Very nice build you got there! A nice end of the XP era system that will play fine most games up to 2008 although not at max settings.
Regarding the PSU: change it quickly! it is a low quality one and when it will fail it may take most of the system with it! Corsair or Enermax are good brands but expensive!
Regardind the CPU: I used in my ultimate version of Windows XP system both the E8600 and the Q6600 and both play every single game up to 2008 exceptionally well. I think Q6600 is more than capable of running every XP game comfortably.
Regarding the ram: late Windows XP era games require more than 2gb of ram - I assume that you want to disable the pagefile and load everything in the system's RAM and not wait for the hard drive to load some data in some game. Games from 2005 onward, such as Quake 4, Fear, Company of heroes and so on will certainly need more than just 2gb when running at max settings. And before anyone asks: max settings = every single setting activated and the highest option selected; exception = VSYNC.
Regarding the video card: Radeon 4850 can not play any of the games I wrote about just above at max settings - and 512mb of vram is insufficient - actually some games display a warning when you select a option that requires more than 512mb - example Company of heroes when you select ultra textures you get a message that you video card has only 512mb and you need more! You will need something like Radeon 4890 or GTX 275.
Overall a very nice system which looks beautiful that with a video card upgrade and some more RAM could play any game up to 2008 very well.

It's a really nice Intel rig for Windows XP era. I wouldn't worry about it being underpowered for games from 2008 as those can be played on a much more powerful rig on Windows 7. Radeon HD 4850 is basically the same class as my GeForce 9800 GT but should perform better on faster system. Later cards doubled energy consumption and require a more powerful PSU. Upgrading to a 1-2 year newer GPU is not meaningful as those are very energy inefficient. I'm not a fan of old worn out 650W PSUs.

I'm surprised you are using a GPU holder for a light single slot card. I'm not using one for my GeForce 9800 GT. I would mount a cheap 140mm fan at the back of the case to help push hot air from CPU out of the case. CPU fan will probably have ball bearings and be noisy.

I recently installed Quake 4 on my Athlon 64 and can run it at max settings fine with just 2GB RAM. I would buy more DDR RAM but it isn't available.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-19, 20:39:

I recently installed Quake 4 on my Athlon 64 and can run it at max settings fine with just 2GB RAM. I would buy more DDR RAM but it isn't available.

With all due respect but there is absolutely no way you could be playing Quake 4 at max settings on a geforce 9800gt 512mb unless you are playing at 800*600!
Quake 4 needs more than 512mb of VRAM and around 2.5gb of system RAM at these settings: 1600*1200 ultra quality; advanced settings all ON, AA = 16X, Vsync off. A geforce 8800gtx has its 768mb framebuffer full according to MSI afterburner and can not maintain an average of 60 FPS - not minimum! - at those settings!
Just to be clear again: MAX SETTINGS = all options activated and the highest possible setting selected with the single exception of VSYNC. Max means max not turning something down or off!

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-19, 20:39:

I'm surprised you are using a GPU holder for a light single slot card. I'm not using one for my GeForce 9800 GT. I would mount a cheap 140mm fan at the back of the case to help push hot air from CPU out of the case. CPU fan will probably have ball bearings and be noisy.

Well, if one has the GPU holder, why not put it to use nevertheless? 😉

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-02-20, 08:07:

Well, if one has the GPU holder, why not put it to use nevertheless? 😉

Same reason why we don't install extra HDDs and DVD drives that we don't need even though there is space in the case 😉

nd22 wrote on 2025-02-20, 07:20:

With all due respect but there is absolutely no way you could be playing Quake 4 at max settings on a geforce 9800gt 512mb unless you are playing at 800*600!
Quake 4 needs more than 512mb of VRAM and around 2.5gb of system RAM at these settings: 1600*1200 ultra quality; advanced settings all ON, AA = 16X, Vsync off. A geforce 8800gtx has its 768mb framebuffer full according to MSI afterburner and can not maintain an average of 60 FPS - not minimum! - at those settings!
Just to be clear again: MAX SETTINGS = all options activated and the highest possible setting selected with the single exception of VSYNC. Max means max not turning something down or off!

I'm playing Quake 4 at 1280x1024@85Hz on CRT with max settings except for AA as I don't turn it on for any games. 1600x1200 makes little sense on my CRT as I get 72Hz only and image is less sharp. I get 60 FPS most of the time, except for some outside positions where it drops to 40 (but goes back to 60 when changing direction). I would say it's very playable.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-20, 08:12:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-02-20, 08:07:

Well, if one has the GPU holder, why not put it to use nevertheless? 😉

Same reason why we don't install extra HDDs and DVD drives that we don't need even though there is space in the case 😉

Don't we? 🤣

Actually, I feel there's a difference - it's not necessary per se - but if one has it and doesn't need it anywhere else, it's just an extra measure of protection .. 😀

Interesting that somebody posts an LGA 775 build now, just a couple days ago I watched the Phil's Computer Lab video about how he believes the 775 platform will be the next one to start ramping up in value, and I believe he's right. I already have a few 775 systems and components, but figured I'd spend some time hunting for more parts while they're cheap.

