If you want anybody to confirm that it's an insane project, you've come to the wrong place. I don't see any issues with that, and I really can't see why you would want to seek help. But .. maybe more hardware would make life a little better for you ...

Great project! Especially since you included a VLB build as well ... kudos!

I approve of this!

I've a somewhat similar setup of around 15 PC's, although different goals.
Re: post up pics of your "computing area"

Originally LAN gaming was also a consideration which is why I have at least 2 similar period builds, however with my life at the moment is this only happens every few years and I just move the computers around when this happens.

If I can offer some advice it is.
1. Good luck getting all 22 working all at once. It's old hardware and you'll be endlessly chasing your tail due to some fault.
Turn this into a positive. Sometimes you'll be in the mood for playing with hardware , other times gaming. The advantage of having so many PC's is you can jump on anther to play the game and move back to the faulty one once the mood passes.

2. For LAN games dual booting is perfect. LAN games your not really worried about the "perfect" system just some that plays nice with the others. a 486 will drag down performance of a 4 player Doom game with 3 late 90's PC's
So while SBLive or above dos audio isn't amazing, it's more then enough for LAN games

"P.S. Yes, I know this is an insane project. Yes, I'm aware I have a problem. No, I will not be seeking help. The only cure is more retro hardware."
As my brother used to say I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute!

I am gathering parts for a similar idea. In my case though, I am aiming to cover periods by Glide version or Direct X version, and also trying to have a spread of sound technologies (Midi, A3D, EAX etc).

My hardware list is constantly evolving as I gather parts. Most of the builds are in progress, but none are finished.

In most cases I have paired a graphics card with a CPU from a slightly later time, as I think at the time usually graphics cards were held back by CPUs.

Anyway, in case it gives you any ideas, this is my current plan.

DOS 6.22/ Win3.11 (1990-1993) - Psuedo 386/25mhz-486/25mhz
(L2 Cache disabled. SETMUL to add further scaling options)
Pentium MMX – 166Mhz @100Mhz
Baby AT motherboard
8mb EDO RAM
ISA Trident 8900C 512mb
Sound Blaster Pro 2.0
Micro ATX Tower

DOS 7 / Early Win95 (1993-1996)
DirectX 3
(Can slow to the speed of a 486 by disabling caches and using SETMUL)
Pentium MMX – 200-300Mhz (Jan 1997) with Front panel switch to control FSB between 66Mhz and 100Mhz
Gigabyte GA-5AX Super Socket 7
64Mb PC100 SDRAM
S3 Virge 2mb (1996) + Voodoo 1 4mb (Oct 1996)
Soundblaster 16 CT2230 and Diamond Monster Wavetable 2Mb
Horizontal ATX Desktop PC (OPUS)

DOS 7 / Late Win95 A3D 1.0 (1996-1998)
DirectX 5.0 + Glide 2
Pentium II – 300Mhz (May 1997)
64Mb PC100 SDRAM
AGP Riva 128 4mb (April 1997) + Voodoo 2 (Feb 1998)
Sound Blaster 16 CT2290 + Dream Blaster X2 Wavetable
Diamond Monster Sound MX200
Horizontal Desktop PC (Gateway)

DOS 7 / Early Win98 A3D 2.0(1997-1999)
DirectX 6 + Glide 2
Slot 1 Pentium III – 550Mhz (Apr 1998)
128Mb PC100 RAM
TNT 2 Pro (Oct 1999) + Voodoo 2 SLI (Feb 1998)
Awe64 Gold (For DOS)
Turtle Beach Vortex 2
Horizontal ATX Desktop PC (Viglen)

DOS / Late Win98 EAX 3DFX (1998-2000) / Win2k (2000)
DirectX 6.0 + Glide 3
Slot 1 Pentium III @700Mhz (Oct 1999)
Intel 440BX Chipset
256Mb PC100 RAM
Voodoo 3500 (August 1999)
Soundblaster Live (in Windows Only)
Sound Blaster 32 CT3670 (in DOS only)
Large Tower ATX Desktop PC

DOS / Late Win98 A3D 2.0 nVidia (1999-2001) / Win2k (2000-2001)
Directx 7.0
Socket 370 Pentium III Tualatin – 1400Mhz (Dec 2001)
Tualatin Motherboard
256Mb PC133 RAM (one stick)
Inno3D GeForce 2 Ti 64MB (Oct 2001)
Aureal Vortex 2
4.0 Speakers Support
Large Tower ATX Desktop PC

High End Win98 (2000-2003) / Very Early XP (2001-2003)
DirectX 8.0a
Athlon XP 2500+ (Feb 2003)
nForce 2 Chipset
512mb DDR RAM
Geforce 4600 (Feb 2002)
Sound Blaster Audigy
4.0 Speakers Support
Micro ATX Tower

