What retro things have you done today?

I feel like a bit of a cheat posting this here so if it’s not allowed just let me know, but I recently finished my ‘ultimate xp’ machine. Funnily enough using some of my favourite bits of hardware (980Ti/4790k). I’m sure it’s possible to build something a bit faster but this works just beautifully.

SAMA IM01 (derivative) SFX case
4790k
Noctua HSF
Asus Gryphon Armor Z97 mATX MB
4GB 1600 (2x2) (might upgrade the speed later down the line)
FE 980Ti
2GB MX500 SSD
2GB 7200rpm HDD
Corsair 650w gold PSU

Running Windows Xp 32bit SP3 with all updates and drivers working - only one device is unknown everything else runs perfectly.

Annoying XP sees a somewhat random amount of ram but I know this is just how it works.

Should play pretty much anything windows XP era pretty damn well.

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@rare thanks for sharing. It is one of the 'newer' machines we read about on this thread, but that's a lovely spec. Was there a picture too?

Yesterday, I installed Amiga OS 3.2 on my Checkmate 1500. I'm a little bit of a fraud here as the unit is a AM4 PC running WinUAE. I bought the CD and this contains the ADFs and ROMs for installation.

This made the process easy. I took a copy of my existing Amiga 3.0 hdd image, deleted the Workbench drive data and then freshly installed 3.2. I installed WHD Load too.

From here, I'll install what I need. Copy the hdd image back to a CF card and this should work on my A1200, once I've updated maprom to use the latest 3.2 ROM.
 
!bluetonic! said:
@rare thanks for sharing. It is one of the 'newer' machines we read about on this thread, but that's a lovely spec. Was there a picture too?
Click to expand...

Thanks! I’ve got quite a few period correct machines but I really need to make some room so I figured I would keep a couple but make an overpowered machine that could easily handle anything. It’s fun comparing it to my other machines. Some pictures attached on the link :)
 
I just found my old mini itx system in a storage box. It's an old AMD Fm2 asrock system with an A8 6600k, 8gb ram, 2tb mech drive.

It fits nicely next to my TV - my plan is to turn this into a retro emulation box using Batocera. I'm hoping it will be good enough for ps2 emulation.

Currently it's on the stock cooler so I may look to change it to something better to make it quieter and give me overclocking options.

The main systems I have nostalgia for are Atari 2600, Intellivision, Spectrum, Amiga , Vectrex, n64, Dreamcast, GBA, ps2, gamecube and all the old arcade/pinball games.
 
Shanghai on Amiga (on Steam Deck)
Activision 1986!

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LewisRaz said:
The trouble with those is that there are Pi's and Pi competitors for so much cheaper with performance for most consoles.

Guess with the 2400g you do have a lot more options for more current games too..
Click to expand...
It depends what you want to do with it, the pi 4 is pretty limited. The 5 looks like a step up in performance but at £80 plus a case, memory card and power cable you're in the same ballpark as a mini PC which has a lot more performance.
 
rare said:
I feel like a bit of a cheat posting this here so if it’s not allowed just let me know, but I recently finished my ‘ultimate xp’ machine. Funnily enough using some of my favourite bits of hardware (980Ti/4790k). I’m sure it’s possible to build something a bit faster but this works just beautifully.

SAMA IM01 (derivative) SFX case
4790k
Noctua HSF
Asus Gryphon Armor Z97 mATX MB
4GB 1600 (2x2) (might upgrade the speed later down the line)
FE 980Ti
2GB MX500 SSD
2GB 7200rpm HDD
Corsair 650w gold PSU

Running Windows Xp 32bit SP3 with all updates and drivers working - only one device is unknown everything else runs perfectly.

Annoying XP sees a somewhat random amount of ram but I know this is just how it works.

Should play pretty much anything windows XP era pretty damn well.

imgur.com

imgur.com

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.
imgur.com imgur.com
Click to expand...
I like this spec, cool machine
 
This evening I re-cased my VIA build. I wanted a case that was shallow depth and not too tall but could fit an ATX board and PSU. I also wanted a 5.25" Bay to install a CD-ROM Drive. Finding a case was proving difficult. Eventually I stumbled across a case that had all the features I needed and was only £21! I took the punt and it arrived today.

Its an IONZ KZ11 and is made of top-grade tinfoil! Christ i breathed on the case and a crease formed in the rear side panel hahaha! I proceed to install my build and I'm actually really happy with how it tuned out. I've housed a 140mm Themalright Fan in the front and a 120mm corsair fan on the side to cool the Voodoo 3 and Matrox M3D. Cable management wasn't too bad, although I had to remove the CD-ROM to fit the PSU when i couldn't ram it in and its very tight space but everything fit. Actually I had to omit the SB32 as the drive cage in the bottom wont allow it to fit. I will drill the rivets and remove the cage at some point.

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Acme said:
What are the specs on that bad boy?

I have one with a Cyrix III 700. Thoroughly crap CPUs, but I can't help but like them.
Click to expand...
Its a VIA C3 1.2ghz Nehamiah core. (Can run at 1.4ghz which i do run it at. Autoexce runs Setmul to increase Multi on boot)
512mb 133mhz Crucial SD-Ram
Gigabyte GA-6BXC (Rev 2.0) Intel 440BX Motherboard
AGP 3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 16mb
Matrox M3D Pover VR PCI Card
SB Audigy
Yamaha Waveforce 192XGD PCI Sound Card Using SBLINK for compatability with DOS
Keropi MPU Midi Card with Dreamblaster X2 attached.
SSD, Toshiba DVD Rom Drive, 300watt Inwin PSU
Win98 SE

The speed of the CPU is equivelant to a Athlon 800 i think. I use the C3, as in this config with the 6BXC i can fully control the CPU with software (Multi, Caches, FSB, throttle) for maximium flexibility with DOS games and seems to be a great fit with the kind of games i play.
 
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Mmm PowerVR card.. Nice setup there.

I bid cheaply and won an Nvidia Quadro K5000 card for my SuperMicro Server. It arrived in scant packaging. Thankfully it worked. I gave it a clean first before installing it.

This now makes this the ultimate home server from 2013! :p

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It works well. I've tested it in Handbrake so far.

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Picked up a new case which I've moved my Core 2 Win XP system into, overall I'm really happy with it and it's nice to have another desktop case :)

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System specs are as follows

CPU - Intel Core 2 Extreme - QX6850 @ 3.6Ghz (9 x 400 FSB)
Motherboard - Asus P5Q Deluxe Socket 775
RAM - 4GB Corsair DDR2 1066Mhz (CAS 5)
GPU - 1024MB Gainward GTX 285
Soundcard - Creative Sound Blaster XFI Titanium
HDD - 480GB Crucial BX500 SSD
Case - Silverstone GDO9B
Cooler - Zalman CNPS9500AT
PSU - Corsair RM650W
OS - Windows XP Pro SP3

Chris

*edit - Updated photos
 
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Started trying to scratch my PlayStation One Gran Turismo itch without resorting to ROM's and Emulators and the best way I can see so far is just to buy a genuine PS One (with accessories) and GT disc so I've started checking prices, availability etc on Auction sites, rainforest etc.
 
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