Sombrero wrote on 2025-03-25, 18:32:

Odd now that I think about it, that setting usually just reduces mouse lag.

Yeah, that's the main thing I noticed as well.

It helps with controllers too, making analog stick movement smoother.

On an unrelated note, another benefit from having Linux on this rig is that I can periodically use fstrim on the WinXP SSD.

That command seems to be working nicely, even though I'm running it on an NTFS partition.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-03-26, 09:09:

On an unrelated note, another benefit from having Linux on this rig is that I can periodically use fstrim on the WinXP SSD.

That command seems to be working nicely, even though I'm running it on an NTFS partition.

I've got SystemRescue burned on a CD which I use to run fstrim, takes a moment to boot to it though so having an actual Linux install is of course more convenient if you already got one and often use it. But the minute it takes to load SystemRescue isn't much if you run it like once every couple months or so.

Has worked fine for me too. Still have the commands written down for reference though, I switched to Linux on my main PC nearly an year ago and still these terminal commands are like deciphering alien language to me.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-03-26, 10:25:

Has worked fine for me too. Still have the commands written down for reference though, I switched to Linux on my main PC nearly a year ago and still these terminal commands are like deciphering alien language to me.

Yeah, I have a list of my commonly used commands written down in a text file too. I can't be bothered to remember the entire syntax of every single thing, but a quick glance at that text file, and I know exactly what I need.

I've been using Linux as a dual-boot alternative since 2008 or so, but I made it into my main OS around 2020, after Win7 extended support ended. I still have Win7 installed here, I just don't use it for going online, except when downloading my games from Steam. Oddly enough, that still works, despite being officially unsupported as of last year.

However, I'm not sure how long that will last, so I plan to "side-grade" to Windows 10 LTSC soonish. From what I gather, the LTSC IoT release should be supported until 2032. Supposedly, it also has most of the annoying Win10 spyware "features" removed, so it should serve my needs well enough. I'll install that on its own drive though, leaving my other operating systems untouched.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-03-26, 10:44:

However, I'm not sure how long that will last, so I plan to "side-grade" to Windows 10 LTSC soonish. From what I gather, the LTSC IoT release should be supported until 2032. Supposedly, it also has most of the annoying Win10 spyware "features" removed, so it should serve my needs well enough. I'll install that on its own drive though, leaving my other operating systems untouched.

Interesting, didn't know that.

I still have my old Win10 install on my main PC and occasionally have to boot to it to do something I either can't do on Linux or the Linux way is such a huge pain in the ass I can't deal with it, and I'm fully expecting it to start nagging me about end of life and outdated defender definitions once support ends this october. But looks like Win10 LTSC could be an answer to that.

My new SSD arrived today. It's a Transcend 512 GB TS512GSSD230S, which I got for relatively cheap. So finally, I installed Windows 10 LTSC.

After about an hour of updates, it was ready to be used. I can already see some things that feel like a downgrade from Win7, but what can you do. At least Steam installed fine, and I can download all my games at my leisure.

I noticed something odd since I installed Windows 10 on this rig. If I would shut down the PC from Win10, and then boot into Win7 at a later time, it would prompt me to run a disk check on several drives, as if the system had not been shut down properly.

Turns out this is caused by the "Fast Startup" setting which seems to be enabled by default in Windows 10. I disabled that as instructed here and the disc check prompts disappeared. From what I understand, this only happens if you're dual-booting (or multi-booting) Windows 10 with another OS. Still, the issue caught me unaware, so I thought I'd share the solution here in case anyone else runs into this.

On an unrelated note, I turned off BitLocker on the 4 TB mechanical HDD since I needed to access it from Linux more frequently. The decryption process lasted for no less than 48 hours (!) in total. Thanks Microsoft!

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-16, 18:10:

I noticed something odd since I installed Windows 10 on this rig. If I would shut down the PC from Win10, and then boot into Win7 at a later time, it would prompt me to run a disk check on several drives, as if the system had not been shut down properly.

Turns out this is caused by the "Fast Startup" setting which seems to be enabled by default in Windows 10. I disabled that as instructed here and the disc check prompts disappeared. From what I understand, this only happens if you're dual-booting (or multi-booting) Windows 10 with another OS. Still, the issue caught me unaware, so I thought I'd share the solution here in case anyone else runs into this.

