The Overpowered Windows XP Gaming PC

[@Rangerman9404]

People who leave comments about using a virtual machine, or something similar don't get it. We do things like this for the challenge. Sure, I do run newer hardware as my main PC, but having period correct hardware for retro gaming does make the experience that much more authentic. I have a Gateway 2000 that runs Windows XP for my older games, and XP is also the last version that supports full screen DOS games, like Dangerous Dave. I even run Linux on an older laptop, so I can learn that as well.

[@personnelproton]

I’ve been pulling my hair out for the last 3 days trying to get an XP VM 100% functional. At this point I would love to have a physical rig lmao

[@InternationalLiaison]

Its not only about the challenge. Its also to say no to big tech that only wants to monitor the licensing without you ever owning the hard copy licensing rights to older titles. I hate using virtual machines where I have to log into steam and steam loans me the license, rather than me having the actual hardcopy. All virtual machines do is monitor our behaviors and habits,. I do thsi as a hobby more for my own privacy rights. People need to understand, the more we go online to lease a license the less human rights we actually have.

[@agushacevoces]

Keep them coming, my friend! :) Thank you for sharing your projects and thoughts. Kudos from Spain.

[@joshwa1234]

Great PC build! Should last a long time, and be suitable for XP all the way up to Windows 10! Oblivion looks gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!

[@Racecar564]

Nice work! Those board revisions & BIOS updates sure can be tricky! I'm glad AI Suite revealed to you the real tidbit of information that you needed. Sometimes that's the way it goes! Read on for SATA AHCI XP info. For SATA AHCI in Windows XP, you need a floppy disk with a disk controller driver. When you have that, you push F6 early in the setup process (it tells you when), and so these often even to this day have been referred to as a "SATA F6 driver." Often a mobo maker puts that on their page, but sometimes you have to do some more searching, either from the chipset manufacturer (Intel here), or even other board makers' pages (e.g. Gigabyte or MSI P67 boards). Without a floppy drive though, your choices are limited to either installing a driver into the OS disc ahead of time (known as 'slipstreaming'), or just changing it to IDE mode like you did! And for the record, even a run-of-the-mill 500GB 7200 RPM drive from the era of your system runs stupidly fast with XP - let alone an SSD! TURBO XP!! 🏎️💨

[@Racecar564]

And for the record, a USB floppy drive *can* work, but it depends on your luck per USB port/floppy drive model. I've not experimented with that scenario, only real FDDs. YMMV!

[@Junktown-Tech]

Thanks for the info! Sounds like SATA AHCI is pretty much unnecessary in my case unless I decide to dual boot the machine into something more modern. Gotta get myself a decent USB floppy drive.

[@Racecar564]

@@Junktown-Tech Happy to help! You're right on that, it's extra annoyance for sure but definitely worth considering for dual boot. And USB floppy drives are awesome! For what you do, I highly recommend one. Very cheap and sooo useful! It also might be possible to enable AHCI after installing Intel SATA drivers, I've never tried that on XP before but it could work. If it's anything like on 7, you'd install the driver then enable the Intel RST service in regedit. I'm sure someone's got a how-to for it online!

[@ItsYurVatoAlex]

Im currently in the process of getting parts for a windows xp/windows 7 dual boot build, using only brand new parts, unfortunately the intel branded motherboard i got no longer has its drivers on the intel website, but it does come with the drivers disc. I will have to use ide mode as well, but after installing the motherboard drivers through the disc will i be able to switch back to ahci? Im really not sure how all this works or what i should do in my case. I do have the windows xp pro sp2 retail copy cd

[@tristangrice2064]

My dad had to build a Windows XP Computer to run Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004.

[@moose2706]

I still have my old i7 3690x, Asus p9x79 pro, and EVGA 770 4gb that I play around with.

