LunarG wrote:In the "modern era" of computers, basically since the advent of PCIe, lifespan of parts have generally been longer. Keeping a first gen i7 running still today, may very well be viable. So getting a new graphics card for it, wouldn't be "not period correct". I mean, even a 1080Ti could work great in an overclocked i7 920. These pieces of hardware are both from the "modern period" so to speak.
I can totally confirm this, as I have hardware stretching back to 2008 running VERY modern OSes and doing VERY modern tasks. For example:
My 2010 Gaming Rig still runs today. Intel Core i7-860 quad-core, 16GB DDR3 memory, 256GB SSD, 3TB HDD, dual GTX 480s in SLI, runs Windows 10 perfectly, as well as most modern titles @1080 with Medium detail settings. Originally built in 2010, added the SSD in 2015 with the Windows 10 upgrade from Windows 7.
I have a 2008 Dell Vostro that I've retrofitted. The HDD was bad, so it got a new 1TB HDD and a 250GB SSD with Windows 10, a brand-new GT 1030, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a used Core 2 Quad Q9650 I got off of Ebay. Works perfectly fine for all daily tasks.
I rebuilt a Windows XP system from LGA775, took out the Pentium Dual-Core and replaced it with a Xeon E5450 with the LGA775 mod done to it. I also injected the microcode into the BIOS. Boy, that was fun... #sarcasm. Anyway, 4GB of RAM and a 640GB and 3TB HDDs with a fresh install of Ubuntu Server and I have a fully-functional PLEX multimedia server as well as file server. A hell of a lot more reliable than a USB 3.0 HDD connected to my router.
As to the OP, I read some of the replies where people wanted to sort-of press their own opinion of what does and does not constitute "correct" retro behavior. I think this is a very personal hobby and no one can tell you how you are supposed to do it. I can only tell you what I enjoy doing with my own builds. Personally, I like to "max out" a specific system within a certain period of era correctness. For my Windows 98 rebuild, I eventually caved and replaced the 350MHz P2 with the fastest CPU that the motherboard could support - a 600MHz P3. I chose the fastest AGP graphics card available in the 1999 year (Riva TNT2), because I didn't want to step into full-on GPUs like the Radeon or Geforce line. To me, that came after this period. Besides, I did the same thing a lot of other people did here - I got dual Voodoo2 cards. I never had a Voodoo card before. As it turns out, it about breaks even with the TNT2 card in performance.
But who cares?
Me - I'm the only one who really cares about any of this. And that's ok. I'll do me. You do you. And don't let other people tell you you're doing this retro thing wrong.
Now, I can't wait to do the AGS-101 mod on my Game Boy Advance...