With WinXP the big question is: what are you trying to do with it that won't run on a current (Core i3/5/7 or Ryzen) build?

I run most WinXP-era games on my current system. Exactly what you can't do with that should guide what specs your dedicated WinXP system needs to have.

Personally I miss the possibility to run old 16b code in 32b WinXP the most. That means my only WinXP build has 2x P3-933 as that is more than fast enough to run my 16b stuff (mostly Win3.11 WinG games) nicely. I'm a bit eccentric, so you probably have a different challenge that will point to a different solution.

My suggestion - why don't you turn that machine into a 98SE machine, maybe you'll need to go a teeny bit older on the video card, and that's it... 845 chipset should run 98SE fine, 40GB HDD will be PATA (more compatible), a 2GHz P4 Northwood or whatever core that is will be screamingly fast for an OS that can't benefit from single-core, 512 megs of RAM is more than enough for 98SE and avoid tangling you into the issues with 98SE and 1+ gig of RAM.

Then start from scratch on an XP system. Look for a late-2000s LGA775 C2Q/C2D (or Sandy/Ivy Bridge if you want to spend a bit more money), PCI-E, SATA, 2-4 gigs of RAM (more if you want to dual boot with anything modern), etc. Those things are plentiful everywhere for very, very good prices... most people selling them are thinking of them as tired Windows 7/10 systems, not as fantastic XP retro systems.

(And yes, assuming Gateway used standard mATX, I suppose you could reuse that case for the type of system I'm suggesting, but why would you throw away every single part (sorry) of a perfectly good 98SE system just to reuse the case?)

Doom 3 was one of those games that really pushed systems when it came out in 2004. If you want a great experience with it, go for a system some number of years newer 😀

dionb wrote on 2024-01-07, 00:32:

With WinXP the big question is: what are you trying to do with it that won't run on a current (Core i3/5/7 or Ryzen) build?

I run most WinXP-era games on my current system. Exactly what you can't do with that should guide what specs your dedicated WinXP system needs to have.

Personally I miss the possibility to run old 16b code in 32b WinXP the most. That means my only WinXP build has 2x P3-933 as that is more than fast enough to run my 16b stuff (mostly Win3.11 WinG games) nicely. I'm a bit eccentric, so you probably have a different challenge that will point to a different solution.

Funnily enough, I actually thought the same thing myself.

What can't I do on my modern Win10 build that I can do on my Gateway? Honestly, nothing really.

I like the idea of simply having the Gateway machine still around. Kinda like having a Ps3, Ps2 and PS1 at the same time, sure I can play Ps1 games on the Ps3 and Ps2 (or Emulating it on the PC) but being able to run it on the original hardware/system feels like thats how I should experience it, you know?

haloshrimpburrito wrote on 2024-01-07, 01:29:

I like the idea of simply having the Gateway machine still around. Kinda like having a Ps3, Ps2 and PS1 at the same time, sure I can play Ps1 games on the Ps3 and Ps2 (or Emulating it on the PC) but being able to run it on the original hardware/system feels like thats how I should experience it, you know?

Sure, but the only thing I would note is that unlike consoles where the game was optimized for the console it was designed for, PC games sometimes (often, in fact, in the early 2000s) tended to stretch the boundaries of what hardware could do on the game's release day.

So, what is the 'original hardware' for something like Doom 3? Is it whatever John Carmack used to code/test the engine? Is it a GeForce 6800 on a Pentium 4 HT 560, which I thiiiiiink was about the highest-performance hardware you could get in August 2004, at least on the Intel/Nvidia side? Is it the computer you owned on its release day (in my case, a 1.9GHz Willamette with a gig of RDRAM and an ATI AiW 9800 Pro that had major league artifacts in Doom 3... such that I never actually played Doom 3)? Is it the first video card that could do 60 steady FPS at [insert resolution here] with the highest graphics settings?

If you have an emotional attachment to that machine and just want to keep it around, go ahead, in that case I'd probably encourage you to leave it all-original.

Pick up a sound card with EAX support (for Doom 3, >=EAX4).

Graphics card should be at least the performance of a Radeon 9700 Pro for Doom 3. You'd also want a much better CPU. I'm using a Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB and a Pentium IV 3.2GHz Northwood CPU on a i875 chipset based motherboard. For Sound, this system has a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro. It runs Doom3 well. At the time of release, nVIDIA was doing better than ATi at this title but with the later driver updates from ATi, they took the lead.

That Socket i845 motherboard of yours is a limiting factor. The Single Channel DDR is not enough to feed the NetBurst Architectures need for memory bandwidth. The 2GHz clockspeed of your processor and its 533MHz Quad Pumped Front Side Bus are also limiting factors here. Your Graphics card should be more than enough however. If you could find a mATX board with a i865PE chipset, like the D865PESO from Intel, you could probably keep the whole case, etc., but just swap out the motherboard+CPU. Pentium IV CPUs on socket 478 are quite cheap. A Pentium IV 3.0GHz Northwoord C with the 800MHz Front Side Bus can be had for less than McDonald's.

A Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music PCI would also be a good buy. OpenAL will give you good sound in Doom3.

Mahigan wrote on 2024-01-07, 05:41:

If you could find a mATX board with a i865PE chipset, like the D865PESO from Intel, you could probably keep the whole case, etc., but just swap out the motherboard+CPU. Pentium IV CPUs on socket 478 are quite cheap. A Pentium IV 3.0GHz Northwoord C with the 800MHz Front Side Bus can be had for less than McDonald's.

I actually just got a Pentium IV 3.0GHz (https://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL6WK.html) , now I just need to get the mATX board.

I understand the emotional attachment to the PC if you were only 5 when you got it.
The question is it really same PC if you replace everything inside the case? or will you lose that sentimental attachment knowing its completely different hardware?
Thats a question that only you can answer and as long as you don't make any permanent changes like case mod's you can always go back.

It would make a great Win9x PC but assuming you're not interested in that era. In which case I'd keep original but upgrade as much as possible so the GF6, Creative X-Fi, max out the CPU and RAM, maybe even a SSD.
It still wont make for a great XP rig, you do need to go upgrade to at least a 775/PCIe based system for that but your still playing on the same PC from your childhood.

I still own our first 486 DX2 66, and even though I have faster 486's/Pentiums that 486 sees most use BECASUE of the link with my past.