Early XP (2002-2004)
DirectX 9.0
Pentium 4 – 3.4Ghz Cedarmill (Jan 2006)
Intel 865 Chipset
512mb DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (July 2002)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
4.0 Speakers Support
Micro ATX Tower

Mid WinXP (2003-2007)
DirectX 9.0c
Core 2 Duo E8600 3.33Ghz (August 2008)
nVidia nForce 780i Chipset
2Gb DDR RAM
2x Geforce 7900 512Mb in SLI (March 2006)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
ICute Jet Tower

Late WinXP (2006-2010), Windows Vista
DirectX 10.0
4Gb DDR3 RAM
ASUS P8H61-M with i5 3570 @3.8Ghz (April 2012)
2x Geforce 285 GTX 1024Mb in SLI(January 2009)
Auzentech Prelude 7.1 Sound Blaster X-FI
ICute Jet Tower

PleaseHelpMeAdmin wrote on 2025-11-17, 00:43:

Authentic to its period using components that were actually available at the time

Not sure how period correct you want this to be, but I noticed that you have an Audigy card slotted for the year 2000 build. That one came out in late 2001. Best you could get in 2000 from Creative was their SBLive 5.1 model (SB0060).

Also, if you want to keep the OS period correct (again not sure if that was the intent), those WinXP service packs don't match up with the years of your builds. And Win7 didn't exist in 2006.

By the way, I can't see any images in the first post. They all say not viewable in my region. Is there any reason in particular for not using the Vogons forum image upload?

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-11-17, 03:22:

If you want anybody to confirm that it's an insane project, you've come to the wrong place. I don't see any issues with that, and I really can't see why you would want to seek help. But .. maybe more hardware would make life a little better for you ...

Great project! Especially since you included a VLB build as well ... kudos!

Thanks man!

chinny22 wrote on 2025-11-17, 04:26:

I approve of this!

I've a somewhat sim [...] s, I'm aware I have a problem. No, I will not be seeking help. The only cure is more retro hardware."
As my brother used to say I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute!

I'm prepared for this. But all systems at full load would take up over 10kW so that will never happen 🤣. Yeah perhaps the 486 and pre P2 systems will just take a back seat. I think most of us want to play CoD2 anyways so that rules out P2/P3 as well.

Your brother seems an inspired man

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-11-17, 08:33:

I am gathering parts for a similar idea. In my case though, I am aiming to cover periods by Glide version or Direct X version, a […]
Show full quote

I am gathering parts for a similar idea. In my case though, I am aiming to cover periods by Glide version or Direct X version, and also trying to have a spread of sound technologies (Midi, A3D, EAX etc).
[...]
Auzentech Prelude 7.1 Sound Blaster X-FI
ICute Jet Tower

Thanks for sharing. Had a good read and appreciate the emphasis on Voodoo cards and attention to sound. Just really missing some 939 build in there. In my opinion that was absolute peak hardware and it's my favorite platform, subject to nostalgia bias ofcourse.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-17, 08:47:

PleaseHelpMeAdmin wrote on 2025-11-17, 00:43:

Authentic to its period using components that were actually available at the time

Not sure how period correct you want this to be, but I noticed that you have an Audigy card slotted for the year 2000 build. That one came out in late 2001. Best you could get in 2000 from Creative was their SBLive 5.1 model (SB0060).

Also, if you want to keep the OS period correct (again not sure if that was the intent), those WinXP service packs don't match up with the years of your builds. And Win7 didn't exist in 2006.

I'm recalibrating the builds as we speak and try to pin an actual date to match the parts. Oh yeah, Win7 didn't exist but I refuse to use Vista/8 🤣. And XP is just too limited for a build with 8800GTX in SLI

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-11-17, 09:13:

By the way, I can't see any images in the first post. They all say not viewable in my region. Is there any reason in particular for not using the Vogons forum image upload?

Merely me not knowing of this. I'll change it for you

PleaseHelpMeAdmin wrote on 2025-11-17, 22:40:

Thanks for sharing. Had a good read and appreciate the emphasis on Voodoo cards and attention to sound. Just really missing some 939 build in there. In my opinion that was absolute peak hardware and it's my favorite platform, subject to nostalgia bias ofcourse.

Yeah, I was in between Cedarmill Pentium 4 and Athlon 64 for my 9700 Pro build. Back in the day I had that GPU paired with an Athlon XP 3200+. But when I benchmarked that GPU a couple of years ago I found that Athlon XP was a bit of a bottleneck for that GPU. Anyhow, my choice ended up being dictated by the PC case that I have for the build. It is Micro ATX, and don't have an AGP Socket 939 motherboard in that size. I may possibly have a suitable socket 754. I would have to check.

