Retro Gaming Rig Thread

ragejg · 01-09-11, 07:36 AM

Last night I was staring at my pile of unused hardware, and I decided to pull some stuff apart, do some heavy cleaning, and make a retro gaming rig for my daughter and son:

My old Cybertron case
Athlon Mobile XP 2800 Barton (266 fsb, 512k cache, unlocked multi, 2.1ghz)
Aopen 350W PSU (fairly new actually but no SATA connectors)
ECS K7S5A (SiS 735) Socket A SDR/DDR motherboard
2x512mb DDR
FX 5700 Vanilla AGP 128mb
40gb Deskstar
WinXP

The build went together nicely, and it was fun to see everything clean and together (even though I swore over two years ago now that I'd never touch WinXP and Socket A again, lol) ... Now, I'm not expecting miracles from this system at all, but it is reasonably snappy (back when my systems had cards like FX 5700 I usually only had 512mb RAM anyway, and a slower CPU)... overall this is around the spec of a high-end system from mid-2002.

I built this so it could play BF 1942, Call of Duty 1, RTCW:ET, UT2004 and Star Wars Ep. 1 Pod Racer on a 1024x768 LCD. The only things I might like to do to improve the system would be to get the RAM up to 1.5 or 2gb, and possibly get a GPU in there that can do hardware acceleration in Flash (HD 4650 AGP, ~$70)... or maybe if someone here has any old AGP card that's better than FX 5700 that they could sell/trade ...but part of me thinks that if I decide to put resources into that I might as well at least upgrade to 939/PCIE.

Whatever the case, this retro rig is ready to play 2001-2003 titles, and it was fun to put together. I hope my daughter & son like it. I worked hard on this bugger last night.

If you've built a retro gaming rig lately, post it here!

H3avyM3tal · 01-09-11, 11:07 AM

Pics, or it didn't happen

JasonPC · 01-09-11, 02:19 PM

Very nice! I was thinking about doing something like this because there are some older games that I'd love to play again that just don't like modern hardware and Windows 7. I have some old parts laying around. It's just finding the right combination of parts that actually work.

ragejg · 01-10-11, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H3avyM3tal

Pics, or it didn't happen

Nothin' special... but hey, it'll play BF1942 @ 10x7, all details @ highest, no AA/AF...

One problem I'm having is that the 175.19 Forceware driver's not working right, OpenGL games (RTCW:ET & Call of Duty 1) don't work.... DirectX titles work though...
EDIT: Problem solved via driver re-install... I rolled back a bit as well, the FX 5700 doesn't need OpenGL 2.1.

ViN86 · 01-10-11, 11:39 AM

Heh, I used to have a K7S5A, it was one of my first actual builds. Used to run my 1700+ Thunderbird in there.

frenchy2k1 · 01-10-11, 12:48 PM

I have LOTS of older spare parts, including some shuttle boxes (one with an nforce2 and socketA and one with a VIA and AM2), a few 939 MB+proc, LOTS of DDR1 RAM, followed by things more recent.

Send me a message if you want me to sell some for cheap.
I'm located in Bay Area.

ViN86 · 01-10-11, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frenchy2k1

I have LOTS of older spare parts, including some shuttle boxes (one with an nforce2 and socketA and one with a VIA and AM2), a few 939 MB+proc, LOTS of DDR1 RAM, followed by things more recent.

Send me a message if you want me to sell some for cheap.
I'm located in Bay Area.

You should post it in the FS Forum frenchy. I'm sure some people would love to buy it off of you.

