Keep them in the package it came in. The worst thing you can expose them to is static discharges, ESD. So keeping the parts in anti static bags is the best thing you can do.

Plastic boxes are one of the worst things you can use for unproteced cards.

I keep all my stuff in anti-static bags and then stored in plastic containers. Seems to work fine.

I'd recommend keeping things in a relatively dry location if possible since humidity can lead to corrosion. But unless you are keeping things in a wet environment, storing things for a few months probably won't matter too much.

The stuff is 20 years old and was probably stored under not ideal conditions for at least the last 10 years. Unless you plan to store them in a damp cellar I wouldn't waste any thought about that 😀
Why do you want to spread the next purchases over such a long time? A GF 4200 is inexpensive and I assume the CPU is as well. You should grab any good offer that you see whenever it shows up.

@all thanks for the info

HanSolo wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:35:

The stuff is 20 years old and was probably stored under not ideal conditions for at least the last 10 years. Unless you plan to store them in a damp cellar I wouldn't waste any thought about that 😀
Why do you want to spread the next purchases over such a long time? A GF 4200 is inexpensive and I assume the CPU is as well. You should grab any good offer that you see whenever it shows up.

You have a point of course. The reason why I plan in the long run is that I want to wait for the best possible offer that's why I want to take my time with my purchases. But when being on the watch every day it should be possible to complete the build way faster.

GF4 4200 ti cards are not that expensive most of the time that's true. The athlon prices are different. A athlon xp 1500 would be rather cheap while the xp 3200 costs much more.

You are right though. i will speed up my purchases and keep looking on daily basis

predator_085 wrote on 2023-06-12, 18:32:

I want to buy a single part each month.

Bad idea. If you're strapped for cash, save up for a couple of months, then buy everything together.

The reason being, you want to test all of your retro components as soon as they arrive. That way, if something is faulty, you can immediately return it and/or ask for a refund. And I don't necessarily mean that you should put everything together in a case. You can do some basic testing while your motherboard sits on a test bench (or a simple cardboard box) with only the relevant components plugged in.

predator_085 wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:43:

@all thanks for the info […]
Show full quote

@all thanks for the info

HanSolo wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:35:

The stuff is 20 years old and was probably stored under not ideal conditions for at least the last 10 years. Unless you plan to store them in a damp cellar I wouldn't waste any thought about that 😀
Why do you want to spread the next purchases over such a long time? A GF 4200 is inexpensive and I assume the CPU is as well. You should grab any good offer that you see whenever it shows up.

You have a point of course. The reason why I plan in the long run is that I want to wait for the best possible offer that's why I want to take my time with my purchases. But when being on the watch every day it should be possible to complete the build way faster.

GF4 4200 ti cards are not that expensive most of the time that's true. The athlon prices are different. A athlon xp 1500 would be rather cheap while the xp 3200 costs much more.

You are right though. i will speed up my purchases and keep looking on daily basis

I know this advice will seem odd but avoid the 128Mb Ti4200 cards, grab a 64Mb model which came with faster memory Ics and can be overclocked to Ti4600 speeds with little issue, if you do need 128Mb then I would suggest a Ti4400 right out of the gate.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:48:

predator_085 wrote on 2023-06-12, 18:32:

I want to buy a single part each month.

Bad idea. If you're strapped for cash, save up for a couple of months, then buy everything together.

The reason is, you want to test all of your retro components as soon as they arrive. That way, if something is faulty, you can immediately return it and/or ask for a refund. And I don't necessarily mean that you should put everything together in a case. You can do some basic testing while your motherboard sits on a test bench (or a simple cardboard box) with only the relevant components plugged in.

Yes, that's a very valid point. One I did not considered as a noob. Then the mobo will be my only purchase as off now and save a bit of money for about 2 month and get the other parts all at once.

@Trashbytes thanks for your advice as well.

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:56:

predator_085 wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:43:

@all thanks for the info […]
Show full quote

@all thanks for the info

HanSolo wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:35:

The stuff is 20 years old and was probably stored under not ideal conditions for at least the last 10 years. Unless you plan to store them in a damp cellar I wouldn't waste any thought about that 😀
Why do you want to spread the next purchases over such a long time? A GF 4200 is inexpensive and I assume the CPU is as well. You should grab any good offer that you see whenever it shows up.

You have a point of course. The reason why I plan in the long run is that I want to wait for the best possible offer that's why I want to take my time with my purchases. But when being on the watch every day it should be possible to complete the build way faster.

GF4 4200 ti cards are not that expensive most of the time that's true. The athlon prices are different. A athlon xp 1500 would be rather cheap while the xp 3200 costs much more.

