- Joined
- Aug 23, 2018
I want your help with and opinions on a dumb idea. I'm putting serious thought into building the ultimate Windows XP gaming PC.
Why?
I wanted to build a new PC capable of running VR games well, but the current graphics card market... need I say more? I've considered building a computer piecemeal, but the idea I keep coming back to is a winXP machine.
The parts are cheap on Ebay, with the most expensive parts being a modern power supply and case.
There's a good selection of games I enjoy, and on WinXP they run natively. No having to tweak ini files or download spotty hacks to get them to work.
This isn't a machine just to run a few benchmarks. I want to actually play games on it.
Goals
I'm not concerned about being "era appropriate". I want something that runs WinXP games fast and with high compatibility.
Some nice-to-haves would be it not using much space, and for it to be cheap.
Salvage
My first order of business was to dig my old Windows XP rig out of storage and see what I could salvage. The machine refuses to post. All the fans spin up to maximum speed, but nothing else happens. I replaced the CMOS battery, and it still won't post. This leaves me with two options. A bad board, or something else is broken. I have a new PSU, but other than that I don't really have any compatible parts to work with. I do have some very old RAM, but I don't know what it is or if it'll work.
Research
A lot of early results are either people saying to just use virtual machine, or people complaining when someone uses something newer than a Pentium 4 and 6600GT because anything better is not "era appropriate".
Pushing through the salt, here's what I found. I'm guessing this is correct, but if not, please correct me. I'll be using Intel and NVidia naming because I'm less familiar with AMDs naming conventions.
CPU
There seems to be some inconsistency over what the last "officially supported" windows XP CPU is, but what seems clear is that Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and maybe Haswell were the last generations of CPU that worked well on XP. Anything newer doesn't have the instructions for XP to work right.
Motherboard
I'd like an ITX board to save space, but they often lack a second PCI slot, which I'll want if I want a dedicated sound card. The prices vary wildly. It seems that ITX was less common back then than it is today.
Apparently China still makes new XP compatible motherboards as a way to sell old server and business CPUs as budget gaming PCs. I'm not likely to go for that.
HDD
Sata drives are still widely available. I see people saying not to use SSDs due to "partition alignment", "wear and tear", and "garbage collection". I don't know what that means, but I'll take the internet's word on it.
The part that confuses me is the recommended solution seems to be using a flash drive to IDE converter. I thought compact flash was a similar technology to SSDs, but I don't know.
RAM
XP can only handle 3gb of RAM. It's difficult to find RAM less than that these days. I have 4gb in my old machine, so if that still works I can use that.
PSU, Case, Cooler
CPU Coolers, Cases, and PSUs have gotten better as technology improved while still using the same standards. The only possible issue is not having a proper mount for a cooler, but given I won't be overclocking anyway, anything that fits and is even slightly functional will suffice.
GPU
The big one. Brand new 730s can be had for under £100, even in the current market, and they'll easily crush any XP game I can throw at it (with the exception of Crysis, but that's cheating).
Radeon seems to be the way to go for retro XP builds due to better drivers. I've also read having more than 1gb of VRAM causes problems in some games. Whatever I go with, used GPUs of this calibre usually sell for £40 or so, and aren't attractive to miners so they're not likely to be burned out.
Sound
The Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium seems to be THE sound card for retro XP builds. Unfortunately, prices seem to quite high, with some going for as much as £150. More than I wanted to spend. The Audigy 2 is much cheaper, and the only EAX 5 XP game I care about is Quake 4.
Problems
There are multiple problems with this project however. The most consistent being finding the parts. The standard advice of checking Goodwill or your local computer recycling centre doesn't work as I'm a Brit and those things don't exist. Our Goodwill equivalents only sell clothes and jigsaws with missing pieces. The "used computer" shop in my city is a phone unlocking place with bongs in the window. ie. Not places to find deals on retro computer hardware.
On the internet things are hit and miss. Some parts are easy to find. Searching DDR3 ram or 1155 motherboard on ebay brings up lots of options. Searching specific GPUs brings up little or a lot, depending on what I search for. I had better luck searching "1gb graphics card" and scrolling through the listings. There's also what I assume are scalpers trying to con people. I feel bad for anyone who pays £250 for a GeForce 5500.
As for the games themselves. I have a few favourites from GoG, and do own a bunch of original discs, though I'm not looking forward to searching for patches and no-cd cracks. Convenience is a big factor because if it's not, I'll likely never use it.
The final problem is something I said as a positive. The most expensive parts of this build are the new stuff. Case, PSU, cooler, and HDD. Given RAM, CPU, and motherboard can be had for less than £100 total, spending over £150 for "boring" parts does sting and makes me think twice about doing this. It's what's putting me off the most. I could get into collecting Xbox 360 games or build a retro emulation box, as examples of cheaper, more convenient options.
