Some parts:

CPU:
Pentium 133 MHz (first cpu)
Pentium MMX 233MHz (second 😀)
Pentium II 300MHz (good times)
Pentium II 450MHz (top PII)
Pentium III 1GHZ (omg, 1GHz)
Athlon XP 3200+ (my dream in 2006)
Athlon X2 6400+ (another dream)
Phenom II X6 1090T (First Hexa core system we never forget)
Core2Quad Q6600 (and the first Quad core system too)

Motherboard

PCCHips M507 (first motherboard)
ATC-6130 (great motherboard for P2 300MHz)
PCCHIPS M863G (first socket A board)
Gigabyte GA-7S748L (my dream for socket A)
PCCHIPS A33G (first AM2 board and worked fine)
Asus M4A77TD (great AM3 board)

Video

Trident TGUI9440 PCI (first vga)
Trident TGUI9680 PCI (second)
Trident Blade 9880 AGP (very simple but was great)
Geforce 2 MX 400 AGP
Geforce 2 Ti AGP
Geforce FX5200 (basic card but many games worked fine)
Geforce 6800 Ultra
Geforce 7950 GX2 (dream)
ATI 1950 XTX (Top ATI card)
ATI 3870 X2
ATI 4870

Sound
Sound Blaster 16 (classic)
Sound Blaster AWE64 (my precious 😀)

Sometimes i really wanna buy everything, but the price 😢

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.

Quite similar case here. Despite having a bunch of other SB cards I always return back to trusty SB16 (CT1740 w/DSP 4.05, lucky me yay!) and WB (CT1900) combo. It's likely a bias for me because they are the ones I had back in the day. Sure today I have various other MIDI synths and boards, including Roland, Yamaha and Gravis, and even if I realize others (like SC-88) sound better they're not what was burned into my memory. I like to discover how games can sound different, but all in all SB16+WB1 is what defines my personal nostalgia and what I put back into my retro rig after trying other cards.

As for windows era it was Aureal Vortex 2 hands down. I did like Audigy 2 ZS sound but drivers were so buggy, overbloated and unstable it was a nightmare.

My Must have's

Athlon XP 1700+ (The First CPU I ever paid for out of my own pocket, I still have it, its in a plastic CPU holder)
Geforce FX 5200 (Between 2003-2005 I owned no less than 13 of these, at this point its just a running joke between me and my buddy 🤣
K6-2 450 (my first cpu upgrade was to one of these, my dad found it and said I could have it)
Soundlbaster 16 PCI (The first soundcard I spent money on, don't currently have one but do want one so bad)

dr_st wrote:

don't most SB16 have a hanging note bug on their MPU-401? Does it affect daughterboards connected to the Wavetable header as well?

I haven't played a game that uses midi on that PC in a very long time. I seem to recall that my CT2230 had the hanging note bug, but I've also read other reports that say the CT2230 cards aren't supposed to be affected. I've also read that the hanging note bug isn't supposed to affect wavetable daughterboards.

dr_st wrote:

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.

They're just the best video card ever, I think. They just work. No problems, no messing around. Whether you use the official drivers & software or not, problems with Voodoo 3 cards are not very common. I still have and use the one I bought new in the late 90s. I've considered popping off the heatsink and applying some nice MX4 or something, but I don't want to accidentally break it. To aid in cooling, I pointed a small fan at it, but that's it.

KurtHectic wrote:

Asus M4A77TD (great AM3 board)

I agree. These are good motherboards. Nice solid caps, too. I still use one of these as my daily driver. When I eventually upgrade, it will become my "ultimate" WinXP legacy machine along with the GTX 560 Ti I have in it. I'll probably add in a SB X-Fi for EAX goodness and gameport support at some point.

I also like the ABIT IP35 Pro quite a bit too. Unfortunately, support for the E8600 is unofficial and only available via beta BIOS firmware. However, I haven't had any problems.

