A take on the "Ultimate" Windows XP gaming PC

This is my take on the "ultimate" windows XP gaming PC build.
Specs:
Asus p8z77 v pro
Intel i7 3770K
4x2gb Corsair Dominator 1600mhz DDR3 (Windows only see about 3 gig, but it looks good :)
EVGA 750ti SC
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
RM 650i
Fractal Design Focus G Midi Tower
Kingston A400 120GB SSD
Why tho? -I wanted a silent, stable, energy efficient & powerful retro gaming rig that that could run windows XP.
Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge
and Haswell is finally becoming more affordable, so why not? :) And its the last platforms to support Windows XP.
Total cost of this build was about 220usd.
Gameplay: F.E.A.R. , Crysis, Need for Speed Most Wanted, 3D Mark 2001 & 2006.
#windowsxp #retrogaming #retrohardware #pc

[@RediscoveringRetro]

That's a nice spec. I do like Sandy n Ivy Bridge, so capable, especially when clocked. Ironically my main rig is an i7-3770k@4.4, Asus P8Z68-V Pro gen3 and a gtx 970. Admittedly I don't play the very latest games but it's pretty decent. Would like more than 4.4 out of it mind. Nice video buddy. Glad I've subbed.

[@paulp9270]

This system is still a pretty capable rig for newer games if it gets a decent gpu. 750ti is awesome, but a bit too weak for newer games. Put in a gtx1060/ 970- 1080 ti, and you could play most games on Steam in 1080p with decent settings :) Glad you like the video and thanks for the comment! More to come when i got the time :)

[@chrisrudi7162]

I also have an ultimate XP machine. This has a GeForce 780Ti, SB XFi, 2 TB SATA600 SSD, and a motherboard with Z77 chipset. But I "only" installed an i5 3570k and 4 GB DDR3 1600 for it. 2x2 because of dual channel. I bought the processor cheaply for 10 euros here in the neighborhood, I think it should be enough. The RAM was also not expensive at 5 euros, they are only mini modules. I always call the PC Retro Sleeper PC. The case is from the 90s and is supposed to be reminiscent of the early days of XP when most of the PCs were still gray boxes. But this gray box also has something modern - namely RGB lighting inside 😁 I tried to build a bridge from the past to the present with this machine.

[@adamplechaty]

Yo, nice one! Just putting one together myself. Haswell with 960. Why did you opt in for 750ti instead of 960?

[@albey1816]

Lovely build. I am building a more Period specific XP build around a Core2 Duo CPU for my Retro build.

[@paulp9270]

I will put together a core 2 extreme pc soon for win xp. Should be a fun build :) The msrp for that thing should be pretty insane😅 Video coming soon👍 Thanks for the comment! Cheers

[@middle_pickup]

Did you experiment with disabling the extra cores and hyper threading in the bios yet? Phil's Computer Lab has said that XP games can benefit from that I think.

[@bojinglebells]

not so much that its necessary to do it, just that those extra features aren't really doing much of anything in XP, and it can help make the CPU run faster/cooler depending on how its tuned, although there are also some games/software that can behave funny when they're not bound to run on just one core. I'd at least disable HT, as it will likely cause more headache than help in XP, especially in a quadcore chip where that extra multithread potential really isn't necessary for XP tasks. If its a strict XP gaming machine, I probably disable a couple cores as well, but as a more multi-purpose machine (say for hooking up an optical drive and backing up media) I probably leave 4 cores enabled.

[@metasynthesis]

Nice choice of components. You're only missing a 21" CRT :P Cheers

[@paulp9270]

A 21" Trinitron would have been awesome. I had several CRTs, but they take up so much space.. And all of them had some issue (geometry, too bright, flickering ect), so i gave up on them. If i spot a decent monitor in my area i will pick it up though. For now im happy with this benQ. Looks better in real life than on video. Thanks for the comment :)

[@metasynthesis]

@@paulp9270 Recently I picked up a cheap 17" and its a huge difference in comparison to any lcd. The condition of the model is definitely the first point to be considered when buying. It's bulky but its worth it :) Best regards!

[@diegotor5643]

Great build!!! I got a i7 4790s and a 980ti with 4gb of ram and 500 gb in a ssd for all those retro games!!!

