First post, by antillies
Hi there,
I'm new to the site, and new to this particular area of PC-building, so I hope this is the appropriate location to post this. I am wanting to build a machine that is capable of dual-booting Windows 98 and XP to play late-90s to about 2004 games (mostly those from the golden age of LucasArts). I know from reading other threads on this site and elsewhere that dual-booting will work mostly fine but I am at a complete loss as to what sort of parts I should use and even which are compatible with which.
The limit of my gaming would be Star Wars Battlefront (2004), which has the following minimum requirements:
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
Processor: 1.8 GHz
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 9 and 256 MB VRAM DirectX: Version 9.0
Storage: 3 GB available space
Sound Card: 16-bit sound card
From other feedback I've received, I'm eying using the following parts:
GPU: Radeon 9800 PRO
CPU: Athlon XP (2600+, 2Ghz or above)
Sound: Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
That said, as mentioned above, I am completely out of my depth with this and am totally open to different variations or parts. I'm OK to sacrifice some performance for cost-effectiveness. I don't need this to be period-correct, but if older parts are less expensive, then I lean going that route.
My questions to you all (and thank you very much in advance for your insight and help) are:
- What sort of motherboard would work best for this build? I'm not sure what sort of connections/connectors I'll be needing for the other hardware. I know for sure I want to include an optical drive.
- Is there particular brand of memory that works best? I know I'll be using (or would like to use) sticks of 512mb.
- For hard drives, is there a preference for older or newer models?
- What sort of power supply will provide enough juice but won't roast the setup? I imagine the power requirements of this build are less but not sure if a modern power supply would be inappropriate to use.
I'd also appreciate (in addition to or in lieu of other feedback) direction to resources that may answer these questions for me. I'd really appreciate learning how to know whether X part is compatible with Y part.
Thank you very much for viewing and for any answers you might be able to provide me.