I rocked a C2D desktop for a number of years after I retired my socket A desktop, with an E6600 (which I still have!) and if memory serves, an ASUS P5N32-E SLI motherboard. That was a hybrid Nvidia 650i/680i chipset. Those C2Ds can overclock like mad, think I had mine up from the stock 3.06 GHz to like 3.8 GHz stable, and that was with not a lot of fine tuning.

I've got one complete 775 system now with an Intel motherboard and a QX6700, plus a few other boards and CPUs I have yet to do something with. It's definitely a fun and wide spanning platform to build on.

nd22 wrote on 2025-02-19, 10:08:

Very nice build you got there! A nice end of the XP era system that will play fine most games up to 2008 although not at max set […]
Show full quote

Very nice build you got there! A nice end of the XP era system that will play fine most games up to 2008 although not at max settings.
Regarding the PSU: change it quickly! it is a low quality one and when it will fail it may take most of the system with it! Corsair or Enermax are good brands but expensive!
Regardind the CPU: I used in my ultimate version of Windows XP system both the E8600 and the Q6600 and both play every single game up to 2008 exceptionally well. I think Q6600 is more than capable of running every XP game comfortably.
Regarding the ram: late Windows XP era games require more than 2gb of ram - I assume that you want to disable the pagefile and load everything in the system's RAM and not wait for the hard drive to load some data in some game. Games from 2005 onward, such as Quake 4, Fear, Company of heroes and so on will certainly need more than just 2gb when running at max settings. And before anyone asks: max settings = every single setting activated and the highest option selected; exception = VSYNC.
Regarding the video card: Radeon 4850 can not play any of the games I wrote about just above at max settings - and 512mb of vram is insufficient - actually some games display a warning when you select a option that requires more than 512mb - example Company of heroes when you select ultra textures you get a message that you video card has only 512mb and you need more! You will need something like Radeon 4890 or GTX 275.
Overall a very nice system which looks beautiful that with a video card upgrade and some more RAM could play any game up to 2008 very well.

Yeah, I was thinking in getting a 500 or 600 series nVidia card, wich comes in 1 and 2 GB variants, now that are cheaper, because I really believe these sistems will ramp up in prices among collectors. Consider that nVidia dropped driver support for 32bit PhysX on 5000 series cards. I'm confident that a simple community .dll will fix the issue in the future, but I bet some people will still prefer to get a native solution, and I also bet that soon we may see more and more problems in DX9 rendering too.
About ram, I have 4GB of corsair RAM incoming.
And the PSU... Yeah. I know it's a cheap one (50€). But it's new. I'll keep using it until I free my sharkoon 750W unit, wich should be soon if 16 cores 9000 series X3D drops in March.

PS, I have a Syncmaster 750s, wich supports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 at 60hz, but unless the game can't go over 60fps, I use it at the suggested res of 1024x768 at 85hz. I don't think I'll ever max out the VRAM with those resolutions. But since I have Quake 4 on disc somewhere, I may try to do it 😈

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-19, 20:39:

I'm surprised you are using a GPU holder for a light single slot card. I'm not using one for my GeForce 9800 GT. I would mount a cheap 140mm fan at the back of the case to help push hot air from CPU out of the case. CPU fan will probably have ball bearings and be noisy.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in the main post: If I let the GPU hang, it bends quite a lot, and it starts artifacting if placed vertically. If I use the holder to push it up, the artifacts goes away and, I hope, by pushing it even more than a flat position it should help straighten up the PCB with time. Otherwise I can always take it to the same lab that resuscitated my Ti 4200.
The CPU fan isn't noisy at all. It's a new cooler, and a good one on top of it. It's a Macho Rev.B from Thermalright, so much newer than the platform itself.

Brawndo wrote on 2025-02-21, 05:06:

Interesting that somebody posts an LGA 775 build now, just a couple days ago I watched the Phil's Computer Lab video about how he believes the 775 platform will be the next one to start ramping up in value, and I believe he's right. I already have a few 775 systems and components, but figured I'd spend some time hunting for more parts while they're cheap.

I rocked a C2D desktop for a number of years after I retired my socket A desktop, with an E6600 (which I still have!) and if memory serves, an ASUS P5N32-E SLI motherboard. That was a hybrid Nvidia 650i/680i chipset. Those C2Ds can overclock like mad, think I had mine up from the stock 3.06 GHz to like 3.8 GHz stable, and that was with not a lot of fine tuning.

