Tetrium wrote:

This might be a long list lol! […]
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This might be a long list 🤣!

HD5670 1GB
HD6670 1GB
HD6850 1GB

[)

I think I get your reasoning behind everything else. But why these parts particularly?

SC-7s are usually very cheap and have great GM.

When I spy the zombie apocalypse lurching down the road and have to choose one of my retro systems to rule them all, then it'll be my PIII Win98 machine. It covers so much retro gaming. Ironically though it doesn't quite have the horsepower for 'Stubs the Zombie', but I guess I'll have the real thing to clonk with fence pickets.

Rhuwyn wrote:

@Tetrium

Wow that IS quite a list. My entire collection is not much bigger then your favorites list!!! :-p.

I've basically spend 10 years actively acquiring parts and it was much easier in the early days. And don't worry about the size of your collection, what's more important is that you have what you want ^^

...and I kinda just wanted to try out everything and see for myself 😜.

Rhuwyn wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

This might be a long list lol! […]
Show full quote

This might be a long list 🤣!

HD5670 1GB
HD6670 1GB
HD6850 1GB

[)

I think I get your reasoning behind everything else. But why these parts particularly?

These are mostly for nostalgia (used all 3 of these a lot in my more recent builds), but the HD5670 and HD6670 still run relatively older games quite well (mainly XP games like FEAR and BF2 and such) while having low power dissipation and good cooling which can easily be repaired.

The HD6850 is basically similar, except it has a bit higher power dissipation.

Tetrium wrote:

I've basically spend 10 years actively acquiring parts and it was much easier in the early days. And don't worry about the size […]
Show full quote

Rhuwyn wrote:

@Tetrium

Wow that IS quite a list. My entire collection is not much bigger then your favorites list!!! :-p.

I've basically spend 10 years actively acquiring parts and it was much easier in the early days. And don't worry about the size of your collection, what's more important is that you have what you want ^^

...and I kinda just wanted to try out everything and see for myself 😜.

Rhuwyn wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

This might be a long list lol! […]
Show full quote

This might be a long list 🤣!

HD5670 1GB
HD6670 1GB
HD6850 1GB

[)

I think I get your reasoning behind everything else. But why these parts particularly?

These are mostly for nostalgia (used all 3 of these a lot in my more recent builds), but the HD5670 and HD6670 still run relatively older games quite well (mainly XP games like FEAR and BF2 and such) while having low power dissipation and good cooling which can easily be repaired.

The HD6850 is basically similar, except it has a bit higher power dissipation.

I'm actually using a Radeon HD 6670 in my main rig at the moment, it's a pretty good card and uses a lot less juice and less heat than the 9800 GTX+ I had in here before.

BSA Starfire wrote:

I'm actually using a Radeon HD 6670 in my main rig at the moment, it's a pretty good card and uses a lot less juice and less heat than the 9800 GTX+ I had in here before.

I had a HD5670 with (I think) GDDR5 in my own main rig and later got a 6670 (G?)DDR3 for a AM3 secondary rig I build to replace a A64 single core rig with AGP card. I tried to keep costs down while using mostly quality parts (I did this by upgrading my main rig and using the leftover for the secondary AM3 as much as possible) and for some reason the HD6670 seemed to run somewhat faster than the HD5670. But loved both of them, both did what I expected of them, except the HD6670 seemed to perform slightly better 😀.

And very important, both are also quite silent.

I've modded some of my graphics cards to cool better, to produce less noise and to be modded very cheaply. Found some pics in this reply so you can see what I mean (photobucket has really gone downhill though, but the thumbnails should be fine I think?). It includes how I modded a GF6800 AGP (well, I just basically tied a case fan onto its original heatsink after having removed the original fan-assembly) along with some of my other handywork..

I generally like mid-range graphics cards for being relatively cool, quiet and compact. I went from a 6600GT to a 9600GT and then a GTX660.

I liked 8600GTS, for me that was very good card, also Voodoo 2 and 3, Riva TNT2PRO, GeForce3 and 4Ti, SLOT1 and Socket370 and SocketA boards. And I also like my GT210 which is very good for older games, I ran Gothic 2 at that card at Full HD and was smooth.

