First post, by Ariakos
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Back in the early nineties when I was a teenager our family entered PC computing with an Olivetti 386SX (16 or 25, can't remember anymore). Games worked just fine. Couple years on we got exchange offer from Olivetti and our 386 was changed to Olivetti 486 DX2/66. Of that machine I have the fondest memories of. But at the same time some games (like Space Crusade) just didn't work anymore without some CPU slow software. Apparently games tied to CPU clockrate were better off played from that 386.
So... backtrack to today. I've been planning to re-live my nostalgic youth by assembling an old desktop. Currently I have few possibilities laying around: P200MMX (Socket 7), P2-450 (Slot1), Intel Celeron (Socket 370). I had a slim 386 case found years ago from a flea market but suddenly it's gone missing from my garage. I'm not saying my wife ditched it... but she totally did. So now it seems I'm in a market for a brand "new" DOS machine. Just playing with the cache of P200 might do the trick CPU-speedwise but ultimately I really want the real thing. Trouble is since I can basically choose whatever I want (or realistically, what I can find) I can't decide whether to go either 386 or 486 route. I'm fairly sure 486 DX2/66 or anything above is a total overkill since my taste is pretty much 2D adventure, RPG and strategy games. So I'm battling between 386 (25-40 MHz) or 486 33MHz. Any words of wisdom to share? Heaviest games I can think of are Origin stuff (like Ultima 6-7 and Wing Commander 2). Is there any necessary benefit from 486 or would 386 be sufficient?