KurtHectic wrote:

Sometimes i really wanna buy everything, but the price 😢

I'm really glad I've already got everything I need/want. I look at the prices nowadays and wince. This hobby is getting expensive for folks who are new to it. I'm not sure that's a good thing or a bad thing.

dr_st wrote:

AWE64: In the days of DOS I kept hearing how AWE cards are awesome, but could never get one, until much later, when it was already "retro", from a bargain bin. I was quite pleased, even if later I discovered that it doesn't really add much over AWE32, and in fact has some deficiencies, but it still does good SB16 stuff, which makes it highly compatible, good AWE music for games that support it, and it is much more compact than the full-length AWE32 cards, which is also something I like.

I love AWE64s! 😊

dr_st wrote:

Core 2 Quad CPUs, especially the higher-end ones. It's quite impressive, that almost a full decade after their release, they can still pack a punch and be very useful and usable in modern tasks, unlike many of their dual core counterparts. People were mocking the C2Q for not being a "true quad-core" architecture, but rather just a pair of C2Ds glued together, but guess what, those "glued C2Ds" still rock, while plain C2Ds have bitten the dust long ago. The C2Q on average are also pretty good overclockers, which allows them to match the fastest CPUs of the Core 2 architecture in single-threaded apps, and at the same time, completely wipe the floor with their single/dual core siblings in multi-tasking environments.

My most modern/daily rig is based on C2Q (9550) and yes, it still rocks (or I feel like it rocks) 😊 I purchased it in 2009, it's quite an achievement for a CPU to be in active daily use for more than 7 years long.

If it would have to be only one piece of hardware it would be the Sound Blaster Pro CT1600.

Judging on how DOS games respond to different parts:
Graphic cards all look pretty much the same.
CPUs run pretty much the same for DOS games above certain MHz.
The sound card has the most significant impact on the experience of the same game and most obvious changes.

Back in the ISA era of sound cards for DOS, no two card models sounded alike.
SB1, SBPro, SB16, AWE32, AWE64, PAS, GUS, Yamaha, Aztech, Avance, ESS, Mozart... All had different variants of OPL chips, PCM filters (or not), MIDI, Sound Banks, noise levels, and many small nuances that made them sound different to one another.

So if I would have to choose the most significant piece of hardware in a 90s computer, definitely the sound card.

Yes I'm with you James-F, sound cards hold a lot of interest for me because of their variability. Although I think you're underestimating the fun you can have in finding the right graphics card for a retro build, particularly in a VLB or ISA based machine. Image quality, compatibility, speed, SVGA capability are all factors and I went through half a dozen in my 486 before finding the right one. Likewise in my 286 where CGA compatibility was an issue.

And another obsession of mine is getting the right case for a build - there's no mismatched beige or yellowing permitted under my roof 🤣

badmojo wrote:

And another obsession of mine is getting the right case for a build - there's no mismatched beige or yellowing permitted under my roof 🤣

Noooooooo! That's just part of the charm! Having a beige case with drives that matched wouldn't be period-correct. The only one I've got that matches 100% is my Dell Dimension 4100, and that's only because it was assembled that way at the factory.

I was glad when black parts replaced the white/beige stuff. It just looks so much better and there's no mismatched parts.

badmojo wrote:

Although I think you're underestimating the fun you can have in finding the right graphics card for a retro build, particularly in a VLB or ISA based machine. Image quality, compatibility, speed, SVGA capability are all factors and I went through half a dozen in my 486 before finding the right one. Likewise in my 286 where CGA compatibility was an issue.

My first PC was a Pentium 133, never had to deal with ISA or VLB video cards.
it always was PCI graphics and motherboard IDE for me, I don't remember plugging a CD-ROM to a Sound Cards.. that is just absurd. 😀

Voodoo5 5500.
Aureal 3D sound cards.
Sound Blaster AWE 64 Gold.
Intel 440 BX motherboard.
Intel 845 motherboard.
CH Fighterstick, Pro Throttle, Pro Pedals.
Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS, TQS, and RCS pedals.
1980's JBL titanium series loudspeakers (JBL 120Ti, JBL L80T, etcetera).
Sansui AU-7900 integrated amplifier.

If I had to choose one item it'd be an MT32, the rest of hardware is fairly interchangeable but an MT32/CM32L sounds awesome.

I have a soft spot for the P III era, and ran a dual P 3 system as my main box until 2005.

