Hello,
I want to build the ultimate retro PC for gaming. My first PC was with Windows
XP, so I've never 🌜 owned a pre-XP era PC, and now I have a modern PC with core i7 and
Windows 7, but I'm 🌜 not quite satisfied with retro games on this modern PC, no matter
how well can features be emulated, I came 🌜 to the conclusion that to get the best full
experience of old retro games, I'm gonna need to build a 🌜 retro PC.
I guess I should use
Windows 98SE or Windows ME as the OS of choice, I think I shall 🌜 have no problems at all
with DOS and Win95 games on a Win98SE machine, right?
I dug around the internet to
🌜 research the limitations of Win98 and found out that it does not support
multithreading, so I guess anything more than 🌜 a single core CPU would be a waste. It
has stability issues with more than 512MB ram, so I guess 🌜 I should get 2 sticks of
256MB for dual channel. I think it cannot support more than 128GB HDD, so 🌜 I should
probably look for a 120GB HDD. Or is that 128GB partition? If I get, say, 250GB HDD,
can 🌜 I make 2 partitions 120GB each and have no issues? And it doesn't support SATA so
everything should be IDE, 🌜 and it doesn't support PCI Express either.
Now, let me say
this, I don't want just a cheap budget retro PC, 🌜 I want to assemble the ultimate retro
PC with all the best parts possible. So don't pay that much attention 🌜 to the price of
parts.
First, choosing the motherboard. As far as I'm aware, AMD single core CPUs
outperform Intel single 🌜 core CPUs, so I guess I should look for AMD. From what I can
see, Socket AM2 and Socket 939 🌜 have useless PCI Express slots. Then the choice is
between Socket A(462) and Socket 754. Probably a bit of a 🌜 no-brainer, the 754 is newer
and should be better. Is there any reason to choose the 462 over the 754? 🌜 I read
somewhere that the best 462 motherboard is DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B, so if you say 462
will 🌜 be better, I guess I should look for this motherboard. If not, I don't know which
is the best 754 🌜 motherboard, but I see some guy is selling a Chaintech ZNF3-250 which
looks very nice and has 1 AGP slot 🌜 and 5 PCI slots. Anyhing better than this?
For CPU,
I think some old games like Daggerfall and NFS Porsche Unleshed 🌜 have trouble with CPUs
over 2GHz... or is that over 2.1 GHz? I don't know if a 2GHz CPU would 🌜 be fine, so I
guess 1.8 GHz is a safe choice. If going with socket 754, the best 1.8GHz CPU 🌜 should be
Athlon 64 2800+ right? If 2GHz is safe, then Athlon 64 3000+?
For RAM, obviously I
should go for 🌜 a pair of 256MB DDR1 400MHz sticks, right? I have no idea what is the
best brand and model though.
For 🌜 graphics card, I guess the main should be the most
powerful one that would work, and I think that's Sapphire 🌜 HD 4650 AGP, which has Win98
drivers on sapphire's site from what I can see. I also want a graphics 🌜 card for games
that support Glide to get the full enjoyment out of them, is 3dfx Voodoo5 fine, or is
🌜 there a reason why I should look for one of the older models? Is there another retro
graphics card that 🌜 I might need to experience something in specific?
Sound cards, here
it gets interesting, since there doesn't seem to be one 🌜 ultimate sound card that fits
all, looks like I will have to have several different ones for different games. To
🌜 begin with, Diamond MX300 for games that support A3D. For games that support EAX, what
would be the best sound 🌜 card? Creative SB Audigy ES I think? Though Im not sure if it
has Win98 drivers. Or Creative SB Live? 🌜 I really don't know. I also heard there was a
third choice at the time, something called Sensaura, which many 🌜 different sound cards
supported, any details on that? For the oldest games like DOS games what do I need for
🌜 the best experience, something like Gravis Ultrasound?
For the case I'll choose
something modern, with a side panel window so that 🌜 I can show off the nerdfest inside,
not sure what yet, maybe a FD Define R5 or something. I want 🌜 to use modern 80+ PSU if
possible, I don't see a reason why it wouldn't work, but how much watts 🌜 would I need?
400W enough? I really don't know how much power do these old components suck
out.
Finally, monitor, I 🌜 guess I should find some sort of CRT monitor, those old games
work in all sorts of different resolutions but 🌜 I do think they will end up looking
better on a CRT than a LCD. I don't know which CRT 🌜 monitor to go for though.
Any help
and tips highly appreciated! I'm jumping into unknown territiry here...