I've got one complete 775 system now with an Intel motherboard and a QX6700, plus a few other boards and CPUs I have yet to do something with. It's definitely a fun and wide spanning platform to build on.

As said before, I think we are getting closer and closer to a drop in support for several features that made the mid to late 2000s in gaming. We alredy experienced dropped EAX years ago, just now nVidia dropped support for 32bit hardware accelerated Physx. I believe we may start to see more and more problems even in DX9 games in the near future.
Thus I believe the 775 platform may become quite an interesting one for collectors. But it won't be alone. On the intel side you can go even with an LGA 1151 and newer. With AMD you are stuck up to Zen+, since they officialy dropped support for several Win7 functions with Zen2 (not like you can't cheat the chipset and install Win7 on it anyway, but it's not direct and can still be borked).
I believe that pushing a C2Q to 3.0 GHZ should be possible, afterall my mobo does officially support 1333mhz FSB, so I can either OC the FSB to 333mhz with the Q6600, or get a Q9650.
And I have more than decent cooling.

GTX 560 ti from MSI is the newest video card I have bought. In directx 11 performance is terrible however under XP it can play any game up to 2008 at 1080p/1200p at max settings. I am sure there are many other cards but this one I have been using it and I know to have excellent performance and vompatibility in XP.

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-21, 12:54:

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in the main post: If I let the GPU hang, it bends quite a lot, and it starts artifacting if placed vertically. If I use the holder to push it up, the artifacts goes away and, I hope, by pushing it even more than a flat position it should help straighten up the PCB with time. Otherwise I can always take it to the same lab that resuscitated my Ti 4200.
The CPU fan isn't noisy at all. It's a new cooler, and a good one on top of it. It's a Macho Rev.B from Thermalright, so much newer than the platform itself.

That is not going to work long term. It seems you have cracked joints somewhere and compensate it by warping the card. It will probably just develop new joint cracks elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEdFTmOAT58

Explains that even GPU supports don't solve the problem completely as the card just warps differently.

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-21, 12:54:

Yeah, I was thinking in getting a 500 or 600 series nVidia card, wich comes in 1 and 2 GB variants, now that are cheaper, becaus […]
Show full quote

nd22 wrote on 2025-02-19, 10:08:

Very nice build you got there! A nice end of the XP era system that will play fine most games up to 2008 although not at max set […]
Show full quote

Very nice build you got there! A nice end of the XP era system that will play fine most games up to 2008 although not at max settings.
Regarding the PSU: change it quickly! it is a low quality one and when it will fail it may take most of the system with it! Corsair or Enermax are good brands but expensive!
Regardind the CPU: I used in my ultimate version of Windows XP system both the E8600 and the Q6600 and both play every single game up to 2008 exceptionally well. I think Q6600 is more than capable of running every XP game comfortably.
Regarding the ram: late Windows XP era games require more than 2gb of ram - I assume that you want to disable the pagefile and load everything in the system's RAM and not wait for the hard drive to load some data in some game. Games from 2005 onward, such as Quake 4, Fear, Company of heroes and so on will certainly need more than just 2gb when running at max settings. And before anyone asks: max settings = every single setting activated and the highest option selected; exception = VSYNC.
Regarding the video card: Radeon 4850 can not play any of the games I wrote about just above at max settings - and 512mb of vram is insufficient - actually some games display a warning when you select a option that requires more than 512mb - example Company of heroes when you select ultra textures you get a message that you video card has only 512mb and you need more! You will need something like Radeon 4890 or GTX 275.
Overall a very nice system which looks beautiful that with a video card upgrade and some more RAM could play any game up to 2008 very well.

Yeah, I was thinking in getting a 500 or 600 series nVidia card, wich comes in 1 and 2 GB variants, now that are cheaper, because I really believe these sistems will ramp up in prices among collectors. Consider that nVidia dropped driver support for 32bit PhysX on 5000 series cards. I'm confident that a simple community .dll will fix the issue in the future, but I bet some people will still prefer to get a native solution, and I also bet that soon we may see more and more problems in DX9 rendering too.
About ram, I have 4GB of corsair RAM incoming.
And the PSU... Yeah. I know it's a cheap one (50€). But it's new. I'll keep using it until I free my sharkoon 750W unit, wich should be soon if 16 cores 9000 series X3D drops in March.

