Metal Jesus Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 I work with local Seattle store RE-PC to build a new (old) Dell Dimension XPS R400: Pentium II 400mhz, Voodoo3 3000 video card, Soundblaster 16 soundcard, 384MB ram, IBM P96 monitor and more! Do you have an old Windows or MS-DOS gaming PC sitting around still? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgeld Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 I just sold my 8088 so the only one I got lingering around is my 90mhz pentium (8 megs ram, 1 meg svga, ess audio drive) laptop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 I do have old gaming PCs and enough old hardware (from pulls) to assemble a few more. I don't use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Do you have an old Windows or MS-DOS gaming PC sitting around still? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metal Jesus Posted November 7, 2017 Author Share Posted November 7, 2017 I just sold my 8088 so the only one I got lingering around is my 90mhz pentium (8 megs ram, 1 meg svga, ess audio drive) laptop The "TURBO" button on the 8088 is just hilarious... I miss those days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgeld Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 well the original pc was 4.777772732372832372392837 whatever mhz and people used the cpu clock to time their games, guess what happened next, well 7mhz and 12mhz and so on, so the original point on the very old machines was to drop it back to 4.77 for compatibility but by the late 286 or 386 era they were mostly pointless (like turbo mode would be 33mhz and non turbo was 16, like that did any good) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 Nice to see videos like this. If you have been following some of the threads here on AtariAge you will see that I have recently took on the task of building a NEW (OLD) rig myself. With my build, I actually acquired mostly new parts. A new Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard, new vintage case, new old stock ram, new old stock Geforce 2 Ultra and some other parts which were not necessarily new but so pristine that you would think that they are I went with a PIII 750Mhz slot 1 CPU (these...especially in the higher frequencies are hard to obtain) because I can and it was still a pre-2000 processor which was something I personally wanted. The machine screams in Unreal Tournament...so much so that I was pretty floored to say the least. I have a Gateway with a 180MHz overdrive that I use for all of my DOS gaming, but this specific build was more geared to mid-late 90's to early 2000's gaming. With the 440BX chipset it can be whatever you want more or less as the chipset supports 233MHz PII's all the way up to PIII 1GHz processors. I will be providing a video review of the machine soon...hopefully sometime before Christmas if my work schedule permits. That said, always enjoy your videos...especially vintage computer related stuff. Thanks for sharing! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metal Jesus Posted November 8, 2017 Author Share Posted November 8, 2017 I have a Gateway with a 180MHz overdrive that I use for all of my DOS gaming, but this specific build was more geared to mid-late 90's to early 2000's gaming. With the 440BX chipset it can be whatever you want more or less as the chipset supports 233MHz PII's all the way up to PIII 1GHz processors. I will be providing a video review of the machine soon...hopefully sometime before Christmas if my work schedule permits. I'm not thinking it may be worth my while to get a 8088 or 286 for those really early MS-DOS games... just so it's easier to deal with speed issues... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 (edited) I'm not thinking it may be worth my while to get a 8088 or 286 for those really early MS-DOS games... just so it's easier to deal with speed issues... You might not even need to do that. If you go with a Pentium 1 machine (like my Gateway which was originally a P120) you can always enter the BIOS and disable L1 and L2 cache and the machine will run like a 386 or 486 DX25. If that speed is still too fast for the games you want to play then yeah, you would have to get a 286 or less...or use one of those speed hacks as you mentioned in the video. Edited November 8, 2017 by eightbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 Problem with slo-mo and related programs is they are not consistent in speed reductions, especially in systems with cache. And each game responds differently when these are running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 I also wanted to chime in on the price paid for the build. $200 is a good deal. Considering all of the junk out there today that you can spend this kind of money on (NES classic? Or a crappy tablet? Or maybe some el cheapo laptop?) this is a good investment into some really fun vintage gaming and it is at the right price. I've personally paid significantly more on vintage game consoles and other vintage (non-PC) computers and I think today that a vintage PC build is really the best bang for the buck to be able to enjoy and experience games from 20+ years ago and beyond. I cringe to think how many vintage computers I "tossed" when upgrading over the years (either given away or recycled) not really paying much mind to it at all. Now I scour around looking for those vintage parts and some are not very easy to come by. Nice work in the Voodoo3 acquisition. I have been using a Geforce 2 Ultra (or I should say a Quadro2 as it turns out) which has been working nicely but an AGP Voodoo would be something I would love to have. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 I cringe at the acres upon acres of mounds 100 meters tall - all of it e-waste being crushed under its own weight. All of it vintage-class PCs suitable for gaming. Of all the upgrades I did, the only things I sold off was the Pentium-4 stuff. It's a lame section on the timeline of gaming and nostalgia for me. I kept all my old mobos and fittings and cards and parts. I could do some builds for the cost of cases and power supplies. But I'm satisfied with the 486 and PIII. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 Finally finished mine today Was just waiting for a better slot 1 cooler. This thing is some serious business! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 How is it "serious business"? It's a fucking game machine!! Just kidding.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H454 Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 (edited) Great, Now I have to get my XPS R450 up a running. Also, a little time saving tip: I somebody gets an old computer and it has problems starting up, blow off/clean the board - then reseat the cards and cables. Its surprising how many "broken" computers I've gotten running just by disconnecting everything, then reinstalling. Edited November 16, 2017 by H454 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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