If you really want peak 1999, you'd have to go the RDRAM'd i820 board route probably and this easily slips into Jan 2000+ for most boards not being VC820 😦

Well as usual, to keep up the appearance of staying ahead of AMD at the time, Intel were "releasing" stuff 3 months before it actually shipped... PIII 800 MHz (E or EB) release date evidence?

So a PIII 600 is realistically the fastest Intel CPU that normal folks could get their hands on by Dec 31st 1999.

OK and the AMD processor like K6-III or Athlon are processor that was possible to buy in 1999?

Dont forget about '99 workstations.

I have an HP Kayak XU800 from 1999 with 2gig rambus(4 channel), and dual P3 733.
It has AGP Pro 4x, and intel i840 chipset, top of the line for its time.

Video card has been difficult, I really like the Matrox G400max, but have been testing an ATI fireGL X1 256mb AGP Pro50 card.
The ATI is from I think 2002 tho so its not period correct, but its a hell of a card for that system running Win2k.

Compaq also made some really crazy high end systems at the time, including the Professional Workstation that had dual P3 Xeons.

Ya you could go the slot A route with the Athlon, k6 III is not a fast CPU. Anyways be prepared to spend a more than few hundred dollars If you are doing anything other than a PIII build on a BX or VIA chipset. And if you want some exotic stuff like OR840 or anything crazy like that or even Slot A stuff for AMD be prepared to wait a long time for something to show up and fight over it probably with other bidders.

If it was me Id just get a nice BX board and a PIII 600.

it'd be nice to find some pc part websites pre-2000 on the wayback machine to see what was available late 99. there's only one site that i have found (in aus) but it only goes back to 2001: https://web.archive.org/web/20010201055700/ht … amedude.com.au/

it's hard for me to know what was an actual store back then in order to snoop for it on the wayback machine. if anyone could add some stores they know from back then that'd be nice 😀 it'll help cedlink and i'm very curious to see too

IMHO the best combination would be:
Celeron 500*2 at FSB 100!
Abit BP6
3*256mb ram
Geforce 256 DDR
PATA 66 hard drive - IBM perhaps
Windows 2000!
The above config would be more workstation oriented but I think would still perform exceedingly well in games!
If single CPU would be the target than the best would be something alone the lines:
Athlon 700
Abit KA7-100
4*128mb CAS2 ram
geforce 256 DDR
PATA 66 hard drive - IBM perhaps
Windows 98SE!

I should add that most of the above are considered collectibles so be prepared to spend quite a lot!

In Nov 1999 Dell would sell you .. http://web.archive.org/web/19991128034542/htt … hoose_dim_t.htm
There's a class up from that the TS but it isn't cached until March 2000 where they'll let you (pre?)order the 800.

Outpost.com was THE prototypical web computer store, but it was all done in scripts to a backend that couldn't get archived, so you don't see anything. Web stores with live up to date stock pages were in their infancy. Brick and mortar computer stores mostly had web pages like phonebook listings at the time; "Hello, we are a computer store, we sell computers, you can buy all sorts of computers from us, come see us at (street address and phone number)" Some are still like that, damn, don't bother being on the web. Amazon was just on it's feet but still only selling books. Further into the 2000s things really picked up.

Compaq seems only archived in September when you could get a 600, or feb 2000 when you could order an 800. Maybe the 733 popped up in the middle there, but I was on a page that was pulling stuff in from a range of dates, so not sure. Also an Athlon 750 appeared when I clicked an "up to 700Mhz AMD" link but again it jumped me from 99 to 00.

Then you can see what they were selling in December 14th 1999 PC Mag... https://books.google.ca/books?id=M7xcio3J5KkC … epage&q&f=false which probably had a month lead time for ads. (Edit: check out Micron Millenia PIII 733 on P.166 or Dell Dementia XPS PIII 700s P.79-80 Gateway p.48 with 700s, holy crap, I thought Gateway were more value oriented, check out the sticker on those)

edit: looks like Tiger Direct could sell you a 733 in October http://web.archive.org/web/19991013004900/htt … rnate/index.htm don't get to see full spec though because of the script to backend problem

An example of what a reputable clone builder offered just over the edge of 1999:

PARKE wrote on 2021-08-10, 12:53:

An example of what a reputable clone builder offered just over the edge of 1999:

Price tags were in Dutch guilders, right? Those 18.1" LCD were really expensive back then......

And they were still probably only suitable for text and may not have had much color depth.

dormcat wrote on 2021-08-10, 13:14:

PARKE wrote on 2021-08-10, 12:53:

An example of what a reputable clone builder offered just over the edge of 1999:

Price tags were in Dutch guilders, right? Those 18.1" LCD were really expensive back then......

Yes; the Fl stands for "Florin".
At the time the Euro was worth Fl 2.20 Guilders.
At this moment the Euro is worth Fl 0.85 Guilders (with inflation 2000 => 2021 corrected).

In 1999 my dad bought a Dell XPS T500 which had a PIII Katmai 500 and AGP Voodoo 3. I think that was pretty representative of a higher end system at the time.

Get a PIII 500-600Mhz with BX board. They are relatively cheap to obtain. Beware some early BX boards do not support PIII Coppermine. Usually the best way to get such a rig is to buy whole computer, even Celeron and just swap the CPU. I got 2 of my BX boards by buying Celeron rigs.

Hmm was the VC820 really available in 1999 then? 😖

I dis an 1999 build a couple of years ago.

Intel VC820
Voodoo3-3500
Pentium-III 500

My question tvough. Are GF 256 not an 2000 card and not 1999?

You might find this website from November 1999 useful for seeing what was available at the time. https://web.archive.org/web/19991122041714/ht … o.uk/hw_idx.htm

GeForce 256 were available then, as were P3 750 Slot 1 and Athlon 750 Slot A.

brostenen wrote on 2021-08-11, 00:41:

My question tvough. Are GF 256 not an 2000 card and not 1999?

It is supposed to be put on sale on August 31, 1999

Rage Fury Maxx was also available by then. That's the best ATI card at that time.