Building A Vintage PC

I'm trying to build an older PC for all of my old games. My question is, if I try building a PC with 2 256MB RAM modules and a NVIDIA GeForce 2 card, what kind of tower would I need to buy? Also, I'm trying to go for AMD for a processor and I want to know which of the NVIDIA GeForce 2 series is the best? The Ultra, GTS, MX, Pro, or Ti? Finally, with processors what is the best one that will support my motherboard for either Intel or AMD?

Reply 1 : Building A Vintage PC

Umm if I remember correctly the Ultra was the most powerful version of Nvidia cards back then. It would help if you gave us the motherboard socket in order to recommend a processor. My old comp was built using a AMD Athlon 3400+

Reply 2 : Building A Vintage PC

In the end, it would probably be cheaper just to build a modern pc. It could run all your old games, AND all your new games. Not sure on the processor, but for Intel, maybe the Pentium series (I remember that my family desktop is a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 with 512mb of ram)



And Ultra was the best Nvidia card back then

Reply 3 : Building A Vintage PC

buy one off of craigslist tons of P4's on there.

Reply 4 : Building A Vintage PC

Craigslist or eBay. There are tons of really old machines that were used by businesses that you can pick up for a song. I had a P4 tower for a little while that ran Windows 98 with a Voodoo3. Total cost was less than $150, and that was about 6 years ago so. I don't doubt you could buy one for even less.

Reply 5 : Building A Vintage PC

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Originally Posted by APersonOnALaptop I'm trying to build an older PC for all of my old games.

Check out Good Old Games (http://www.gog.com). They sell several older classic games for $5-$10 each. They are essentially older DOS / Win 3.1 / Win95 games that come in pre-configured DOSBox wrappers. They have full manuals in PDF, are clock-throttled to run on modern hardware, do not contain any DRM, and operate within non-DOS operating systems like Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7. It is definitely worth the money (even if you are re-buying a game you already own), because you don't have to deal with getting an old machine configured and running.





If you are dead-set on getting an older machine, I would go with Saturnotaku's advice - buy an already-built machine. Trying to build your own machine by buying your own parts is going to be a headache. Parts are going to be hard to find, they are going to be more expensive than buying an already-built system, and you can't get support if anything is defective or needs RMA. Just buy a pre-built system from the Pentium II / Pentium III era, and replace parts from it as needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KillerBunny In the end, it would probably be cheaper just to build a modern pc. It could run all your old games, AND all your new games.

The problem with building a modern PC is driver support for older OS'es. I know people with Core i3/i5/i7 machines, that still keep old 486's in a closet somewhere, and pull them out whenever they want to play retro games.



They don't do that because of money or performance. They do it because of compatibility... you can't find Windows 95 or DOS drivers for a modern card like a GeForce GTX560Ti.

Reply 6 : Building A Vintage PC

Quote:

Originally Posted by APersonOnALaptop My question is, if I try building a PC with 2 256MB RAM modules and a NVIDIA GeForce 2 card, what kind of tower would I need to buy?

You really should post this at NBR's sister site, DesktopReview.com, since NBR isn't really the venue for this discussion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by APersonOnALaptop Also, I'm trying to go for AMD for a processor and I want to know which of the NVIDIA GeForce 2 series is the best? The Ultra, GTS, MX, Pro, or Ti?

The Ultra series were nVidia's top of the line gaming videocards. In fact, I still have two, fully functional BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra videocards. They remain one of the more powerful AGP graphics cards today.

Reply 7 : Building A Vintage PC

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They don't do that because of money or performance. They do it because of compatibility... you can't find Windows 95 or DOS drivers for a modern card like a GeForce GTX560Ti.

Is there really a problem? I thought you can emulate anything.

Reply 8 : Building A Vintage PC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lieto Is there really a problem? I thought you can emulate anything.

Well, there are two approaches to playing old games:



(1) Use emulation tools and compatibility programs like DOSBox (or, buy games with pre-packaged and pre-configured DOSBox wrappers from Good Old Games). You can run these programs on just about any modern hardware and any modern OS.



OR



(2) Forget emulation, forget the headache of tweaking DOSBox, and forget re-buying games I already own from Good Old Games. Run native, by re-creating the original DOS / Win3.1 / Win95 environment. You need to specifically get your hands on hardware that has direct driver support for these old environments.





The Original Poster is asking specifically about Option #2 - building a machine for native execution. The option that you suggest (emulation) would require the OP to switch to Option #1.



For what it's worth, I believe that Option #1 (emulation and DOSBox) is the way to go. It's cheaper, more easily supported in the future on just about any OS, and doesn't require you to maintain 10+ year old hardware.

Reply 9 : Building A Vintage PC

This is what I've gotten to so far (Keep in mind that some older parts aren't around anymore):

AMD Sempron 2200+

512MB DDR RAM (2x256)

3dfx Voodoo5 5500



-Any help on what motherboard I could get, and what Shell I need? I am looking for a 20GB Hard Drive right now....