Ultimate Retro Gaming Build

rowens.wds · Oct 5, 2018

I like to play allot of older games, but as technology progresses, and windows versions compatibility is a nightmare. So I would like to put together a list of hardware for an ultimate retro gaming rig. This is intended to be a brain storm of what works well together and why; not a realistic build just yet.
Considerations:
1998-2015 era
windows 7 pro with xp emulator
Hardware that will be compatible
Drivers that may have support for the era of games
Gpu that can handle newish 3d while not compromising 2d rendering dx9c!!!!

Games in mind:
Starcraft, warcraft 1-3, counter strike, entire command and conquer suite, halo pc, doom, shogun total war, Rome total war, roller coaster tycoon, sim city 2000, diablo, age of empires, to name a few.

I'm not opposed to using new hardware but I'd also like to keep it on the cheaper end, say below $500. The idea is to have an exclusive retro gaming pc so long term driver support or even windows defender coverage doesn't really matter as long as the drivers work for older games. Btw I am aware allot of these games have remastered versions but to me it's not the same. I'm doing my own research to and I'll post what I find.
Let Brain storm.

justin.m.beauvais · Oct 5, 2018

Well, there was actually a video done on the subject by LazyGameReviews on YouTube. Quite a few other YouTubers got together and talked about their retro gaming setups and the pluses and minuses of the approach.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CgisEFObjA

Personally, I'd get yourself an Athlon/Athlon XP system or Pentium 4 and refurb it. They have plenty of power for older games and backwards compatibility with older hardware going back to the 386 era as there were still motherboards for them that had ISA slots.

rowens.wds · Oct 5, 2018

So far the builds I've come up with are:

AMD CRUCIAL VENGEANCE -- An AMD centered machine using newish parts that have roll back drivers.
CPU: AMD FX-6300
GPU: RX 580
SSD: Crucial MX500 250GB
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DD4 2133 C13 2x8GB
Mobo: MSI 970A-G43 (MS-7693)

INTEL PLATINUM FORCE -- An ancient Mobo running Intel and Nvidia a little slower but still a contender.
CPU: Intel Core2 Quad Q9650
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT
SSD: Crucial MX500 250GB
RAM: DDR 2 4x2GB
Mobo: MSI P35 Platinum (MS-7345)

INTEL ROCK FORCE -- A beautiful Mobo with some real power behind it and two old school SLI Geforce cards.
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 Quad
GPU: x2 EVGA Geforce 9800 GTX+ SLI or 1 GTX 680
SSD: Crucial MX500 250GB
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DD4 2133 C13 2x8GB
Mobo: AsRock Z170 Extreme7+

AMD DIAMOND MASTER -- A newer Processor running 2009's favorite Radeon Crossfire GPU
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 1300x
GPU: x2 Raden HD 4870 Crossfire
SSD: Crucial MX500 250GB
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DD4 2133 C13 2x8GB
Mobo: AsRock X470 Master

AMD RIPJAW PHENOM -- A bit more of a throw back with a powerful GPU, Micro ATX form, and Memory OC potential.
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 820
GPU: Asus Radeon R7 240
SSD: Crucial MX500 250GB
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
Mobo: MSI 880GM-E35

Note: I like the Crucial MX500 and 250GB should be more than enough space so I put that in all builds. Plus its cheap for a quality SSD. RAM I'm familiar with the Vengeance LPX, for OC you'd want something else. I like G.Skill Ripjaws for their cooling sleeve.

DISCLAIMER I have no idea how most of these parts would work together. They pass basic compatibility tests but I'm open to hearing the flaws of each. Aslo some of these parts might be hell to find. Also the names I gave each are completely made up, just in case you couldn't tell.

justin.m.beauvais · Oct 6, 2018

Wow, those aren't even old computers. Most of them wouldn't have much trouble running much newer games than the ones you listed. The oldest is the Phenom II and my wife is still running on one of those... not even the quad core one. And that came out in like 2009.

To put this in prospective, I ran most of those games at their launch on an AMD K6-2 500MHz with an S3 Savage4 Pro video card and like 128MB of RAM. I think my hard drive at the time was like 40 GB and I was running Windows 98se and switched to Windows 2000 and XP during the life of the machine. I also later upgraded the video card to a GeForce 2 GTS and the RAM to 256MB.

Of these machines, the Core 2 Quad would be the way to go... but I'd go even older if it were me.

So, you want to run older games like a champ, but still be moderately modern.

Core 2 Quad Q6600
GeForce 8800 GT
4GB DDR2 or DDR3, depending on mobo support
MX500 250 GB
and a compatible motherboard

That machine is still fairly capable and with a different video card would run Fortnite or other e-sports titles, but mostly has hardware support for older versions of Windows. Also, it will run Crysis.

rowens.wds · Oct 10, 2018

I may have gotten a little carried away. Growing up I never had a high performance PC so I am looking for a build that will run old games on highest settings. My baseline for most of these builds was top of the line 2009ish parts.
My next group will be more of a 2000 baseline. I'm having a bit of trouble finding anywhere that still sells parts that old. The INTEL PLATINUM FORCE build was based on an old PC for sell on Craigs List with some cheap improvements.
That video you posted was pretty cool. But most of those builds are way older than what I'm looking for.
As it happens I found some really cheap 9800 GTX and AsRock Z170 Extreme7+ and I have allot of the other parts laying around so I think I will go ahead and build that one. But I'm still looking into an older gen build too.

justin.m.beauvais · Oct 10, 2018

Well, top of the line in 2000 was the AMD Athlon 1 GHz CPU, about 512MB of RAM, and a GeForce 2 Ultra (or GTS if you can't find an Ultra). And with compatible motherboard and storage, that machine would run anything at its time.

There is nothing wrong with getting a more powerful and more modern machine, but there could be driver issues if you tried loading older versions of Windows. Personally, I love the idea of playing games on period hardware. Running them native to the environment those games were made in is my idea of retro gaming. Others have other ideas of what retro gaming is. If I'm not playing Doom on a 486 and using a period keyboard and CRT monitor, I don't feel like I'm getting the most out of it. Games feel like they run different on different hardware.

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