Which retro Pentium for Win XP?

[EverStaR]

Thinking about an XP build, but my memory off that era is a bit Foggy, and I thought I might get some really good perspectives on what to look for in a Pentium Retro PC.

What are your thoughts for a Pentium System, highly compatible for games system?

Thanks in advance for your input!

E

 

[Zare]

P4 Northwood 2GHz, good board, max highest speed ram it can take (2GB is perfectly fine), GeForce3 Ti500.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Honestly you'll have more fun with a slightly later Socket 775 build. Get a Core2 Duo and some 8800 GTs for SLI. I know this is "technically" from the windows vista era, but let's be real: who actually used Vista?

 

[hunterjwizzard]

This is my XP build:

Intel Core2 DUO E8500 @ 3.16 ghz (Dual core)
XFX nForce 780i 3-way SLI motherboard(Socket 775)
3x Geforce 8800 GTX in triple SLI

It'll run ANY game from XP on max graphics. I love the thing. Its easily my most-used retro PC.

 

[Zare]

I wonder what games don't run on modern Windows and don't run in enough details on Gf3 Ti/P4.
Don't get me wrong, I like you like your retro machines but that seems like quite a configuration both in details and in power consumption for someone to get just to play 20 year old games.

OP you should look at what Windows games of that age you can't run today and then get a machine per that requirement.

But yeah if you want to encompass the largest part of Windows 32 bit software base on a single machine it would be something like hunterjwizzard suggests with XP installed.

 

[Agent Orange]

Thinking about an XP build, but my memory off that era is a bit Foggy, and I thought I might get some really good perspectives on what to look for in a Pentium Retro PC.

What are your thoughts for a Pentium System, highly compatible for games system?

Thanks in advance for your input!

E

I have a fairly new XP build that I'm running on a I-870 with a 5700 series video card. Runs great with no gotchas. You can run most games up to and including DX9 with no problem. I'd have to dig it our but this build is outlined somewhere here on the forum. You could find it with the search function if interested.

 

[EverStaR]

I wonder what games don't run on modern Windows and don't run in enough details on Gf3 Ti/P4.
Don't get me wrong, I like you like your retro machines but that seems like quite a configuration both in details and in power consumption for someone to get just to play 20 year old games.

OP you should look at what Windows games of that age you can't run today and then get a machine per that requirement.

But yeah if you want to encompass the largest part of Windows 32 bit software base on a single machine it would be something like hunterjwizzard suggests with XP installed.

I am playing around with that concept! Part VMWARE and part install and see how it goes. There are tools like Launchbox and DosBox that offera a lot! There is MiSTer as well that has a 486Sx core. I really wish someone would come out with a robust FPGA solution for all this, including Video Card and Sound Card emulation options. My Daily PC's are top tier, AMD 7950 3D SX, 128 GB RAM, 4090 Overclock, and 4K 50" screens so not exactly good for Retro. https://sdrzone.com/sdrzone.jpg , I prefer real hardware in most cases though, it's just more pure as seen here just opposite of my modern setup.

 

[EverStaR]

I followed a suggestion and went with this for $69. Dell Optiplex 755 PC Tower Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 4GB RAM 250GB HDD DVD. I will likely get a new case for it and see where it leads me. I will need to setup an ebay store for a bunch of stuff I will self off after I dial it all in. I would hwv3 preferred a ASUS or Gigabyte MB. This has enough to get started. A cool concept will be to pimp out a retro system with new case and all. Could be a lot of fun! Thanks for your help!

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Don't get me wrong, I like you like your retro machines but that seems like quite a configuration both in details and in power consumption for someone to get just to play 20 year old games.

That whole build cost me maybe $350 if you include the parts I already had spare. As for power consumption? Its not a daily driver, so it only runs when I want to use it. I did use a modern 80%+ Gold Certified PSU.

I wonder what games don't run on modern Windows and don't run in enough details on Gf3 Ti/P4.

I can't name any offhand but there are a few. There are also many more games from the earlier 9x era that can be made to run on XP but will not run on 10, so its a good general-purpose retro rig for games from about '98-'06. There are also a ton of games that can run perfectly on modern windows, but only under software rendering, so if you want to really "see" what it looked like, you need period(ish) hardware.

I also feel like SLI in general is an under-preserved technology. It basically only exists for benchmarks today, but for a while it was the must-have hotness. So maybe its not "retroy" now, but in another 10 years systems like mine are going to be highly sought-after.

I followed a suggestion and went with this for $69. Dell Optiplex 755 PC Tower Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 4GB RAM 250GB HDD DVD. I will likely get a new case for it and see where it leads me. I will need to setup an ebay store for a bunch of stuff I will self off after I dial it all in. I would hwv3 preferred a ASUS or Gigabyte MB. This has enough to get started. A cool concept will be to pimp out a retro system with new case and all. Could be a lot of fun! Thanks for your help!