01-09-11, 07:36 AM	#1
ragejg nV News Alumni Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Finger Lakes of Hell, NY Posts: 5,399	Retro Gaming Rig Thread Last night I was staring at my pile of unused hardware, and I decided to pull some stuff apart, do some heavy cleaning, and make a retro gaming rig for my daughter and son: My old Cybertron case Athlon Mobile XP 2800 Barton (266 fsb, 512k cache, unlocked multi, 2.1ghz) Aopen 350W PSU (fairly new actually but no SATA connectors) ECS K7S5A (SiS 735) Socket A SDR/DDR motherboard 2x512mb DDR FX 5700 Vanilla AGP 128mb 40gb Deskstar WinXP The build went together nicely, and it was fun to see everything clean and together (even though I swore over two years ago now that I'd never touch WinXP and Socket A again, lol) ... Now, I'm not expecting miracles from this system at all, but it is reasonably snappy (back when my systems had cards like FX 5700 I usually only had 512mb RAM anyway, and a slower CPU)... overall this is around the spec of a high-end system from mid-2002. I built this so it could play BF 1942, Call of Duty 1, RTCW:ET, UT2004 and Star Wars Ep. 1 Pod Racer on a 1024x768 LCD. The only things I might like to do to improve the system would be to get the RAM up to 1.5 or 2gb, and possibly get a GPU in there that can do hardware acceleration in Flash (HD 4650 AGP, ~$70)... or maybe if someone here has any old AGP card that's better than FX 5700 that they could sell/trade ...but part of me thinks that if I decide to put resources into that I might as well at least upgrade to 939/PCIE. Whatever the case, this retro rig is ready to play 2001-2003 titles, and it was fun to put together. I hope my daughter & son like it. I worked hard on this bugger last night. If you've built a retro gaming rig lately, post it here! __________________ 2010-2011 Reviews: GTX 570 \| GTX 580 \| GTS 450 \| GTX 460 \| GTX 465 Pre-2010 Reviews: 6600 GT \| XMS 4400 DDR \| SilenX Cooler \| 6800 \| 5900 XT \| Personal Cinema \| 5900 NU ______________________________________________ Phenom II x6 1090t @ 4.0 ghz \| Asus M498TD-EVO Am3 SLI nForce 980a \| 2x EVGA GTX 560 SLI \| 2x4gb DDR3-1333 \| Antec EarthWatts EA650 PSU \| 60gb Mushkin Calisto Enhanced Sandforce SSD \| 2x WD2500KS RAID 0 \| Sunbeam Tuniq 3 case \| 24" Asus 19x10 LED LCD \| 26" Panasonic 720p TV \| Sidewinder X5 mouse \| Logitech MX5500 & Revolution mouse \| Altec Lansing 5.1 THX-Certified audio \| Win 7 Ultimate \| desk \| couch "Stars must die so that I may live. I... stepped out of a Supernova."

01-09-11, 11:07 AM	#2
H3avyM3tal SB's Twin Blades Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Israel Posts: 1,138	Re: Retro Gaming Rig Thread Pics, or it didn't happen __________________ i5 2500K - Asus Maximus IV Extreme - 8Gb Corsair Platinum @ 2133MHz - GTX 680 - WD Velociraptor 300Gb + WD Black 1Tb - OCZ Vertex 2 90Gb - TT ToughPower 850W - Corsair 800D

01-09-11, 02:19 PM	#3
JasonPC Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2,103	Re: Retro Gaming Rig Thread Very nice! I was thinking about doing something like this because there are some older games that I'd love to play again that just don't like modern hardware and Windows 7. I have some old parts laying around. It's just finding the right combination of parts that actually work.

01-10-11, 11:39 AM	#5
ViN86 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 15,486	Re: Retro Gaming Rig Thread Heh, I used to have a K7S5A, it was one of my first actual builds. Used to run my 1700+ Thunderbird in there.

01-10-11, 12:48 PM	#6
frenchy2k1 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 446	Re: Retro Gaming Rig Thread I have LOTS of older spare parts, including some shuttle boxes (one with an nforce2 and socketA and one with a VIA and AM2), a few 939 MB+proc, LOTS of DDR1 RAM, followed by things more recent. Send me a message if you want me to sell some for cheap. I'm located in Bay Area. __________________ As the universe is curved, there cannot be a straight answer...