TL : DR
So, what do you think? Should I build a dedicated Windows XP gaming PC, or should I save the money and headaches and spend the money on sensible things?
Why?
I wanted to build a new PC capable of running VR games well, but the current graphics card market... need I say more? I've considered building a computer piecemeal, but the idea I keep coming back to is a winXP machine.
The parts are cheap on Ebay, with the most expensive parts being a modern power supply and case.
There's a good selection of games I enjoy, and on WinXP they run natively. No having to tweak ini files or download spotty hacks to get them to work.
This isn't a machine just to run a few benchmarks. I want to actually play games on it.
Goals
I'm not concerned about being "era appropriate". I want something that runs WinXP games fast and with high compatibility.
Some nice-to-haves would be it not using much space, and for it to be cheap.
Salvage
My first order of business was to dig my old Windows XP rig out of storage and see what I could salvage. The machine refuses to post. All the fans spin up to maximum speed, but nothing else happens. I replaced the CMOS battery, and it still won't post. This leaves me with two options. A bad board, or something else is broken. I have a new PSU, but other than that I don't really have any compatible parts to work with. I do have some very old RAM, but I don't know what it is or if it'll work.
Research
A lot of early results are either people saying to just use virtual machine, or people complaining when someone uses something newer than a Pentium 4 and 6600GT because anything better is not "era appropriate".
Pushing through the salt, here's what I found. I'm guessing this is correct, but if not, please correct me. I'll be using Intel and NVidia naming because I'm less familiar with AMDs naming conventions.
CPU
There seems to be some inconsistency over what the last "officially supported" windows XP CPU is, but what seems clear is that Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and maybe Haswell were the last generations of CPU that worked well on XP. Anything newer doesn't have the instructions for XP to work right.
Motherboard
I'd like an ITX board to save space, but they often lack a second PCI slot, which I'll want if I want a dedicated sound card. The prices vary wildly. It seems that ITX was less common back then than it is today.
Apparently China still makes new XP compatible motherboards as a way to sell old server and business CPUs as budget gaming PCs. I'm not likely to go for that.
HDD
Sata drives are still widely available. I see people saying not to use SSDs due to "partition alignment", "wear and tear", and "garbage collection". I don't know what that means, but I'll take the internet's word on it.
The part that confuses me is the recommended solution seems to be using a flash drive to IDE converter. I thought compact flash was a similar technology to SSDs, but I don't know.
RAM
XP can only handle 3gb of RAM. It's difficult to find RAM less than that these days. I have 4gb in my old machine, so if that still works I can use that.
PSU, Case, Cooler
CPU Coolers, Cases, and PSUs have gotten better as technology improved while still using the same standards. The only possible issue is not having a proper mount for a cooler, but given I won't be overclocking anyway, anything that fits and is even slightly functional will suffice.
GPU
The big one. Brand new 730s can be had for under £100, even in the current market, and they'll easily crush any XP game I can throw at it (with the exception of Crysis, but that's cheating).
Radeon seems to be the way to go for retro XP builds due to better drivers. I've also read having more than 1gb of VRAM causes problems in some games. Whatever I go with, used GPUs of this calibre usually sell for £40 or so, and aren't attractive to miners so they're not likely to be burned out.
Sound
The Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium seems to be THE sound card for retro XP builds. Unfortunately, prices seem to quite high, with some going for as much as £150. More than I wanted to spend. The Audigy 2 is much cheaper, and the only EAX 5 XP game I care about is Quake 4.
Problems
There are multiple problems with this project however. The most consistent being finding the parts. The standard advice of checking Goodwill or your local computer recycling centre doesn't work as I'm a Brit and those things don't exist. Our Goodwill equivalents only sell clothes and jigsaws with missing pieces. The "used computer" shop in my city is a phone unlocking place with bongs in the window. ie. Not places to find deals on retro computer hardware.
On the internet things are hit and miss. Some parts are easy to find. Searching DDR3 ram or 1155 motherboard on ebay brings up lots of options. Searching specific GPUs brings up little or a lot, depending on what I search for. I had better luck searching "1gb graphics card" and scrolling through the listings. There's also what I assume are scalpers trying to con people. I feel bad for anyone who pays £250 for a GeForce 5500.
As for the games themselves. I have a few favourites from GoG, and do own a bunch of original discs, though I'm not looking forward to searching for patches and no-cd cracks. Convenience is a big factor because if it's not, I'll likely never use it.
The final problem is something I said as a positive. The most expensive parts of this build are the new stuff. Case, PSU, cooler, and HDD. Given RAM, CPU, and motherboard can be had for less than £100 total, spending over £150 for "boring" parts does sting and makes me think twice about doing this. It's what's putting me off the most. I could get into collecting Xbox 360 games or build a retro emulation box, as examples of cheaper, more convenient options.
TL : DR
So, what do you think? Should I build a dedicated Windows XP gaming PC, or should I save the money and headaches and spend the money on sensible things?