[@meh78336]

When it comes to retro OS gaming PC's, my view is keep them as compact as possible or so they don't get in the way to much, and so don't get put away in a cupboard where its less effort to use a virtual machine than lug the thing out and plug it all in. It also helps if its useful outside the retro OS as well. I went ITX and used the Cooler Master Elite 130 case for that 5.25" bay. I got a bay converter that gave me a slim optical slot and 3.23" slot which I ended up filling with a dual 2.5" hot swap bay. I got an ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe itx board with a 3770K and 16GB DDR3 2400. For colling I used a Corsair H55 with 2x 120mm Noctua fans in push pull. I used my old 980ti as the GPU with the modified drivers and for sound to get the full up to EAXHD support I use a USB Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 that is the original version that works with XP (newer versions dropped XP support in the drives to get the full feature set, though they do work as generic UB audio). I use a 500GB 2.5" hybrid Seagate drive for XP as it means I can get near SSD performance without having to mess around with SSD maintenance. I also have Windows 11 installed on my old Samsung 850 Pro SSD So that it can double as a HTPC as well (hence why I went with Noctua fans to keep the noise to a minimum) I use my old Ideazon Merc keyboard along with my old OG MS Sidewinder Mouse. Also shared with my 98SE PC, I have my Sidewinder force feedback 2 joystick. I was lucky as the only things I went out of my way to get was the case, the noctua fans, the bay converter and the v1 Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 (I had the v3 already, but I found out it doesn't fully support XP). All the rest were my old PC parts.

[@retroanderson]

I'm just about to embark on an AsRock Z77 3770k 980ti version of this. Only because the AsRock board has a floppy and serial connector so I can still use it as a workshop rig for connecting components and programmers up. I also went for the Sound Blaster Xfi so I could dual boot Windows 10. I used the XP Black Edition installer.

[@Junktown-Tech]

Sounds like a dope rig! I have heard of black edition but I am not familiar with it, what’s the pitch for it?

[@Moonlight_Tide]

Wait, a floppy jumper?? Which board?

[@majorpayne0195]

I agree playing older games on actual compatible hardware vs virtual machine for me is better experience. I also have a WinXP machine but somewhat "overkill" for WinXP. CPU: AMD FX-8300 Mobo: Asrock N68C-GS FX Ram: 2x2GB DDR3 1600 GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 960 2GB Storage: WD 640GB PSU: FSP HV Pro 650w Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 Window ODD: LG DVDRW AFAIK, since WinXP does not support TRIM, the reason I did not use SSD.

[@MrModaman]

I built a Windows XP gaming rig in 2006 with a 1st gen C2D. I had sata hdds and didn't have any problem with installing Windows Media Center 2005. It does have two ide DVD drives though.

[@killerpurplecow2165]

Just found your channel I love it. I recently just built a Windows XP . Just to play That fallout trilogy dell 530 8 gb ddr2 800 core2 duo e7600 and 750 ti running xp pro nice channel grew up 80s still love tech old and new.

[@sebastian19745]

Great build. I do not actually care about the "period correct" stuff, I do care about the computer to work as I intend to. If I want a fast computer, I use fast components, and for a slo computer I will use older components. I like XP on new hardware (core CPU first-second gen), as it is fast, can have plenty of memory and not on the "period correct" slower Pentium 3 with max 1.5G SDRAM. To add AHCI drivers to XP (32 or 64), there are 3 ways, as far as I know.. First, is to slipstream them into the XP installation amd make a CD that have them. Pros: you have that CD and use it any time to reinstall on that motherboard (or one with the same chipset); you can also add another drivers like chipset, sound, video, can add also some programs (like a web browser, Acrobat, etc), specify aserial, customize the installation and so make an full unatended install CD that is taylored for your computer. Cons: you may end with an .iso file that do not fit on a CD and have to use a DVD disk and you can not use that CD on anothecomputer wit a different chipset. There are (were) many tutorials online on how to do this. I used nLite for that. Second, is to use a floppy disk. When the install starts, it prompts you to press F6 key if you have custom SCSI drivers. Then it prompts you to insert the floppy, select the appropriate drivers and continue. Pros: It always works. Cons: you need a floppy and many USB ones are not recognized by XP. I had success with some unbranded one that wa recognized as NEC USB floppy drive; You will need the physical floppy disk that are quite hard to find, may degrade loose dataand is a PITA sometimes; also you need to know exactly wwhat driver to use, Intel many times have slightly different drivers for a chipset in a package and if do not select the correct one, it will give you headaches later. Third, install XP as you did, in IDE mode, then install the SATA AHCI drivers. Delete the IDE drivers in Device manager and shutdown. Change in the BIOS the SATA in AHCI mode and reboot. XP will then find the new SATA AHCI and will install them. Pros: XP will select the apropriate drivers, mostly works (it worked for me for more than 90%, maybe the fails were my fault), is easy, as to download and install an .inf file. Can be done for RAID also. I did this way even in XP x64 when I did not had a USB floppy. The bluescreen at 10:41, after flashing the BIOS was because the BIOS was reset to defaults and this meant that the SATA was also set to AHCI. If you had changed SATA to IDE, you had no have to reinstall the OS.

