Making a new OLD computer!

S

sharktoothbubs

Member
Me and my dad are working together to make a computer built for playing older DOS games. So I thought, you know what, Accursed Farm forums might like to hear about this and might have some pointers.

Here are some WIP pictures:

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Here's what we have so far:

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An old small (yet very heavy) Gateway monitor.

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The dusty housing for this beauty.

And here's the inside of the case.

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And what MIGHT be our drives if they still work:

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Like I said, it's a work in progress. Tomorrow we're going to search nearby Goodwills for a drive and possibly a less bulky monitor (although I like the look of the one we already have). Once we got our pieces, we're going install Windows 98 and try it out on some classics.

So I'll give you guys some updates when I can. And we're open to suggestions if you got some good ideas.

...Hey what's that?

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Is that-

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AGH!! Cthulhu was living in that case!!

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FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFU-

 
Aghh!! Cthulhu, no!

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Heh, I wish you luck on your grand adventure of making this old yet new computer!

I don't have tips for you though, sorry. X3 I swear, I haven't looked inside a computer for 3 years.

 
What specs are you gonna put on it? How are you choosing them?

This makes me think I should have kept my pentium III or the AMD @ 267 MHz that I had before it.

 
I'd say don't go for anything higher-end than a Pentium 2 700MHz processor for Windows 98... (I've run into problems getting newer/faster processors to run right in 98) If you're wanting DOS-only, definitely drop to the original Pentium at 120MHz. Memory isn't really important for DOS, but you may need to tweak your autoexec.bat to free up all the 640k base memory. (for those really high-end games like Great Naval Battles) I HIGHLY recommend getting a Soundblaster 16 audio card, as it will MASSIVELY improve the sound quality in 90% of DOS games. (the other 10% used Tandy instead)

Now if you're wanting primarily early Windows based gaming, you should get at least a GeForce 6200, (should be able to do anything in an old system without being difficult when trying to get older stuff to run) and 128MB of RAM. Any generic sound card will do for Windows gaming. You can also go for a generic 4:3 or 5:4 LCD as long as it has a VGA connection, and use a generic VESA driver for DOS games, but still be able to run Windows above 800x600 resolution. (I personally recommend having 1600x1200 @60Hz available, as Windows games always looked WAY better at higher resolutions)

HDD really doesn't matter as long as it's 120GB or less, but be sure to defrag it immediately after installing everything, and then again weekly. (for any week that you actually use the system)

Finally, 98 or 98SE? They are quite different under the hood, and 98SE can do a lot better with newer hardware/software, but at the cost of older hardware/software compatibility and stability. (it also uses more system resources, so you might need to deal with having to free up IRQs)

Can you tell that I have experience? lol

 
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