Starting Retro Gaming PC Build - AMD Socket A/462

[gryffinwings]

Hi guys, I'm starting my first retro PC build, started off by picking up an old AMD Socket A computer off craigslist for 20 bucks with most of hardware I need, here's a list of specifications:

-ASUS A7V266-E Motherboard
-AMD Socket A Unknown Processor
-Unbranded NVIDIA TNT2 M64 32MB (no idea what it's capable of)
-768 MB DDR 266 CL 2.5 (Crucial Memory, I'm surprised)
-Unbranded Ethernet Expansion Card
-Enermax Whisper EG365P-VE PSU

So my first thought is to install Windows 98 SE in it to possibly get the most compatibility out of it until I build or find a machine that I can use for even older games. But for now my goal is to play games such as:

-Diable 1 and 2
-Starcraft 1 and 2
-Civilization
-Sim City 2000
-Septerra Core

and other games I didn't get to play in my younger years. My thoughts are to upgrade to a better graphics card, but not sure what to look for, I would need an AGP Pro 4x slot compatible graphics card and also some kind of sound card, I'm thinking maybe a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. Any thoughts and recommendations are welcome and appreciated.

 

[mgallo848]

ATI 9600, 9700 or 9800 pro will go nicely with that setup.
Keep in mind, ATI (now AMD) was top dog in the GPU market back in those days.

 

[gryffinwings]

ATI 9600, 9700 or 9800 pro will go nicely with that setup.
Keep in mind, ATI (now AMD) was top dog in the GPU market back in those days.

I'm finding those cards to be rather pricey on ebay, however I know where to get an ATI X1600 Pro AGP graphics card for a good price, how about that one?

 

[mgallo848]

ATI 9600, 9700 or 9800 pro will go nicely with that setup.
Keep in mind, ATI (now AMD) was top dog in the GPU market back in those days.

I'm finding those cards to be rather pricey on ebay, however I know where to get an ATI X1600 Pro AGP graphics card for a good price, how about that one?

That era is when Nvidia started to shine. Try looking for an Nvidia 6600 GT

 

[Wolfshadw]

I'd agree with the Geforce 6600 GT or the Radeon 9600.

Back in those days, I was running an Intel PIII-800 with 768Meg RAM and an ATI Radeon 9200SE. It ran Windows XP and XPSP1 fairly well; well enough for the first few issues of City of Heroes!

Sadly, you're too late. While probably way too powerful for your system, I had an ATI Radeon X1800XL All-In-Wonder that I could have sold to you for the cost of shipping. It went with a ton of other electronic recycles.

-Wolf sends

 

[gryffinwings]

Thanks for the information so far, anyways I have finally got the computer to post, one of the sticks of ram is dead, so now I am at 512 MB of ram which is fine, wouldn't mind another 512 MB, but this will do, better Graphics Card, Audio card and an IDE hard drive is more important, especially the hard drive. But fortunately it works and BIOS works. Anyways, an update, I have found out this computer sports an AMD Athlon 1700+ Palomino Core, and weirdly was set at a slower clock in BIOS than it should have been. Also a bunch of weird things were set in the BIOS, so I set everything to default.

Found that the Clear RTC Jumper is missing, not sure if I need it, but probably do.

Should the optical drive be in the primary or secondary IDE on the motherboard?

 

[TerryLaze]

-Diable 1 and 2
-Starcraft 1 and 2
-Civilization
-Sim City 2000
-Septerra Core

All of these games run on a modern system all the way up to windows 10...just saying.
It's not like they play any better or different on a new system, it will be 100% the same thing.
Starcraft 2 will run like dog on such a old system,it will be unplayable.

 

[gryffinwings]

-Diable 1 and 2
-Starcraft 1 and 2
-Civilization
-Sim City 2000
-Septerra Core

All of these games run on a modern system all the way up to windows 10...just saying.
It's not like they play any better or different on a new system, it will be 100% the same thing.
Starcraft 2 will run like dog on such a old system,it will be unplayable.

Well, I don't have much of a Windows system right now, just a crappy laptop. Other than that I have a Macbook Pro that I use for other things. And these aren't the only games I plan on playing, there are some older games I plan on playing, these were just to name a few. And I find you correct on Starcraft 2, I wouldn't be able to play that on this system, thank you for pointing that out.

 

[gryffinwings]

I'd agree with the Geforce 6600 GT or the Radeon 9600.

Back in those days, I was running an Intel PIII-800 with 768Meg RAM and an ATI Radeon 9200SE. It ran Windows XP and XPSP1 fairly well; well enough for the first few issues of City of Heroes!

Sadly, you're too late. While probably way too powerful for your system, I had an ATI Radeon X1800XL All-In-Wonder that I could have sold to you for the cost of shipping. It went with a ton of other electronic recycles.

-Wolf sends

Thanks for the information, I think I will look into the Nvidia 6600 GT, I forgot that Nvidia has great driver support for their graphics cards and the drivers for this particular card are still available for download, compatible as far back as Windows 95 even.