Question PC newbie trying to build an XP machine from a childhood rig pulled from storage

[SkyScourgeGod]

Hello! I'm a big console guy trying to rebuild an old PC from my high school days with XP gaming in mind. This PC was originally built back in the early to mid 2000's when I was barely in High School. My stepdad bought all the pieces for this PC and gifted them to me for Christmas back then and he helped my build the entire thing. Some years later, it ended up dying for reasons I was never told, and it sat in a closest collecting dust for nearly 20 years. Now, in the year 2022, I've dug this beast out from its cave with the intention to rebuild it and fire it up for XP retro gaming.

As you can tell from the title, I'm not terribly familiar with PC building other than some of the most basic concepts. I know what RAM, CPU's, GPU's, Motherboards and storage drives are on a basic level. I'm also really good at building and disassembling most electronics and other complex machines. I was a vehicle technician by trade for awhile and I've torn apart plenty of video game consoles for some time so I'm confident in my ability to build something. That being said, I'm not familiar with what kinds of different pieces of hardware I can look at to build a PC of any kind. In fact, I'm typing this forum post as we speak from a laptop lol. For all these reasons I have decided to consult any forums I can in hopes of getting any advice or information from much more seasoned and knowledgeable PC enthusiasts on how I can get this beast to fire up once again for some good'ol fashioned Windows XP gaming.

To make this a bit more fun, if possible, I'd like to max out the potential of this rig in any areas that I can. The best GPU, the most RAM, best CPU, anything and everything I can do that fits into any of my listed goals that I'll provide below. As an added bonus for those interested in following my build, I'll also keep posting updates and pictures whenever I can during the process all the way up to the finish. For now, I'll list what I know is currently sitting in this PC alongside pictures of what it looks like now as well as my "will do's", "won't do's" and personal goals for the build.

What's currently known to be inside:
-Motherboard: ECS Elitegroup NForce 6M-A Version 2.0 with built in nForce 520LE
-GPU: GeForce 8400GS 512MB DDR2 TV DVI PCI-E
-Power Supply: CoolerMaster eXtreme Power RP-600-PCAR

This is all I know by very specific product names on the boards or stickers. Much of this stuff seems to be from CoolerMaster as the internal fans, power supply and even the clear blue piece on the front fins of the case have the name CoolerMaster on them. Perhaps this was the common theme for what might have been a package deal for the case...?

What I'm willing to do:
- Replace CPU
-Replace GPU
- Replace power supply
-Replace RAM
-Clean everything... obviously. The case and all its contents have nearly 20 years of dust and cob webs. This will be done when I tear everything down to bare parts.

What I'm NOT willing or going to do:
-Replace the case
-Water Cooling (Not sure if this applies to this era of PC. I've seen some gnarly modern builds that have water cooling and I'd rather not step into that world if it applies here.)
- Build a modern PC... just in case someone decides to say it for whatever reason
-Use a virtual desktop. I want an authentic retro experience with the best compatibility for real physical games. Virtual desktops won't give me that.
- Go online. This will primarily be an offline machine. No reason to go online with Windows XP as far as I'm concerned.

What I MIGHT be willing to do if necessary:
- Replace the motherboard. I'm not sure how good ANY of the current components are as far as performance and I'd like to keep this one if possible, but if it's not good enough to reach my goals then I'd consider getting something better for this build.

Build goals:

• Best compatibility with Windows 98, XP and Vista era games via CD or DVD. XP and Vista games are prioritized but if 98 games could also work that would be awesome. A few examples include F.E.A.R. plus its expansions, Lost Planet, Comanche 4, System Shock 2, Battleship Surface Thunder, Star Wars Empire at War, ect. Windows 95 era games would be a bonus so long as they don't require any MS-DOS bootups as that would be far better handled by a dedicated Windows 95/98 machine.
• A max resolution of 1080p via a digital connection. HDMI, DVI or DisplayPort would all be fine. Would prefer to avoid VGA but will use it if I have to.
• A framerate target of at least 60 fps for games that can go that far. Higher is fine if it was possible for machines back in the day, but not necessary.
• Has as little input latency as possible.
• Has the best and/or most compatible version of Windows XP installed. A how to for that alone would also be welcome.
• Supports using controllers like the wired Xbox 360 controller for games that can take advantage of that.
• Whatever good sound options that are available. I know sound isn't usually integrated into the video feed line with PC builds so any good options are welcome here.
• Keep the build cost low. I'm not really hurting for cash but if money can be saved in any areas of this build it would be appreciated.