[@blakecasimir]

Good narration, editing, great build. But you really should get some studio lights!

[@Warbob11]

The amd cpus from the 2008 - 2012 Era are actually pretty good windows xp cpus. Think of some of them as better or worse Athlons. Pair that with your flavor of GPU and you have a very cheap decent windows xp 32 bit system. I honestly like using any of the GPUs that are compatible I have a backup gt 660 1.5gb as emergency card for when my HD 5470 dies or I need that Nvidia card. My laptop I forget the exact specs in middle of move from 2008 very good Athlon cpu (not as powerful due to Vista and 7 being around this time, but on XP it's very good.) And a Nvidia GPU forget which but this time period of pcs can play a host of things that predate them by over 10 years and run some semi modern stuff. And no one wants them as much. I just subscribed sorry for the wall of text. Very nice build you have there. Makes me wish I had one of them setup atm with Lode Runner Returns playing.

[@kevinsahm5577]

I just get an iso online fully updated until 2019 and that works well for me

[@CraigDavison101]

You can install windows xp drivers off a cd when you get to that point in the instalation. I still have my old asus z68 board. I had 2 of them 1 pro and 1 with 2 less sata. I guess pros need 8 sata ports. You should of got the 2600k as 4.5 is so easy OC to. Back then it was a K chip or nothing

[@Pasi123]

The non-K CPUs can be overclocked a bit too due to then having few extra multipliers. I have an Asus P8Z77-V LK with an i7-3770 non-K @ 4.22-4.43GHz, 41-43 multiplier and 103MHz BCLK.

[@7MBoosted]

I have been in the process of building my retro dual boot (XP & 7) for a really long time. I have settled on a 4790k and gtx 970. The 970 I had on hand, plan on having the machine as an offline repository for all my disk based games and my gog library. Also, my goodness, that is a bunch of mishaps you had. All I had to do was make sure I was in ide mode, and have secure boot off. Installed real easy, was even able to activate XP using the telephone method.

[@Junktown-Tech]

It's what I get for buying an ASUS board lol, I have honestly had nothing but problems with every ASUS product I've ever owned. Cool to know the telephone method is still working.

[@energygameplay6513]

nice build i use similar thing i7 3770 12gb ddr3 and os wise i use winxp32 and 64 bit on 64gb msata ssd motherboard is gigabyte z77ds3h and for game storage for now i use 480gb a400kingston i had layin around . Gpu wise i use 9800gt 512mb -i know it kinda is old but thats what i had layin around aswell but this one is nice build aswell i like your component chiose(actually i almost bought the same motherboard as you use in the video but i didnt i use gigabyte z77 ds3h ) and winxp install wise for winxp 32 bit i use winxp integral edition and for 64bit iso i had to slipstream some drivers using program nlite and at the end all works well

[@jose2822]

I also had an idea similar to yours, I bought an AM2+ board with 4GB DDR2, I put a phenom 6x II 1055T and an HD 6770 on it, but I have not installed Windows XP, but I have installed Windows 8.1, when I have time and I got another hard drive and a CD drive, I totally turned it into a Windows XP(with linux distro) era PC

[@IronicTonic8]

Respect to the TNG playing in the background.

[@tomtry3814]

great vid lot of great info but i am lazy i bought a dell 990 it came with a i7 2nd gen cpu and 4 gig of ram i added a stat ssd 512 gig and an old 500 gig hhd then just installed from a dell win xp disk for a video card dell has a whole line of great dell amd cards with 1 gig ,2 gig and four gig they are very cheap on e bay alll very easy and cheap and no weork at all. i just loaded all m,y old games from 94 to 2006 all work great

[@kinkykane0607]

How long does your Bios battery last with this motherboard ?? Mine quits on me after a little while and then I have to change it. I have gone through 3 Bios batteries in the last Year Lol

[@Junktown-Tech]

That’s bizarre. I haven’t had any issues as of yet, been using the system pretty regularly too.

[@tennickjestzajety69]

i had Socket A rig many years ago... and battery still held a charge over 8 years (2004-2012) of using my PC two-three times a week.

[@InternationalLiaison]

Thank you for this video. Confirms I can convert my Alienware R1 with i7 920 to an ultimate retro gaming machine in XP. Atleast with XP it will also be able to play many windows 98 game titles. Considering just doing a dual boot set up with windows XP and windows 10.

