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As I've said here, I've been buying some parts to build a legacy gaming rig. I'm mostly doing this because I'm bored, but I've also been curious for quite a while if some of the games that I still play (Sports Car GT, Viper Racing and 1nsane) run like crap because I've been playing them on Windows XP or if they run like crap because they don't like running on modern components (I truly hope it the former). Sports Car GT in particular has never given me good performance for as long as I can remember, and I'm puzzled because the YouTube videos I've seen of it appear to show the game running flawlessly at 60FPS.
Because I'm basically doing this to cure boredom (also, because I want to use my old steering wheel again), my budget it $100 (and don't question the logic of spending $100 to use a $2 wheel instead of just buying another DFP for $60), so I'm basically scavenging eBay and grabbing up the best used parts I can see. I also am curious as to just how far I can push Windows 98 until it pops.
So here's the specs so far:
OS:
Windows 98SE Anniversary Edition/Windows TinyXP Rev 10
Motherboard:
Intel 865GLC w/ Pentium 4 3.0HT ($40)
Hard drives:
Hitachi Travelstar 80GB 7200 RPM 2.5" SATA drive (98SE, scavenged), Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM SATA drive (XP, scavenged)
Monitor:
Dell E176P VGA monitor (scavenged)
RAM:
2GB DDR SDRAM PC-3200 (This is completely overkill, as I completely forgot that Windows 98 only supports a max of 1GB, and even that requires some major fiddling with it)
GPU (current):
nVidia GeForce 6800 Dual-DVI (scavenged)
GPU (proposed):
nVidia GeForce 7900 GS or nVidia GeForce 7800 GS (I may say screw it and leave it as is, but I won't only be playing 10 year old games on it, so I may not)
Enclosure:
Thermaltake Armor A90
Accessories:
Thrustmaster Formula T2 wheel
Sony SixAxis controller
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX310 Laser
Funnily enough, the main problem I was expecting when installing XP (refusing to install to a SATA drive) didn't happened, which actually shocked me considering how much trouble I recall having with Windows XP over it. That isn't to say that the process went smoothly, however. It actually took me about 5 hours to get Windows 98 "working," before I said screw it and just got ahold of the Anniversary Edition instead. And even that required some intervention with the XP installation disc to do the formatting properly.
Because I'm basically doing this to cure boredom (also, because I want to use my old steering wheel again), my budget it $100 (and don't question the logic of spending $100 to use a $2 wheel instead of just buying another DFP for $60), so I'm basically scavenging eBay and grabbing up the best used parts I can see. I also am curious as to just how far I can push Windows 98 until it pops.
So here's the specs so far:
OS:
Windows 98SE Anniversary Edition/Windows TinyXP Rev 10
Motherboard:
Intel 865GLC w/ Pentium 4 3.0HT ($40)
Hard drives:
Hitachi Travelstar 80GB 7200 RPM 2.5" SATA drive (98SE, scavenged), Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM SATA drive (XP, scavenged)
Monitor:
Dell E176P VGA monitor (scavenged)
RAM:
2GB DDR SDRAM PC-3200 (This is completely overkill, as I completely forgot that Windows 98 only supports a max of 1GB, and even that requires some major fiddling with it)
GPU (current):
nVidia GeForce 6800 Dual-DVI (scavenged)
GPU (proposed):
nVidia GeForce 7900 GS or nVidia GeForce 7800 GS (I may say screw it and leave it as is, but I won't only be playing 10 year old games on it, so I may not)
Enclosure:
Thermaltake Armor A90
Accessories:
Thrustmaster Formula T2 wheel
Sony SixAxis controller
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX310 Laser
Funnily enough, the main problem I was expecting when installing XP (refusing to install to a SATA drive) didn't happened, which actually shocked me considering how much trouble I recall having with Windows XP over it. That isn't to say that the process went smoothly, however. It actually took me about 5 hours to get Windows 98 "working," before I said screw it and just got ahold of the Anniversary Edition instead. And even that required some intervention with the XP installation disc to do the formatting properly.
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