awgamer wrote:

Without knowing specifically the amount of performance needed to max out fps with no dips & full effects, my rough guide would be to triple the era's top CPU & GPU performance. Practically every CPU can scale down to piv 2.0 speed so no problem with setting to slow speed if needed. If you're like everyone else and skip a vista rig, then you're looking at covering 01 to 08. So, whatever is 3x the speed of an i7 965 & gtx280. CPUs in the timeline below are the fastest for a given year.

Can you even triple an i7 965 with XP-compatible hardware without a REALLY high end Sandy Bridge-E or multi-processor Xeon? And also... by the end of XP era 60fps@1080p was already a thing, and you don't need go faster than that. Oh, and XP-era games aren't optimized for quad-core processors, a dual-core with hyperthreading is more than enough to extract performance

Also, ignoring Vista or not back then, unless you are doing things just for nostalgia you are better off with a Win7 machine for Vista-era games, as that will allow you to use DirextX 10 renderers for games that have those. A XP machine doesn't really have to cover those. And please do remember that no performance jump happened since the Core2Duo era.

awgamer, Oh, I don't think I even have a computer powerful enough to match your high-end XP machine concept. What do you consider worthy for a main rig then? Stuff like TitanX in Quad-SLI?

However, I think what you said is true for older gear, like paring Voodoo 2 SLI with Tualatin fow a Windows 98 setup or making a high-end DOS rig with Pentium MMX.

Xeon stuff would be interesting. I don't know anything about Xeons of the past ~10 years, but Xeon oriented hardware will typically be very reliable and 2nd hand parts for them will be cheap. Most 2nd hand buyers are focused on consumer gear - the high end stuff gets liquidated in bulk and not many people pay attention to it.

As far as what needs to run on XP, I would be looking at it from the opposite direction of some people. I don't merely want XP to run things that require it, I want my XP/XP64 machine to run everything that it *can* run, because I don't like newer versions of Windows.

Personally, my XP has been getting along fine with a 3-core Phenom2 running a GTX275 (GTX260 before that - hard to tell the difference between them). There's probably better setups - I've never had a GTX285 that some people have mentioned. I've considered the GTX460 ever since when it was new, but I kept concluding that for the games I play on XP, it's advantages wouldn't be relevant and the GT200 cards might have better compatibility and apparently more memory bandwidth.

As mentioned above, if I was building a machine today with 2nd hand parts then the Xeon stuff would be interesting to look into.

The goal is to be able to play at max settings with no dips. Without pinning down what it would take using 3x as a rough guide, because in my recollection, era 2x sli would get performance up but not well enough for some. Stock vs stock, a 6700k is 2x in single threaded performance and 980ti is 3x+, mind you, this is for 3x'ing performance of 2008, what's needed of course drops every year you go back, 2007 the top end was just a qx6850 and an 8800 ultra, so it's really just 2008 that made it harder and more pricey to do 3x, so you could just chock it up to it runs what it runs at, excluding 08 from the 3x goal. As for the 19 games with dx10 support that came out from 06-08, my simple solution is just run those on windows 7/10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_w … ectX_10_support

I think the highest spec computer that have official XP-drivers is a 1155 Z77-based motherboard with a i7 3770K and a GTX 780 Ti (or two). Although Asus has made special XP-bioses and drivers for their Skylake motherboards (Maximus VIII).

But personally I would go with a C2D E8xxx and GTX 285, seems more legit 😀

shamino wrote:

Personally, my XP has been getting along fine with a 3-core Phenom2 running a GTX275 (GTX260 before that - hard to tell the difference between them). There's probably better setups - I've never had a GTX285 that some people have mentioned. I've considered the GTX460 ever since when it was new, but I kept concluding that for the games I play on XP, it's advantages wouldn't be relevant and the GT200 cards might have better compatibility and apparently more memory bandwidth.