On an unrelated note, I turned off BitLocker on the 4 TB mechanical HDD since I needed to access it from Linux more frequently. The decryption process lasted for no less than 48 hours (!) in total. Thanks Microsoft!

I always disable Fast Startup, as I've experienced that it sometimes takes the effect out of a restart to resolve any issues ...

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-04-17, 17:56:

I always disable Fast Startup, as I've experienced that it sometimes takes the effect out of a restart to resolve any issues ...

Interesting. I had not thought of that, but it does make sense considering how Fast Startup works.

I really wonder why this setting is turned on by default. On my system, it barely even improved boot up time.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-16, 18:10:

I noticed something odd since I installed Windows 10 on this rig. If I would shut down the PC from Win10, and then boot into Win7 at a later time, it would prompt me to run a disk check on several drives, as if the system had not been shut down properly.

Turns out this is caused by the "Fast Startup" setting which seems to be enabled by default in Windows 10. I disabled that as instructed here and the disc check prompts disappeared. From what I understand, this only happens if you're dual-booting (or multi-booting) Windows 10 with another OS. Still, the issue caught me unaware, so I thought I'd share the solution here in case anyone else runs into this.

I noticed Fast Startup causing trouble for me back when I upgraded to Windows 8 back in 2012. One can force a complete shutdown when going to switch to a different OS by using the command shutdown /s /t 0 to force an immediate, full shutdown. Without doing that step or using "Restart," I found that often shared secondary drives would still be mounted and I wasn't able to access them in Linux.

Excellent coverage of this wonderful project, congratulations and thank you for sharing your knowledge with the community!

One thing keeps me wondering, how would your machine perform with SGSSAA enable in NFSU2? I find that game particularly demanding, if you wait and let your adversaries advance at the start... the smoke will lower the fps no matter what (i5 3rd gen + radeon hd6k series).

Best regards

xelizor wrote on 2025-04-18, 12:24:

One thing keeps me wondering, how would your machine perform with SGSSAA enable in NFSU2? I find that game particularly demanding, if you wait and let your adversaries advance at the start... the smoke will lower the fps no matter what (i5 3rd gen + radeon hd6k series).

I haven't tried NFSU2 on this system yet, but the slightly older Hot Pursuit 2 ran fine at 1600x1200 with 8xSGSSAA, resulting in 25-35% GPU utilization on average. Here's a screenshot that I posted a while back.

But yeah, the feasibility of SGSSAA for WinXP era games varies quite a bit. For example, I had to reduce it to 4x in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory as both games were too demanding for 8x. From my experience, it's best to use MSI Afterburner for monitoring the GPU and CPU utilization as well as the frame rate to see when the system hits its limits.

I've been testing Gothic 3 on this system and I noticed that it can hit 100% CPU utilization in larger battles, causing some frame drops. Heck, this even happens during the initial fight with the orcs at the very start of the game:

This is with the latest community patch applied, and without the alternative balancing/AI stuff enabled. Granted, this game was infamous for being very poorly optimized back in the day, but it's still weird that it manages to max out a CPU from 2012, albeit only one of its cores. Also, Gothic 3's RAM usage is extremely high for a game that was released in 2006.

I thought I was done upgrading this system, but apparently not.

An Asus Strix GTX 980 Ti popped up on my local classifieds for 70 EUR shipped, so I grabbed it. Currently waiting for it to arrive, along with a cheap Raijintek Arcadia III case. The latter was needed because the 980 Ti wouldn't physically fit in my old clunker of a case due to its length. Looking forward to testing this during the next couple of days.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-30, 04:25:

I've been testing Gothic 3 on this system and I noticed that it can hit 100% CPU utilization in larger battles, causing some frame drops. Heck, this even happens during the initial fight with the orcs at the very start of the game:

The attachment Gothic3.jpg is no longer available

This is with the latest community patch applied, and without the alternative balancing/AI stuff enabled. Granted, this game was infamous for being very poorly optimized back in the day, but it's still weird that it manages to max out a CPU from 2012, albeit only one of its cores. Also, Gothic 3's RAM usage is extremely high for a game that was released in 2006.

