Build Advice Retro gaming build

[i76700hquser]

Hi. First I'm going to say I have almost zero knowledge about retro PCs, although I have some knowledge about modern PCs.

I'm planning on building a retro gaming build.

I have some parts laying around, but since I'm not really knowledgeable about old PC parts, or even a person born in the 90s, I want to know if these parts are ok for a retro build.

Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.00GHz Northwood

Intel Stock Cooler (when I last used it, it was very loud and always at max speed)

ATI Radeon 9600 XT 256MB DDR

4x512MB DDR RAM

Albatron PX865PE Pro

HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200:7 80GB
PSU: FSP Group INC FSP300-60ATV, Premier LC-B300ATX. Still deciding between those two

I also want to know what era of games I would be able to play with these specs ?

Thanks!

For now I'm gonna be playing games at 1680x1050, but I'm probably going to buy a CRT if it's that much better.

 

[TerryLaze]

This would be a very good system for anything up to mid XP (but not DOS) , that's when core duo came out, so for games after that your system is still going to play them fine but maybe not the greatest.
A CRT is only really relevant for way older games that run at 640 by 480 and below you don't want to blow those up so that each pixel ends up being a blob on the screen, since CRTs are analog they adjust to the resolution.

 

[i76700hquser]

Thank you! What OS should I use on this?

 

[i76700hquser]

Also, back when I used this motherboard a year ago, it only recognized 30GB out of 80GB on my HDD, is this a normal occurrence on old boards?

 

[TerryLaze]

Thank you! What OS should I use on this?

Depends on what games you want to run.
Best would be one disk with XP sp2 and one with win 98, or dual boot on the same disk if you are up to that.

Also, back when I used this motherboard a year ago, it only recognized 30GB out of 80GB on my HDD, is this a normal occurrence on old boards?

Mobos can have limits on the size of disk they can see, but that doesn't mean that that was your issue for sure, could be something else as well.
30Gb is a very weird limit to have, 20Gb is common.

 

[i76700hquser]

Mobos can have limits on the size of disk they can see, but that doesn't mean that that was your issue for sure, could be something else as well.
30Gb is a very weird limit to have, 20Gb is common.

I finally built the PC.
Here's a picture of the BIOS page where it shows the HDD capacity, I don't even know what these "Cylinder" "Head" settings mean.
For your information, the HDD is a ST380011A.

I actually don't know any games from that era, but I want to try 98-XP era ones.

 

[TerryLaze]

I finally built the PC.
Here's a picture of the BIOS page where it shows the HDD capacity, I don't even know what these "Cylinder" "Head" settings mean.
For your information, the HDD is a ST380011A.

That is the drive geometry, how the drive is physically partitioned.
According to the manual of the drive for 80Gb it should be
Cylinders 156,301,488
https://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/ata/cuda7200pm.pdf
Also try putting the access mode to LBA instead of auto.

I actually don't know any games from that era, but I want to try 98-XP era ones.

Practically all games of that era that are worth playing are on steam, or even better on GOG since they include all the fixes needed for the games to run on a modern OS.
Since you don't have any nostalgia for the actual experience it would be much easier to play them that way.
If you are having fun with messing around with old systems it's a good way to go.

 

[i76700hquser]

That is the drive geometry, how the drive is physically partitioned.
According to the manual of the drive for 80Gb it should be
Cylinders 156,301,488
https://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/ata/cuda7200pm.pdf
Also try putting the access mode to LBA instead of auto.

Practically all games of that era that are worth playing are on steam, or even better on GOG since they include all the fixes needed for the games to run on a modern OS.
Since you don't have any nostalgia for the actual experience it would be much easier to play them that way.
If you are having fun with messing around with old systems it's a good way to go.

Alright, I'm going to try that when I access the computer again and I'll update.
How can I install the games on this PC? Steam doesn't run on XP or 98 as far as I know.

 

[TerryLaze]

Alright, I'm going to try that when I access the computer again and I'll update.
How can I install the games on this PC? Steam doesn't run on XP or 98 as far as I know.

On the old retro PC the only legal way to install those old games would be from the original cd/dvd.
If you buy games from gog the download is a standalone installer,some of those will install on windows XP but not all.

If you have a game on steam you don't need an old PC at all you can run it on your modern PC.

 

[i76700hquser]

On the old retro PC the only legal way to install those old games would be from the original cd/dvd.
If you buy games from gog the download is a standalone installer,some of those will install on windows XP but not all.

If you have a game on steam you don't need an old PC at all you can run it on your modern PC.

I could try gog, it's a bonus that I can install them on my modern PC too.