Historically the Soundblaster Pro 2 was awesome both for sound quality, and for enabling a CDROM drive! Likewise the Voodoo2 was amazing at the time, but is mostly pointless now.

Well, just about everything upto p4 systems, after that i've still build a lot of systems but i lost the real interest. My current i5 is a beast, it doesn't need my help, it just works every time. No fun in that 🤣

Favorites: Asus motherboards, Creative soundcards, 3dfx cards

Favorite systems are in my sig, if i would have to choose one it could be the super socket7 Asus p5a with k6-3+ and v2 sli.

My ThinkPads and ZR30ws.

Must haves for me:

CPU:
- AMD K5 PR200

Motherboards:

- NEL Technologies / Juko 8086 motherboard
- FX-3000 386/486 motherboard
- DFI ITOX 586

Graphics / Video Cards:

- IBM CGA (old)
- Diamond Speedstar (Cirrus Logic CL-5434) - ISA

Sound Cards

- Boxed 1990 AdLib MSC card
- AdLib Gold 1000
- IBM Music Feature Card
- Mediatrix AudioTrix 3D-XG
- Roland LAPC-I
- Turtle Beach Tropez Plus

For the all-time thing from various categories, I'll go with these right now: Roland MT-32, Microsoft Mouse 2.0 (the kidney shape), Voodoo Graphics, the Socket A Athlon.

Must haves:

3DFX Voodoo 3 PCI - Just can't find one that isn't priced out of the stratusphere!
Slot 1 mobo for my 133mhz fsb 850 P3 - again most are crazy priced.

Philips P2230 our first pc with 80286 12.5mhz processor 4 mb ram, 20mb hdd. Also a vga 256kb card and adlib compatible soundcard.
MT-32
GUS Ace.
That's all.

buckeye wrote:

3DFX Voodoo 3 PCI - Just can't find one that isn't priced out of the stratusphere!

Don't limit yourself to just the 3000. The 2000 models can usually be safely overclocked far beyond 166mhz, the stock speed of the 3000. Just point a fan at it and you'll be ok. Take a look here and see what I did with my old P233 system (I upgraded it from a P200 recently):

Tyan P200 MMX Voodoo 1

You can see the fan I pointed at the V1 card, but you can easily do the same thing for your V3 card. It is cheap to make and highly effective.

buckeye wrote:

Slot 1 mobo for my 133mhz fsb 850 P3 - again most are crazy priced.

Things are getting nutty. I really like the ABIT BH6 and I've always wanted a VH6T, but the prices on eBay are just insane. I'm really glad I already have the BH6 because I probably wouldn't be willing to pay what they're selling for now.

I run a 100mhz FSB P3 1000 in my BH6. Wouldn't that be comparable in performance to a 133mhz FSB P3 850?

CPU:
Am386DX-40: not rare but the greatest 386 ever
K6-3 400 and K6-2+ 550: I like these cause almost the top of the k6 tech
Athlon XP 3200+: using right now as main pc cpu, take that octa-core cpus 😁

Memory:
4Mb x 4 SIMM 30pin 60ns: like cause they are rare

Video:
ATi Wonder XL 28800-5 ISA 1MB: high end build with smd and pcb, much better than many other cards
Cirrus Logic GD5429 ISA 1MB DRAM: my fastest isa card
Hercules 4500 Kyro2 64MB: great alternative card back in the time
Viper2 Z200 Savage 2000 32MB: 😁
ATi Rage Fury Maxx 64MB: 😀
Matrox M3D PCX2: take that Voodoo pass-through cable!
Matrox G450 16/32MB AGP: greatest native output analog signal
Radeon 7200 64MB: great retro looking pcb style
Radeon DDR 64MB: great alternative geforce card
ATi HD3450 DDR2 high profile: like cause one of the latest agp cards

What I'd like to find:

ATi Mach64 2MB ISA: fastest isa card
Geforce2 Ultra: I still remember how much it was fast and expensive
Matrox Parhelia 512MB AGP: great looking card
ATi 9800 DDR2 256Mb: I think it was rare
Xgi Volari V8 Duo: it would be nice to test this
Athlon 1000Mhz Slot A and early motherboards: power!