PS, I have a Syncmaster 750s, wich supports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 at 60hz, but unless the game can't go over 60fps, I use it at the suggested res of 1024x768 at 85hz. I don't think I'll ever max out the VRAM with those resolutions. But since I have Quake 4 on disc somewhere, I may try to do it 😈

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-19, 20:39:

I'm surprised you are using a GPU holder for a light single slot card. I'm not using one for my GeForce 9800 GT. I would mount a cheap 140mm fan at the back of the case to help push hot air from CPU out of the case. CPU fan will probably have ball bearings and be noisy.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in the main post: If I let the GPU hang, it bends quite a lot, and it starts artifacting if placed vertically. If I use the holder to push it up, the artifacts goes away and, I hope, by pushing it even more than a flat position it should help straighten up the PCB with time. Otherwise I can always take it to the same lab that resuscitated my Ti 4200.
The CPU fan isn't noisy at all. It's a new cooler, and a good one on top of it. It's a Macho Rev.B from Thermalright, so much newer than the platform itself.

Brawndo wrote on 2025-02-21, 05:06:

Interesting that somebody posts an LGA 775 build now, just a couple days ago I watched the Phil's Computer Lab video about how he believes the 775 platform will be the next one to start ramping up in value, and I believe he's right. I already have a few 775 systems and components, but figured I'd spend some time hunting for more parts while they're cheap.

I rocked a C2D desktop for a number of years after I retired my socket A desktop, with an E6600 (which I still have!) and if memory serves, an ASUS P5N32-E SLI motherboard. That was a hybrid Nvidia 650i/680i chipset. Those C2Ds can overclock like mad, think I had mine up from the stock 3.06 GHz to like 3.8 GHz stable, and that was with not a lot of fine tuning.

I've got one complete 775 system now with an Intel motherboard and a QX6700, plus a few other boards and CPUs I have yet to do something with. It's definitely a fun and wide spanning platform to build on.

As said before, I think we are getting closer and closer to a drop in support for several features that made the mid to late 2000s in gaming. We alredy experienced dropped EAX years ago, just now nVidia dropped support for 32bit hardware accelerated Physx. I believe we may start to see more and more problems even in DX9 games in the near future.
Thus I believe the 775 platform may become quite an interesting one for collectors. But it won't be alone. On the intel side you can go even with an LGA 1151 and newer. With AMD you are stuck up to Zen+, since they officialy dropped support for several Win7 functions with Zen2 (not like you can't cheat the chipset and install Win7 on it anyway, but it's not direct and can still be borked).
I believe that pushing a C2Q to 3.0 GHZ should be possible, afterall my mobo does officially support 1333mhz FSB, so I can either OC the FSB to 333mhz with the Q6600, or get a Q9650.
And I have more than decent cooling.

3Ghz is rookie numbers for a good C2Q, I got a QX9770 that hits 4.2Ghz with little issue but its a rare chip so I didn't push it further and a really nice X5470 that Ive had at 4.5Ghz P95 stable I have seen them get to 4.6Ghz and others have pushed them further with more exotic cooling. (Its the little Xeon that could and if you can grab one with the 775 mod its a fun CPU to play with)

Overall QX9650 is hands down the best all round QX chip released for 775 and its the one that I actually used in my build as its easy to replace should it kick the bucket and its unlocked so has plenty of room to spare should I want to run it faster its also pretty easy to keep cool, a really solid CPU. (The Q6600 is another favourite too for the more vanilla out there ! most Q6600 will overclock like demons too so dont be afraid to push that FSB past 333)

775 is my favourite platform and I have quite a collection of boards and CPUs for it, I even have a rare EVGA 790i SLI FTW PWM digital board with fixed BIOS for full 16GB DDR3 support.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-22, 12:03:

That is not going to work long term. It seems you have cracked joints somewhere and compensate it by warping the card. It will probably just develop new joint cracks elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEdFTmOAT58

Explains that even GPU supports don't solve the problem completely as the card just warps differently.

By "joints" you mean connections between the PCBs and chips/memory modules? Because I know a lab that performs reballing of memory and GPUs here, and they resurrected a Ti 4200 from 100% artifacting and unusable, to "I can game on it, and only a couple of pixels may artifacts sometimes". And they did it for cheaper than buying another Ti 4200. So... I can take this card there too and have it reballed for cheap.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-22, 13:01:

3Ghz is rookie numbers for a good C2Q, I got a QX9770 that hits 4.2Ghz with little issue but its a rare chip so I didn't push it further and a really nice X5470 that Ive had at 4.5Ghz P95 stable I have seen them get to 4.6Ghz and others have pushed them further with more exotic cooling. (Its the little Xeon that could and if you can grab one with the 775 mod its a fun CPU to play with)

Overall QX9650 is hands down the best all round QX chip released for 775 and its the one that I actually used in my build as its easy to replace should it kick the bucket and its unlocked so has plenty of room to spare should I want to run it faster its also pretty easy to keep cool, a really solid CPU. (The Q6600 is another favourite too for the more vanilla out there ! most Q6600 will overclock like demons too so dont be afraid to push that FSB past 333)

775 is my favourite platform and I have quite a collection of boards and CPUs for it, I even have a rare EVGA 790i SLI FTW PWM digital board with fixed BIOS for full 16GB DDR3 support.