[@koreannom]

I'm currently in the progress of making a Dual Boot Home media/Retro gaming pc. Parts I have acquired for this include: CPU: i5 3570k (I didn't think hyperthreading matters too much for XP) GPU: FE GTX 980 (Going to use the modded drivers) Storage: 120gb SSD (what I had spare) + 1tb HDD RAM: 2 mis-matched pair of 8GB ddr3 ram (16gb total, I heard windows XP doesn't care about the excess amount) Not just what Mobo, just whatever I could find on ebay that didn't look dead lol Case: A spare NZXT H500 Black I just need to figure out what I'm missing and how to setup windows XP 32bit and what games I'd want to play.

[@georgez8859]

Awesome Build Lot of Power for XP. Thanks for the Video

[@dim0n1]

Do you have an original install cd for SB X-Fi, because i have same sound card and its a pain to install it on winxp, i did it, but yesterday i was forced to reinstall windows on new ssd, and god dammed, spent whole night to make it work, and it sounds scratchy, interrupted sounds and some cracling, have a SB0460 version without extra panel... i think its a XtremeMusic version? Thanks a lot

[@paulp9270]

The card is a Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro. Got the XP drivers from creative.com. The drivers for most of the older Sound Blaster cards are still up. Cheers!

[@dim0n1]

@@paulp9270 tried those too, didn't work, maybe I just need to try a fresh unmooded installation of windows xp...

[@voxxxytoyota6848]

Haswell is not support Windows XP. 1155s Ivy Bridge - is last official working.

[@shofla]

Used to use a sandy bridge as an XP machine for a while but I found a fairly large amount of games were broken by framerate based physics. Although lots of great games don't use this and will definitely look their best on a system like this. Core 2 is a good choice, and now you have a completely capable modern gaming machine with this one.

[@cessposter]

most games allow framerate capping to 30 or 60 FPS, which is actually better as less noticable stutter is present

[@Agoz8375]

M fast Windows XP PC: HP Elite CMT 8200 Intel i5 2500 GeForce GTX 960 with 2GB GDDR5 8 GB DDR3 for Windows 7 64b Dual Boot 256 GB SSD and 500 GB SATA HDD for Windows XP 256 GB SSD and 1 TB for Windows 7 64b Creative Audigy ZS great Sound HP DVD-RW This is my second System and it runs great without problems.

[@RildoDealdough]

you have the exact same spec as i made to buy in the future down to the case

[@Kilgore2307]

When someone's retro pc is much faster and better than your current pc.

[@gorgiandonov5900]

im doing i7 3770 build for windows xp (gts 250 for now) and i will be triplebooting if i dneed to (win xp 32 bit winxp 64 bit and windows 10 on separate ssd) ram wise i will go with 8 gb ram (even if win xp sees only 4 gb ) storage is 64gb msata ssd for windowsxp32 and 64bit 256 ssd for windows 10 and 2tb hdd psu is 500 watt real power overall ithink i made good choose on my retro winxp triple boot with win10 pc (its meant to be a bit overkill so thats why it has i7 instead of say i5 (combo arriving in few days board is gigabyte z77 ds3h

[@ItsYurVatoAlex]

Hi did this setup work right out of the box when installing xp? Or did you have to do anything special to get it to work before installing xp? I want to do a similar build with the 780 ti and 3770k as its the best gpu and cpu that still supports xp, but i dont want to have to do any tweaks to get it to work when booting xp for the first time

[@paulp9270]

@@ItsYurVatoAlexHi! I had no issues :). Should be plug and play if all parts work as they should. You need drivers ofc

[@ItsYurVatoAlex]

@@paulp9270 oh okay thats good to hear, thanks so much for replying that puts me at ease! 🙏

[@majorpayne0195]

To make it more "ultimate", use a GTX 960 or a Radeon HD 7970 or use a modded driver to use a 980 TI,

[@ConfusionDistortion]

