My aim with this one was to have a compact Windows 98SE PC which offers high performance up until about the end of 2001 while sacrificing as little regarding compatibility with earlier titles as possible. I did not care about speed sensitive early-to-mid DOS era software.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 2.1GHz (Barton)
MBO: MSI KM3M-V
RAM: 2×Samsung M3 68L3223FTN-CB3 256MB DDR-PC2700 333MHz
GPU: ASUS V9570/TD/128M (Geforce FX5700)
SND: Creative Sound Blaster Live! SB0100
HDD: Samsung SP0612N 60GB
DVD: Lite-on DH16D2P
PSU: Ever Power CWT200MD12
CASE: Yeong Yang YY-A203

For monitor/peripherals I use the same as my XP/Vista PC through a KVM switch, with an extra gamepad, which is a QuickShot Super Fightpad QS6218.

I wasn't particularly picky about the parts. My main aims were that the PC had to be as small as possible without sacrificing all the full-sized external 3.5" and 5.25" drive bays. Initially I wanted to stay with a Tualatin-S with a Ti4200, but the workstation moterboard I had for it wasn't very good for Windows 98, then briefly went with a 2.4GHz P4 which came with the case, but by then I wanted an AMD based system, since I never really had one up until 2009. I had an already retro K5 system in the mid-noughties, but it didn't see much use. I also set my eyes on the FX line of graphics cards. They were crap for modern Dx9 games back then, but for already aging games (Dx8 and earlier) as well as for OpenGL they were very competitive maintaining all the legacy features one could wish for. I thought the Dx9 support could also be useful for the nGlide wrapper if I see the need to play around with that. The FX5700 seemed to be the perfect balance between speed, compatibility and price and though it needs a little more recent drivers than the first wave FX cards, I thought the Athlon XP has enough power not to take a noticeable performance hit.

It didn't end up as hassle-free as I initially imagined (when does it do?), some games just refuse to work properly, also forcing vertical sync off for benching needs some special magical abilities I lack. But for general use for the majority of games I can't complain.