First post, by lowlytech
I started this retro journey back in 2015 after I had tossed all my old stuff back in 2006 or so probably. Like everyone else all the SB Pro's and other ISA cards/socket 7, etc stuff that were deemed extinct were just taking up precious room, now kicking myself for getting rid of.
Well my first and only build that was going to satisfy me was a p3 1.2GHz tualatin running windows 98se /w 1 ISA slot. Of course being on this forum got me all flustered cause I quickly realized I needed machines to dip down to the 4.77mhz level. More or less my addiction started.
So here is what I am kicking around in my head to be able to have the biggest span of compatible systems. I figure if I build a machine that basically doubles the clock freq. that would hopefully fill any missing holes one would have. Also I like the collection of different sockets and generations. So on my short list is.
8088/ 4.7mhz IBM 5160
80286/8 Mhz IBM 5170
386/16 packard bell
386/40 custom build
486 /66 custom build
Pentium 120 IBM PC Socket 5
Pentium 233 custom build Socket 7
Pentium ii /400 custom build Slot 1
Pentium 3 /800 gateway PC Socket 370
Pentium 4 /1.5GHz socket 423
Pentium 4 2.8 GHz socket 478
I guess at this moment, socket 478 is about as retro as I go. My absolute favorite is probably the 386/40 followed closely by the IBM 5170. Can anyone shed any input on a game or some software they would know that wouldn't fit nicely into one of these setups?