That'll do, but the Optiplex 755 uses a proprietary tower/motherboard, you won't be moving it into a new case. I can help you pick out a good motherboard if you're interested. Socket 775 is widely considered "obsolete" not "retro" at the moment, so prices are rock-bottom.

 

[Zare]

That whole build cost me maybe $350 if you include the parts I already had spare. As for power consumption? Its not a daily driver, so it only runs when I want to use it. I did use a modern 80%+ Gold Certified PSU.

I did spend about $100 recently to max up and encase my old Core II Quad. I preserved the Q6600 CPU with DQ35JO board and Intel SSD, and Corsair VX450.
Got 8 GB RAM, 9500GT and a case for it, battery, etc. Now I have a very powerful VGA driver system, even if 9500 fails there's an onboard VGA port.

I can't name any offhand but there are a few. There are also many more games from the earlier 9x era that can be made to run on XP but will not run on 10, so its a good general-purpose retro rig for games from about '98-'06. There are also a ton of games that can run perfectly on modern windows, but only under software rendering, so if you want to really "see" what it looked like, you need period(ish) hardware.

I also feel like SLI in general is an under-preserved technology. It basically only exists for benchmarks today, but for a while it was the must-have hotness. So maybe its not "retroy" now, but in another 10 years systems like mine are going to be highly sought-after.

Sure there are some.

XP supports even 960 series cards. This is the card I bought with my i7 and paid 300euro for it.
There may be an adapter or SLI configuration that has XP support and is powerful enough for 2013 games at max detail. And yeah I agree SLI is underrepresented, I never ran it, it could be very interesting to have around In any case, you could have a 32bit XP and 64bit Win7 on a same system and cover 15 years worth of Windows gaming.

This might even be a covered topic, if it isn't, maybe something worthwhile looking into - the most compatible Windows gaming box.

That'll do, but the Optiplex 755 uses a proprietary tower/motherboard, you won't be moving it into a new case. I can help you pick out a good motherboard if you're interested. Socket 775 is widely considered "obsolete" not "retro" at the moment, so prices are rock-bottom.

Another + for having/buying a powerful PC of that age today.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

XP supports even 960 series cards. This is the card I bought with my i7 and paid 300euro for it.
There may be an adapter or SLI configuration that has XP support and is powerful enough for 2013 games at max detail. And yeah I agree SLI is underrepresented, I never ran it, it could be very interesting to have around In any case, you could have a 32bit XP and 64bit Win7 on a same system and cover 15 years worth of Windows gaming.

This might even be a covered topic, if it isn't, maybe something worthwhile looking into - the most compatible Windows gaming box.

nVidia drivers cover generations, so if you can run a 9600 you can run a 9800. I have one so I could confirm sometime.

I might actually have a version of XP that can support oddles of RAM. Let me look at my inventory of "modern" win systems and contemplate some re-jiggering. PM me if you're interested, its a fun story.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

And yeah I agree SLI is underrepresented, I never ran it, it could be very interesting to have around

I didn't either back when it was the new hotness, but I always wanted to pretty badly. A couple of years back when SLI was already considered "dead") I sat down to build a new dedicated gaming rig and looked at my options. This was right about when GPU mining was at its worst so graphics card prices absolutely sucked. I had about $500 to spend on the graphics card portion of the system and sat there looking at my available options. I could have a VERY mid-range like 2050 or 2060, or... I could have dual 1070s in SLI.

I thought long and hard about it and realized I care less about benchmarks or real performance than I do about how a particular machine makes me feel. My old gaming rig, with a single 9800, never really gave me anything. I never woke up after a power failure and thought "Oh I hope its all right!" or lovingly fine-tuned the performance. Since I'd always wanted an SLI build I went for it, and ever since the new machine(which was obsolete even then) has been one of my favorite daily drivers. When I don't want to punch it across the room, you know.

I've since built the above-mentioned XP 32 bit triple SLI system and a Crossfire machine that originally ran win10 but now runs 7. That particular system also has full XP drivers available, so I might dual boot it.

 

[Zare]

I might actually have a version of XP that can support oddles of RAM. Let me look at my inventory of "modern" win systems and contemplate some re-jiggering. PM me if you're interested, its a fun story.

PAE version. It was unstable in my case (audio production). XP 64 was even worse.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

PAE version. It was unstable in my case (audio production). XP 64 was even worse.

I got something a lot better if you're interested.

 

[Agent Orange]

I didn't either back when it was the new hotness, but I always wanted to pretty badly. A couple of years back when SLI was already considered "dead") I sat down to build a new dedicated gaming rig and looked at my options. This was right about when GPU mining was at its worst so graphics card prices absolutely sucked. I had about $500 to spend on the graphics card portion of the system and sat there looking at my available options. I could have a VERY mid-range like 2050 or 2060, or... I could have dual 1070s in SLI.

