 and you'll set for the rest of your life. This is exactly what I plan on having later one.

I'd ditch the Opteron for the P3 or even the AthlonXP... the GTX660 supports XP, so you can dual-boot your main machine and do your share of XP gaming there, and keep a machine as a late 9x-gaming machine for when the K6 doesn't cut it.

candle_86 wrote:

Well the ones used daily are

K6-2, Opteron and Main

the others arn't even plugged in 🤣

How is there even a question here?

alexanrs wrote:

I'd ditch the Opteron for the P3 or even the AthlonXP... the GTX660 supports XP, so you can dual-boot your main machine and do your share of XP gaming there, and keep a machine as a late 9x-gaming machine for when the K6 doesn't cut it.

yea but most older games are going to try to call 3dnow since the cpu identifies as authentic AMD and wont use the SSE instead thus giving me a very hard hit on performance 🤣, to boot a lot of games don't support widescreen or multi core.

I'm guessing that this means no loop holes like taking apart most of them and storing them in boxes as in 'they aren't desktops anymore'.

I'm also guessing that the primary computer is a desktop, if you migrate to a laptop you can then have three other desktops.

If you don't get the laptop then you're limited three desktops, one of them is the main machine, so that limits you to two retro/fun machines.

You know you're gonna regret it if you get rid of the one that's a clone of your first, unless, you aren't sentimental about that sort of thing.

...anyway if it was me, I'd go for the Pentium iii and the Opteron. But that's sorta biased because I like Pentium iii's and I find Opterons to be exotic.

yea the only thing diffrent between the K6 current and my first computer at its maximum upgrade before an unfortante lighting strike ended it, was it was running an ASUS P5A-B, and a Geforce 2 MX200 AGP card. Other than board and video card its identical down to the stepping of the K6-2 400 🤣. So yea I do kind of want to keep it, its where i learned to work on them. It was more a question of the other systems. Also the main computer is a desktop 🤣.

candle_86 wrote:

r.cade wrote:

If she is only your Fiance, this is not a good start. Dump her now before you waste money and years on someone who wants you to follow her rules and change you.

no its a problem of space, once we can afford a house, she doesn't care. Right now its a 2 bedroom apartment, me and her have the master bedroom, her daughter has the other one. This leaves my computers sitting in our living space taking up space and getting in the way of daily life, its why I don't have a 3rd desk and a 3rd LCD currently, I thought about a KVM but a good KVM only goes so far and wont for instance transfer over things like game port devices, and usb game controllers, and most wont support sending out a 5.1 audio signal or even have good audio quality or I'd have done a KVM 🤣. But me and her already talked and I do agree with her, and when we can afford a house, I will get either a room for my hobby or the garage if we buy a house with one. So leaving her over this seems rather foolish.

I was going to +1 r.cade, but once the issue of space became the actual reason... You should have started there, not by blaming the woman.

Personally, sell everything that you know you will be able to re-acquire. Then go from there.