There's not too much that's must have. I'd say :

AWE64
Card that offers a MIDI port
MT32/CM32L
Sound Canvas
Old graphics card with decent DOS compatibility (any)
Soundblaster X-Fi (new games, Directsound under XP)

I also need to try getting an old Quadro I have with the stereo3D port working with eDimensional glasses, for OpenGL Stereo3D on a CRT monitor, under XP (something that's not possible with either my passive 3D monitor, or NVidia's modern stereo3D offering)

I'd also add in SSDs and an IDE converter, plus a floppy to SD card adapter as being definite nice to haves.

Only what I actually had and wished for... Atari/Amiga before 1990. PC era mainly between 1990 to 2001. Later I somehow distanced from reading about upcoming hardware and reviews and drooling about it 😊 So I didn't put much emotions into it 😎 Although I still have all the wanted stuff from 2001 till now. Just not that important... yet 😦

Socket 7 and the AMD CPUs accompanying it. It's such a versatile platform and had such a long life (for the 90s), endless options to play with.

Voodoo 2
Gravis Ultrasound
Geforce Ti4
Santa Cruz

How about 3 examples from major categories?

CPU
Intel 486DX2-66 (classic DOS powerhouse)
AMD K6-3+ 450 (so versatile for underclocking)
Intel P3 Slot 1 Coppermine, 1000MHz, 100MHz FSB (max out the BX without adapters)

Motherboard
486 with VLB (it's not a 486 system without VLB)
FIC VA-503+ (sentimental baby AT SS7 favorite)
Intel SE440BX-2 Seattle (rock solid, no nonsense)

Video
S3 Trio64 PCI (seems to work with all DOS games)
Voodoo 3 3000 PCI (gotta have Glide, and PCI means a GF in AGP slot)
Nvidia GF4 Ti4600 (beast, superb compatibility)

Sound
Gravis Ultrasound Classic (no substitute)
Creative AWE32 CT2760 (has its problems but so versatile with OPL3 + large soundfonts)
Aureal Vortex 2 (great 98SE PCI card that works in DOS too)

I'm really a DOS guy, so mostly I value AT era stuff from my youth. Also I value sound more than anything else.

-Roland MT-32 (sold it once in late '00s but had to buy it back. Classic LA synth)
-Roland LAPC-I (MT-32+MPU-401 in ISA form. Never will I depart from this!)
-Roland SC-55 mkII (for General MIDI)
-Roland SCP-55 (for General MIDI in old laptops)
-Sound Blaster Pro 2 (best SB in my opinion)
-Yamaha Audician 32 Plus (darn good all-around SBPro clone card with MPU-401 support and wavetable connetor)
-Gravis Ultrasound Extreme (GUS+hardware SB in same card)
-Intel 486 DX2/66 (classic 486 chip)

A quality Full ATX BX chipset based Slot 1 motherboard has to be in stock!
S3 Virge and Riva TNT(2) videocards for good DOS compatibility.
ESS and Yamaha based all around ISA sound cards.

That was my last DOS gaming machine.

And i think i can live my nostalgia forever 😁

dr_st:

I couldn't afford an AWE32, AWE64, or GUS when they were new. I had an SB16 that I later outfitted with a WaveBlaster. To me, that sounded great! Even today I think it still sounds pretty good. When I eventually got an AWE64 Value card and later a Gold card, I was impressed, but not "blown away". They're good cards, no doubt, and they are my preferred sound card for legacy builds. I only use SBLive cards if I don't have an ISA slot.

dr_st wrote:

Core 2 Quad CPUs.

I disagree strongly with your comments regarding the C2D. I run an E8600 3.3Ghz C2D in my HTPC along with a Radeon 5770 and it still performs far beyond my expectations. True, the C2Q is a much better performer, but it also runs much hotter and uses much more power. They also continue to command a price premium on eBay, while the E8600 routinely sells for ~$15. I firmly believe that the E8600 and E6850 are the "sweet spots" for a legacy WinXP gaming machine.

My favorite old hardware:

ABIT KT7A Motherboard
AMD Athlon 1400 Thunderbird
ABIT BH6 Motherboard
Celeron 300A
3dfx Voodoo 3 3000/3500
NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti4600
Orchid Righteous 3D Voodoo 1 (I love the "click")
CH Products FlightStick Pro
CH Products GameStick 3D
MS SideWinder 3D Pro
MS SideWinder Precision Pro

Feature rich (deluxe, premium, etc.) Asus boards, all (well, many..) things SCSI, feature rich Asus display cards of older variety (Geforce 4 and older), AMD socket 754 and 939 CPUs and boards, AWE64 sound cards, 3com NICs, 5.25" floppy drives, non-critical add-on I/O cards (USB, firewire, serial/parallel, etc.), cases with space for 8 or more drives, CF to IDE adapters...

