Question I want to build a nostalgic machine with Windows XP! (or Windows 2000?)

[svndaze]

Hey guys, new here so I apologize if a thread like this has been made multiple times.... Recently I've had an itch to build a pc specifically for nostalgic purposes + play olddddd games, running Windows XP. However...I'm not too familiar with what hardware I should use. I built my current gaming PC, but obviously anything from the year 2000 is very outdated and I wouldnt be very familiar with it. I built my pc, but I'm no computer expert.

I was hoping I could get suggestions from you all! I want something that would have been considered high-end circa 2000-2003. I'm still debating on whether or not I want to go with Windows 2000 or XP, but I know both of those require different hardware I'm sure... Anyway, I wanted some input and advice on what cpu, motherboard, RAM, etc I should use to build this thing? How possible is it to find new old stock? If new old stock is harder to come across, should I do my best to find used components in good condition on eBay? Are there certain websites for this type of thing??? etc etc etc. I feel like I'm asking a lot, but I want alllll the knowledge! Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

Best option - Find an old crappy period specific system on craigslist or similar.

 

[svndaze]

Best option - Find an old crappy period specific system on craigslist or similar.

Thought about this too. And revamping it to a degree.

 

[USAFRet]

Thought about this too. And revamping it to a degree.

Well, the parts for that level OS has not been made for almost 2 decades.
There is little or no new old stock.

craigslist or fleabay would be your go to sources.
Then, the OS.
Sourcing an XP or Win2000 OS will be problematic.

 

[ImWolf]

From my experience, finding the hardware and even the OS for your project is not the biggest hurdle, but finding drivers will be. You can probably find cheap MB, Ram, expansion cards etc on various places around the web, but b4 you buy take the time to check out the products web site (and even other sources) to make sure you can get drivers for XP that will work that particular chipset on the MB, video card, etc.

Last time I did something like this MSI and Asus and Dell were pretty good about still having drivers available to D/L, but that was about 3 years ago.

Even though XP has been "not supported" for many years now, you can still get every update that MS put out there too.

Lotta people here can help you.... just ask b4 you spend.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I built two computers with older parts to run Windows 98 and XP a few years back. I sourced most of my parts from eBay, since that's the only reliable place that had something available.

One area of concern with parts is the capacitors. I bought a motherboard that had bulging caps and while they can be replaced, I didn't really want to go through that effort (maybe one day if I'm really bored). This is especially the case with parts made around 2000.

Finding drivers isn't too hard from what I can gather. The parts I got had drivers that Phil's Computer Lab hosted. Vogons can also point you to the right direction if you need something.

If you're building this for gaming, I think Windows 98 or XP is really the only option here. While Windows 2000 can run games, there's more compatibility hiccups because it wasn't designed as a consumer OS.

If you want to know what I used for parts:

• Windows 98 PC
  • CPU: 800MHz Intel Pentium 3 Coppermine
  • RAM: 128MB total
  • Motherboard: ASUS CUV4. I forget the exact model
  • Video card: Initially a GeForce 2 MX400, but I swapped it for a Radeon 7500
  • HDD: A generic white label drive

• Windows XP PC
  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600
  • RAM: 1x2GB DDR3-1333
  • Motherboard: ASUS P5G41T-M
  • Video card: EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB
  • HDD: 1TB Western Digital Blue

 

[BFG-9000]

Two of the reasons XP was so loved were: it was around for long enough to both get the bugs worked out, and because the performance of computers improved exponentially over the course of its long run so near the end it was a right snappy performer on modern hardware (at least compared to its replacement, the dumpster fire that was early Windows Vista).

Therefore I see little reason to build a "new" retro PC using hardware from its very earliest days, when so much newer and faster XP compatible hardware exists. It's actually worse than wanting to build a period-correct Windows 10 PC using only parts from 2015, because computer performance so radically improved in 2006, in a way that it really hasn't lately.

Sandy Bridge (like 2700k, 2500k) is the latest to fully support XP, although Ivy Bridge (like 3770k, 3570k) works fine too so long as you aren't using the IGP. The most modern graphics cards with XP drivers are the Maxwell GTX 950 and 960 although obviously there are many Keplers that are faster. Such a system can comfortably dual-boot to Windows 10 (even Win 11 with a little work) with current graphics drivers if you choose Maxwell.

The latest to fully support Win 9x were the i865/i875 chipsets and surprisingly you can even find Core 2 compatible boards with DDR1 and AGP. Obviously 9x will only use a single core but that's still way faster than Pentium 4, and fast enough to maybe even be somewhat useful if you boot to Windows 7 or 10. I am currently trying Windows 11 out on a number of Core 2 Duo and Quad machines and everything appears to work fine even though such a combination is clearly untested by Microsoft.