You are right though. i will speed up my purchases and keep looking on daily basis

I know this advice will seem odd but avoid the 128Mb Ti4200 cards, grab a 64Mb model which came with faster memory Ics and can be overclocked to Ti4600 speeds with little issue, if you do need 128Mb then I would suggest a Ti4400 right out of the gate.

Technically that's correct, but depending on what games the system is used for I wouldn't care too much about that today. For those from the GF2-era any variant of the GF4 4200 is already total overkill. And in case you want to use high resolutions, the extra memory can even make the lower-clocked version perform better if the textures require more memory than available: at 1600x1200x32bit the two frame buffers and the Z-buffer already occupy 22 MB leaving only 42 MB for textures on the 64 MB version. But a 4400 will be at a way higher price point.
And then there are other criteria that might be important: DVI-port (some have 2xVGA), fan-noise, VGA signal quality

HanSolo wrote on 2023-06-13, 12:46:

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:56:

predator_085 wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:43:

@all thanks for the info […]
Show full quote

@all thanks for the info

You have a point of course. The reason why I plan in the long run is that I want to wait for the best possible offer that's why I want to take my time with my purchases. But when being on the watch every day it should be possible to complete the build way faster.

GF4 4200 ti cards are not that expensive most of the time that's true. The athlon prices are different. A athlon xp 1500 would be rather cheap while the xp 3200 costs much more.

You are right though. i will speed up my purchases and keep looking on daily basis

I know this advice will seem odd but avoid the 128Mb Ti4200 cards, grab a 64Mb model which came with faster memory Ics and can be overclocked to Ti4600 speeds with little issue, if you do need 128Mb then I would suggest a Ti4400 right out of the gate.

Technically that's correct, but depending on what games the system is used for I wouldn't care too much about that today. For those from the GF2-era any variant of the GF4 4200 is already total overkill. And in case you want to use high resolutions, the extra memory can even make the lower-clocked version perform better if the textures require more memory than available: at 1600x1200x32bit the two frame buffers and the Z-buffer already occupy 22 MB leaving only 42 MB for textures on the 64 MB version. But a 4400 will be at a way higher price point.
And then there are other criteria that might be important: DVI-port (some have 2xVGA), fan-noise, VGA signal quality

Not sure I could find a game from the Gf2 era that would tax a 64MB card texture wise, I mean as you said its already overkill being a GF4 card, that said I personally would rather the extra performance for FPS and features than worry about high res textures, 1600x1200x32bit does require some decent GPU power to run regardless of textures being used.

I guess the decision really depends on what you prefer more, high FPS or eye candy and low FPS, couldn't really have both even with a Ti4400.

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-06-13, 12:52:

HanSolo wrote on 2023-06-13, 12:46:

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-06-12, 20:56:

I know this advice will seem odd but avoid the 128Mb Ti4200 cards, grab a 64Mb model which came with faster memory Ics and can be overclocked to Ti4600 speeds with little issue, if you do need 128Mb then I would suggest a Ti4400 right out of the gate.

Technically that's correct, but depending on what games the system is used for I wouldn't care too much about that today. For those from the GF2-era any variant of the GF4 4200 is already total overkill. And in case you want to use high resolutions, the extra memory can even make the lower-clocked version perform better if the textures require more memory than available: at 1600x1200x32bit the two frame buffers and the Z-buffer already occupy 22 MB leaving only 42 MB for textures on the 64 MB version. But a 4400 will be at a way higher price point.
And then there are other criteria that might be important: DVI-port (some have 2xVGA), fan-noise, VGA signal quality

Not sure I could find a game from the Gf2 era that would tax a 64MB card texture wise, I mean as you said its already overkill being a GF4 card, that said I personally would rather the extra performance for FPS and features than worry about high res textures, 1600x1200x32bit does require some decent GPU power to run regardless of textures being used.

I guess the decision really depends on what you prefer more, high FPS or eye candy and low FPS, couldn't really have both even with a Ti4400.

I prefer higher fps over eye candy but I think it should be possible to get both. The main games I am into are rather old games for a geforce 4 from 97 to 2000. I can only think of 2001 game I want to play again. This game would be Max Payne 1.

So I think should not run into any problems playing this games with a good gf4 or I am I mistaking something?

If i find one one at a good price but also would not mind to grab the 4400 instead of the 4200.

The 4200 is my favourite so far though because it is fairly cheap and quite common.

We're talking about apx. 10% difference, so 'high' and 'low' fps is a bit of an exaggeration 😀
In case overclocking is planned then things get more complicated because as far as I remember not every 64 MB model had fast memory and not every 128 MB the slower modules.

My point is: for games so much older than the card it doesn't matter which one you get and they will all run perfectly at high resolutions. So I would recommend not overthinking it and simply buying whichever model is available for a good price. However I personally prefer RAM over slightly higher clock speed because not enough memory can make a big difference in performance.