Oh, I very well know that you can push mad OCs on those chips... I read the threads from those times. But... They were doing it with serious water cooling on both the CPU and the MOBO. I only have the passive heatsinks on the mobo and the massive aircooler on the CPU.
Plus it's now more than 15 years old hardware, so I wouldn't want to push my luck with insane OCs.

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-22, 13:18:

By "joints" you mean connections between the PCBs and chips/memory modules? Because I know a lab that performs reballing of memory and GPUs here, and they resurrected a Ti 4200 from 100% artifacting and unusable, to "I can game on it, and only a couple of pixels may artifacts sometimes". And they did it for cheaper than buying another Ti 4200. So... I can take this card there too and have it reballed for cheap.

But this is a ATI Radeon 4850 not Ti 4200. Can they do it cheaper than buying another ATI Radeon 4850 or GeForce that works properly? PCIe graphics cards from 2008 are quite cheap. Also if it keeps artifacting "sometimes" may not be worth it at all. Would they even agree to fix a graphics card heavily warped by support?

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-22, 23:38:

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-22, 13:18:

By "joints" you mean connections between the PCBs and chips/memory modules? Because I know a lab that performs reballing of memory and GPUs here, and they resurrected a Ti 4200 from 100% artifacting and unusable, to "I can game on it, and only a couple of pixels may artifacts sometimes". And they did it for cheaper than buying another Ti 4200. So... I can take this card there too and have it reballed for cheap.

But this is a ATI Radeon 4850 not Ti 4200. Can they do it cheaper than buying another ATI Radeon 4850 or GeForce that works properly? PCIe graphics cards from 2008 are quite cheap. Also if it keeps artifacting "sometimes" may not be worth it at all. Would they even agree to fix a graphics card heavily warped by support?

I have no idea, I can always ask if they can do it and how much it would cost. Of course, I plan in upgrading this GPU in the near future, it's just that it's saddens me to throw away hardware that can be fixed, even if it's not economically convenient to do so... It would just end up in a landfill.
And it's not "sometimes". It artifacts only if I let it loose. Even pushing it up with my finger a little is enough to make any artifact go away. When I let it loose it really sag a lot, like it weights a ton (it doesn't). I have a feeling shipping may have contributed to it. But then again, when I tested it first time in a flat bench, the card worked right without any supports. I hope it's not a problem with the PCIe slot...

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-23, 11:57:

it's just that it's saddens me to throw away hardware that can be fixed, even if it's not economically convenient to do so... It would just end up in a landfill.

So here's a solution then: don't throw it away. 😉 😁
I'm the same way, so what I do with these things (when they stop working and I can't fix them anymore) is either one of the following:
- go on my wall in the computer room as decoration
- used for spare parts to fix other hardware... and even when I do, that actually still doesn't include it from becoming a wall decoration 🤣
- sell it for parts (online or locally), stating everything that was done to this piece of hardware

Most end up in category 1 or 2 above, though. I only sold very few pieces of retro PC hardware.

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-23, 11:57:

I hope it's not a problem with the PCIe slot...

No, bad PCI-E slot won't cause artifacts. It will cause loss of PCI-E lanes, which means your GPU will be detected at lower PCI-E mode (i.e. 1x, 4x, or 8x) or just not detected at all.
So it's not that, rest assured.

nd22 wrote on 2025-02-20, 07:20:

Max means max not turning something down or off!

Well, I respectfully disagree. 😀

In some games, like NFS Underground 2 for example, I *always* turn OFF motion blur, because it's a shitty visual [d]effect that makes the game look much worse. Same for "light trails" and a few other stupid ones like that.

Also, I rarely use AA, since I still have a small stash of CRT monitors, and I find AA pointless on those, unless I'm going with a really low resolution.
AF, on the other hand, I always try to push up as far as possible, as that really improves the textures (and overall visual) of games.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-20, 08:12:

Same reason why we don't install extra HDDs and DVD drives that we don't need even though there is space in the case 😉

Well, for some of the cheap used cases I've been buying/finding lately, it's often cheaper and easier to buy an extra optical drive than try to look for or buy or make optical drive bay covers. So for these cases, I've been just shoving in extra optical drives to "plug the holes", so to speak. 🤣
It's also nice to know I have a spare / backup optical drive handy nearby, haha.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-20, 08:12:

I'm playing Quake 4 at 1280x1024@85Hz on CRT with max settings except for AA as I don't turn it on for any games.

