CPU-wise, I'd suggest you look at 45nm C2Qs or Sandy/Ivy Bridges. Cheap, plentiful, and they work fine with modern SATA drives and modern PSUs.

RAM, well, XP is typically 32-bit and won't address more then 3.x gigs, so... 2-4 gigs will do very very nicely. Or more if you have any interest in dual-booting 7/10/11 64-bit.

I will leave it to others to comment on GPUs - I am not sure if, say, a late XP-era GPU might have some problems with some of the older titles on your list...

VivienM wrote on 2024-01-02, 01:46:

CPU-wise, I'd suggest you look at 45nm C2Qs or Sandy/Ivy Bridges. Cheap, plentiful, and they work fine with modern SATA drives and modern PSUs.

RAM, well, XP is typically 32-bit and won't address more then 3.x gigs, so... 2-4 gigs will do very very nicely. Or more if you have any interest in dual-booting 7/10/11 64-bit.

I will leave it to others to comment on GPUs - I am not sure if, say, a late XP-era GPU might have some problems with some of the older titles on your list...

Appreciate the response! I was thinking of doing likely the full 4 gigs since RAM is usually easy to come by and I think I may have some spare sticks that may work.

And yeah, the GPU is tough to say because I've seen a lot of varying options (and also with CPUs) so it's been a tricky situation to try to figure out the right one. Still, thank you for responding 😀

I went through a few XP machine configs before ending up with an i7-3770k system designed to play 2000's era games with high performance at resolutions up to 1920x1200.

Full specs are in this thread: Ultimate Windows XP Build (Intel i7-3770k / GTX 980Ti / 24" Asus ProArt display / X-Fi Titanium)

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-01-02, 02:19:

I went through a few XP machine configs before ending up with an i7-3770k system designed to play 2000's era games with high performance at resolutions up to 1920x1200.

Full specs are in this thread: Ultimate Windows XP Build (Intel i7-3770k / GTX 980Ti / 24" Asus ProArt display / X-Fi Titanium)

Oh yeah I had stumbled on this one and was considering it! I just was worried that some of it might be overkill and would struggle with playing some of the earlier games from like 2000 on or games like Nocturne which has the recommended OS of 98 or ME. Have you been able to play games like that without any problem?

I was also thinking of instead of a 980ti maybe something a bit more budget friendly (I know 980 tis aren't breaking the bank these days, but I'm trying to keep myself around like $125-$200 if I can.

myotoxin wrote on 2024-01-02, 02:31:

Oh yeah I had stumbled on this one and was considering it! I just was worried that some of it might be overkill and would struggle with playing some of the earlier games from like 2000 on or games like Nocturne which has the recommended OS of 98 or ME. Have you been able to play games like that without any problem?

I haven't had many issues with games ranging from the 90s through to the late 2000s. I've attached a screenshot of my desktop showing the various games I have currently installed and have tested.

There have only been three games I've tried that haven't worked:

1. SimTower (CD version) - Freezes up at the intro animation. As it was originally written for Windows 3.1, I'm not too surprised it doesn't work.
2. Rainbow Six (GoG version) - This seems to be an issue with the GoG version of the game and not unique to Windows XP. I haven't tried the CD version yet.
3. Bioshock 2 (GoG version) - The GoG version of this game doesn't seem compatible with Windows XP. Unfortunately the disc version required Games for Windows Live and therefore won't work either.

I've also heard that some of the early Need For Speed games don't work under XP, though I haven't tried them yet.

I was also thinking of instead of a 980ti maybe something a bit more budget friendly (I know 980 tis aren't breaking the bank these days, but I'm trying to keep myself around like $125-$200 if I can.

Yeah, you can definitely use an older card and still get high-end performance for games of that era. I only used the 980Ti because I happened to have it on hand after upgrading my main gaming PC.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-01-02, 03:01:

I haven't had many issues with games ranging from the 90s through to the late 2000s. I've attached a screenshot of my desktop showing the various games I have currently installed and have tested.

I've also heard that some of the early Need For Speed games don't work under XP, though I haven't tried them yet.

