I think all of mine are too temperamental and I hate them all!

The one I hate the least is probably my VIA EPIA 800MHz thing because it manages to be both 'interesting' and useful, reliably, with a good soundcard in the system. It can do early windows 98 games to an acceptable level and DOS gaming with a Yamaha soundcard.

that's one great 486 for sure!

I thought about the question and realised that quite like most of mine for various reasons, but also that none of them are really 'optimal' in terms of combining best components and so forth

I have two near identical builds in the mix, based on old machines I had - basically a Duron 800, 256mb sdram, 20gb-ish hdd, a TNT2 and a basic sound card, both windows 98se

one is essentially a backup for the other - although i don't actually use them that much!

what I like about them is they can do almost anything DOS or 9x based from early 80's up to around 2000 and quite a few things beyond that

they are like reliable mainstream cars that at the time were ubiquitous and later on become nostalgic, rather than cool rare old cars

Probably my AthlonXP rig. Mainly because it's so versatile.

That system can play DOS games just fine with the help of slowdown utilities. Win9x games work great on it, including late-era stuff like Deus Ex. And even some WinXP titles like the original Splinter Cell run on it with acceptable performance. It's a great all-rounder build.

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2021-02-16, 15:02:

I think all of mine are too temperamental and I hate them all!

The one I hate the least is probably my VIA EPIA 800MHz thing because it manages to be both 'interesting' and useful, reliably, with a good soundcard in the system. It can do early windows 98 games to an acceptable level and DOS gaming with a Yamaha soundcard.

Haha, love that take! This probably screams for a "which one of your builds do you hate the most" later on 😁
But yeah, "too temperamental" is a perfect description and feel where you're coming from deep into my soul. My 3 other builds (p233mmx, celeron 800, P4S 1.4GHz) all have SOMETHING that annoys me. Stuff that simply doesn't work as it should, drivers headaches, I mean I fixed most of the biggest quirks with all 3 but I still get random issues that annoy me to no end. So that's one of the big factors for me loving the 486: drama-free. It just works and behaves!

I still love the other 3 for various reasons...I guess. Feels like I have to, like a disillusioned parent 😁

@gerry, looks like you have something that I don't: the bond to older computers you owned. That's something I didn't manage to do, and wouldn't know how. I was too young and only have vague memories, no details. But when I think about the computers and stuff we owned as a family that were sold or even thrown out, what I wouldn't give to be able to get it back. But hey, what can I do 😀

@Joseph_Joestar interesting...I also thought about it and while I can understand it, for me versatility isn't really a personal selling point. The realization is that while my 486 is limited, it ends up matching exactly what I get the most fun with and what what I find most interesting. That's the bottom line of this thoughts experiment 😀

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-02-16, 15:19:

Probably my AthlonXP rig. Mainly because it's so versatile.

That system can play DOS games just fine with the help of slowdown utilities. Win9x games work great on it, including late-era stuff like Deus Ex. And even some WinXP titles like the original Splinter Cell run on it with acceptable performance. It's a great all-rounder build.

Just checked your link - that's a very interesting all-rounder build though! AthlonXP with ISA, that's pretty neat 😀

My favorite is the build I dubbed Retro Beast Mark 2. I built it to run vintage software (mostly mid-90s to mid-2000s operating systems) as fast as possible on bare metal.

It hosts a Core i5-3570 on a Gigabyte GA-P75-D3 (Intel B75 chipset). It has 4 native PCI slots so I can use either a PCI or PCIe video card depending on the OS while maintaining space for a PCI sound card, network card, and hard drive controller for maximum backward compatibility. It runs Windows 3.1, Windows 9x, NT 3.51, NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, OS/2 Warp, and OS X with full functionality (by my fairly modest standards).

I just swap out SSDs for each OS using an external SATA enclosure.

It does have a couple of drawbacks such as BeOS refusing to boot on it, yet it handles most of my vintage software easily. I only wish I had a Core i7 for it, but I don’t like the prices right now.

Nice build! Interesting, so it seems versatility is an important point for some of you guys. I'm wondering, is it mainly a matter of available space, or the technical challenge itself of building a machine that can do the most?

