It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionQuest: to build a Windows XP PC with outstanding performance and game compatibility(11 posts)(11 posts)
(11 posts)
Pages:
1
This is my favourite topic
Posted May 24, 2016
We're up to Windows 10 now and my main reluctance to upgrade is due to, once again, a whole swathe of older games no longer working on the new OS. But now I'd like to build a dedicated gaming rig to play games from 2000-2006 (the year Vista arrived).

My idea for this rig is as follows:

- GTX 470 (mainly because I still have it lying around - I know it's a DirectX 10 card but it still performance pretty well in Windows XP)

- Creative Audigy 2 - the best soundcard you could have at the time

- 128GB Intel 320 series SSD - SSDs aren't ideal for Windows XP but Intel has tools to allow for TRIM and 128GB should be plenty for most games

- for monitor I'll use my Dell UltraSharp U2412M. Nvidia drivers should allow me to crop the image to 1600x1200 allowing for crisp pixels

Then I'm left with the motherboard, CPU and RAM. This is where I'm not sure which direction I'd want to go in and any advice is welcome. I'd need a CPU that is compatible with games from that era (as in: its cores won't cause games to crash or an option to turn them off) and a mobo to go with it. Memory would be 4GB of the type supported by the motherboard (DDR2 most likely)

So what are your thoughts and ideas? What CPU and motherboard would you recommend?
Post edited May 24, 2016 by Red_Avatar
Posted May 24, 2016
avatar
Red_Avatar: We're up to Windows 10 now and my main reluctance to upgrade is due to, once again, a whole swathe of older games no longer working on the new OS. But now I'd like to build a dedicated gaming rig to play games from 2000-2006 (the year Vista arrived).

My idea for this rig is as follows:

- GTX 470 (mainly because I still have it lying around - I know it's a DirectX 10 card but it still performance pretty well in Windows XP)

- Creative Audigy 2 - the best soundcard you could have at the time

- 128GB Intel 320 series SSD - SSDs aren't ideal for Windows XP but Intel has tools to allow for TRIM and 128GB should be plenty for most games

- for monitor I'll use my Dell UltraSharp U2412M. Nvidia drivers should allow me to crop the image to 1600x1200 allowing for crisp pixels

Then I'm left with the motherboard, CPU and RAM. This is where I'm not sure which direction I'd want to go in and any advice is welcome. I'd need a CPU that is compatible with games from that era (as in: its cores won't cause games to crash or an option to turn them off) and a mobo to go with it. Memory would be 4GB of the type supported by the motherboard (DDR2 most likely)

So what are your thoughts and ideas? What CPU and motherboard would you recommend?
Aren't a lot of games made with Windows XP in mind still compatible with Windows 7?
Posted May 24, 2016
avatar
Red_Avatar: ...snip
So what are your thoughts and ideas? What CPU and motherboard would you recommend?
I would agree with Mr Warhammer game above, XP has its place for older games. Windows 7 is the next one from that. Never under any circumstances would I consider using Vista, which is just awful.

Yes, you are right there are some compatability issues on Win10, not sure they are as big as was initially portrayed - the whole securom or whichever DRM removal, well there is a driver now. Generally speaking from my side - I have 1 ssd with Win10 (free upgrade from Win8 as thats a bit naff too), another with Win 7, another with linux, and then virtual machines for WinXp and before. Covers all worlds. As for hardware, I wouldn't waste money trying to get a fill in machine, the likelihood is that games will run as is, or there is patches mods out there to fix things .
Posted May 24, 2016
Awesome! This kind of project is exactly why I am keeping around my old parts, crt monitor, and xp discs.

I think an Audigy 4 is actually the best sound card you could put in. And for gpu, some games well only be their best on something older. If I recall correctly, Splinter Cell requires a FX series card for the best shadows.

Unfortunately these things always come down to needing multiple sound and video cards to get the best experience of each game. DOS gaming is much worse in this regard.
Posted May 25, 2016
imo, you would be better with a windows 7 machine ...
Posted May 25, 2016
avatar
Elmofongo: Aren't a lot of games made with Windows XP in mind still compatible with Windows 7?
A lot yes, but far from all. For one, DirectDraw has serious issues in Windows Vista and above and games using it tend to not work or crash a lot or need a work around.