[@Junktown-Tech]

If you do that make sure you have Sata drivers installed for XP, otherwise you will be having issues with Win10 trying to run at IDE speeds

[@InternationalLiaison]

@@Junktown-Tech yeah I also might have to manually turn off hyper threading to and find a way to only run 2 cores in XP. Some people are saying because the frequency is so low under 3 Ghz I might not need to turn off hyper threading. But game titles of that era don’t respond well mechanically to it

[@RetroPcCupboard]

Very nice build and well put together video

[@-x21-]

You really should be using the top PCIe slot on this board. You are only running the video card at PCIe 8x speed.

[@Junktown-Tech]

I absolutely would, unfortunately the top slot doesn't work on this board :\

[@devilzuser0050]

Sure he looses 0,1% even pcie4.0 4x is enough for anything under 4070/3080

[@-x21-]

@@devilzuser0050 that's pcie 2.0

[@Zack_Wester]

one reason why so many ultimate gaming XP builds are (uses period correct pieces/parts) might be a bit of how stuff was done back then. there was no game ask PC how much ram and performence do you have PC, how much GPU speed, GPU ram and GPU feture does your support. it was are you a Graphic card 1000, or graphic card 2000 or 3000. and if the PC responded whit something not on the list or a more modern one not in the games list the game whent well Looks like its low and everything off no option setting for you and legacy mode (meanwhile im rocking a gefore 1070 Im running laps around a geforce 8800 but the game only knew of the 8800 (that was the ultra setting).

[@Junktown-Tech]

There is definitely something awesome about using those older parts. In this case I wanted a versatile machine that could do multiple things. That and the major parts all came out while XP was in service, so they were still officially supported. So while it’s not the most retro build possible, it is period correct toward the end of XP’s life :)

[@Zoometryfr]

why did you put the gpu in a lower pcie port. im pretty sure they get less bandwith

[@Junktown-Tech]

I forgot to mention in the video but the top slot on this board isn’t working unfortunately:/

[@Racecar564]

​@@Junktown-TechF

[@grigoryk6401]

Fallout 2 is epic !

[@Satellite-nowhere]

Gigabyte is the best motherboard manufacturer for this era. No wonder you had so many problems.

[@Rayyan-hi2ge]

you should compare the t480s and the t470s

[@Junktown-Tech]

The models seems pretty close together in price and power for the most part. Is there a significant difference between them? I’m open to reviewing anything I happen upon

[@Rayyan-hi2ge]

@@Junktown-Tech the t480 has 8th gen and t470s has 6th and 7th but t470s has 2 battery's

[@Moonlight_Tide]

My 3770k was $12 on eBay, where the heck were you shopping? Also, I recently found that the Asus B85M-G has full XP driver support from their website. You'll want to check the CPU BIOS compatibility and grab one that works with BIOS 0306 first just in case, if you plan to put a different CPU in it. The seller I bought mine from said they used a 4770k to check it, which showed as compatible with 0306, but I personally used a 4570s and upgraded to the 4790s after I updated the BIOS. I attribute my lack of the rest of the issues to using XP "Integral Edition." My Linux part is NTFS cuz I figured XP would play more nicely, so I can't speak to those EXT4 issues, either. And, I've literally never had an EVGA PSU explode on me.

[@BladeRunner21577]

Average Windows XP build in 2024

[@Junktown-Tech]

good thing I built it in 2023... phew

[@BladeRunner21577]

@@Junktown-Tech 2023 or 2024 it makes no difference. XP will run on a 4th gen i7 as a mid range build and it will also run on a pair of Broadwell core Xeons. So its less than half of an ultimate XP build.

[@dim0n1]

i see one (ok few) build mistake, you put gpu in to wrong (second) pciex8 slot, pciex16 is upper one, see manual at part "2.2.4 Expansion slots" to install windows xp on sata, you need to provide driver on floppy disk (if your board have floppy conector, your does not) to win xp installation by pressing i think f6 at begining of win istallation, so then you can use it in AHCI mode (not in IDE... its faster) or (your case) you can modify winxp installation with nlite and burn a modified dvd, again in manual there is section how to install sata drivers thruu usb floppy (stupidly in raid section, but it works for all sata), and its quite interesting, you need to modify some files again, btw be carefull, on website there is 2 different drivers for sata, you need to experiment :-D ... and about ram, just choose better pair, i see you have different rams, and i can bet they have a different timming... do you remember what is RTFM :-D (no offence of course, just joke :-D)

[@Junktown-Tech]

Hey thanks for the comment! I forgot to address it in the video but my top PCIE slot was busted on this board, no display unfortunately. I see your point about RAM, I ensured they’re running at the same speed but they are from different sets and I mix and matched for the look. To be fair, I had no way knowing which sticks came together: I bought a bundle of 12 sticks from goodwill, all used.