My experience with Intel vs AMD though has been that Intel just works. AMD can sometimes have compatibility problems.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-11-17, 23:11:

PleaseHelpMeAdmin wrote on 2025-11-17, 22:40:

Thanks for sharing. Had a good read and appreciate the emphasis on Voodoo cards and attention to sound. Just really missing some 939 build in there. In my opinion that was absolute peak hardware and it's my favorite platform, subject to nostalgia bias ofcourse.

Yeah, I was in between Cedarmill Pentium 4 and Athlon 64 for my 9700 Pro build. Back in the day I had that GPU paired with an Athlon XP 3200+. But when I benchmarked that GPU a couple of years ago I found that Athlon XP was a bit of a bottleneck for that GPU. Anyhow, my choice ended up being dictated by the PC case that I have for the build. It is Micro ATX, and don't have an AGP Socket 939 motherboard in that size. I may possibly have a suitable socket 754. I would have to check.

My experience with Intel vs AMD though has been that Intel just works. AMD can sometimes have compatibility problems.

Could you elaborate? I have been using AMD from 2004 to 2009 and experienced little issues. Only with a few chipsets that made certain boards unstable (especially RD480)

PleaseHelpMeAdmin wrote on 2025-11-18, 02:23:

Could you elaborate? I have been using AMD from 2004 to 2009 and experienced little issues. Only with a few chipsets that made certain boards unstable (especially RD480)

I don't recall any specific examples. It's a general feeling I have after playing around with retro hardware.

Probably caused by chipsets rather than the CPU itself. I think mostly issues around hardware compatibility. GPUs or sound cards not working properly, or with reduced performance. HDDs not being recognised. Memory fussiness.

I seem to recall some games stuttering on AMD systems, that didn't on Intel. Again though, I don't recall the specific examples.

Have to admit though, that I am referring to K6 through to Athlon XP. I have done less with Athlon 64, and didn't own either Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 back in the day. I went from Athlon XP desktop to a gaming laptop with Pentium M, and after that gaming laptops with Core 2 Duo, then i7 laptop after that.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-11-18, 05:50:

Have to admit though, that I am referring to K6 through to Athlon XP. I have done less with Athlon 64, and didn't own either Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 back in the day. I went from Athlon XP desktop to a gaming laptop with Pentium M, and after that gaming laptops with Core 2 Duo, then i7 laptop after that.

That explains your picks then. I could recommend with at little bias as humanly possible for you to try amd64. I haven't got experience with Athlon XP or Kx chips. Only a few times on a slot a Athlon but with 64 it's been nothing but pleasant. Worked as a teen in a PC shop for repairs etc and built many systems. Both s775 and S939 or AM2 but both platforms were extremely stable. I think AMD edges it here slightly. Post 2006 it's all about Intel, this is clear. For me too. I only have 2 and builds after core 2 launch and I might scrap those

PleaseHelpMeAdmin wrote on 2025-11-18, 07:54:

That explains your picks then. I could recommend with at little bias as humanly possible for you to try amd64. I haven't got experience with Athlon XP or Kx chips. Only a few times on a slot a Athlon but with 64 it's been nothing but pleasant. Worked as a teen in a PC shop for repairs etc and built many systems. Both s775 and S939 or AM2 but both platforms were extremely stable. I think AMD edges it here slightly. Post 2006 it's all about Intel, this is clear. For me too. I only have 2 and builds after core 2 launch and I might scrap those

I had a Slot A 700Mhz back in the day with Riva TNT2. I still have the parts from that PC. The main reason I didn't use it, is no ISA slot on the motherboard I have. I wanted to keep DOS soundcard compatibility for as many machines as possible.

As for Athlon 64, I will do a comparison between that and my Pentium 4 with the 9700 Pro....

Wow, what an ambitious project! Love seeing this and can't wait to see the various builds and benchmarking that comes from them.

Don't really have much to add, other than the question about period correct strictness. For example, the 1997 build a period correct OS would be Windows 95 OSR2.5, whereas Windows 98SE didn't exist until mid-1999.

NT4 for a Pentium Pro makes a lot of sense. I did my own Pentium Pro build but just stuck to DOS and Win95, which is not the most ideal for that system.

Looking at the parts you are seeking, some like the sound cards may carry a premium just because of demand for Creative Labs sound cards. And some will be a challenge to find like the X6800 processor. But there doesn't seem to be anything too rare or esoteric on the list, so hopefully you're able to acquire what you're looking for.

