First post, by vetz
- Rank
- l33t
Some might remember I have quite the elaborate setup of my computers. It allows me to connect up to 4 computers and use the LCD or CRT monitor, keyboard/mouse, speakers and MIDI devices and record picture and sound from any of them. They are also all networked together for filesharing. I've made a diagram of the latest setup:
My KVM switch converts serial mouse to PS2, so there is no problem using any type of machine.
Currently my setup is a follows:
PC1: 386DX-33 system
PC2: Pentium Overdrive 133mhz Socket 4 system
PC3: "1996/1997" Socket 7 testbench system or any other build.
PC4: Pentium III-S 1.4Ghz Tualatin, Geforce FX5950 Ultra, Matrox M3D PowerVR, Voodoo2 SLI system
The problem here is that I rarely use the two first computers. I very rarely take time to play the 386 era games. They don't really interest me that much as the hardware. 486, Pentium and the 3D era games from 1994 to 2003 is much more interesting for me personally. The Pentium 3 and testbench systems are the ones who see the most use. The problem with the Pentium 3 is that it can't max out all the games I want to play (like Dungeon Keeper 2 in 1600x1200 with AA/AF). It's mainly a Win98 build. At the moment I don't have a system to really play Windows XP era games on, except for my main PC which can have trouble with them (aspect ratio, too high resolution for UI elements (it's a 27" 1440p monitor), EAX, etc).
What I have been thinking of it switching out the 386 and Socket 4 systems and replace them with a 486 DX50 ISA build and a Super Socket 7 AMD K6 III. These two builds will very easily handle the DOS and early Windows 95 era I'm interested in. The 486 DX50 ISA can by using the turbo button be switched into a quick 386 DX33/40, while it can still play in the early/middle 486 era, which can be hit and miss on a Super Socket 7 machine with L1/L2 cache turned on/off. I also can't easily change the jumpers when the builds are up and running, so everything must be easy to change in software or with case buttons.
For later Win 98 and Windows XP I'm looking at several options. It's also here I'm most divided in what to do. The main limitation is graphic cards with Win98 support, but there might be an way around that. So I've been thinking about some scenarios:
Scenario #1
Early LGA775 build running a Pentium 4 EE with AGP card either ATI Radeon X800XT or Geforce 6800 Ultra and Voodoo2 SLI.
Pros: Full Win98 support on all components. Should be able to run late Win98/early WinXP games maxed out.
Cons:: Mid/late WindowsXP games will not be able to run very well. Also not a very "high profile" build. Era wise people had switched to PCIe when LGA 775 came out.
Scenario #2
Full highend (Intel Extreme Edition, Athlon 64 FX) Socket 478/Socket 939 build with AGP card either ATI Radeon X800XT or Geforce 6800 Ultra and Voodoo2 SLI.
Pros: Full Win98 support on all components. Should be able to run late Win98/early WinXP games maxed out. Also have the benefit of being era correct and have alot of nice parts I have laying around.
Cons:: Mid/late WindowsXP games will run even worse than on the LGA775 build.
Scenario #3
LGA775 build with Core2 CPU and a more modern PCIe video card plus a 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 PCI card. Using the PCIe card in Windows XP with the DVI output, and the Voodoo5 in Windows98 with VGA.
Pros: Full Windows XP support and maxed out performance for all the games I'd want to play on it, but also with Win98 support for the motherboard. Good Direct3D compatibilty and Glide performance/image quality with the Voodoo5 in Win98.
Cons: Late Win98 games will need to be run in WindowsXP to be maxed out on the graphics as the Voodoo5 does not have the horsepower for full out 1600x1200 in 60fps with AA/AF.
What do you think I should do? The problem is also that I really can't think of that many games which can't be maxed in Win98 on a fast Super Socket 7 machine and which don't run in WindowsXP? So maybe just go full out Windows XP?
Feel free to come with hardware suggestions. I have too many options in my shed already....