Here are some pictures of the PC as it currently sits:

Thanks for entertaining my long post and I hope anyone out there can give me a helping hand. I apologize that I couldn't get more specific with what's inside the case, but I will be doing a tear down at some point so if you need more info or pictures then I'll provide them over time.

 

[Lafong]

https://www.ecs.com.tw/he/Product/Motherboard/NFORCE6M-A_V2.0-V2.0A/specification

Motherboard specs at above link. It's a DDR 2 board.

It won't boot now? I assume that is for totally unknown reasons?

What is your budget limit?

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

https://www.ecs.com.tw/he/Product/Motherboard/NFORCE6M-A_V2.0-V2.0A/specification

Motherboard specs at above link. It's a DDR 2 board.

It won't boot now? I assume that is for totally unknown reasons?

What is your budget limit?

Oh that's awesome! That alone should help me with knowing what equipment is compatible with the motherboard.

I actually haven't tried to boot it up yet. It's missing the hard drive and I have no mouse and keyboard for it so there'd be no way of actually testing it. Back when it was running, it died from continually blue screening. My initial suspicion in 2022 based on my limited knowledge and memories from all those years ago is that the RAM went bad or the Hard Drive became corrupt/faulty, hence why it's missing. Otherwise, it's a toss-up as to what went wrong with it.

I'm honestly not sure what my budget would be for this project. Correct me if I'm wrong but it's not like I'm buying new parts off the shelf for this antique rig so I'm not sure what second-hand stuff might cost or is available. I earn a fair amount from my job so I'm not too worried about cost especially if I stretch the project time out for a few months or so, but any cost cutting is never going to be turned away. I still have bills to pay so blowing everything I've got in one shot is a no go lol. If I absolutely HAD to put a number on it, I'd say less than $1000 for all the needed parts. Again though, my budget can be stretched over a few months so exceptions can apply.

 

[Lafong]

Off the top of my head..........

First goal would be to attempt a boot with some kind of drive and some kind of operating system to see if you have 0, 1, or 8 apparently defective parts.

I guess that could even be Linux if you have any knowledge.

Not sure how far I'd go with disassembly or "cleaning up" without first having a wild guess about defective parts. You may be buying oats (spending time) for a dying or dead horse.

CPU is not known?

Windows 10 may be ineligible for installation if your parts are of a certain age. You may have to go back to Win 7 or earlier for a compatible OS for testing purposes.

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

Off the top of my head..........

First goal would be to attempt a boot with some kind of drive and some kind of operating system to see if you have 0, 1, or 8 apparently defective parts.

I guess that could even be Linux if you have any knowledge.

Not sure how far I'd go with disassembly or "cleaning up" without first having a wild guess about defective parts. You may be buying oats (spending time) for a dying or dead horse.

CPU is not known?

Windows 10 may be ineligible for installation if your parts are of a certain age. You may have to go back to Win 7 or earlier for a compatible OS for testing purposes.

Ok, so the first step is diagnosis and to do that, I need a drive with a compatible OS. I think I may have a spare 1TB 2.5 HDD leftover somewhere from my console modding projects so I'll probably use that for testing. As for the OS, I think Vista would be compatible just for testing purposes. The hardware is fairly old so I don't think Windows 7 would be good here. I'm not too familiar with Linux so I won't make it complicated by going that route.

How would you install an old OS like Vista?

Unfortunately I can't see the CPU directly. One of those CoolerMaster heat sinks with a big fan over it is covering the CPU so I'd have to remove it. I can't imagine it was too high end though considering the time the rig was assembled. I can remove it if need be, but according to what you're saying it seems like it's better to keep everything put together for diag first.

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

On that note, I'm also figuring that the CPU paste is pretty old so that may be another reason it died. Might as well add CPU to the list of potentially dead pieces of hardware, lol.

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

UPDATE:

I just now noticed that there is in fact a harddrive in the rig! It was tucked away in a spot I couldn't see. I'm going to try and turn this thing on and see what happens.

