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2003-2004 update

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First post, by calippo

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So I've been watching a bunch of these videos where people buy then-expensive parts for retro rigs for peanuts. I know you could get a modern PC and go the Steam/GOG route, but where's the fun in that 😁

I've got this PC from about 2003-2004 for retro duties. Is it worth upgrading this machine in any way? And if so, what would you do?

- Abit IC7-G motherboard (https://www.anandtech.com/show/1105/2)
- Pentium 4 2.4GHz , not overclocked
- ATi Radeon 9800 128MB AGP (not sure if it's a Pro)
- Audigy 2 EX Platinum
- 1 GB RAM
- 150GB hdd, 3.5" floppy, LG DVD-RW + LG 52x CD
- XP SP3
- Not sure about the case, power supply or hard drive type(s).

Note - I'm obviously only interested in playing games from that era and earlier, a bit beyond (whatever's possible) and old 90's DOS games (via DOSbox mostly). Older games like, say, Quake II, run at 1920x1200 and everything at max but not sure about HL2, Doom 3, Far Cry, Crysis.

Last edited by calippo on 2022-05-26, 11:37. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 6, by debs3759

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I wouldn't bother upgrading. Just buy/build more PCs if you want to use other hardware or for compatibility with other software 😀 A PC for every year makes most sense, or at least 5 PCs for every room 😀

See my graphics card database at www.gpuzoo.com
Constantly being worked on. Feel free to message me with any corrections or details of cards you would like me to research and add.

Reply 2 of 6, by mwdmeyer

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The machine looks good. If you wanted to change anything you could easily and cheaply upgrade the CPU to e.g 3.2GHz.

As you are running XP you will get the benefit of HT as well.

Everything else looks sweet.

Vogons Wiki - http://vogonswiki.com

Reply 3 of 6, by gerry

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calippo wrote on 2022-05-23, 10:21:

Note - I'm obviously only interested in playing games from that era and earlier, a bit beyond (whatever's possible) and old 90's DOS games (via DOSbox mostly). Older games like, say, Quake II, run at 1920x1200 and everything at max but not sure about HL2, Doom 3, Far Cry, Crysis.

then its good to go, sure not for crysis and maybe not everything at max, but still good

Reply 4 of 6, by chinny22

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If you wanted you could install Win98 on that.
The Radeon 9800 is the last ATI card with 98 support, likewise the and Audigy 2 been Creative's last Win9x card.
You could then boot into Dos 7 as well
or
simply keep things simple and run XP. A P4 has enough grunt, in which case you could upgrade the CPU why not its a cheap upgrade?

Reply 5 of 6, by Socket3

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chinny22 wrote on 2022-05-23, 14:03:

The Radeon 9800 is the last ATI card with 98 support, likewise the and Audigy 2 been Creative's last Win9x card.

The last ATi card with 98 support is the X850XT via catalyst 6-2_wme_dd_cp_30314 drivers.

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