[@dim0n1]

@@Junktown-Tech heh, i was wonder, what i even commented 1 month ago :D, throw those black ones away, and keep just a blue ones, they looks nicer, and you know i know we know that 16 gig is liiiitle bit overkill :D:D:D... with upper pcie... that sux, i hope you tested some different gpu there ;-)

[@NeoF-092]

i have an hp elitedesk 800 g1 with no gpu. im thinking of getting a geforce 1030 2gb d4 low profile card. will this card be good for playing games from 1993 to 2004 ? i want to be able to play with max settings while recording gameplay with obs

[@Junktown-Tech]

I'm not sure about OBS, generally with older hardware you'd want to look into an external capture device that runs to a main computer. I would think OBS wouldn't run on older OS's either. The 1030 will be more than enough for games that old. In 2004, the 6800 GT was one of the best cards you could get and it had 256mb of VRAM. A 2gb card is an absolute monster in that context.

[@unnamed715]

EVGA PSUs blow up?? Bro since when? 🤨EVGA is one of the most reputable brands out there. I have a Supernova G2 from 10 years ago that still works like new!

[@Junktown-Tech]

There’s a specific model that was having trouble when I uploaded the video, they had to do a massive recall that went poorly. I think Gamers Nexus covered it

[@kunka592]

@@Junktown-Tech I think you have them confused with Gigabyte - they have exploding power supplies. As far as I know, EVGA has good power supplies though some of the recent ones I heard are not as good as their older ones.

[@milak111234]

This pc must be Win XP 64 bit Pro ,not 32 bit version!!

[@Junktown-Tech]

That was the original plan but graphics drivers became impossible because the Microsoft Framework thing wasn’t easily available for 64 bit xp. I found one sketchy website that had it but I wasn’t willing to risk it.

[@mraaron1584]

look for windows xp integral edition comes with all updates and sata drivers pre integrated

[@tennickjestzajety69]

and has deleted some of XP features, like OOBE, Tour, Movie Maker, system wallpapers or Outlook Express. no, thanks.

[@mraaron1584]

@@tennickjestzajety69who needs any of that lol

[@tennickjestzajety69]

@@mraaron1584so who needs xp at all? complete retro experience means all apps are not removed even if now does not work

[@O_mores]

I like socket 1155 era, but with XP you can go with the latest generation hardware -> XP on 13th gen Intel CPU : kzbin.info/www/bejne/rneTcqN-pbWbY9E - Just make sure you have some extra hardware like a PCI-E to SATA card. BTW: GTX980 works perfectly fine.

[@tennickjestzajety69]

3rd gen of Intel is powerful enough for GTX980. Unfortunately 10xx series doesn't work (for 3D acceleration) so installing XP on newer systems (i mean CPU+MB) is an overkill and for me not really worth.

[@timd902]

Typo in the title, that's a windows 7/8 era pc.

[@Junktown-Tech]

You’re not wrong and may have just inspired a new idea for it

[@EastAngliaUK]

oh i see star trek tng playing

[@austinstitzel]

I'm going to guess that you are a Sagittarius.

[@Junktown-Tech]

Weirdly unrelated and weirdly accurate

[@MakHoles]

You could have installed windows xp 64 bit

[@Junktown-Tech]

I ran into problems installing .NET framework which prevented my Nvidia driver from being able to install during my testing so I decided to run with 32 bit.

[@Warbob11]

32 bit has more compatibility with older games but yes 64 bit is very nice. If you plan on playing a lot of older pre 2000 games natively without a emulator or extra program use 32 bit. Though if you have a lot of digital backups of physical older Disc games there are a few programs that can mount them in xp so no Disc needed if you don't want to.

[@aviator1472]

Linux sucks.

[@Junktown-Tech]

Nah it’s pretty cool actually

[@aviator1472]

@@Junktown-Tech no.

[@tronalddump8776]

Try to put xp on raid.