KT7AGuy wrote:

I couldn't afford an AWE32, AWE64, or GUS when they were new. I had an SB16 that I later outfitted with a WaveBlaster. To me, that sounded great! Even today I think it still sounds pretty good. When I eventually got an AWE64 Value card and later a Gold card, I was impressed, but not "blown away". They're good cards, no doubt, and they are my preferred sound card for legacy builds. I only use SBLive cards if I don't have an ISA slot.

I think that an SB16 + Wave Blaster is, in most cases, a better option than an AWE (unless you are in it for the RAM expansions and custom sound banks). Because as was mentioned in the past - games that specifically support AWE usually support General MIDI as well. But then - don't most SB16 have a hanging note bug on their MPU-401? Does it affect daughterboards connected to the Wavetable header as well?

The advantage of the AWE is that it's a single card that does a lot. There are many more AWE32/AWE64 floating on eBay and such than Wavetable boards, so they are easier to come by and cheaper for it.

KT7AGuy wrote:

I disagree strongly with your comments regarding the C2D. I run an E8600 3.3Ghz C2D in my HTPC along with a Radeon 5770 and it still performs far beyond my expectations.

A C2D, especially a fast one (yours is as fast as they go without overclocking) is still capable of the tasks you mentioned. An HTPC is not a heavy task (unless you add some crazy 4K in it), and some video cards also know how to assist in it. But it is not as good for general computing, since 2 cores do tend to get used up faster than 4 cores, and it is already not as good for some games that know how to use more than 2 cores.

KT7AGuy wrote:

True, the C2Q is a much better performer, but it also runs much hotter and uses much more power.

It does not use that much more power. Well, sure it uses more, but it's not so much considering the full system power usage. It also hardly runs hotter at all, especially the later Yorkfields. My QX9650 routinely idles around 30C, and only very specific torture benchmarks could take it over 80C, even when it was overclocked 20% in a standard air-cooled case.

KT7AGuy wrote:

They also continue to command a price premium on eBay, while the E8600 routinely sells for ~$15.

Price premium is a known issue with these. Part of it is justified, because they do perform better (Heck, a C2Q in some cases beats a dual-core i3/i5/i7, despite the latter having far better architecture, just by sheer horsepower), but part of it is of course due to being the top-end of the socket. I am not saying they are a good buy now, but if you got one when they were actively sold, chances are you have a far more capable PC than someone who bought (for the same price!) a slightly higher-clocked C2D.

And think of it this way - it's the existence of the Quads that makes high-end Duos sell for peanuts. 😀

KT7AGuy wrote:

I firmly believe that the E8600 and E6850 are the "sweet spots" for a legacy WinXP gaming machine.

This I agree with. Although most games that can benefit from the speed of the high-end Duos will also run great on Vista/7. But if you happen to have such a system (like yours) - it can be a great XP gaming machine for a long time.

KT7AGuy wrote:

3dfx Voodoo 3 3000/3500

That almost goes without saying. 😉 It's hard to find anyone who didn't like these Voodoos. They were just so cute, even if not the best performers, and had some limitations.

None really. 😀

- Voodoo3 PCI - The best allround card, works in all machines. Glide, Direct3D, very good picture quality and DOS compatibility.
- Gravis Ultrasound - an Ultrasound is a must have for the games that are made for it.
- Roland SC55mkII - Must own for any MIDI based game.
- Roland MT32 - Must own for LA synth based games
- PowerVR PCX2 - Just because I love playing Mechwarrior 2 on it,
- Aureal Vortex2 - Best allround PCI soundcard. Works well in DOS and Win 98, wavetable header, MIDI support, good 3D audio.
- Soundblaster Audigy 2 - Best allround card for WinXP. Good 3D audio and sound quality.
- Soundblaster AWE64 Gold - Another card which just "works" with better soundquality than the previous ISA soundblasters.
- Super socket 7 (I prefer EPOX due to superb jumper layout) motherboard - Very flexible