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

How would you install an old OS like Vista?

Yarr, matey. M$FT doesn't sell Vista anymore so either grab a disc from ebay, or buy a laptop that came with it and has a working OEM install. Just remember protection. Virus protection.

That being said, Core2 and first/second generation Core iX CPUs are pretty good for XP. Keep in mind, support for XP ended in 2014, so the latest hardware you'd want is something from Haswell (4th gen Core iX).

That goes for graphics as well - NVIDIA stopped making XP drivers before the 400.xx version dropped (I think 368.xx).

That means you're also limited to NVIDIA 700 series cards.

The absolute best PC you could build is a Xeon E5-2699 v3 and quad SLI GTX 780 Tis with 768GB of RAM on Windows XP Pro 64-bit.

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

UPDATE #2:

I hooked up the PC to the wall to even see if it would power on. All of the fans and LED lights the case has powered on no problem so at least the rig is getting power.

Afterwards I hooked the whole thing up with a DVI cable and a power cord to a 120hz flatscreen then powered on the whole affair. No video whatsoever. I decided to test the video output to see if anything was actually coming out of the GeForce video card by hooking both VGA and DVI to an external video processor that I use in my current console gaming setup. The device has a set of LEDs that light up when a signal is detected from either of the two inputs. I hooked up both the DVI cable with a DVI to HDMI passive adapter and a VGA cable to both inputs on the processor, turned on the PC and... nothing. No video signal was detected from either port.

Both cables I used are good so I can only assume one of two things:

1. The GeForce video card has gone bad.

2. The motherboard is not properly powering the video card which means the motherboard is faulty.

Feel free to add any input on this. I can't test any further because I don't have a female to male VGA cable to use for the motherboards built in NVidia chip. From where I'm sitting, it may seem like I at least need another video card or at most I need to build something with only a case as my starting point.

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

Feel free to add any input on this. I can't test any further because I don't have a female to male VGA cable to use for the motherboards built in NVidia chip.

That NVIDIA chip is the chipset itself (known as nForce) and the port on the board is a serial port, not a video port. The motherboard does not have integrated graphics.

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

That NVIDIA chip is the chipset itself (known as nForce) and the port on the board is a serial port, not a video port. The motherboard does not have integrated graphics.

Ah, got it. My bad, newbie logic at work here lol.

Based on my last comment, would it seem that I have a faulty graphics card or a faulty motherboard? A motherboard would be pricey even for an old machine like this, so if the motherboard is bad would you have any suggestions?

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

Based on my last comment, would it seem that I have a faulty graphics card or a faulty motherboard? A motherboard would be pricey even for an old machine like this, so if the motherboard is bad would you have any suggestions?

Try the GPU in a different system. If it works, great, if not, you have your answer.

If you need another GPU just for testing motherboards, you can get older Dell OEM HD7450 for $10 on ebay.

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

UPDATE #3:

I decided to take off the heat sink fan for the CPU in order to figure out what kind of CPU I had. After removing the heat sink fan and some REALLY dry caked on thermal paste, it seems we've got an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800. I'll let you guys tell me if that's any good for this project of mine, but physically speaking it looks fine. The fan and heat sink are also in good shape since, as previously mentioned, the fan immediately turned on when the rig was connected to power. That's the good news...

The bad news is that after removing the heat sink fan I found a nasty surprise on the motherboard in the form of a full row of blown capacitors. After seeing this I removed the entire motherboard from the case. Here's some pictures for reference:

At this point, I'm dead certain that the motherboard is the cause of failure all those years back. Needless to say, I'm going to need another motherboard if I plan to make this build work. I would've liked to stick around with this one, but that's the nature of old hardware I guess.

It's not all bad though, since I'm starting from scratch that means that the sky is the limit here which means I'm open for fresh ideas. If anyone has any suggestions for a good motherboard that can be used with a Windows XP build like this one I'm all ears. I COULD just get another NForce 6M-A since I know it worked with my original rig, but maybe something better could be around the corner?

After doing a bit of research I was thinking of replacing my GeForce 8400 GS GPU with a GeForce GTX 750 Ti. I heard the GeForce 700 series would be excellent if not overkill for my particular build while still maintaining driver support for Windows XP. Since it's a single slot card it makes it much easier to hook up without worrying about extra cables for power or having to upgrade the power supply too much.