Good luck with this project! Really looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-11-20, 14:45:

Wow, what an ambitious project! Love seeing this and can't wait to see the various builds and benchmarking that comes from them. […]
Show full quote

Wow, what an ambitious project! Love seeing this and can't wait to see the various builds and benchmarking that comes from them.

Don't really have much to add, other than the question about period correct strictness. For example, the 1997 build a period correct OS would be Windows 95 OSR2.5, whereas Windows 98SE didn't exist until mid-1999.

NT4 for a Pentium Pro makes a lot of sense. I did my own Pentium Pro build but just stuck to DOS and Win95, which is not the most ideal for that system.

Looking at the parts you are seeking, some like the sound cards may carry a premium just because of demand for Creative Labs sound cards. And some will be a challenge to find like the X6800 processor. But there doesn't seem to be anything too rare or esoteric on the list, so hopefully you're able to acquire what you're looking for.

Good luck with this project! Really looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

You are completely right. The set-ups are becoming a bit more flexible than at this date these parts and software was available. I grew up with a P2 running W98 because we upgraded later for example I'd like to best flexible with OS and storage on this matter while trying to keep it realistic and add the variety of different OS types.

What kind of Pentium Pro did you have? I'm eyeballing a 200/1M but they're quite pricey still.

The prices are a bit of an obstacle so I will try to catch deals while not feeding into the opportunist market. Bought a FX5950 Ultra for 210 euros which seems sketchy but I have the impression these parts will continue to appreciate for a while longer.

Update: Diablos ready

I've finished my P3 build and want to share the progress. I've set it up to be my early Win XP machine as an ambitious rig to run 1999-2003 games. The pacing in the industry was fast so the drop-off in performance I suspect will be significant. Still the Tualatin, and especially this cream of the crop 1.4/512 will perform well at complex tasks that don't benefit from hyperthreading.

Pics:

Haven't figured out the Vogons imagehosting yet

PleaseHelpMeAdmin wrote on 2025-11-21, 13:45:

I've finished my P3 build and want to share the progress. I've set it up to be my early Win XP machine as an ambitious rig to run 1999-2003 games. The pacing in the industry was fast so the drop-off in performance I suspect will be significant. Still the Tualatin, and especially this cream of the crop 1.4/512 will perform well at complex tasks that don't benefit from hyperthreading.

Haven't figured out the Vogons imagehosting yet

I haven't seen the pics, as not viewable in my region. To attach an image there should be an "attachments" section near where you are typing the text. Just choose to add files.

Tualatin 1.4Ghz is one of those saught after builds to make. Doesn't make a lot of sense financially to build one, but that's not why we do it! I have one. I am pairing mine with Geforce 2 Ti, but I am targeting Win98 and 2k. I want to play games from 1999 to 2001 on it.

I am not quite sure why you are aiming to run such a wide range of years on it, when you will have several other PCs that would be better suited to those years?

PleaseHelpMeAdmin wrote on 2025-11-17, 00:43:

Project Overview […]
Show full quote

Project Overview

Welcome to my long-term passion project: building a comprehensive collection of 22 era-accurate gaming PCs that represent the evolution of PC gaming from the early Pentium era through to modern Coffee Lake. Each build is carefully researched to capture the essence of high-end gaming for its respective year, complete with period-correct hardware, operating systems, and that distinctive retro aesthetic. Yes there will be slight anachronism here and there. I will try to keep it to a minimum.

This isn't just about collecting old hardware but about preserving and celebrating PC gaming history. Each system will be:

• Fully functional and benchmarked with era-appropriate games
• Documented thoroughly with specs, photos, and performance data
• Authentic to its period using components that were actually available at the time
• Ready to play the games that defined each generation

Think of it as a playable museum of PC gaming history, from the days when a 60MHz Pentium was bleeding-edge to the modern era of 6-core Coffee Lake processors.

that does sound good! I have quite a few PCs but none are (intentionally) set up to carefully observe time periods like your ideas, which really do give that authentic 'museum' feel

PleaseHelpMeAdmin wrote on 2025-11-21, 13:45:

You are completely right. The set-ups are becoming a bit more flexible than at this date these parts and software was available. I grew up with a P2 running W98 because we upgraded later for example I'd like to best flexible with OS and storage on this matter while trying to keep it realistic and add the variety of different OS types.

That makes sense. It certainly was common to upgrade or install later OSs on earlier hardware as they became available.

What kind of Pentium Pro did you have? I'm eyeballing a 200/1M but they're quite pricey still.

I used a Pentium Pro 200/512k. I was going for a period correct 1996 build, and the Pentium Pro with 1M cache wasn't available until 1997.

Curious to know if there are any further updates? 😀

This seems like a very exciting project (and pretty difficult of course). Kudos to you! Keep going and keep us informed!

you can cover all with just 4 pcs and save the headache...