I have a GTX 275 as well. It's a non reference design from Galaxy and works really well. Apart from benchmarks you won't notice a difference between it and the GTX 285. The GTX 460 1 GB is pretty much as fast as the GTX 285, but more compact and also a little bit easier to find, because it's a main-stream card, the GTX 285 is high end.

I also agree that the DX 10 games from 2007 and later, just play them on Vista or Windows 7.

I tried GTA4 yesterday, you just have to update that Windows Games client and there is also a graphics memory fix floating around, a launch parameter.

Now when you want to enable high levels of AA, or use SSAA, then you have to aim much higher. Newer cards and drivers work fine for the most part, but there are always a few games with issues, Far Cry is one of them that I know, but otherwise all the XP games I showcased in my recent YouTube videos played fine with the very latest drivers.

Marquzz wrote:

I think the highest spec computer that have official XP-drivers is a 1155 Z77-based motherboard with a i7 3770K and a GTX 780 Ti (or two). Although Asus has made special XP-bioses and drivers for their Skylake motherboards (Maximus VIII).

Those are my findings as well. People do tell me that you can get XP going on newer gear, but I like it to work "out of the box". Don't discount AMD guys, it has a single socket that takes all sorts of processors and some other advantages when it comes to XP gaming. I am actually planning a video in that regard.

shamino wrote:

Xeon stuff would be interesting. I don't know anything about Xeons of the past ~10 years, but Xeon oriented hardware will typically be very reliable and 2nd hand parts for them will be cheap. Most 2nd hand buyers are focused on consumer gear - the high end stuff gets liquidated in bulk and not many people pay attention to it.

Yes.
I like the socket 771 platform because it's so flexible.
Many CPU options so you can target a wide range of performance levels with out changing the motherboard.
- By going with a single CPU (ex: Xeon 5110) you can build down to equivalent to an E2180, probably less.
- By using dual quads (ex: X5492) you can build up to comparable with i7-3770S or i7-980X.
- And there are CPUs down to 20 watts, (Come back to why.)
Many have both PCI-X and PCIe so enterprise class hardware RAID (cards for which are now dirt cheap) is easy.
When you get bored with it use the low powered CPU and the RAID card for a low power high storage capacity NAS/File server.

They also take far more RAM (24-48Gb is common) so by using the surplus for RAM Drives you can beat the SSD fanboy's transfer rates by 10 times or more.
- And the RAM is cheap now. Around $1.75/Gb in 4Gb sticks if you shop.

Finding a board with a good layout (slot selection) for a gaming rig might be a challenge but they do exist.
They ARE out there and they do show up for low prices at times, so patience is the key to finding a good one.
(I've purchased several used X7DAL-E boards for under $40. NIB for $99. - Normal lately is $250-$300 for that one used.)
(That is my favorite board ever so I check for deals at least weekly. - Most other boards are cheaper.)

Things to watch out for. (Since you said you aren't familiar)
There are ATX footprint boards so you aren't locked into a server chassis. (There is even an 'almost' uATX model. It's 10"x10" IIRC.)
Not all cases have holes for Xeon coolers in which case you need a bracket that provides the standoffs. (They mount to the mobo pan.)
Slots that are physically PCIe (x-something) are often electrically less 'x' so actually read the specs.
The CPU location is not what you are used to. Make sure there won't be issues blocking the 5.25" bays you need.
(I use Cooler Master Centurion 5 cases for those. Has worked out well for Xeon boards with the ATX footprint.)
Make sure the PSU has all the needed power connectors. In most cases you need an EPS compliant ATX PSU.
.
If you are good with a single PCIe x16 slot and using an add-in sound card this guy has been selling these at this price for over a year and still has some.
Actually I've been seeing those at that price since the spring of 2014 but they might not all have been that seller.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231803141191 [Supermicro X7DCA-L-YI001 - $26.95 ]
Note that the version he has does not have on-board sound but otherwise here are the specs.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboar … 100/X7DCA-L.cfm
While ago someone else listed a bunch with sound and both coolers for $35. I bought two.
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