Just for fun, here's some more pictures of the other stuff I pulled out of the case when I removed the motherboard:

Here's that good'ol GeForce 8400GS that used to power my gaming days back in high school. It served me well, but 720p from 2007 isn't gonna cut it anymore.

Here's a pair of Corsair 2GB DDR2 RAM cards that were on the motherboard. If my next motherboard supports DDR2 then I could probably still use these, I'd just get two more. I heard that 4-8GB of RAM was all you'd need for Windows XP gaming, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Of course, if my next motherboard doesn't support DDR2 then I'll have to chuck these and find something else.

Here's the wireless Wi-Fi module that was plugged into one of my PCI slots. I always wondered what the three wires from the wireless antenna atop of the rig were going to, now I know lol. Definitely a neat little piece of history but, needless to say, I won't really be needing this anymore since my XP machine will be offline. Still, it's kind of cool to finally check out in intimate detail what I had in my old workhorse.

As mentioned before, feel free to give me any ideas on a new motherboard as well as tell me if that CPU is any good for this project. If not, I'm all ears on a good replacement to reach my build goals. I'll post more updates as I continue to tear into this thing. For now, later!

 

[Lafong]

How committed are you to keeping the CPU?

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+64+X2+Dual+Core+4800+&id=82

Above is a benchmark.

Quite weak. Very weak.

Socket AM2

2 cores; 2 threads; 2.5 ghz; introduced late 2008.

As expected considering its age, DDR 2 era, etc.

Too weak for your intentions? Maybe not.

What is your updated list of what you refuse to change?

First thing I'd try to find out is if I would be forced to buy a USED motherboard as a replacement for the blown one you now have. If yes, I would be highly unamused, but maybe you are OK with that since this is a "project", not your main PC.

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

Looks like the motherboard is shot. Busted electrolytic capacitors.

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

How committed are you to keeping the CPU?

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+64+X2+Dual+Core+4800+&id=82

Above is a benchmark.

Quite weak. Very weak.

Socket AM2

2 cores; 2 threads; 2.5 ghz; introduced late 2008.

As expected considering its age, DDR 2 era, etc.

Too weak for your intentions? Maybe not.

What is your updated list of what you refuse to change?

First thing I'd try to find out is if I would be forced to buy a USED motherboard as a replacement for the blown one you now have. If yes, I would be highly unamused, but maybe you are OK with that since this is a "project", not your main PC.

Honestly, I'm not too dedicated to keeping the CPU. It was on my list of "willing to do's" from the beginning. As long as the CPU, GPU and the motherboard are compatible with Windows XP and its games then I'm open for anything. The goal is 1080p 60fps using the XP OS.

I still refuse to change the case, build a modern PC or use a virtual desktop.

I'm not against getting a used motherboard. This PC won't be running all the time, just whenever I feel like playing an XP era game on it. My laptop is what I use for my normal everyday junk. That being said, I'm also not against getting something that's new. It just needs to work with XP and its games.

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

Looks like the motherboard is shot. Busted electrolytic capacitors.

Yup. Reminds me of some voltage capacitors that blew in an OG Xbox I own. 🤣

Got any good suggestions for an XP capable motherboard that would fit my goal of getting 1080p 60fps?

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

Got any good suggestions for an XP capable motherboard that would fit my goal of getting 1080p 60fps?

Anything made by Dell is gonna be cheap. Look for an Inspiron 530 or 545 motherboard, as they are standard form factor and don't use any of the proprietary BS Dell is known for now. They're also Socket 775 which supports the legendary Core 2 CPUs such as the Q6600 or Q9550.

Try looking for Intel DQ45CB or Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L.

For 1080p60 though you're gonna want to go for at least 1156, or even X58. There's the i7 870, or the Xeon X5650, both of which are very capable CPUs.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

What about something like this? You'd have to scrounge up ddr 3 ram

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2849936117...NPHUNUHSM0RiaMyEu8jRlS9g==|tkp:Bk9SR_rG18X3YA

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2849936117...NPHUNUHSM0RiaMyEu8jRlS9g==|tkp:Bk9SR_rG18X3YA

Also, I know you want an xp box, but they are so cheap, would recommend a sata ssd for your OS.

