Given an old computer, retro XP gaming rig?

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OhSigmaChi

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So I was given an old computer, it has an Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, Asus K8N8XLA mobo, 512mb of ddr ram, and a Geforce FX 5200 AGP graphics card.

I did a little digging around and I guess the 5200 is pretty much straight garbage.

Could I turn this into a decent XP gaming rig? 2 gb of DDR is 5 bucks on ebay, but what is the most cost effective AGP card?

I guess I could root around for a CPU upgrade too, is there a marked difference between a 3000+ and a 3400+? Looks Like I could get a 3400+ for abour $30.
 
Alienslare

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OhSigmaChi said:
So I was given an old computer, it has an Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, Asus K8N8XLA mobo, 512mb of ddr ram, and a Geforce FX 5200 AGP graphics card.

I did a little digging around and I guess the 5200 is pretty much straight garbage.

Could I turn this into a decent XP gaming rig? 2 gb of DDR is 5 bucks on ebay, but what is the most cost effective AGP card?

I guess I could root around for a CPU upgrade too, is there a marked difference between a 3000+ and a 3400+? Looks Like I could get a 3400+ for abour $30.
Click to expand...

Well if you want to know by gfx agp standards:
Radeon 3850
Radeon 4670
Geforce 7950GT
 
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OhSigmaChi

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Alienslare said:
Well if you want to know by gfx agp standards:
Radeon 3850
Radeon 4670
Geforce 7950GT
Click to expand...

I understand those are the "best AGP cards" but what would make a cost effective upgrade for the FX 5200 dumpster fire (not necessarily top of the heap)?
 
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Deleted member 88227

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What games are you wanting to play on this ancient rig?

I probably would have stuck with the Nvidia 7800 or 7900 series or the higher 6800 series. AMD's (ATI) drivers sucked monkey dick back in those days.
 
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OhSigmaChi

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Doom 2, Oblivian, Half Life 1 & 2.

I think I still have Serious Sam in a closet somewhere too.
 
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matt167

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I have a Windows XP gamer computer, but what I did was use a Dell Optiplex 755 which although came out with Windows Vista, it DID support XP, and a Windows XP disc for Dell loaded just fine. Since it's got a PCIE slot, you can use just about any single slot PCIE card you want. I use a GT 730 1gb DDR3 variant. I think I spent $30 on that card still in the box.. Doom 3, Postal 2, Nascar Racing 2003, Farcry. All are games I play on it. 60 frames per second locked.

I still have an old FX5200. I bought it long ago to be able to play Doom3 and it has enough hp to play but not great
 
FlawleZ

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OhSigmaChi said:
Is it? I saw the HD 3850 s going for pretty crazy money, but couldn't really find much on how the 3650 stacks up against the legendary 3850.
Click to expand...
It's a good deal considering the price of any other half decent AGP video card. Its also quite a bit faster than a 6800GT, which is night and day compared to a an FX5200.
 

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SamirD

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That's the same cpu specs as one of my systems that I use today. :ROFLMAO:

Depending on what your budget is, 4gb the ram, add the fastest video card the hardware can handle (remember the power supply!), ssd and that's about as maxed out as it can get. Then play, play, play. (y)
 
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OhSigmaChi

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SamirD said:
That's the same cpu specs as one of my systems that I use today. :ROFLMAO:

Depending on what your budget is, 4gb the ram, add the fastest video card the hardware can handle (remember the power supply!), ssd and that's about as maxed out as it can get. Then play, play, play. (y)
Click to expand...

SSD might be tricky, Mobo only supports IDE...
 
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BinarySynapse

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OhSigmaChi said:
Hmm, from the auction "Built using MLC Flash chips, with read speeds up to 108MB/sec and write speeds up to 59MB/sec" hardly seems worth it.

This says IDE caps out at 133MB/secaccording to this https://www.diffen.com/difference/IDE_vs_SATA

I probably won't swap unless this hdd tanks.
Click to expand...

A hard drive still has a 5-20ms access time where an SSD would have something like a 0.1ms access time. That's where the majority of the experienced improvement comes from.
 
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SamirD

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SamirD

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ryan_975 said:
A hard drive still has a 5-20ms access time where an SSD would have something like a 0.1ms access time. That's where the majority of the experienced improvement comes from.
Click to expand...
On systems this old ime, it's not really that much of a speed improvement. I can barely tell the load time differences in the 2 systems that I have with ssds and those with just regular hard drives.
 
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OhSigmaChi

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SamirD said:
I'd get this ide-sata converter as it's good both way and will come in handy as a tool later if the system dies:
https://www.startech.com/HDD/Adapters/Bi-Directional-SATA-IDE-Adapter-Converter~PATA2SATA3

I've got 2 of them and they work great both ways. (y)

Then you can use a modern hard drive or an ssd without dealing with speed limits or crap-quality ssds.
Click to expand...

