- Oct 8, 2022
- 16
- 0
- 10
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:
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.
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.
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.
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