AlexZ wrote on 2025-07-13, 13:14:

I would say Vista was initially ahead of its time but the hardware wasn't ready for it. After Windows 7 was released Microsoft never backported interesting features such as TRIM support.

The fact that they had 2 different system requirements for different features of the OS kind of makes me think that is true. Also surprised to know Vista didn't have TRIM support, but it was also released before or incredibly early in the SSD era, so it makes sense.

Matth79 wrote on 2025-07-13, 21:41:

Ideally, leave some unpartitioned space on an XP SSD, as well as creating an aligned partition with 7 or later. Without trim, the SSD will remember every filesystem block that has been used as being valid, so it can reach a not full but full situation where recovering blocks to use becomes slow and causes write amplification. Unused space in the partition does help, but if the system spends a long time in NOT reusing deleted filesystem blocks, more blocks can end up as SSD used / filesystem unused. Unpartitioned space means a guaranteed filter area of blocks that can never be filesystem used. Yes, you can PROBABLY survive ok regardless, if the drive never touches the last 20% IN the partition

Thanks for the info! I'll make sure to keep it in mind if and when I swap out the XP HDD for an SSD.

I've been curious about upgrading my other peripherals recently to something period correct for the build. I will of course do my own research over time, but I'm putting it out here on this thread in case people have some good suggestions. The target period is 2012 or earlier (like 1-2 years back).

Currently on the lookout for a keyboard, mouse, and either a set of speakers or a good pair of headphones (something gaming-oriented for the latter maybe to suit the build pretty well).

I am curious what games you play under Windows 7. I stopped PC gaming betweeen 2009 and 2019. But I recall that most of the games I bought before I stopped were either requiring Steam (which doesnt support Win7 any more as far as I know), or had some kind of online activation (which no longer works). So I assumed these games can no longer be played on Win7?

Are you using games on DVD that dont need online activation?

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-07-19, 18:37:

I am curious what games you play under Windows 7. I stopped PC gaming betweeen 2009 and 2019. But I recall that most of the games I bought before I stopped were either requiring Steam (which doesnt support Win7 any more as far as I know), or had some kind of online activation (which no longer works).

Some games which had online DRM at launch have since been released on GOG, so they can be played under Win7. Examples include Mirror's Edge, the BioShock trilogy and the Batman Arkham series.

Of course, you can also play these games on Win10/11.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-07-19, 19:01:

Some games which had online DRM at launch have since been released on GOG, so they can be played under Win7. Examples include Mirror's Edge, the BioShock trilogy and the Batman Arkham series.

Of course, you can also play these games on Win10/11.

Ah, yeah. I guess thats a good point. You do see in some game comments on gog that people say the game is broken in windows 10/11. So an era appropropriate PC is a good choice for these games. I am sure GOG will be patching them eventually to work on win 10/11

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-07-19, 18:37:

I am curious what games you play under Windows 7. I stopped PC gaming betweeen 2009 and 2019. But I recall that most of the games I bought before I stopped were either requiring Steam (which doesnt support Win7 any more as far as I know), or had some kind of online activation (which no longer works). So I assumed these games can no longer be played on Win7?

Are you using games on DVD that dont need online activation?

There are a few games that I utilize the DVD versions of, yes. But believe it or not, I got Steam to function perfectly fine with a late 2024 build (the last compatible one), and I even got downloads to work. Of course, this won't work forever, but I got some back up plans for when it inevitably stops working correctly down the line. GOG versions are also a good alternative as Joseph mentioned, but I currently don't use them yet.

There's complications with games that need other launchers (like Far Cry 3) but sometimes it is possible to launch them DRM-free or with DRM bypass methods. You can also use the Steam console to download old compatible builds that work better on Windows 7 and play them through Steam, in case a theoretical latest version that was updated for Windows 10 doesn't work, but I haven't really encountered that yet.

As for what games I play... some notable games I'm thinking of right now are Far Cry 3, Borderlands 2, GTA IV, Battlefield 3, Left 4 Dead 2, and Crysis 2. Though I have many more that I still need to get to installing on there. 😉

limemyth wrote on 2025-07-15, 22:11:

I've been curious about upgrading my other peripherals recently to something period correct for the build. I will of course do my own research over time, but I'm putting it out here on this thread in case people have some good suggestions. The target period is 2012 or earlier (like 1-2 years back).

