Building an old PC

md99

md99

md99

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478
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Oirland
I'm looking to build a pc that will play the dozens of really old games in my collection.

I've tried playing them on my current setup via stuff like dosbox/virtualbox, etc but I've run into a lot of compatibility issues.

Anyway, if I plump for one of the pentium processors (2, 3, 4) what socket type mainboard will I require? Is there one kind that covers all of the pentium cpu's?

Also, I'll be needing an AGP graphic card, isn't that right? Something like a Geforce 3 card would be a decent buy, yeah?

And, as for a PSU, will it be a 20 pin or were there smaller ones back then? And finally what kind of ram were we using 10 or so years ago?

Ooh, one more, what OS would be recommended to play games dating from about 1997 onwards? Win 98 maybe?
 
windows 98 deffo and ive got an old pentium 4 3Ghz and i think it ran on socket 448? somthing like that and they used DDR ram.

As for graphics i had a Geforce MX 440 that ran everything i can remeber.
 
I've got a 9600XT or 7600GS AGP hanging around somewhere.
You can have it for postage if you need it.

Actually, I think I'vs got an MX440 (it was the upgrade from my RageFuryMaxx) kicking aroung that you can have for nowt.
Let me know and I'll check what I've got.
 
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Fast P3, Geforce 2 or 3 and 512MB RAM would suffice. Win98SE and jobs a goodun.

20 pin PSU, 300W would be fine.

Back in the day I was running a P3-733 OC'd to 900MHz. GeForce 2 GTS and 256Mb RAM. HDD was probably a then new 7200rpm 20GB Quantum Fireball Plus.
 
SlugForAButt said:
I've got a 9600XT or 7600GS AGP hanging around somewhere.
You can have it for postage if you need it.

Actually, I think I'vs got an MX440 (it was the upgrade from my RageFuryMaxx) kicking aroung that you can have for nowt.
Let me know and I'll check what I've got.
Click to expand...

Thanks a million for the offer but I've already got a choice of a Geforce 2, 3 & 4 or Radeon 9600 Pro for free.
 
md99 said:
Thanks a million for the offer but I've already got a choice of a Geforce 2, 3 & 4 or Radeon 9600 Pro for free.
Click to expand...

Good luck.
Thanks man, but I'm glad you are sorted as you have given me the bug, think I'm going to build an old one with Win98. My wife is going to hate me, but I can feel a Quake/Half Life/Worms machine coming on and taking up more space in the back room. :D
 
Oh man... Old machines are fun. I can remember my first PC ever... that was awesome.

Win 95, 233Mhz cpu (can't even remember what it was) 64MB RAM (non-upgradeable) and a 6.4GB hdd. Onboard shared 8MB graphics too. I thought that thing was fast back then.. now i'm trying to clean out unwanted startup programs from my Win7 machine to get its boot time to below 40 seconds.
 
Yo mate i got a complete old comp about although without a graphics card summit like athlon cpu, 512mb ram. If you want i will check properly if u would be interested in it?
 
i think most pentium 3's were slota

i got an old comp in bits in the garage, some abit motherboard a p3 633mhz , gf2mx and probably 512mb of crucial ram

i wouldnt post it anywhere though and i guess you arent local to newcastle.
 
Leezy said:
windows 98 deffo and ive got an old pentium 4 3Ghz and i think it ran on socket 448? somthing like that and they used DDR ram.

As for graphics i had a Geforce MX 440 that ran everything i can remeber.
Click to expand...

pentium 4 is socket 478 unless it is the 3.4ghz version which is socket 775 if i remember correctly
 
My Dad has an old Piii 600 for playing old, legacy games.

Piii 600
512MB
GeForce2 AGP Graphics
Soundblaster 16
40GB IDE HD
Win98

The other thing to remember is the display. Older games are more likely written to display at lower resolutions so will look pretty rubbish on a medern LCD screen. My Dad is using a Iiyama 19" CRT on his box.

I used to have a similar box didn't tend to use it so got rid of it last year to free up space.
 
arknor said:
i think most pentium 3's were slota
Click to expand...

Slot A was an AMD standard.


As mentioned above, a good P2 or P3 will see you fine, with 256 or 512mb, and a first generation Geforce, or a TNT2. Slot 1 P2s were commonly passive cooled too, if you want a silent anachronism!

A 17" CRT would be a good choice since it will be nicer to use with the odd resolutions you are likely to encounter.

Also, don't forget a reasonable sound card, since onboard in those days was pretty poor.
 
Meeting a bloke today who has tons of old stuff. Should be fun.

Some of you fellers have offered me bits and pieces and whilst I appreciate that I'm not in the UK so postage would most likely be pretty hefty.

I have an old Philips 15" crt too so I'm good display wise.
 
Noooo:( I'm planning on upgrading to i5 etc, but at the same time quite fancy playing older stuff - probably even slightly older than the OP. Ah sweet memories - been a while since getting intimate with autoexec.bat and config.sys to free up all that valuable sub-640K memory:). So can you not just run genuine DOS/win98 etc on some sort of virtual machine (as you can see I haven't really looked into this yet!), or can you but you still get compatibility problems? Is it really that bad - is an old machine the only way to roll?

Ah well at least I have MAME/Vice/Zsnes etc. Assuming these will all run on win7 <shudders at the thought they won't:eek:>

Liam
 
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