Ah okay! I see a few games in there that are also on my to play list (Far Cry, F.E.A.R, Civ IV) so if those work well for you, then I have high hopes! I know for sure that I think NFS III: Hot Pursuit should work with XP because I believe that's the OS I played it when I was growing up, but if not, that's what my 98 machine will be for 😀

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-01-02, 03:01:

Yeah, you can definitely use an older card and still get high-end performance for games of that era. I only used the 980Ti because I happened to have it on hand after upgrading my main gaming PC.

And gotcha! I was actually able to look around and I think I may try to grab an optiplex 7010/20 since they have:
- i7-3770 (not the K, but that's fine since I normally run stock)
- 8 GB of RAM (which I could change to 4 if need be)
- I believe with the MT ones I can change the PSU which I have a spare I think
- and then maybe a 750 ti since those are smaller and should be beefy enough to run most games at 1280x1024 at 60fps on med-high. (unless you don't think so bc if not please let me know now haha)

myotoxin wrote on 2024-01-02, 02:31:

I was also thinking of instead of a 980ti maybe something a bit more budget friendly (I know 980 tis aren't breaking the bank these days, but I'm trying to keep myself around like $125-$200 if I can.

You should be able to get lots of great options for that budget, e.g. Nvidia 780 Ti, ATI (err... I guess AMD... but they'll always be ATI to me) 7970, etc. I've seen both on eBay for ~$100CAD and... well, everything is expensive on eBay and in Canada so if you are somewhere else they'll probably be cheaper...

PCI-E GPUs are dirt cheap compared to 98SE-friendly AGP ones.

myotoxin wrote on 2024-01-02, 03:44:

And gotcha! I was actually able to look around and I think I may try to grab an optiplex 7010/20 since they have: - i7-3770 (not […]
Show full quote

And gotcha! I was actually able to look around and I think I may try to grab an optiplex 7010/20 since they have:
- i7-3770 (not the K, but that's fine since I normally run stock)
- 8 GB of RAM (which I could change to 4 if need be)
- I believe with the MT ones I can change the PSU which I have a spare I think
- and then maybe a 750 ti since those are smaller and should be beefy enough to run most games at 1280x1024 at 60fps on med-high. (unless you don't think so bc if not please let me know now haha)

The 7020 is Haswell, not Ivy Bridge. I have two, including one used as a server running Proxmox, never tried running XP on them though... and mine are SFF. Would suggest sticking to Ivy Bridge.

I don't know what the slot situation is like on the MT chassis, but on the SFF, well... your options for GPUs would be very limited. I presume the MT can take full-height cards, at which point the bottleneck becomes the PSU... not sure what the best GPU you can run on that PSU would be.

The other question is how many other slots it has - maybe I'm just the biggest Creative Labs fanboy ever, but I'd suggest making sure you have a PCI-E slot available for something like an X-Fi Titanium, get yourself some EAX...

Keep in mind that you can find enthusiast Ivy Bridge motherboards/systems for sale everywhere.

VivienM wrote on 2024-01-02, 04:25:

The 7020 is Haswell, not Ivy Bridge. I have two, including one used as a server running Proxmox, never tried running XP on them though... and mine are SFF. Would suggest sticking to Ivy Bridge.

Oops! My apologies I didn't even realize I had mistyped. I had meant 7010 not 7020. The 7010's run with the i7-3770 which is under Ivy Bridge. My bad on that one.

VivienM wrote on 2024-01-02, 04:25:

I don't know what the slot situation is like on the MT chassis, but on the SFF, well... your options for GPUs would be very limited. I presume the MT can take full-height cards, at which point the bottleneck becomes the PSU... not sure what the best GPU you can run on that PSU would be.

The slot situation is much better on the MT chassis versus the SFF. MT should be able to fit most GPUs that I was looking at. I don't think it could say fit a 980ti, but it should be able to fit a EVGA 750ti I was eyeing that has one fan.

This is what the internals look like from stock: https://www.dell.com/community/assets/communi … e005-1399547236

And also thankfully, the MT models don't use proprietary PSUs so any standard PSU should I believe fit in there just fine. I am double checking that beforehand though before I pull any trigger.