A matter of space saving, maximizing/reusing individual components, cost savings, etc.

And yes, versatility is important. I also have a P4 build specifically for early-90s and earlier software. It can run all of the above OS's (with some serious video limitations on Windows 2000 and XP) as well, but I like to focus that build on OS's requiring ISA cards for full functionality.

The SSDs stack pretty neatly.

Probably my awesome AT system.
Always evolving and getting small tweaks.
Fantastic AT case and my mid to late 90's system in it.

Tho my "2k" system is a close second.
Got all the top of the line Year 2000 stuff in it.
Tried very hard to keep everything with correct manufacturing dates as well.
And as always the cable management and overall build "neatness" is improving over time.
I mean I know the Noctuas are awesome and all, but they are new and look kinda out of place.

Kinda like my ABIT BP6 system too (2xC366@550MHz obviously).
And the "Mid 90's server" with dual PPRO's is kinda cool too.
Oh and the maxed out 2004 build in a gorgeous early Lian-Li!

Dammit don't make me choose between my children!

I've got 2
The first is also a Dx2/66. It was the family's first PC so loads of sentimental value, the fact it's a VLB system helps me keep interested in it these days.
Osbone 486 DX2 66 VL-Bus (My 1st PC ever)

The other is a dual socket P3 600. Coming from my 1st job also has a bit of sentimental value. and features a lot of hardware I dreamed off at the time AWE, V2 SLI, EAX card.
Asus P2B-DS Build

I've got faster 486's and Pentiums with better hardware but these are the 2 I keep going back to the most

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2021-02-16, 15:02:

I think all of mine are too temperamental and I hate them all!

The one I hate the least is probably my VIA EPIA 800MHz thing because it manages to be both 'interesting' and useful, reliably, with a good soundcard in the system. It can do early windows 98 games to an acceptable level and DOS gaming with a Yamaha soundcard.

very well said, some days I can relate to this way of thinking as well!

Probably this one:
Socket 775 system revival story. Bonus: In-place upgrade of a 12-year old Vista install *PICS*

Because it's the only one that I fully assembled from scratch by buying only individual parts and putting them together. All my other desktops were originally purchased as complete systems, even if later I tore them down and rebuilt and changed everything including the motherboards.

Love to play with this one !

EDIT forgot to add why ? Well it reminds me of some simpler times in my life so I always love to fire it up sometimes.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
Zalman CNPS7700-Cu
DFI LANPARTY DK X38-T2RB
4x2 Gb DDR2 800 Mhz
Sapphire Toxic HD 3870
Sapphire HD 3870
DFI UV Cable Sleeves

I probably like my upgraded Shuttle XPC SK43G lanbox-like system best. Athlon XP 3000+, XP, X800 XT AGP, 2GB RAM, SSD and PCI SATA adapter. It plays pretty much all the games that aren't terribly old or very new very well. It's a perfect system for the 00s casual games (Wildtangent) I have a soft spot for. Not to mention it's so compact and so very nearly completely trouble-free that I really enjoy using it.

Now, if my Athlon 1GHz + Radeon 7500 system were more stable that might be my favorite, but it's just too flaky, though that might just be a 9x thing. I'm gonna try ME and 2K on it one of these days and see if they're any less bad.

While I enjoyed playing with my 486 dx2/66, my POD200 is easily my favorite because it's flexible from 386-25 speeds all the way up to 200Mhz MMX. It's got an Audician 32/DreamBlaster X2, 6GB Quantum HDD, 32MB edo, and a 16x CD-ROM. Sitting on top is a CH Products Mach I joystick and to the right is a Roland MT-32 (old) and Gateway 2000 ACS41 speakers (which are used for my modern rig as well).

Here's a wider shot showing a bit of my modern PC to its right.

My fav's are the Laser XT/3 (prebuilt but rebuilt) Turbo XT, my Pentium Pro based on Asus P6NP5 and my last newer build of a Z370 Asrock with i7 8700K (OK that one is not vintage but still love it ;p )
edit: fixed a typo...