Vintage PC Gaming Systems in 2018

[pixelatedscraps]

I’ve been getting the vintage hardware itch recently and aside from picking up some old PowerPC hardware (PowerBook G4 A1025 1Ghz, Apple Cinema Display HD 23”, Apple Pro Mouse) that I used to own (oh, the OS 9 nostalgia!), I’ve recently put together the exact same PC rig I used to have back in 2005 when I was into gaming.

Prices being as they are for such outdated components, I took the liberty to pick up an AMD FX-60 for an extra $40 bundled together with an Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard to replace the Athlon 64 3000+ (and later an overclocked Opteron 165 @2.7Ghz on a DFI LanParty NF4-SLI DR Expert) I used to own.

Following bits and bobs include:

• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX-60
• Motherboard: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
• RAM: 2Gb DDR400 OCZ Platinum 2-2-2-5
• GPU: AMD Radeon X1800XT 512Mb
• SSD: 120Gb OCZ Agility 2 (wanted to resurrect my 2x 74Gb Raptors RAID but these are finicky due to age and international postage)
• HDD: 500Gb WD Caviar
• Sound: Soundblaster Creative X-FI
• PSU: Seasonic M12 520W
• CASE: Lian-Li PC-V1000
• OS: Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP3

Unfortunately, I couldn’t source a good second hand Lian-Li case and in an effort to reduce the size of this bit-part-timer-for-the-sake-of-nostalgia rig, I went with the very compact Thermaltake Core G3 Slim, able to house a full ATX motherboard. Unfortunately, this meant downsizing to an SFX PSU, so I have swapped the Seasonic out for a Corsair SF450W unit.

This is going to be paired with an old EIZO CG222W I had lying around the office, a good mechanical keyboard and some form of a Logitech mouse no doubt.

I’ll delve into what it’s like trying to relive Windows XP, driver issues, dead capacitors and making sense of a ‘vintage’ (is it?) PC gaming rig in 2018 once everything is up and running.

Fingers crossed.

Here’s looking forward to the postman arriving numerous times over the next two weeks and to a very nostalgic summer!