YAY for using a CRT! 👍
NAY NAY for using 1280x1024. 👎
Seriously, I don't know why that resolution ever made it into the firmware of most CRTs... and more so, why so many people used it. I can understand on an LCD that has this resolution as its native one. But remember, 1280x1024 is 5:4 ratio and not 4:3. Yes, the difference is small and hard to notice (certainly not as bad as stretching 4:3 onto 16: 10... or heavens forbid, 16: 9 🤣 ). But it's there.

My suggestion: drop to 1280x960. The mere drop in the vertical resolution will be absolutely impossible to notice on any CRT. On the other hand, your CRT might just let you go up a notch on the refresh rate. And even better, your games should get an ever-so-slightly better framerate.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-20, 08:12:

1600x1200 makes little sense on my CRT as I get 72Hz only and image is less sharp.

I agree.

I own several 21" CRTs, and even on these, I rarely push anything to 1600x1200, despite all of them actually looking pretty sharp at that resolution and not blurring.
But I rather get silky-smooth 85 FPS all the time without dips at 1280x960 than 60-75 FPS at 1600x1200.
FWIW, I still find 1280x960 @ 85 Hz on a CRT to look less blurry when there is lots of movement on the screen than most average 1080p 120/144hz LCD gaming monitors even today.

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-21, 12:54:

PS, I have a Syncmaster 750s, wich supports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 at 60hz, but unless the game can't go over 60fps, I use it at the suggested res of 1024x768 at 85hz.

Solid choice for a 17" CRT! 😉
I have the Dell -equivalent of that CRT... well, more or less (Dell M782, IIRC.) I also it at 1024x768 @ 85 Hz on quite a few games, but occasionally bump it "up" to 1152x864 @ 75 Hz for slower-paced games, where the slightly higher resolution is preferable over the higher refresh rate. Don't think I have any game set to 1280x960 on this monitor, simply because it's a 17" CRT, and I find that most don't look any sharper at this than 1152x864.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-22, 13:01:

I even have a rare EVGA 790i SLI FTW PWM digital board with fixed BIOS for full 16GB DDR3 support.

As nice as those boards are, nVidia has permanently left a very sour taste for me when it comes to the reliability of their chipsets. Simply put, they run hot and don't last worth a damn. I have the EVGA 780i SLI (but not the FTW version) and absolutely hate how hot the Northbridge runs, despite upgrading its stock (an very loud) 50mm fan to a higher-airflow & high pressure 70 mm fan. FWIW, these boards are known for dying, and I have seen more dead ones on Ebay in all of my years looking for one than I have working ones. What's funny is mine was also from Ebay and listed as broken, but it just had a burned out transistor on one of the sys_fan headers and a bunch of scraped SMD ceramic caps on the back of the CPU (which I never bothered to fix.) Not what I've used it in a system and tested it thoroughly, I'm pondering whether I should part it out and sell it. As cool as it might have been at the time, I don't think I'll ever setup a 3-way SLI with it. Perhaps I could do a MEME mid-range system with it with a mid-tier C2D and 3x XFX GeForce 8600 cards (aproprietly chosen from the same bumpgate era 🤣 ).

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-19, 20:39:

I would buy more DDR RAM but it isn't available.

Most of my RAM comes from scrap lots on Ebay. Yes, I've had a few modules that didn't work... but they were very very few compared to the lots I got. And since I do all kinds of repairs, I was actually able to get most of the non-working ones working too (mostly cracked or broken SMDs.) Even if I didn't get these fixed, though, the value I got from these scrap lots was still 10x what I would have paid if I got individual RAM sticks instead.

momaka wrote on 2025-02-23, 23:27:

So here's a solution then: don't throw it away. ;) :D I'm the same way, so what I do with these things (when they stop working a […]
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Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-23, 11:57:

it's just that it's saddens me to throw away hardware that can be fixed, even if it's not economically convenient to do so... It would just end up in a landfill.

So here's a solution then: don't throw it away. 😉 😁
I'm the same way, so what I do with these things (when they stop working and I can't fix them anymore) is either one of the following:
- go on my wall in the computer room as decoration
- used for spare parts to fix other hardware... and even when I do, that actually still doesn't include it from becoming a wall decoration 🤣
- sell it for parts (online or locally), stating everything that was done to this piece of hardware

Most end up in category 1 or 2 above, though. I only sold very few pieces of retro PC hardware.

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-23, 11:57:

I hope it's not a problem with the PCIe slot...

No, bad PCI-E slot won't cause artifacts. It will cause loss of PCI-E lanes, which means your GPU will be detected at lower PCI-E mode (i.e. 1x, 4x, or 8x) or just not detected at all.
So it's not that, rest assured.

nd22 wrote on 2025-02-20, 07:20:

Max means max not turning something down or off!

