Retro-ish Gaming PC Build Log! "Thoughts, Ideas, and Questions"

[CowboyBebopGPU]

Hello, this is sort of my build log for an upcoming build of mine. Basically im going to be building the ultimate 1990's to early 2000's gaming pc. All you hear thes days is "GTX titan X" this and "skylake that" ... but im going back to basics.. a "blast from the past" sort of build.

My ideas for the overall build:

- I have a cpu in mind somewhere along the lines of the Celeron d / Pentium 4 era

- the motherboard HAS TO BE green

- im thinking of about 1-2 gbs of ram (maybe even 4 to give a little boost)

- not to sure on the gpu but it needs to be a 3d compatible AGP video card (if finding a card that matches the need and description is a little too hard i might just go with some sort of pcie card/mobo combo instead)

- the harddrive doesn't matter, just needs to work.

- also going to go with a brand new modern psu just to be safe..

- and for the case, i want to go with one of those super modern square towers with a huge window on the side, something like this ... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133270&cm_re=micro_atx_case-_-11-133-270-_-Product

- Other ideas: I was thinking about watercooling it too ( i know its unneeded but i thing it would look epic with the awesome modern case and you look in to see this old green retro build inside being modernized with watercooling.. i just thing it would be sweet visually)
Also was thinking of using leds aswell just to add extra effect

- i think i can get a hold of a free copy of Win- XP

- Soundblaster for sure.. not needed but adds to the trowback factor

- Games aimed to be played: Doom, quake, halflife, first halos, farcry 1, sims, serious sam, gta 3 and san an, diablo 2, etc.

Roughly estimated total price:

With watercooling: 400$ -650$

Without watercooling and with great budgeting (keep in mind i have some of the parts already)
200$-300$

Sooo... whats your thoughts? is the water cooling really worth paying for just for looks? what hardware that fits the description do you recommend to play these games? What color should i go for with tthe build? What do you think i could add to make it look even better? would a high end agp video card cut it? Have you ever thought of building a pc like this?

If you read this whole thing.. you truly are the mvp! lol

looking forward for your feedback.

~Thanks

 

[computers_are_freaky]

Nice idea. I don't get the new case part though. If this is meant to be vintage, then wouldn't a vintage case be better, because after all, the only thing most people see is the case, so it will look and seem like a bad PC to everyone who isn't into hardware. I think you ought to head out to a scrap heap or wherever people recycle PCs where you live and ask to get an old case for about 5$, the mod it with a window and awesome paint job. As for hardware, I think the choice is yours, but I recon that, if the goal of this pc is to be good and old, the you should scoure Ebay and Craigslist for the best possible deals on used hardware, then put your PC together, like scapyard wars on the linustechtips youtube channel.

As for water cooling, I think it would only compound the "Awesome looking terrible PC" idea every non-Techgeek would get by seeing and using this PC. Maybe you should stay away from it, because is it really worth the value of your PC just to make it look like something it's not?

I think this could really turn out cool, or terrible (no offence meant). You need to think carefully aout what your goal with this pc is, is it to prove old hardware can still cut it, ultimte value build, is this the PC you always wanted, back in the day?

Anyway, I'm interrested to see how this unfolds, so good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[CowboyBebopGPU]

Nice idea. I don't get the new case part though. If this is meant to be vintage, then wouldn't a vintage case be better, because after all, the only thing most people see is the case, so it will look and seem like a bad PC to everyone who isn't into hardware. I think you ought to head out to a scrap heap or wherever people recycle PCs where you live and ask to get an old case for about 5$, the mod it with a window and awesome paint job. As for hardware, I think the choice is yours, but I recon that, if the goal of this pc is to be good and old, the you should scoure Ebay and Craigslist for the best possible deals on used hardware, then put your PC together, like scapyard wars on the linustechtips youtube channel.

As for water cooling, I think it would only compound the "Awesome looking terrible PC" idea every non-Techgeek would get by seeing and using this PC. Maybe you should stay away from it, because is it really worth the value of your PC just to make it look like something it's not?

I think this could really turn out cool, or terrible (no offence meant). You need to think carefully aout what your goal with this pc is, is it to prove old hardware can still cut it, ultimte value build, is this the PC you always wanted, back in the day?

Anyway, I'm interrested to see how this unfolds, so good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Im for sure going with used parts for this build, ebay is my best friend! scrapyard wars is awesome, basically how i build all of my pcs.

never thought of going with a retro case WITH a window... nice idea

Also i could understand you not understanding the whole modern case idea.. its truly hard to explain the meaning.. idk if you are big into video games and science fiction but i kinda see it as "an old man(retro parts) in a mech suit(modern case)" if that makes more since.. this old hardware is out of date but still "has what it takes" .. more of a work of art than just a build. like an ancient alien on life support.. i know this sounds weird but its just because its hard to explain lol

this is kind of what i would imagine it as http://img09.deviantart.net/002a/i/2013/362/7/0/old_man_mech_by_feeesh-d6ztyyz.jpg

what can i say.. im a huge nerd

im with you 100% with you when you say this build could go very well or very wrong. thats why ive been planning the build for so long.

~Thanks Alot For The Feedback

 

[Karovmac]

I recently have had the same idea as you, i have an old office PC in the attic and i want to clean it up a bit, maybe add some better hardware in it and install XP on it so i can have better compatibility with older games. I have recently bought some old school games (early 2000's) and they will not run on windows 10. as for the water cooling i think that would defeat the object of a retro PC, after all its only really needed on systems where you are overclocking the CPU/GPU, and even then a fan cooler would work. What games do you plan on playing on it? I'm thinking of modding the case and giving it a nice paint job, as for hardware you can pick up a 512mb GPU for about £15 on ebay, and that will easily run older games