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

What about something like this? You'd have to scrounge up ddr 3 ram

you don't need anything after the first question mark in the URL, all that gibberish is just tracking

so just https://www.ebay.com/itm/284993611784?

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

Anything made by Dell is gonna be cheap. Look for an Inspiron 530 or 545 motherboard, as they are standard form factor and don't use any of the proprietary BS Dell is known for now. They're also Socket 775 which supports the legendary Core 2 CPUs such as the Q6600 or Q9550.

Try looking for Intel DQ45CB or Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L.

For 1080p60 though you're gonna want to go for at least 1156, or even X58. There's the i7 870, or the Xeon X5650, both of which are very capable CPUs.

So far I like the Intel DQ45CB. It seems to have just as much as my old motherboard did with a few extra bells and whistles. Not bad on price either. I'll keep shopping around a bit then I'll come back.

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

So far I like the Intel DQ45CB. It seems to have just as much as my old motherboard did with a few extra bells and whistles. Not bad on price either. I'll keep shopping around a bit then I'll come back.

Literally $10 on ebay. Do note that the northbridge heatsink is missing.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134229504845

 

[SkyScourgeGod]

What about something like this? You'd have to scrounge up ddr 3 ram

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284993611784?hash=item425af16808:g:FuwAAOSwOtxjQCCM&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAwAYYn3DRbUENLNSZASBooFZYybMuWW32gYE6rYXH49Fw8wBQ/bLPwxDXrHQeJD4cCD6M0pgGNbHCdqPiUCC5YioNzXzl0cBSOYNQEwArj0qDe1+EvG00z0PxVtAXTAUqzsxLeeigP6ObXo/Y9eCXcRs6/fUoE6OCmqtdutlqUbihaFe/cUqhgN5W3fXHyJKQ+G/7y5Xke9MUucWn5zJr0tGOVsaiCHi67RD08pDKY7NPHUNUHSM0RiaMyEu8jRlS9g==|tkp:Bk9SR_rG18X3YA

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284993611784?hash=item425af16808:g:FuwAAOSwOtxjQCCM&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAwAYYn3DRbUENLNSZASBooFZYybMuWW32gYE6rYXH49Fw8wBQ/bLPwxDXrHQeJD4cCD6M0pgGNbHCdqPiUCC5YioNzXzl0cBSOYNQEwArj0qDe1+EvG00z0PxVtAXTAUqzsxLeeigP6ObXo/Y9eCXcRs6/fUoE6OCmqtdutlqUbihaFe/cUqhgN5W3fXHyJKQ+G/7y5Xke9MUucWn5zJr0tGOVsaiCHi67RD08pDKY7NPHUNUHSM0RiaMyEu8jRlS9g==|tkp:Bk9SR_rG18X3YA

Also, I know you want an xp box, but they are so cheap, would recommend a sata ssd for your OS.

This also looks great, but as you mentioned before the disadvantage is that I have to find DDR3 RAM. This particular ad doesn't seem to offer shipping without compromise but I can always look at other listings. I'll do my homework and see what's on offer.

I completely forgot to mention this but yes I will be using an SSD for the OS. Since my motherboard is a paper weight I'm not sure if the current hard drive even works.

 

[Etrius vanRandr]

This also looks great, but as you mentioned before the disadvantage is that I have to find DDR3 RAM. This particular ad doesn't seem to offer shipping without compromise but I can always look at other listings. I'll do my homework and see what's on offer.

I completely forgot to mention this but yes I will be using an SSD for the OS. Since my motherboard is a paper weight I'm not sure if the current hard drive even works.

you can also look for the Intel DX48BT2. I had one and it's a very good board for overclocking.

 

[Tac 25]

This also looks great, but as you mentioned before the disadvantage is that I have to find DDR3 RAM. This particular ad doesn't seem to offer shipping without compromise but I can always look at other listings. I'll do my homework and see what's on offer.

I completely forgot to mention this but yes I will be using an SSD for the OS. Since my motherboard is a paper weight I'm not sure if the current hard drive even works.

DDR3 ram is still readily available in many online stores. I buy from Aliexpress. You could just choose other website with online store if you don't want to buy from Ali.

goodluck building your XP pc. I'm also doing a similar project.