I have one that I use for cloning drives from old computers, but I just use it on my bench PC. Did you install one inside your case?
 
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FlawleZ

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OhSigmaChi said:
Hmm, from the auction "Built using MLC Flash chips, with read speeds up to 108MB/sec and write speeds up to 59MB/sec" hardly seems worth it.

This says IDE caps out at 133MB/secaccording to this https://www.diffen.com/difference/IDE_vs_SATA

I probably won't swap unless this hdd tanks.
Click to expand...
I bought one of these Kingspec drives years ago with a Laptop that had a decent AMD Turion X2 but was massively helf back by the ancient potato of a hard drive. The difference was night and day even using the PATA interface on the older laptop.
 
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SamirD

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FlawleZ said:
I bought one of these Kingspec drives years ago with a Laptop that had a decent AMD Turion X2 but was massively helf back by the ancient potato of a hard drive. The difference was night and day even using the PATA interface on the older laptop.
Click to expand...
It depends on what you're loading on the system. If it's swapping all night and day because windows 7/10, then it will make a huge difference.
 
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OhSigmaChi

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It's running XP and has a 7200rpm HDD. I'll probably stick to that drive for now though.
 
Zepher

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OhSigmaChi said:
Doom 2, Oblivian, Half Life 1 & 2.

I think I still have Serious Sam in a closet somewhere too.
Click to expand...

Steam doesn't work on XP anymore, so you have to get a patched install that has updates disabled, otherwise Steam will crash as soon as you start it.

IMG_3306.JPG IMG_3307.JPG IMG_3308.JPG

this is what I have in my retro XP machine,
IMG_2472.JPG IMG_2486.JPG
 
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OhSigmaChi

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OhSigmaChi

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So, due to a misleading or mislabeled Ebay ad and my own malfeasance (it said AGP, but the pics clearly showed PCI-E) the HD 3650 is a bust. (anybody want a PCIE HD 3650?) I thought not.

I did get a 7600GS, an Athlon 64 3700+ (fastes socket 754 CPU EVAAAARRRR!!!!) and a GB of RAM. I'm about to load Serious Sam and see what happens.
 
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OhSigmaChi

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OhSigmaChi said:
So, due to a misleading or mislabeled Ebay ad and my own malfeasance (it said AGP, but the pics clearly showed PCI-E) the HD 3650 is a bust. (anybody want a PCIE HD 3650?) I thought not.

I did get a 7600GS, an Athlon 64 3700+ (fastes socket 754 CPU EVAAAARRRR!!!!) and a GB of RAM. I'm about to load Serious Sam and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Serious Sam was smooth as butter at 1280x960... on to Far Cry! and maybe even... dare I say it? CRYSIS!!!!!!!
 
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OhSigmaChi

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Far Cry runs flawlessly with all settings maxed... "Can it run Crysis?"
 
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OhSigmaChi

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acascianelli said:
Strange to see someone refer to an Athlon 64 system as a 'retro' gaming system. :)
Click to expand...

I figure since it's running a no-longer-supported OS and it's CPU is at least 2 complete families of CPU old (not counting all the Zambezi and Vishera and Kaveri and Bristol Ridge madness inside the Buldozer family) it qualifies.
 
FlawleZ

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OhSigmaChi said:
So, due to a misleading or mislabeled Ebay ad and my own malfeasance (it said AGP, but the pics clearly showed PCI-E) the HD 3650 is a bust. (anybody want a PCIE HD 3650?) I thought not.

I did get a 7600GS, an Athlon 64 3700+ (fastes socket 754 CPU EVAAAARRRR!!!!) and a GB of RAM. I'm about to load Serious Sam and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Actually, I have this all setup in one of my towers still. The 4000+ was the fastest S754 CPU.

tAJTAOL.png
 
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OhSigmaChi

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FlawleZ said:
Actually, I have this all setup in one of my towers still. The 4000+ was the fastest S754 CPU.
Click to expand...

Ok, so the 3700 is the fastest desktop CPU with an IHS, the 4000 is a moblie processor with no IHS. I didn't want to mess with getting a CPU cooler to make good contact with the die.

Does your motherboard boot to the correct target frequency or do you have to use crystalcpu to get the correct frequency?
 
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FlawleZ

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OhSigmaChi said:
Ok, so the 3700 is the fastest desktop CPU with an IHS, the 4000 is a moblie processor with no IHS. I didn't want to mess with getting a CPU cooler to make good contact with the die.

Does your motherboard boot to the correct target frequency or do you have to use crystalcpu to get the correct frequency?
Click to expand...
It detects the correct frequency. Not the best overclocking board as the options are limited. Good s754 boards like the DFI are very difficult to find these days.
 
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JRZoid

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Nooo not that baddd. Probaly almost though. About as bad as they wanted to just say f it and spend less on Athlon stuff. what the world in hell you want that for?
 
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