VivienM wrote on 2024-01-02, 04:25:

The other question is how many other slots it has - maybe I'm just the biggest Creative Labs fanboy ever, but I'd suggest making sure you have a PCI-E slot available for something like an X-Fi Titanium, get yourself some EAX...

The MT looks to have 4:
PCI-e x16 Connector
PCI-e x1 Connector
PCI Connector
PCI-e x16 (wire x4) Connector

I would assume the x16 would be for the GPU, I'd probably use the PCI for the Audigy 2S I have until I can get my hands on something bigger and better, but it seems like I should have one leftover slot for that 😀

The Dell Optiplex 7010 should work.
I dont know if it does but I do know the HP version of it called the HP Compaq Elite 8300 does work with XP.
I have one of those sat behind me and its running an i7-3770 with a GTX 750Ti low profile card, 8Gb RAM and a SATA SSD and it works lovely, runs like a dream and has never given me any problems.

Ive had XP running on some USFF PCs like the HP Mini 600 G1 that had a 4th gen core i5, it worked ok except there were no XP drivers for the WifI BT combi card but I have another similar system that does have WiFi BT card drivers for XP...
I couldnt tell you model numbers of what did and didnt work because I didnt take note, it was just a test to see if its possible to get XP running on a Haswell core CPU. Which it did. And quite well too.

myotoxin wrote on 2024-01-02, 00:06:

- Splinter Cell games

The original Splinter Cell and its sequel Pandora Tomorrow are notoriously difficult to get working on real hardware, unless you're using a very specific GPU. To summarize, if you want all graphical effects to render correctly, you need a GeForce 3/4/FX for the first game and a GeForce 7 for Pandora. Using anything newer than that will result in missing visuals (especially shadows and light sources) which directly impacts the gameplay.

I suggest either playing these games with a wrapper (i.e. dgVoodoo2) or building a secondary system for late Win9x and early WinXP games. If you want more info, see this video by Phil for the original Splinter Cell and this one for Pandora Tomorrow.

The third game in the series, Chaos Theory, is a lot less picky when it comes to hardware, and will run on pretty much anything. Same for Double Agent, though that one has a very buggy PC port, with numerous issues that were never patched.

So I here is my 2 cents. My XP configuration :
- c2d e8500
- HD 6850
-250 Gb ssd patched with ACHI
- intel p35 mobo
- 4GB of ram

This build perform quite well . But there few issues first one , doom 3 stuck at 8 fps no matter what version of the game I'm trying . Other one is well known project I.G.I. , other than that seems working fine.

The good thing about the XP era is that it doesn't require anything exotic or expensive. There are a couple of problem games (thanks to nvidia messing with the market), but 99% of the games are fine.

An i3-3220 and a GT740 (the rebrand of the GTX650 with the full 128bit BUS and GDDR5) and 4GB RAM and you can play just about everything up to 2007 in 1280×1024 with maxed out settings well above 60fps.

I run XP pro 32bit on LGA1366 with an i7 x980 and a titan black . Not to expensive parts to get, and anything runs very nicely.
When it comes to crysis, Dark Messiah, FEAR its still runs great above 60fps.

Okay wow thank you all so much for the responses! I really appreciate all of ya'll helping out so far 😀

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-01-02, 06:01:

The original Splinter Cell and its sequel Pandora Tomorrow are notoriously difficult to get working on real hardware, unless you're using a very specific GPU. To summarize, if you want all graphical effects to render correctly, you need a GeForce 3/4/FX for the first game and a GeForce 7 for Pandora. Using anything newer than that will result in missing visuals (especially shadows and light sources) which directly impacts the gameplay.

I suggest either playing these games with a wrapper (i.e. dgVoodoo2) or building a secondary system for late Win9x and early WinXP games. If you want more info, see this video by Phil for the original Splinter Cell and this one for Pandora Tomorrow.

The third game in the series, Chaos Theory, is a lot less picky when it comes to hardware, and will run on pretty much anything. Same for Double Agent, though that one has a very buggy PC port, with numerous issues that were never patched.

