Aahhw ATCS/Cooler Master and Lian Li Alu glory! Nice to see allot of builds in these, keep them coming!

Love the Aluminum cases. Once you build in a Lian Li case its hard to back.

A nice set of machines there. Very closely spaced in terms of performance though. They are almost all capable of running Windows XP. The last one stands out to me as being an unusual combination. The CPU seems very modern for that GPU. What OSes do you have planned for each?

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-09, 12:50:

A nice set of machines there. Very closely spaced in terms of performance though. They are almost all capable of running Windows XP. The last one stands out to me as being an unusual combination. The CPU seems very modern for that GPU. What OSes do you have planned for each?

Thankyou!

The pentium 3 is what I would use if I wanted to launch something in DOS, my earliest computing memories are from Windows 95 and I've never really gotten my hands dirty with DOS apart from using it to flash bios or other tools etc so given it uses 440bx chipset and has an ISA slot that will be my starting point, if I find it can't run something I'm interested in that is also speed sensitive, I may then build something even older.

The conroe865pe and am2nf3 builds are for maximum performance windows 98 - pentium 4 is for if compatibility problems should arise between those 2 systems so I have something older to fall back on.

The core2 x48 build is for windows xp primarily, so is the x79, should something under xp call for sp1 or earlier for compatibility reasons then can fall back to one of the earlier systems.

The 11900k yes I can see why you'd be confused why it's paired with a Maxwell GPU, it's simply because it's one of the most powerful cards that has XP drivers available to it and it also is one of the last to have integrated VGA output over DVI-A so I can connect every single system I have to my CRT monitor if the application at the time calls for it.

As an ACTS whore, I highly approve.

(I’ve got two 201s, a brown and a silver, a 210, a 110, a 111, and a 620)

I think System D will struggle with game compatability in win 98. But should get crazy high benchmarks. Maybe you will have better luck than me when I tried 6000 series on Win9x.

What soundcards are you using?

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-01-09, 19:20:

What soundcards are you using?

I am unsure on soundcards just yet, I do have multiple audigy 2zs (normal variant, not the dell ones) - and a couple of sound blaster live

I've only ever used creative cards so have no experience with anything else

Things like that I will be on the hunt for next now I have all the core components

I also have a lot of small form factor computers, ThinkPads and even some apple computers for other types of activities - but tried my best to limit myself to having 7 atx sized due to the space they take up

tunertom wrote on 2025-01-09, 20:32:

I am unsure on soundcards just yet, I do have multiple audigy 2zs (normal variant, not the dell ones) - and a couple of sound blaster live

I've only ever used creative cards so have no experience with anything else

Things like that I will be on the hunt for next now I have all the core components

I would suggest Aureal Vortex 2 for your PIII machine. Great Win9x sound card. Could have that for sound in Windows, then add an ISA soundcard for DOS. Though the Vortex 2 can be used in DOS also if you don't want two soundcards.

tunertom wrote on 2025-01-09, 20:32:

I also have a lot of small form factor computers, ThinkPads and even some apple computers for other types of activities - but tried my best to limit myself to having 7 atx sized due to the space they take up

Yeah. I tried to limit myself to 7 also.... I failed. 😀