Currently on the lookout for a keyboard, mouse, and either a set of speakers or a good pair of headphones (something gaming-oriented for the latter maybe to suit the build pretty well).

Only thing I have from that era is my 5.1 speakers, the Logitech Z5500 which were Logitech's top of the range speakers from about 2003 till 2011.
They were replaced with the Z906 which are still been made today, and I'm sure are good speakers but many consider them a downgrade.

not sure I'd want 10 year old headphones 😉

chinny22 wrote on 2025-07-21, 00:29:

Only thing I have from that era is my 5.1 speakers, the Logitech Z5500 which were Logitech's top of the range speakers from abou […]
Show full quote

limemyth wrote on 2025-07-15, 22:11:

I've been curious about upgrading my other peripherals recently to something period correct for the build. I will of course do my own research over time, but I'm putting it out here on this thread in case people have some good suggestions. The target period is 2012 or earlier (like 1-2 years back).

Currently on the lookout for a keyboard, mouse, and either a set of speakers or a good pair of headphones (something gaming-oriented for the latter maybe to suit the build pretty well).

Only thing I have from that era is my 5.1 speakers, the Logitech Z5500 which were Logitech's top of the range speakers from about 2003 till 2011.
They were replaced with the Z906 which are still been made today, and I'm sure are good speakers but many consider them a downgrade.

not sure I'd want 10 year old headphones 😉

Wow, both setups look really fancy! I will definitely consider both, depending on which one is available to me. Thank you for the shout! Fair about the headphones though, haha. Who knows what kind of things those pairs went through. 😉

I'm sitting here using an overclocked i7-3770 system as my daily driver... maybe it's time to upgrade after all.

Dropped out for a bit due to peripheral hunting + vacation, but I have assembled a pretty good period-correct setup.

• Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Ultimate 2013, released in August 2012. I was originally going to get a Steelseries 6GV2, but I found this Razer one for pretty cheap, so I grabbed it instead. It's still pretty period-correct to the build. Was also pretty well regarded at the time, and I personally really like its aesthetics and feel. Typing on MX Blues feels amazing. I may change it for a slightly older model or different keyboard if it ever breaks on me at some point, but it serves me very well for now.
• Mouse: Logitech G300, released in September 2011. I struggled to find a good period-correct mouse for a while, but I finally was able to get this G300 for a decent price. Was also regarded as a pretty good gaming mouse at the time, and it feels pretty good in my hand. I tried looking for a period-correct Razer mouse for some time, but they seem to be unobtainium around here, and I like Logitech mice slightly more anyway.
• Mousepad: Razer Scarab Battlefield 3 Collector's Edition, released in October 2011. I was originally going to skimp out on a period-correct mousepad, as I thought it'd be ridiculous that I'd ever find one, but sure enough, I found this one for a very good price, with its original casing no less. Was too good for me not to pick up, and it really is the cherry on top for this setup.
• Speakers: Logitech Z623, released in September 2010. While I did consider either of the Logitech surround sound systems that chinny22 mentioned, I sadly do not have space for a surround sound setup, and 2.1 is more than enough for my needs. While this system is still made today, I obviously hunted down an older model, both for the correct logo and a cheaper price. It hasn't arrived yet, but I'll make a follow up post with some of my thoughts on stuff like EAX games under XP with this system.

The speakers have arrived and I had some time to play EAX games under XP as well as listen to music! Here's a pic of the full setup:

My thoughts on the speakers? They're generally very pleasant to listen to, though they can be slightly harsh and hard to listen to under louder volumes at times. I tried games like F.E.A.R. and Far Cry with very nice results, as well as music and other games under both XP and 7. Not much to complain about. (I did make sure to turn on Game Mode and set the mode to 2.1 speakers, of course.)

As for what I could do next with the setup, I don't really have much planned other than continuing to enjoy using it and maybe putting on more games and software. SLI could be a fun thing to test, but I'd be okay with the setup being as it is for good.

It's been quite a while, but I have some pretty funny news about the build.

Back in August or so, I bought the TP-Link TL-WDN4800 Wi-Fi PCIe card for the build in order to stop using my USB adapter for the internet. It was the final period-inaccurate piece of the puzzle that I now could get rid of... but it didn't quite turn out how I expected.

After it arrived, I installed it in the PC, installed the TP-Link drivers, and... it barely worked at all. 2 different versions of the drivers both had the most horrible unusable range known to man, and I could not for the life of me figured it out. Frustrated by this, I mostly left the setup alone for a while and continued life, until a few days ago, when I got the itch to play with it again.

