Got an old computer, wanting to make it a late 90's/early 2000's gaming PC

So, I recently got an old computer from someone, and fixed it up a little. I'm wanting to turn it into a gaming pc using parts from it's "era". I've already replaced the 1x256mb PC133 stick with 2x512mb DDR sticks, Replaced the CD Drive, added another hard drive, and wiped the FAT32 installation of XP, replacing it with an NTFS installation of W2k (Since my XP CD refused any of the keys from the 3 unfixable computers I had laying around). What parts should I get to make this computer roar with games from 1998-2004?

Specs:
40gb IDE HDD
1gb DDR RAM
1.7ghz Athlon XP 2000+
Windows 2000 Pro SP4
S3 ProSavageDDR 32mb
1x AGP Slot
3x PCI Slot
2x DDR RAM Slots
2x PC133 RAM slots


I've also been having a problem with the computer turning back on a few seconds after I shut it down. I'm suspecting that it's a RAM Problem, because it didn't do it until I put the 2 DDR Sticks in, and the computer I pulled them from had the same problem. Does anyone know how to fix this?

 

40 Gb hard drive is pretty crappy for 2004, as is the XP 2000. If you're looking at the earlier end of that range, then a sound card perhaps would be an idea, but then you're running software that's too late. You'd be wanting DOS/Windows 98. The S3 Savage is from the early end, so is a terrible card for 2004.

I'd say be happy with what you've got. Maybe upgrade the graphics card as you're leaning towards the end of that era.

Power issue could be a wake on LAN / USB feature. Reset the BIOS and change any wake settings to off. Or an ACPI issue. If you suspect the RAM, take a stick out and see what happens with just one. Then the other. Could even be the PSU or caps on the board (although you'd probably see worse issues with caps).

BTW, Windows keys on a computer are for an OEM disc, not a retail one... and they need to be for the right region and version. Sometimes, they'll even be fussy about manufacturer IDs.

 

Is there a graphics card you would recommend if I'm leaning towards the end? Right now my games play at about 3 frames per week, and some won't even work at all. The BIOS has no waking features enabled, all the caps look fine, and both the ram sticks yielded the same problem. I've also had OEM Keys work on a retail CD Before

 

The issue you've got is that that machine and your target is a bit of an inbetween era. You could install a really good TNT2 or Early GeForce and enjoy some slightly older compatibility and a little newer compatibility but not enough ooomph for either one or the other.

You really need to be quite specific with the games you're looking to play. If you're thinking Q3, Unreal, UT and older retro games then I'd go with a Diamond Viper 770 Ultra which is one of the best TNT2 cards of the time, you won't have Glide support for earlier games but then if you go pure Voodoo you'll close yourself off from some of the later 90's early 2000 games. With a TNT2 and a decent Soundblaster 16 compatible ISA or PCI soundcard then you've also got the retro options pretty much covered (albeit with a little bit of work here and there).

On the flipside if you want to go the other direction I'd maybe start looking at the GeForce 4 Ti Range (although a GeForce 2/3 would be ok) but then to be honest you can get AGP cards right up to the 6000 Era so you might as well just go all out and grab one of those instead.

Either way you've taken me back to my youth, the days where you'd build a gaming rig and it really would be shit within 6 months. I tend to find that these days unless you're chasing visual perfection you can get by for quite a while on a half decent budget card. Happy days.

 

Be aware that there are multiple keyings for AGP slots. See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port#Compatibility

Best to understand what slot you have and buy the appropriate card. You don't want to waste your time getting a card you like only to find out you can't use it. This happened to me when I rebuilt my Windows 98 PC and I couldn't use the Voodoo 5500 AGP.

Get rid of that S3 card. Stick with an ATI, TNT2, GeForce or Voodoo. Maximum VRAM you'd probably want is 256MB. I am not certain what the maximums of Windows 2000 and video RAM is... Although, I'm not certain that Windows 2000 is a good gamers OS.

 

Actually that's a good point I completely missed, you're going to have so many compatibility errors with Win 2K due to the NT foundation underneath. Most games won't even run.

 

win2k < win98 and XP when in comes to compatibility. I suggest Win98 + GF3 or Voodoo 5 to run all games from 95-early 2000s era. Also get SB Live - Audigy 2 or Vortex 2 with DOS drivers and create config.sys/autoexec.bat menu to boot in MS DOS 7 and run those games which don't run in dosbox.

 

The AGP Slot is the length of an AGP Pro, but has only the big.....Line thing(?) at the right

The thing about DOS is that it might play games slowly, like I saw when using DOS with a Pentium 4. Are Audigy 2's SB16 compatible? I've got one in my main computer.

 

Audigy 2? Probably. