VOGONS


First post, by viper32cm

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I'm trying to figure out what direction I should take for my next build/project. Currently, I have four retro computers on my desk:

A late-95/early-96 vintage Zenith-branded Pentium 100 Mhz with an OptiViper chipset and a Diamond-branded S3 Trio64V+ and Aztech sound card for DOS 6.22/Win 3.11
A PentiumMMX 233Mhz system on the 430TX chipset with a Creative-branded Riva TNT and Yamaha Audician sound card for Win95c.
A Pentium III 1Ghz system on a Dell-branded i815 motherboard with a Gainward GeForce4 ti4200, Dual Voodoo2 12MBs, and a Sound Blaster Live! Value for Win98SE
A Phenom II X4 940 with a Radeon 6850 and a Soundblaster X-Fi for WinXP and Win 7 (but its hard to think of that computer as "retro")

Component wise, I'm planning to stick a 3dfx card in the PentiumMMX system, and I might "downgrade" to a Riva128 for the primary video card. Beyond that, it's hard to say what I should do, but I keep coming back to a few things:

A 486. I've never owned a 486. I've had a few chances this year to buy 486 motherboards at good prices, but I passed because my P100 runs basically all of my DOS games. If I went 486, I'd probably go for a lower end build, 33Mhz or lower to create some separation on the low end of my systems.
A rebuild/upgrade of my old Pentium 100 Packard Bell running the initial release version of Win95. Yes, it's basically the same thing as my Zenith. However, cache-less Socket 5 PBs are plentiful on ebay for now, and it might be interesting to experiment a Powerleap K6-2 or K6-III if I could find one.
Upgrade the processor and video card in my Phenom II system. The Phenom II X6 1100T isn't hard to find on ebay and would be a solid upgrade for this system. It wouldn't bring the computer into the modern era or provide too much benefit in WinXP, but it would likely give me some more usability for mid-2010s games. As for the video card, it seems Nvidia had better WinXP driver support more recently than ATI/AMD, so, again, some additional power.

A 386 would be nice too, especially if I could find a Cumulus-branded one like my first IBM-compatible computer, but I haven't seen one of those in 20 or so years.

I'm open to suggestions.

Reply 1 of 4, by cyclone3d

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What, if anything do you have as external MIDI modules?

What kind of games do you want to run that you can't run now?

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 2 of 4, by viper32cm

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cyclone3d wrote on 2020-11-25, 01:01:

What, if anything do you have as external MIDI modules?

What kind of games do you want to run that you can't run now?

No MIDI modules. I didn't have MIDI when it was new, and I've never felt like I missed out on anything based on what I've heard of MIDI in some of my favorite games.

I don't think I'm lacking on any particular games. I don't have much of a connection to games older than approximately 1991-92. I sometimes feel that a few of the early-2000s WinXP games are in this odd nether region where they are too complex for my PIII but don't like the newer hardware and drivers of my Phenom II.

Reply 3 of 4, by cyclone3d

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Ok. It's probably 100% the video card drivers causing the issues for the older XP games.

Guessing. A Geforce 6800 or 7900 series might be best for the early XP games. Are there any specific games causing problems?

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 4 of 4, by viper32cm

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cyclone3d wrote on 2020-11-25, 03:49:

Ok. It's probably 100% the video card drivers causing the issues for the older XP games.

Guessing. A Geforce 6800 or 7900 series might be best for the early XP games. Are there any specific games causing problems?

Medal of Honor Allied Assault is the first one that comes to mind. It performs well but the experience doesn't feel very fluid. Almost like there are some micro-stutters or other small hiccups every so often.

I think making my Phenom II system more of a dedicated Windows XP build might be the way to go. I will try older video drivers in XP for my HD6850 to see if that makes a difference first before I try another 3D card. I also think going for a processor that emphasized single core speed would be a good move for XP. What's the king of the hill in that regard for socket am2/am3?