Well, I respectfully disagree. 😀

In some games, like NFS Underground 2 for example, I *always* turn OFF motion blur, because it's a shitty visual [d]effect that makes the game look much worse. Same for "light trails" and a few other stupid ones like that.

Also, I rarely use AA, since I still have a small stash of CRT monitors, and I find AA pointless on those, unless I'm going with a really low resolution.
AF, on the other hand, I always try to push up as far as possible, as that really improves the textures (and overall visual) of games.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-20, 08:12:

Same reason why we don't install extra HDDs and DVD drives that we don't need even though there is space in the case 😉

Well, for some of the cheap used cases I've been buying/finding lately, it's often cheaper and easier to buy an extra optical drive than try to look for or buy or make optical drive bay covers. So for these cases, I've been just shoving in extra optical drives to "plug the holes", so to speak. 🤣
It's also nice to know I have a spare / backup optical drive handy nearby, haha.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-20, 08:12:

I'm playing Quake 4 at 1280x1024@85Hz on CRT with max settings except for AA as I don't turn it on for any games.

YAY for using a CRT! 👍
NAY NAY for using 1280x1024. 👎
Seriously, I don't know why that resolution ever made it into the firmware of most CRTs... and more so, why so many people used it. I can understand on an LCD that has this resolution as its native one. But remember, 1280x1024 is 5:4 ratio and not 4:3. Yes, the difference is small and hard to notice (certainly not as bad as stretching 4:3 onto 16: 10... or heavens forbid, 16: 9 🤣 ). But it's there.

My suggestion: drop to 1280x960. The mere drop in the vertical resolution will be absolutely impossible to notice on any CRT. On the other hand, your CRT might just let you go up a notch on the refresh rate. And even better, your games should get an ever-so-slightly better framerate.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-20, 08:12:

1600x1200 makes little sense on my CRT as I get 72Hz only and image is less sharp.

I agree.

I own several 21" CRTs, and even on these, I rarely push anything to 1600x1200, despite all of them actually looking pretty sharp at that resolution and not blurring.
But I rather get silky-smooth 85 FPS all the time without dips at 1280x960 than 60-75 FPS at 1600x1200.
FWIW, I still find 1280x960 @ 85 Hz on a CRT to look less blurry when there is lots of movement on the screen than most average 1080p 120/144hz LCD gaming monitors even today.

Mondodimotori wrote on 2025-02-21, 12:54:

PS, I have a Syncmaster 750s, wich supports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 at 60hz, but unless the game can't go over 60fps, I use it at the suggested res of 1024x768 at 85hz.

Solid choice for a 17" CRT! 😉
I have the Dell -equivalent of that CRT... well, more or less (Dell M782, IIRC.) I also it at 1024x768 @ 85 Hz on quite a few games, but occasionally bump it "up" to 1152x864 @ 75 Hz for slower-paced games, where the slightly higher resolution is preferable over the higher refresh rate. Don't think I have any game set to 1280x960 on this monitor, simply because it's a 17" CRT, and I find that most don't look any sharper at this than 1152x864.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-22, 13:01:

I even have a rare EVGA 790i SLI FTW PWM digital board with fixed BIOS for full 16GB DDR3 support.

As nice as those boards are, nVidia has permanently left a very sour taste for me when it comes to the reliability of their chipsets. Simply put, they run hot and don't last worth a damn. I have the EVGA 780i SLI (but not the FTW version) and absolutely hate how hot the Northbridge runs, despite upgrading its stock (an very loud) 50mm fan to a higher-airflow & high pressure 70 mm fan. FWIW, these boards are known for dying, and I have seen more dead ones on Ebay in all of my years looking for one than I have working ones. What's funny is mine was also from Ebay and listed as broken, but it just had a burned out transistor on one of the sys_fan headers and a bunch of scraped SMD ceramic caps on the back of the CPU (which I never bothered to fix.) Not what I've used it in a system and tested it thoroughly, I'm pondering whether I should part it out and sell it. As cool as it might have been at the time, I don't think I'll ever setup a 3-way SLI with it. Perhaps I could do a MEME mid-range system with it with a mid-tier C2D and 3x XFX GeForce 8600 cards (aproprietly chosen from the same bumpgate era 🤣 ).

AlexZ wrote on 2025-02-19, 20:39:

I would buy more DDR RAM but it isn't available.

Most of my RAM comes from scrap lots on Ebay. Yes, I've had a few modules that didn't work... but they were very very few compared to the lots I got. And since I do all kinds of repairs, I was actually able to get most of the non-working ones working too (mostly cracked or broken SMDs.) Even if I didn't get these fixed, though, the value I got from these scrap lots was still 10x what I would have paid if I got individual RAM sticks instead.