DXVK could help in case of poor cpu utilization (helped me a little in Risen 2).

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-13, 08:21:

An Asus Strix GTX 980 Ti popped up on my local classifieds for 70 EUR shipped, so I grabbed it. Currently waiting for it to arrive, along with a cheap Raijintek Arcadia III case. The latter was needed because the 980 Ti wouldn't physically fit in my old clunker of a case due to its length. Looking forward to testing this during the next couple of days.

Nice. That's a great card according to reviews. I bet it won't break a sweat for most XP games that you throw at it, even with added AA/AF/Upscaling etc.

KainXVIII wrote on 2025-05-13, 08:23:

DXVK could help in case of poor cpu utilization (helped me a little in Risen 2).

Interesting, I haven't tried that yet. And yeah, Piranha Bytes made some great games, but they often weren't properly optimized.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-05-13, 08:44:

Nice. That's a great card according to reviews. I bet it won't break a sweat for most XP games that you throw at it, even with added AA/AF/Upscaling etc.

I'll definitively test it in some edge case titles like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time where my GTX 970 struggled with 8xSGSSAA enabled. Not expecting any miracles there, just curious if the extra power would be enough to offset that. But my main use case for the GTX 980 Ti would be some later Win7 era games, where the GTX 970 couldn't quite hold a steady 60 FPS, at least on this system. Tomb Raider (2013) would be one such example.

BTW, due to the length of this card, I'm wondering if I should get one of those GPU support sticks. To prevent it from sagging and bending the PCB.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-13, 09:18:

I'll definitively test it in some edge case titles like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time where my GTX 970 struggled with 8xSGSSAA enabled. Not expecting any miracles there, just curious if the extra power would be enough to offset that. But my main use case for the GTX 980 Ti would be some later Win7 era games, where the GTX 970 couldn't quite hold a steady 60 FPS, at least on this system. Tomb Raider (2013) would be one such example.

Makes sense. For games that "new" I have my Ryzen-based system... I want my 980 Ti Primarily for overkill XP and Vista games.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-13, 09:18:

BTW, due to the length of this card, I'm wondering if I should get one of those GPU support sticks. To prevent it from sagging and bending the PCB.

Yeah, quite possibly. My 980 Ti is heavy as a brick. I haven't yet built the PC that will house it, but my intention is for the GPU to be mounted upright, so it doesn't bend or put excessive strain on the PCIe slot.

ive got an Asus strix 980ti OC, its a good gpu but does put out some heat under load, i was getting temps over 80 degrees so good air flow is advisable, i crammed mine in a small case which is not ideal as airflow is non existent, pics here.
Re: SHUTTLE XPC SN45G-V2 - Video card sizes

i had it in a normal case like yours before and it only just fit as the end of the GPU was touching the drive bays, its a lump of a card and it was sagging so i propped something under one corner to relieve any strain and prevent it flexing, a support stick would definitely be a good idea.

also Tomb Raider 2013 was the first game i played thru when i put this pc together 😀 had it paired with an i5-3450 at the time with 8gb ddr3.

DudeFace wrote on 2025-05-13, 18:10:

ive got an Asus strix 980ti OC, its a good gpu but does put out some heat under load, i was getting temps over 80 degrees so good air flow is advisable, i crammed mine in a small case which is not ideal as airflow is non existent, pics here.
Re: SHUTTLE XPC SN45G-V2 - Video card sizes

i had it in a normal case like yours before and it only just fit as the end of the GPU was touching the drive bays, its a lump of a card and it was sagging so i propped something under one corner to relieve any strain and prevent it flexing, a support stick would definitely be a good idea.

Thanks for the feedback! I've been looking into those support sticks, but all of them have a magnetic bottom for some reason, which gave me pause. As it stands, I would be placing the magnetized end of the stick directly above the hard drive cage, and I don't think that's a good idea. If I can't find a non-magnetic one, I might just build my own from wood.

also Tomb Raider 2013 was the first game i played thru when i put this pc together 😀 had it paired with an i5-3450 at the time with 8gb ddr3.

Yeah, it's a nice game and it came out in the year when I originally purchased this rig (minus the GPU of course), so I'd like to play it there.