486dx2 66 to Pentium75.
8 to 16 megabyte ram.
800 to 1200 megabyte HDD.
SB16 or AWE32 soundcard.

period correct: Pentium 100, a good intel 430FX board, 16MB EDO DRAM, Sound Blaster 16, CD-ROM drive, mainstream Cirrus Logic something PCI VGA

I've just described our home PC from circa 1995-1997... it was 'upgraded' with a Creative Graphics Blaster 3D that wasn't... exactly "3D" so please go look somewhere else.

A better spec (a little bit later) would be Pentium 166, 32MB RAM, and a 3Dfx Voodoo card (all still valid upgrade options for the above platform).

In the middle (what your average user could afford), period correct for late 1994 or early 1995, I would say:

1. an AMD or Intel 486DX2 66MHz or DX2 80 MHz CPU
2. 8 MB of RAM (but 12 MB or 16 MB wouldn't be too much of a stretch)
3. a Vesa Local Bus graphics card with 2 MB of RAM (S3 805, Cirrus Logic GL-GD542x or Tseng Labs ET4000/w32)
4. a 512 MB to 650 MB hard drive
5. some type of Sound Blaster 16 sound card (or even a Sound Blaster 32 - although, the first models were only introduced in mid 1995 - an AWE32, or any "wavetable" sound card would have been very expensive)
6. double speed CD-ROM drive
7. Running on DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 (Windows 95 only became available in August 1995)

However, the high end PC for that era was more like:

1. an Intel Pentium 75 or 100 MHz CPU
2. 16 MB of RAM
3. a Cirrus Logic GL-GD543x or ATI based PCI graphics card
4. Sound Blaster AWE32 and/or Gravis Ultrasound with a Roland Sound Canvas (either external module or with MIDI daughterboard)
5. Quad speed CD-ROM

However, considering that the "high end" components are now a bit more affordable and, if you want to enjoy smooth gameplay and the full experience of General MIDI in most DOS games from that era, put together an Intel 486DX4 100 MHz or Pentium 75 MHz with some type of "good" General MIDI sound device.

brostenen is right on. P75 would've been quite high-end before '96, and DX2-66 to DX4-100 would've been more the norm. A few, very few, games were released by '95 with SVGA modes that real systems could not run fluidly at the time, though.

buckeye wrote:

Thinking about putting together a rig for this era but kinda foggy on what a "solid" system would be. Can anyone give some examples? Doesn't have to be a "screamer", middle of the road is fine. Mostly for playing DOS football titles for that period.

If you're mostly looking at playing games from that era, then I'd suggest getting something that's perhaps a bit younger (like a Socket 7, AT or ATX if AT is too much of a hassle), because these AT s7 boards should be relatively cheap compared to what most 486 boards go for.

What parts do you already have laying around?

Another option could be a s4 with Pentium 60 or 66, but a 486 with perhaps 16MB RAM and AT case with LED display does have a nice charm! 😀

Concerning the graphics card, there was some game VGA compatibility list here somewhere? You could just pick any graphics card that isn't too slow and has best compatibility with the games you intent to play.

firage wrote:

brostenen is right on. P75 would've been quite high-end before '96, and DX2-66 to DX4-100 would've been more the norm. A few, very few, games were released by '95 with SVGA modes that real systems could not run fluidly at the time, though.

Nascar Racing for DOS in particular gave me nightmares! Trying to run that game in SVGA mode on my 486 was like watching a PowerPoint presentation, I swear it averaged 2 or 3 frames per second!!

TheMobRules wrote:

firage wrote:

brostenen is right on. P75 would've been quite high-end before '96, and DX2-66 to DX4-100 would've been more the norm. A few, very few, games were released by '95 with SVGA modes that real systems could not run fluidly at the time, though.

Nascar Racing for DOS in particular gave me nightmares! Trying to run that game in SVGA mode on my 486 was like watching a PowerPoint presentation, I swear it averaged 2 or 3 frames per second!!

Same with System Shock, released in 1994. SVGA mode didn't start to smooth out til you got close to a Pentium 200.

All the parts on hand at the moment: SB 32PNP, S3 Virge, Real 3D Starfighter (know nothing about this one!), 10gb hard drive.

Figured on just buying a whole system on ebay or what not. Like I said, this is just to play the dos football titles of that period give or take a few years. The main problem with those games from what I recall were memory allocations/tweaks. Thanks to all for the comments!

buckeye wrote:

Thinking about putting together a rig for this era but kinda foggy on what a "solid" system would be.

Look at the system requirements for the games you want to play, see what you have available, and build accordingly.

I for one don't think there's much point on struggling to build a 486 or Socket 7 system as long as the games you want to play aren't speed sensitive. But then, it depends on what your specific goals are.

I recently threw together what I felt was a kind of high end 1995ish system. pre-3d accelerations.

Pentium 90
Sound Blaster 32
Ati Mach32 PCI
32MB SD RAM
800MB hard drive

the only issue is I originally went with a socket 5 motherboard but I was foiled by one of those damn Dallas RTC battery's and It refused to go past post. I was to lazy to mod the thing so I went with an AT socket 7 board that's probably from more like 97 or even 98. Its one of those transitional boards that's AT but has both AT and ATX power connectors as well as both 72 pin and SD RAM slots.

Don't remember the exact time frame for the P100 PC, but FIFA 96 was one of the first stuff I played on it (along with Descent, and Syndicate Plus that came with the Creative SB16 CD kit), and Windows 95 was the new stuff then so it must have been late '95. Also it first came with only 8MB EDO. And US dollar had not yet soared against our currency, and computer stuff was very cheap in comparison to post-1998.

Also by 1996 it couldn't handle Syndicate Wars well enough in SVGA mode especially with explosions happening on screen which would turn it into a crawl.

The computer I bought in feb. 95 was a mid range one.

Intel 486dx2-66
Edom VL-bus motherboard.
8mb 60ns Ram.
800mb Quantum Trailblazer.
Cirrus logic 5428 1mb VL-bus.
Side JR Pro VL-bus controller.
Sound Blaster 16 CT:2770 Value Edition.
2xCDrom.
Conner QIC80 250mb Tape backup.

EDIT:
Around summer of 95, my neighbour bought a high-end machine running a Pentium-75.
(Just came back to me this moment)