Give or take, I do kinda got you beat on this one, depending on if you care for having a faster GPU, or processor. Mine has a C2Q 9650 combo with two 2gb sticks of DDR3 1333. One 2tb Sata WD Blue drive split down the middle, with one half for the OS, the other filled with games. Audio is a SB Live 24. Gpu installed is a MSI N760 TF 2GD5/OC (aka GTX 760 oc) however. I have a couple spare GTX 970 cards, along with a GTX 980, and have modified a driver set to let me install them in XP, but honestly the difference is less then a 1000 score on 3DMark 06 due to the cpu. Granted, games optimized more for raw gpu power would benefit from a 970 or 980, but as is, the 760 OC can run anything from that era maxed out at 1080P without an issue. 1440p even if the game supports the resolution. You should consider bumping up from the 750 Ti to a 760 or a GTX 950. You have the cpu power there to fully push them, and it would allow you to max out those last gen XP era titles without issue at higher resolutions. This would also give you more gpu power to handle gpu Physx titles like Mirrors Edge or Batman Arkham Asylum using a single card configuration.

[@maynardcrow6447]

Doesnt windows xp destroy SSD's? I want to do an "vintage" Xp build too. I have enough parts rusting around here to do it except a low powered nvidia card (750, 750 ti, or 950)

[@paulp9270]

You can take certain precautions, but no, ssd disks is in theory not great for Windows XP. I just had one spare and wanted to try it. Go for an HDD. -Cheaper and plenty fast(if its healthy) in my opinion. Phils Computer lab uses ssds with XP (if you want to go for that), recommend you watch some of his videos on the topic. Good luck on your build! :)

[@kommandokodiak6025]

@@paulp9270 all you have to do is manually trimm it right? Im sure it can easily be automated

[@Agoz8375]

SSD works great with Windows XP there is no problems. The programs start very fast and game installations runs fast.

[@GTFour]

SSD in xp is fine as long as you Format it first in vista or newer to align partitions and Turn off background defrag in xp.

[@111olbap]

I don't get you guys. 700 and 900 series are from 2013 and 2014 Win XP wasn't the current OS since like 2006.

[@sridrawings4510]

Why bul ray drive dosen't support windows xp?

[@paulp9270]

Dont know, sorry :)

[@prezeskodaty4637]

intel core i7 980X intel core i7 875k processors are better for windows xp

[@paulp9270]

Yep. Agree. Thats why its my livingroom gaming/mediacentre now :)

[@spirallight1337]

good build, but upgrade to either a GTX580 or a GTX960 ( which is the last supported XP nvidia GPU ) Other than that great build for XP. Will play anything!

[@greatwavefan397]

Specifically the 580 is the last and most powerful GPU that supports 32-bit operating systems, and the GTX 960 is the last GPU with official Windows XP drivers. However, the fastest Windows XP GPU would be the 780 Ti or the Titan variant.

[@fra4455]

Great

[@myfams]

I run windows 10 on these specs😂

[@paulp9270]

These parts are generally a waste on XP👍 Motherboard and CPU is going into a win 10 build soon, as a backup PC/ livingroom gaming PC🙂 But wanted to test new hw on an old OS and games😁

[@ABYTE64]

GTX 780Ti would even better

[@prezeskodaty4637]

Geforce 8800gtx graphics card is underdeveloped, the worst quality

[@111olbap]

Motherboard is from 2012. Vista came out in 2006, 7 came out in 2009, 8 came out in 2012. This is as far away from a Windows XP build as an IBM 5150. Thumbs down.

[@paulp9270]

Haha ok😅 This better?: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIfUpX2gdsuVntU

[@lionelferreira3935]

Watch your blood pressure, boomer, or the grandkids are gonna be sad. I guess in your time the "Ultimate" version of something wasn't a thing.

[@111olbap]

@@lionelferreira3935 Dear idiot child, I am not a boomer. People older than you are not automatically boomers, and I'd be WAY more concerned with your own generation's reputation than that of boomers.

[@majorpayne0195]

You are just jealous because his "Ultimate" Windows XP PC is better than your PC. His hardware his rule, stop your jealousy.

[@xxx_cheese_rat_xxx6411]

man this build is better then my pc in every way but gpu (T_T)(T_T)

[@paulp9270]

Yeah, it still does the job in most new games with a decent gpu. It now has a MSI 1070ti, a 2 tb hdd and 16 gig ram in it, and serves as my 1080p livingroom gaming rig. Would really be wasted on most xp games. And i have a Core2Extreme rig for XP games anyways. Pretty awesome that a rig like this can play modern and retro games with just an OS and GPU swap :) Thanks for the comment! Cheers!