Building A Vintage PC

I'm trying to build an older PC for all of my old games. My question is, if I try building a PC with 2 256MB RAM modules and a NVIDIA GeForce 2 card, what kind of tower would I need to buy? Also, I'm trying to go for AMD for a processor and I want to know which of the NVIDIA GeForce 2 series is the best? The Ultra, GTS, MX, Pro, or Ti? Finally, with processors what is the best one that will support my motherboard for either Intel or AMD?

 

Umm if I remember correctly the Ultra was the most powerful version of Nvidia cards back then. It would help if you gave us the motherboard socket in order to recommend a processor. My old comp was built using a AMD Athlon 3400+

 

In the end, it would probably be cheaper just to build a modern pc. It could run all your old games, AND all your new games. Not sure on the processor, but for Intel, maybe the Pentium series (I remember that my family desktop is a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 with 512mb of ram)

And Ultra was the best Nvidia card back then

 

buy one off of craigslist tons of P4's on there.

 

Craigslist or eBay. There are tons of really old machines that were used by businesses that you can pick up for a song. I had a P4 tower for a little while that ran Windows 98 with a Voodoo3. Total cost was less than $150, and that was about 6 years ago so. I don't doubt you could buy one for even less.

 

Check out Good Old Games ( http://www.gog.com). They sell several older classic games for $5-$10 each. They are essentially older DOS / Win 3.1 / Win95 games that come in pre-configured DOSBox wrappers. They have full manuals in PDF, are clock-throttled to run on modern hardware, do not contain any DRM, and operate within non-DOS operating systems like Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7. It is definitely worth the money (even if you are re-buying a game you already own), because you don't have to deal with getting an old machine configured and running.


If you are dead-set on getting an older machine, I would go with Saturnotaku's advice - buy an already-built machine. Trying to build your own machine by buying your own parts is going to be a headache. Parts are going to be hard to find, they are going to be more expensive than buying an already-built system, and you can't get support if anything is defective or needs RMA. Just buy a pre-built system from the Pentium II / Pentium III era, and replace parts from it as needed.

The problem with building a modern PC is driver support for older OS'es. I know people with Core i3/i5/i7 machines, that still keep old 486's in a closet somewhere, and pull them out whenever they want to play retro games.

They don't do that because of money or performance. They do it because of compatibility... you can't find Windows 95 or DOS drivers for a modern card like a GeForce GTX560Ti.

 

You really should post this at NBR's sister site, DesktopReview.com, since NBR isn't really the venue for this discussion.

The Ultra series were nVidia's top of the line gaming videocards. In fact, I still have two, fully functional BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra videocards. They remain one of the more powerful AGP graphics cards today.

 

Is there really a problem? I thought you can emulate anything.

 

Well, there are two approaches to playing old games:

(1) Use emulation tools and compatibility programs like DOSBox (or, buy games with pre-packaged and pre-configured DOSBox wrappers from Good Old Games). You can run these programs on just about any modern hardware and any modern OS.

OR

(2) Forget emulation, forget the headache of tweaking DOSBox, and forget re-buying games I already own from Good Old Games. Run native, by re-creating the original DOS / Win3.1 / Win95 environment. You need to specifically get your hands on hardware that has direct driver support for these old environments.


The Original Poster is asking specifically about Option #2 - building a machine for native execution. The option that you suggest (emulation) would require the OP to switch to Option #1.

For what it's worth, I believe that Option #1 (emulation and DOSBox) is the way to go. It's cheaper, more easily supported in the future on just about any OS, and doesn't require you to maintain 10+ year old hardware.

 

This is what I've gotten to so far (Keep in mind that some older parts aren't around anymore):
AMD Sempron 2200+
512MB DDR RAM (2x256)
3dfx Voodoo5 5500

-Any help on what motherboard I could get, and what Shell I need? I am looking for a 20GB Hard Drive right now....

 

My biggest issue is playing games that were native Windows 98. I can DOS emulate and VirtualBox can even run DirectX in emulation with Vista and 7, but Win 95 and 98 there aren't any options except to build a Windows 98 box.

I have an old Shuttle that I built more or less with spare parts: Sempron 2700+ (Socket A), 1024MB DDR, 80GB IDE HDD, 6600 GT (way overpowered for the machine), and currently have Windows XP on it, but am considering putting Windows 98 on it. I still have an old Win98 full license, lol. I even have two Voodoo 2 12MB cards (SLI? whatever it was called) and a Voodoo 3 card!

Although if it can handle YouTube stuff I may just use it for my boys to bang up on because I know I can buy something twice as powerful for $200 in a netbook, lol.

 

I gave my oldest my Custom PC. Intel Core i7, 2 ATi HD 6790's, 32GB RAM. The whole 9 yards, but thats what I get when I tell a C student that if he gets straight A's for a quarter I'll buy him a brand new computer. I have a Dell Dimension E521 with 1GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE, and AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+. I am building an Older PC because I have tons of old software that I can't use on my current PC. I'm not to certain about emulators though. I like the real thing. I was trying to find a NVIDIA GeForce 2 ULTRA card, but couldn't find it so I stuck with my old Voodoo5 that I found in my basement.

 

Voodoo 5 is a good fit for those other components. A lot of that older stuff will run with Glide too, unique to 3Dfx Voodoo pretty much.

Haha @ giving away your computer. But good for him. I'm sure it can get frustrating when you know your kid can do well but needs some reward incentive to get there, lol. My kids are quite young yet (2 & 3) so look forward to all the manipulation I'll have to do to keep them at bay.

 

I have a 13 and a 9 year old.

 

Do you know where I could find one of those Hard Drives?

 

Sure newegg still carries IDE drives.

 

Thx. Do you know where I can find a Motherboard and Tower that will fit an AMD Sempron 2200+, 1024MB DDR RAM, 3dfx Voodoo5 5500, Creative Labs SB0570L4 Soundblaster Audigy SE Sound Card, Samsung DVD+RW Optical Drive SH-S223LIBEBS, and a Wester Digital Caviar SE WD800AAJB 80GB 7200RPM?

 

Is that a Socket A (462) Sempron? In any case that's going to be the hard part. Will look around for you to see. May have to go used and on eBay though. So basically Socket A, 2 DDR slots, AGP slot, PCI, Two IDE's?

edit: Take a look here:

http://www.pricewatch.com/gallery/motherboards/socket_462

The ASRock K7S41GX from that listing looks like a decent board. Socket A, only two IDE slots but ok for single HDD and DVD, AGP 8x, up to 2GB RAM.

 

Generally speaking, pretty much any PC case will accept your motherboard. Your motherboard, based on the CPU you're using, is a Socket A, which falls under the ATX specification. The ATX formfactor is the de rigueur of consumer PC's today, and the specification has been around since 1995. With that said, any PC case you look at today, you can be assured that it will fit your motherboard.

The only thing left really is to define a budget for your new case, and what kind of features you want in it. Things such as removable hard drive bays, removable motherboard trays, fan cooling options top mounted or bottom mounted PSU, wire management cutouts, etc. are all important things to consider.

Yes, it is a Socket A.

 

This just makes no sense to me.

You're dumping money buying new products from an obsolete technology. It's just money down the drain.

 

Sheesh, lay off the guy. He's not spending your money and has good reason for what he's doing, which I fully understand. Stop trolling and go elsewhere.

 

For any desktop discussion go to DesktopReview.com

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