Another problem is that some games simply do not run well due to the environment - you have to do all sorts of register hacks to make it work and that can really screw up your windows. And with all that, you still got weird behaviour, random crashes, glitches, etc.

And besides all that, Windows XP is also the last OS to run many Windows 95 & 98 games - especially the 16bit ones which can't even be ran in a 64bit OS.
avatar
KoreaBeat: Awesome! This kind of project is exactly why I am keeping around my old parts, crt monitor, and xp discs.

I think an Audigy 4 is actually the best sound card you could put in. And for gpu, some games well only be their best on something older. If I recall correctly, Splinter Cell requires a FX series card for the best shadows.

Unfortunately these things always come down to needing multiple sound and video cards to get the best experience of each game. DOS gaming is much worse in this regard.
Yeah the Splinter Cell game is fussy but you can't have it all so I want to go for optimal compatibility. The graphics card will definitely be the main area of "conflict" for games but I got an older video card just in case which I can swap.
Post edited May 25, 2016 by Red_Avatar
Posted May 25, 2016
I had older spare PC lying around and I made it into first half of 2000's retro PC with Windows XP, it has these specs:
- Pentium 4 or D or 660
- Geforce 6800
- 19 inch 5:4 Samsung monitor

I'm playing Xpand Rally and Unreal on it, I love it.

Initially I wanted a 90s retro PC but Windows 98 is just too much hassle and I realized there aren't many games from that era that I'm interested that I haven't already played to death.
Posted May 25, 2016
avatar
Elmofongo: Aren't a lot of games made with Windows XP in mind still compatible with Windows 7?
avatar
Red_Avatar: A lot yes, but far from all. For one, DirectDraw has serious issues in Windows Vista and above and games using it tend to not work or crash a lot or need a work around.

Another problem is that some games simply do not run well due to the environment - you have to do all sorts of register hacks to make it work and that can really screw up your windows. And with all that, you still got weird behaviour, random crashes, glitches, etc.

And besides all that, Windows XP is also the last OS to run many Windows 95 & 98 games - especially the 16bit ones which can't even be ran in a 64bit OS.
avatar
KoreaBeat: Awesome! This kind of project is exactly why I am keeping around my old parts, crt monitor, and xp discs.

I think an Audigy 4 is actually the best sound card you could put in. And for gpu, some games well only be their best on something older. If I recall correctly, Splinter Cell requires a FX series card for the best shadows.

Unfortunately these things always come down to needing multiple sound and video cards to get the best experience of each game. DOS gaming is much worse in this regard.
avatar
Red_Avatar: Yeah the Splinter Cell game is fussy but you can't have it all so I want to go for optimal compatibility. The graphics card will definitely be the main area of "conflict" for games but I got an older video card just in case which I can swap.
For your first point, there are many DDRaw wrappers out there which work fine with a lot of games, I would imagine GOG actually uses some of these on the older games. I am still not seeing anything which couldn't be solved by using and emulator (DOSBOX, ScummVM etc.), a virtual machine (VMWare, VirtualBox), adding wrappers in like the DDraw one above? What games are we talking about here - I have just imaged a load of really old win95 games from CD, and had no difficulties, true installer normally don't work, but they generally just copy files anyway.
Posted May 25, 2016
Phil's Computerlab made a video about it, maybe it contains useful information for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eggK_fS-70E
Posted May 25, 2016
avatar
mobutu: imo, you would be better with a windows 7 machine ...
or a 9x game with the really old games
most xp games run under 7 anyway

and if they wont run under 7 they tend to run under 9x
Posted May 25, 2016
- Any hardware
- Linux
- PlayonLinux

Solved? :)


Edit: never tried it myself, but theoretically you should be able to put Linux in a VM with VGA passthrough (as a guest), so it becomes the player for "old stuff".
Post edited May 25, 2016 by Lin545
Pages:
1
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionQuest: to build a Windows XP PC with outstanding performance and game compatibility(11 posts)(11 posts)
(11 posts)