The Retro PC Thread

[noiseredux]

I'd much rather pay the extra to get one that is confirmed working. But is there anything I should be looking for (or avoiding) as far as physical features and functionality go? It's been a longggg time since I had a 5.25" drive, so I just want to make sure I'm not blanking on anything.

[marurun]

Better to make the 5.25 a: and the 3.5 b:.

[Ziggy]

Better to make the 5.25 a: and the 3.5 b:.

Any reason? I think I have mine set up the opposite way.

[gravitone]

I just finished a nice early 2000's build targeted at windows XP games.
The following components were used.

Case: Coolermaster Force 500
Reason: Local computer shop had them on sale for 19,- and wanted a new black case.

PSU: Cooler Master GM G450M
Reason: More then enough power, decent specs and protection. Low ripple currents.
OLDER HARDWARE DOESN'T LIKE RIPPLE. Don't go with an old PSU. These components are used, so the less torture the better.

Motherboard: Intel D875PBZ
Reason: Best socket 478 board I could find. This was going to be a AGP build.

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.4ghz Prescott core.
Reason: Last of the great pentium 4 cpu's. Right before everything switched to DDR2, PCI-E. The end of an era really.

CPU cooler: Zalman CNPS7700-Cu
Reason: Best all copper cooler I could get my hands on. Its hard to find a good socket 478 cooler. This one didnt break the bank, and the bearing's are in great condition. Those 3.4ghz pentium 4's are hotheads, so definitly recommended.

RAM: 4x 1gb Kingston HyperX DDR400 2-3-3-6 timings.
Reason: CL2, DDR, top of the line at the time. Might as well max out the memory given current prices.

Videocard: Sapphire radeon X1950 PRO 512mb AGP.
Reason: Maybe a bit controversial. It's a bridged PCI-E chip. But this puppy has enough shader power for some later games, and enough memory bandwidth to satisfy running some older and newer games at the 1920x1200 resolution of the monitor this system is hooked up to. Great directx9 compatability and performance. Picked this up for 7,50 with 4,- shipping.

Soundcard: Soundblaster X-FI elite pro.
Reason: Picked this baby up in new condition for 20,-. Couldn't let it pass. Provides great sound support all the way up to EAX 5.0. Did I mention onboard audio solutions at the time were garbage? Both in terms of audio quality, noise, compatabillity, features, and CPU load.

Storage: 2x500gb WD cavair 7200RPM SATA drives.
Reason: These were lying around after swapping them from another rig recently that I upgraded to 2x 1TB enterprise drives. More then enough for any scenario.

Optical drive: Some samsung DVD-R IDE writer.
Reason: It had this lying around. Since the 2 SATA ports on the board were taken by the HDD's, it had to be an IDE drive. This one is black, and in excellent condition, although a bit on the noisy side once the disc spins up. Might replace later.

Floppy drive: black NEC drive I had lying around.
Reason: Nostalgia, completeness factor. After installing it I found out the drive is dead. Will replace once I run into another one.

Monitor: Dell ultrasharp 2405FPW 1920x1200 monitor with S-PVA panel.
Reason: Picked this up in a broken state at a flee market for 10,- a few years ago.
5,- in parts and repairs and it's as good as new. Doesn't seem like it ran many hours. Backlight is still in great condition. Great colors, this thing is bright. Plenty of inputs. VGA, DVI, composite, Component, S-Video. Can do 1:1 pixel mapping, 16:9, 16:10, 4:3 due to the build in genesis image processor. It might seem overkill, especially for older games. But a lot of these titles supported 1600x1200 which maps perfectly with some black bars at the side. No stretching, resampling, so pixel perfect. 800x600 also scales really well with 2x integer scaling and some black bars. The panel is a bit slow since its an older type, but im not bothered by the slight ghosting that might be present.

Input: Microsoft USB keyboard I had lying around. nothing fancy at the moment. Complimentary microsoft 5 button optical mouse. I love microsoft controllers, so also connected or on standby are: microsoft sidewinder dualstrike, xbox360 controller, sidewinder force feedback wheel, sidewinder force feedback pro (still have to build a usb converter for that one).


All in all it took me a few weeks to scavenge all the components. Didnt end up breaking the bank either. The motherboard, cpu, cooler, and ram cost me 50,- total. And another 15 or so thrown in for shipping. I'll post some pics if anyone is interested. Still got some cable management to do though.

The radeon x1950 has been retrofitted with a better gainward cooler salvaged from a sadly now deceased geforce 7800GS+ agp card. It will be deeply missed, but at least this way its spirit lives on. The stock sapphire cooler is a crime against humanity to be honest. The VRM's still get pretty hot, but a casefan in the sidepanel provides a consistent airflow.

[marurun]

Better to make the 5.25 a: and the 3.5 b:.

Any reason? I think I have mine set up the opposite way.

The reason is that I am backwards and it's been way too long. Do it your way. That is the best way. I'm tired, it's my birthday, and my wife is having a baby. Oh god I'm so tired...

[noiseredux]

Well my custom 98 rig won't boot at all. And the Pavilion is a puzzle box to disassemble the case. So my retro pc build may be on hold til I find a better starting point box.

[ExedExes]

What kind of Pavilion, may I ask? I had probably the best computer 1998 money can buy back in the day, the Pavilion 6370z. Pentium II-350, 8MB RAM, 10GB hard drive, Ensoniq sound card, on-board ATI graphics, all in a half-height minitower. The HD was really terrible, the infamous Quantum Bigfoot which back in the day boasted major failure rates. I was fortunate to get everything off it when it finally bit the dust, but I had to re-format and re-install the entire thing 2-3 times. I've had HPs for years and they were easy to get into. Even my current desktop is still HP. It's my main gaming rig.

[Ziggy]

the infamous Quantum Bigfoot which back in the day boasted major failure rates.

More infamous than the Hitachi Deskstar Deathstar?

[noiseredux]

What kind of Pavilion, may I ask?

it was an 8560c - nothing fancy. Both of my 98 boxes (and a 98 laptop) were gifts from a co-worker who found them in his basement.

[ExedExes]

That looks almost like my 6370z! I can't get get any pics of the back, but it looks like the '98 box I had.