I relented and used the USB adapter again to have usable internet, and had a good time playing around with the PC again. But I thought to maybe finally fix my PCIe card woes, so while trying to diagnose the problem, I placed an order for a different period-accurate Wi-Fi card. I tried different antennas and got better range, but it still didn't work at all. Then I thought: "Well, if the range was improved and it still doesn't work, maybe it's the drivers?"

It was quite a long shot, and I had no hopes for it working, but I looked up the chipset the card used, found the driver on the Windows Update Catalog and found a compatible Windows 7 driver from 2012. I uninstalled the TP-Link driver, installed the Windows driver, and IT SOMEHOW WORKED. It completely solved my issues, and it even reached full speed at 450 Mbps. I am still amazed and baffled that the core of the issue I was having that caused me to give up on this setup for 4 months was a horrible TP-Link driver. Oh well, you live and learn.

I cancelled that order for the other card, and I now plan to keep having more fun with this lovely setup I curated. Below is an adapter status pic as a trophy of my small victory.

Back again after quite a while. I have some more changes for the build that I think are worth noting.

First, I'm in the process of replacing 2 of the components, the mouse and PSU.

For the mouse, I went with the Razer DeathAdder 2013. The G300 was a decent mouse, but it doesn't really fit the premium 2012 aesthetic of the build, and it's a bit cramped for me to use. So a brand new DeathAdder for the holiday 2012 season was an ideal choice. I had it delivered and it's currently waiting, but I'm overseas at the moment, so I'm not able to test it. 😜

For the PSU, I went with the Corsair AX750. The TX850V2 was great, but the tangled mess of cables it leaves behind is undesirable, and after doing a lot of forum research, the AX750 came out as the preferred choice over the TX or my original swap-out choice, the HX850V2 (which is also straight up unobtainable for me where I'm at) for 4 main reasons:

1) 750W is more than enough for 680 SLI, which I always wanted to leave a path for
2) The AX series was based on the Seasonic platform, which is a bit more robust than the HX V2's CWT platform
3) Full modularity makes it a lot more convenient than the TX, and makes it edge out the HX, which is semi-modular
4) It gives it an extra premium touch for a system that was built with the intention of being a really high-end premium setup

I haven't ordered it yet, but I likely will by the end of this month and swap it in afterwards.

Finally, I actually removed the Windows XP hard-drive, making it a Windows 7 only system currently. The main reason is because I actually plan to build a period-correct 2007 high-end PC as a companion to this one, so I felt the XP install became unnecessary to keep. Another reason is that HDD performance was incredibly slow under XP, and I have never gotten to the end of why. I tried a lot of things but none of them improved it, so I eventually started using XP on this PC less and less over time. And finally, there were some games that did not like the GPU drivers or the 680 itself, and I couldn't really solve those issues. So the thread title is currently inaccurate, hah. (I would like to be able to edit it or have someone edit it to remove the XP part of the title.)

The X-Fi will remain in the system despite that though, and I did install some XP EAX games under 7 and used ALchemy to bring back EAX functionality.

I'm hoping to do some more appropriate benchmarks soon, or even do a comparison with an HD 7970. I'm curious to see how the performance would be with the AMD counterpart. Hope you'll stick around for those or the 2007 PC thread I'll get to making soon. 😀

limemyth wrote on Today, 13:12:

... For the PSU, I went with the Corsair AX750 ...

^ Very solid choice, that was Corsair's top-of-the-line PSU around ~2010.

The best Seasonic consumer platforms at that time were built like tanks, sporting generously sized jap lytic caps all around.

Just one token, look at that humongous cap filtering +5VSB output:

^ Way over-engineered in size, to ensure +5VSB will never get FUBAR.

I have around another Seasonic platform from the same time that went even more extreme:

^ 4700uF on +5VSB is almost ridiculously overkill 😀 . But this PSU hasn't missed a beat in ~16 years of service, and is still going strong.

Thank you for the info and pics, appreciate the extra detail 😁

Looks like Seasonic really went above and beyond for their platforms, makes me completely understand their legendary reputation (especially back in the day, if the incredibly positive forum posts I was reading for my research are an indicator 😜). I can say that my TX850V2 (also Seasonic OEM supposedly) also had no fault whatsoever in running my system, despite it also being a very old PSU and used when I bought it. Very impressed with the engineering.