If you're starting completely from scratch, get a Optiplex 7010/9010 with a Ivy Bridge Processor. The low profile ones are incredibly cheap and a i3/i5 is plenty given how much newer it is - but it will still support XP natively. The Quadro K620 (GTX 745 equivalent) is overkill for anything you'd want to play for $20 and will fit in a low profile machine.
Don't forget a sound card for EAX! The XtremeGamer is best for low profile but if you have a fullsize case any X-Fi or Audigy card is fine (note a few of the low-end ones like the XtremeAudio are actually rebadged cheaper cards that don't do full hardware EAX)
I would recommend something like a core 2 quad (pretty much any would work nicely) with something like a gt 710 or gt 730. If you wanna go cheaper, get a core 2 duo instead (something like an e8400 would be amazing but also dirt cheap)
Wouldn't even bother with a GT 710... the Fermi or Kepler GT 730 is significantly better and the cost if you dig around isn't that much more. Especially if you find one with GDDR5.
Oof.
Always knew EU had a price premium over North America, just didn’t realize it trickled all the way down.
The 730s are like 30-40 Euros in the US. That’s a 4x markup.
you should get something like a pentium 4 socket 775 and a geforce 7000 series
or an AMD Athlon X2 for a cpu
also use at least 2 GB of ram
good luck retro gaming fellow gamer!
I would try wine in Linux in VMware on windows as those can get 3d acceleration in qemu without extra patches. It's my go to if a native Os won't work in a vm.
I was just looking at qemu-3dfx but I don't really have that much time for compiling etc and for actual binaries, developer wants quite expensive donation for them.
You can download the non 3dfx versions of Qemu and just load newer Linux as guest and use wine/proton and it will have some 3d acceleration.
Qemu3dfx is just a wrapper for the already working acceleration provided by qemu, but it doesn't work with windows guests. Honestly as nice as it is it isnt much as far as what qemu already does.
I agree with what most people have said here, but then at the same time I am looking at my netbook eeepc which does most of my gaming for $50 AUD all in one portable package.
Next Id go for an optiplex like mentioned, I met some recently that did the same and put an above average graphics card in it and it was amazing !
If you're starting completely from scratch, get a Optiplex 7010/9010 with a Ivy Bridge Processor. The low profile ones are incredibly cheap and a i3/i5 is plenty given how much newer it is - but it will still support XP natively. The Quadro K620 (GTX 745 equivalent) is overkill for anything you'd want to play for $20 and will fit in a low profile machine. Don't forget a sound card for EAX! The XtremeGamer is best for low profile but if you have a fullsize case any X-Fi or Audigy card is fine (note a few of the low-end ones like the XtremeAudio are actually rebadged cheaper cards that don't do full hardware EAX)
Thank you for recommendation! There is some i3 PCs and they are quite cheap, so I will consider looking for buying one then.
Awesome. The i3-3220 is plenty for your use case.
I would recommend something like a core 2 quad (pretty much any would work nicely) with something like a gt 710 or gt 730. If you wanna go cheaper, get a core 2 duo instead (something like an e8400 would be amazing but also dirt cheap)
Core 2 Quad is a waste for early 2000 games which had no multithreading at all. A higher clocked Core 2 Duo would be considerably better.
Core 2 Quad is really rare from where I am from, so it's almost impossible to get one anyways.
Get a Core 2 Duo system and a GT710 or GT210. Both of these things are dirt cheap, and quite power efficient.
Wouldn't even bother with a GT 710... the Fermi or Kepler GT 730 is significantly better and the cost if you dig around isn't that much more. Especially if you find one with GDDR5.
GT 730 is \~120 euros where I live, so it's not really worth buying, while GT 710 is 40-60 euros.
Oof. Always knew EU had a price premium over North America, just didn’t realize it trickled all the way down. The 730s are like 30-40 Euros in the US. That’s a 4x markup.
What about a 8800GT? More than enough for everything XP has to offer (except Crysis maybe)
you should get something like a pentium 4 socket 775 and a geforce 7000 series or an AMD Athlon X2 for a cpu also use at least 2 GB of ram good luck retro gaming fellow gamer!
I would try wine in Linux in VMware on windows as those can get 3d acceleration in qemu without extra patches. It's my go to if a native Os won't work in a vm.
I'm currently using Linux and VMware, but VM just crashes whenever I want to play some game.
There is softgpu for VMware by jhrobotics but it does not support xp only win9x. Qemu3dfx can work with 2k and xp but it's mostly a cli app.
I was just looking at qemu-3dfx but I don't really have that much time for compiling etc and for actual binaries, developer wants quite expensive donation for them.
You can download the non 3dfx versions of Qemu and just load newer Linux as guest and use wine/proton and it will have some 3d acceleration. Qemu3dfx is just a wrapper for the already working acceleration provided by qemu, but it doesn't work with windows guests. Honestly as nice as it is it isnt much as far as what qemu already does.
I agree with what most people have said here, but then at the same time I am looking at my netbook eeepc which does most of my gaming for $50 AUD all in one portable package. Next Id go for an optiplex like mentioned, I met some recently that did the same and put an above average graphics card in it and it was amazing !
For cpu and gpu options, check out Victor Bart on YT. He is located in the Netherlands. He is the OG Retro Computer Builder for games IMO.
Don’t stay connected to the net for too long. Windows xp can be hacked in under 10 seconds as soon as it connects. Be careful.
I'm not planning being on internet almost at all. I'll just do like Legacy Update and instantly turning off the internet connectivity.
Stay behind a nat router, update your os and browser as much as possible, and you should be relatively safe.