Thank you for letting me know about that. The Splinter Cell games thankfully aren't high on my list and I do have them on PS2 as well, so if anything I might just play them there instead. I unfortunately only have room for about one more PC, so I'd rather just focus on bigger bang for the buck and once I get more room then I could maybe expand to another one for that specific era.

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-01-02, 09:44:

The good thing about the XP era is that it doesn't require anything exotic or expensive. There are a couple of problem games (thanks to nvidia messing with the market), but 99% of the games are fine.

An i3-3220 and a GT740 (the rebrand of the GTX650 with the full 128bit BUS and GDDR5) and 4GB RAM and you can play just about everything up to 2007 in 1280×1024 with maxed out settings well above 60fps.

This is fantastic to hear and super helpful in regards to trying to still find a machine/parts. Knowing that, I might consider one looking for maybe a middle man of an i5 Ivy Bridge to get me in a sweet spot while running a 750ti (I found a good one online going for rather cheap).

Just to also ask for experience sake, anyone run games from like 2000-2002 on these machines a la Max Payne, NOLF, etc. and run into any issues? I know some of the specs I'm looking at are closer to the later XP line, so I just want to check I'm not going too high to where I risk not having those games run correctly since my prime area of gaming I'm looking to play is around 1999/2000-2004, with 2007 being my own personal cutoff point.

myotoxin wrote on 2024-01-02, 14:20:

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-01-02, 09:44:

The good thing about the XP era is that it doesn't require anything exotic or expensive. There are a couple of problem games (thanks to nvidia messing with the market), but 99% of the games are fine.

An i3-3220 and a GT740 (the rebrand of the GTX650 with the full 128bit BUS and GDDR5) and 4GB RAM and you can play just about everything up to 2007 in 1280×1024 with maxed out settings well above 60fps.

This is fantastic to hear and super helpful in regards to trying to still find a machine/parts. Knowing that, I might consider one looking for maybe a middle man of an i5 Ivy Bridge to get me in a sweet spot while running a 750ti (I found a good one online going for rather cheap).

Just to also ask for experience sake, anyone run games from like 2000-2002 on these machines a la Max Payne, NOLF, etc. and run into any issues? I know some of the specs I'm looking at are closer to the later XP line, so I just want to check I'm not going too high to where I risk not having those games run correctly since my prime area of gaming I'm looking to play is around 1999/2000-2004, with 2007 being my own personal cutoff point.

My XP era PC: https://gamesystemrequirements.com/user/rando … /devices/289374

Soldier of Fortune: Special Edition doesn't work out of the box. You can find fixes on PCGamingWiki.
Doom 3 and Quake 4 runs slower than they should. Most likely a software issue. Or too much VRAM. It doesn't affect Enemy Terrytory: Quake Wars, Wolfenstein 2009 and Prey, though they use the same engine.
Mass Effect is a little bit slow in busy places. Could also be driver related issue. But it's a very late 2007 game so out of range for you.
Need for Speed: Underground is unplayable without Vsync.
Need for Speed: Underground 2 is unstable on quad core CPUs, but you can set the CPU affinity to a single core in task manager.
Fallout 3 also has stability issues with more than 2 CPU cores. The current digital versions are fixed so it's only an issue if you want to play an earlier retail version.
Star Wars: Republic Commando uses an old Nvidia Game Works version of bump mapping, has issues with graphics cards newer than Geforce 7. There is a fix on PCGamingWiki.
Dragon's Lair 3D can have issues with the ACPI drivers. If the game runs at slow-motion, just reinstall them. I don't think it has anything to do with how modern hardware do you run it on. People already had this issue back in 2004.

These are the problem games I played so far. NOLF and Max Payne 1/2 has no problems, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory runs very well and I don't think I played anything else you are interested in. I mostly (almost exclusively) play retail versions rather than modern(ized) digital releases. For some games it's an advantage, because they lack the patches that may break compatibility with period correct systems, for others it's a disadvantage because they lack the patches that actually make them playable.

myotoxin wrote on 2024-01-02, 14:20:

Thank you for letting me know about that. The Splinter Cell games thankfully aren't high on my list and I do have them on PS2 as well, so if anything I might just play them there instead. I unfortunately only have room for about one more PC, so I'd rather just focus on bigger bang for the buck and once I get more room then I could maybe expand to another one for that specific era.