I thought long and hard about it and realized I care less about benchmarks or real performance than I do about how a particular machine makes me feel. My old gaming rig, with a single 9800, never really gave me anything. I never woke up after a power failure and thought "Oh I hope its all right!" or lovingly fine-tuned the performance. Since I'd always wanted an SLI build I went for it, and ever since the new machine(which was obsolete even then) has been one of my favorite daily drivers. When I don't want to punch it across the room, you know.

I've since built the above-mentioned XP 32 bit triple SLI system and a Crossfire machine that originally ran win10 but now runs 7. That particular system also has full XP drivers available, so I might dual boot it.

I had a 9800 which was a real nice card and was able to sell it on eBay, as I had my eye on the new RTX 7850. That was 2012 or so and the price was just under $250, so the $75 I made off the 9800 soothed the pain somewhat. I believe I had a Gigabyte 990 motherboard with some Anthlon 3xxx and this thing was a screamer for its day. So, cut to the chase. Not to be content, someone one or someplace had a sale for a RTX 7850 Black edition and I had to have it. I ran the 2 in Crossfire and it was a very good gamer, as I worked the CPU up to the Anthon 3850. I had this rig for the next few years until I built an Intel Z170 with an I7 6700K and a GTX 1080. The 7850's are still here and they work just fine. So, was SLI/Crossfire such a big deal? Eh. Maybe if you were into the benchmark thing (lots are).

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Keep in mind I come from the world of dual CPU enthusiasts, two of something in your computer is always better than one.

 

[EverStaR]

That'll do, but the Optiplex 755 uses a proprietary tower/motherboard, you won't be moving it into a new case. I can help you pick out a good motherboard if you're interested. Socket 775 is widely considered "obsolete" not "retro" at the moment, so prices are rock-bottom.

Yeah, for $70 bucks I can live with the case if needed. This will be a great start to see how I like that level of machine. Dell is okay, not by any means my favorite.

I wonder what games don't run on modern Windows and don't run in enough details on Gf3 Ti/P4.
Don't get me wrong, I like you like your retro machines but that seems like quite a configuration both in details and in power consumption for someone to get just to play 20 year old games.

OP you should look at what Windows games of that age you can't run today and then get a machine per that requirement.

But yeah if you want to encompass the largest part of Windows 32 bit software base on a single machine it would be something like hunterjwizzard suggests with XP installed.

So again I could emulate and in fact do that with VM-Ware and Virtual Box, however, the playing of games is not the real fun in all this for me. It is all the projects I get to explore with the old systems. I will add just a few PC's to that retro station area in part for nostalgia and to explore the old again. Hope this makes sense lol, I know for many it will just seem wasteful. L

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time,” said the mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell (or drop the first “The” and maybe author Marthe Troly-Curtin wrote it). “If you enjoyed the time you wasted, then it wasn't wasted time,” said the musician John Lennon (who was, himself, fairly philosophical).

E

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Yeah, for $70 bucks I can live with the case if needed. This will be a great start to see how I like that level of machine. Dell is okay, not by any means my favorite.

Oh definitely. Its a simple and cheap shortcut into a retro machine. You should be able to fit a giant GPU in there easy enough.

I know later cards do work, but I recommend the 8800. They are inexpensive(about $30 USD) and were the "peek" of the XP era. A 900-series might work, but the old games are going to have been built around more current cards like the 8800.

 

[EverStaR]

Oh definitely. Its a simple and cheap shortcut into a retro machine. You should be able to fit a giant GPU in there easy enough.

I know later cards do work, but I recommend the 8800. They are inexpensive(about $30 USD) and were the "peek" of the XP era. A 900-series might work, but the old games are going to have been built around more current cards like the 8800.

I think if I like it I might build one ground up in a nice case. I can remember those years pretty well now that I am looking at these systems. Win 98 and XP were nice and I use to have an ASUS wholesale license and built my own PC's. Also had access to Gigabyte through a few other VARs. I cant seem to remember what video and sound cards I used though. Probably OEM i remember how I was back then.

 

[Zare]

So again I could emulate and in fact do that with VM-Ware and Virtual Box, however, the playing of games is not the real fun in all this for me. It is all the projects I get to explore with the old systems. I will add just a few PC's to that retro station area in part for nostalgia and to explore the old again. Hope this makes sense lol, I know for many it will just seem wasteful.

Wasn't talking about emulation.
A lot of the games I played in 98 and XP age work correctly on a contemporary Windows 10 computer.

Three games I played while XP was coming out were UT, NFS2K and Heroes 3. UT works/worked all these years via DirectX. NFS2K broke due to DirectX updates, but 3DFX mode via nglide works perfectly. Heroes 3 always worked and since few years ago has a community-developed hi-res/widescreen launcher.

I'm unable to think of a 32-bit windows game I've played a lot and isn't playable on modern Windows PC. Yeah 16-bit is deprecated and you need a machine for that (I have one). 32-bit support is still on high level.

So it's an angle you can take, to see what games you can't play and then build a machine accordingly. Or if machine building is more fun than games, do it regardless