I agree with your assessment of the older 790i/780i boards but the PWM Digital version was their final revision and it fixed many of the problems, its a solid board and has never caused any issues I experienced with the earlier 790i/780i boards. EVGA went all out with it and replaced the entire VRM and mine came with bigger heatsinks and Fans on the VRM and Northbridge.

Sometimes they get it right once so I didn't let my previous experiences affect my opinion of this PWM version, its a very solid board and much better than the older SLI ULTRA version.

But yes .. the older boards were ...hot garbage at times, I do have a couple that I dont use because of the problems you allude to and how hot they run.

Still if you want SLI support you dont have many other options for 775.

I was sure I had alredy answered to you yesterday, but let's try again...

momaka wrote on 2025-02-23, 23:27:

So here's a solution then: don't throw it away. ;) :D I'm the same way, so what I do with these things (when they stop working a […]
Show full quote

So here's a solution then: don't throw it away. 😉 😁
I'm the same way, so what I do with these things (when they stop working and I can't fix them anymore) is either one of the following:
- go on my wall in the computer room as decoration
- used for spare parts to fix other hardware... and even when I do, that actually still doesn't include it from becoming a wall decoration 🤣
- sell it for parts (online or locally), stating everything that was done to this piece of hardware

Most end up in category 1 or 2 above, though. I only sold very few pieces of retro PC hardware.

Yeah, I alredy have a shelf with working component taken out of my other two retro systems. I may put the HD4850 with them when I upgrade.

momaka wrote on 2025-02-23, 23:27:

No, bad PCI-E slot won't cause artifacts. It will cause loss of PCI-E lanes, which means your GPU will be detected at lower PCI-E mode (i.e. 1x, 4x, or 8x) or just not detected at all.
So it's not that, rest assured.

I thought so. I actually have experience with GPU brackets and bad PCIe connections.

momaka wrote on 2025-02-23, 23:27:

In some games, like NFS Underground 2 for example, I *always* turn OFF motion blur, because it's a shitty visual [d]effect that makes the game look much worse. Same for "light trails" and a few other stupid ones like that.

I can't picture myself playing NFS U2 (and the first one) without those heavy blur effects and light trails. It's like part of the charm, even if you loose image clarity.

momaka wrote on 2025-02-23, 23:27:

YAY for using a CRT! 👍
NAY NAY for using 1280x1024. 👎

momaka wrote on 2025-02-23, 23:27:

Solid choice for a 17" CRT! 😉
I have the Dell -equivalent of that CRT... well, more or less (Dell M782, IIRC.) I also it at 1024x768 @ 85 Hz on quite a few games, but occasionally bump it "up" to 1152x864 @ 75 Hz for slower-paced games, where the slightly higher resolution is preferable over the higher refresh rate. Don't think I have any game set to 1280x960 on this monitor, simply because it's a 17" CRT, and I find that most don't look any sharper at this than 1152x864.

Well, I mostly stick to the 1024x768 85hz suggested for my monitor. But in some games, I don't feel bad in pushing it to 1280x1024 at 60hz, since some games won't go past 60hz or, like GTA San Andreas, are hardlocked at 30fps (unless you wanna play with wonky physics).
Also, some games I have (like Crazy Taxi) won't support 1280x1024, but 1280x960. And the image looks slightly stretched vertically, with black bars at the sides.

Now, for the PC itself: I finally got the OC ram and tested it with memtest. Passed even at the tightest 4-4-4-12 at 2.10 volts, and boot into the system without issues.
For now I'km keepig it stock (my MOBO seems to not support EPP) at 1.9 volt and 5-5-5-18, and I'll probably downclock it down to 667mhz, since I also tested the FSB at 333mhz and the PC booted into windows without problems.
This weekend I'll set it all up for a stress test with the ram at 667mhz (and 4-4-4-12 timings) and the FSB at 333mhz, with stock voltages.
Get back to yall soon!

Always try to test memory (RAM) Latency, along side pure bandwidth.

agent_x007 wrote on 2025-02-26, 19:05:

Always try to test memory (RAM) Latency, along side pure bandwidth.

I believe I did that. I set up the memory rated OC at 2.10 volt with 4-4-4-12, and still passed memtest.
Are there any other tests I should perform? Consider that I will use this ram not at the rated 800mhz, but at 667mhz, to achieve a 1:1 ratio with the OCd FSB at 333mhz.

(is it even woth it to downclock the ram to get a perfect 1:1 ratio?)

Latency isn't tested via memtest...
You need a AIDA64 cache&memory test (for example) or Intel MLC GUI/yCruncher/"SuperPI_XS 1M".
It's about how much of perf. difference is between stable options.

EDIT : 1:1 isn't "best" or "fastest" - it's just is there for highest FSBs OC.