Note that the first two Splinter Cell games are the exception, not the norm.

Most other games from 2002-2010 will run great on an Ivy Bridge + GTX 980 machine. In fact, I use something similar for my main WinXP gaming system. As others have mentioned, those components are currently cheap, widely available and can make for an extremely powerful WinXP rig.

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-01-02, 14:57:

My XP era PC: https://gamesystemrequirements.com/user/rando … /devices/289374 […]
Show full quote

myotoxin wrote on 2024-01-02, 14:20:

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-01-02, 09:44:

The good thing about the XP era is that it doesn't require anything exotic or expensive. There are a couple of problem games (thanks to nvidia messing with the market), but 99% of the games are fine.

An i3-3220 and a GT740 (the rebrand of the GTX650 with the full 128bit BUS and GDDR5) and 4GB RAM and you can play just about everything up to 2007 in 1280×1024 with maxed out settings well above 60fps.

This is fantastic to hear and super helpful in regards to trying to still find a machine/parts. Knowing that, I might consider one looking for maybe a middle man of an i5 Ivy Bridge to get me in a sweet spot while running a 750ti (I found a good one online going for rather cheap).

Just to also ask for experience sake, anyone run games from like 2000-2002 on these machines a la Max Payne, NOLF, etc. and run into any issues? I know some of the specs I'm looking at are closer to the later XP line, so I just want to check I'm not going too high to where I risk not having those games run correctly since my prime area of gaming I'm looking to play is around 1999/2000-2004, with 2007 being my own personal cutoff point.

My XP era PC: https://gamesystemrequirements.com/user/rando … /devices/289374

Soldier of Fortune: Special Edition doesn't work out of the box. You can find fixes on PCGamingWiki.
Doom 3 and Quake 4 runs slower than they should. Most likely a software issue. Or too much VRAM. It doesn't affect Enemy Terrytory: Quake Wars, Wolfenstein 2009 and Prey, though they use the same engine.
Mass Effect is a little bit slow in busy places. Could also be driver related issue. But it's a very late 2007 game so out of range for you.
Need for Speed: Underground is unplayable without Vsync.
Need for Speed: Underground 2 is unstable on quad core CPUs, but you can set the CPU affinity to a single core in task manager.
Fallout 3 also has stability issues with more than 2 CPU cores. The current digital versions are fixed so it's only an issue if you want to play an earlier retail version.
Star Wars: Republic Commando uses an old Nvidia Game Works version of bump mapping, has issues with graphics cards newer than Geforce 7. There is a fix on PCGamingWiki.
Dragon's Lair 3D can have issues with the ACPI drivers. If the game runs at slow-motion, just reinstall them. I don't think it has anything to do with how modern hardware do you run it on. People already had this issue back in 2004.

These are the problem games I played so far. NOLF and Max Payne 1/2 has no problems, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory runs very well and I don't think I played anything else you are interested in. I mostly (almost exclusively) play retail versions rather than modern(ized) digital releases. For some games it's an advantage, because they lack the patches that may break compatibility with period correct systems, for others it's a disadvantage because they lack the patches that actually make them playable.

Ah okay thank you for that! That actually is extremely helpful. I'm going to safely assume then if games like NOLF and Max Payne 1 run okay (which came out in late 2000/2001), then I think I should be okay.

So, I think I have an idea now!
What I'm thinking based on all the research is this is what I'm going to go for:

• Starting off with an Optiplex 7010 that has an i5-3570 at 3.4 GHz

• 4GB Ram

• A GTX 750ti

• Replace the PSU with a 500W one

• Look for a EAX Soundblaster card

Based on what I have listed here, is there anything you or anyone else sees that could cause me issue with playing some older games (say 1998-2001), not getting 60fps in some newerish games (Doom 3, Quake 4, Bioshock), or should I be good to go?

The Optiplex has a decent PSU. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to replace for a 75W graphics card. Under no circumstance should this PC exceed 180W.

I'd recommend the Humble Store version of Bioshock. It's DRM free and it's not the remaster version like in other stores, while the retail version needs online activation.