First post, by PhilsComputerLab
- Rank
- l33t++
I think the time has come to look at something more recent!
I love MS-DOS gaming and I am also very much into Windows 98 SE, but every time / period has it's unique fascination. The Windows XP era was special to me in other ways, I had money and could afford something decent. Graphics fidelity got better and better, resolutions increased as well and I remember the first 16:10 1680 x 1050 monitors coming out. The XP era also marks an end to EAX, something I really enjoyed. I had a Logitech 5.1 surround setup and boy did BF 2142, Far Cry, F.E.A.R. and Doom 3 sound great.
Goals
I believe that a build needs to have some sort of goal, direction or purpose. Otherwise it just becomes a random project and it's hard to judge if it's a success or not. The goal of this machine is to build a Windows XP gaming PC from parts that I already have lying around. I always go with Intel + Nvidia, so this time AMD is getting some love and we will see if I run into any compatibility issues or not.
1600 x 1200 resolution gaming at 60+ FPS is a goal this machine should achieve. While many games can be modified to run at 1920 x 1080, sometimes there are issues with HUD stretching or the game needs to be modified. I like to avoid this and that everything works out of the box and I like the 4:3 aspect ratio, it takes me back to the good times. Still, the number of pixels pushed is very similar, 1.92 MP vs 2.04 MP, so the benchmark results should be very close to playing at 1920 x 1080.
EAX sound is another goal. While you can use ALchemy on newer machines, it's again something one needs to configure and there is always this nagging voice in your head that it might not be 100% accurate.
Another reason for this is that games can have issues running under modern Windows such as Windows 10. There are often workarounds, but this can be frustrating.
I won't be touching DX9 + DX10 features games such as Bioshock, Crysis or Company of Heroes. These games are reserved for another project 😀
The games I would like to test are F.E.A.R., Doom 3, Far Cry, Need for Speed Most Wanted and maybe some other games that you guys recommend. Up to 2006 seems fitting.
The parts
Case is a Gigabyte GZ-M2. Nice little uATX case:
Motherboard is a MSI K9A2VM-FD. This board has the AMD 780V+SB700 chipsets with DDR2:
Two nice looking DDR2 RAM sticks from Corsair. Going with 4 GB, which is ideal for XP gaming. Remember, 32 Bit application can only use 2 GB, so no point in going higher.
Processor is still undecided. I have a rather old Athlon 64 X2, but also some Athlon II X2 chips. I might test a few chips to see if it makes much of a difference. Not decided on the cooler, but might use this cheap and nasty Gamma Archer cooler from Deepcool.
Graphics card!
Spoilt for choice, but this is the only suitable AMD card I have. I believe it performs on the level of the GTX 285, which is often mentioned as a great Windows XP card. I will also have to checkout the drivers. I might go with something more period correct, but will try the latest and greatest driver first. Nice compact card with a single PCIe power connector:
Sound card!
There is only one choice. The X-Fi Titanium PCIe. The final X-Fi card and a must for a XP gaming machine:
Hard drive!
In my recent video review comparing SSD vs SSHD vs HDD several viewers mentioned that the SSHD might be great for a retro PC running Windows 98 SE or XP. So I want to check it out! It is the 2 GB SSHD from Seagate:
Optical drive!
Just a standard SATA optical drive:
Floppy drive!
Three reasons: I love the GOTEK floppy drive, the motherboard has a floppy port and it makes it super easy to load the AHCI driver. Not sure if this board supports AHCI, but if it does I'm ready for it 😀
Operating System!
Windows XP Pro SP3 should do the trick
Everything else!
A 1920 x 1200 monitor, USB keyboard and USB mouse.
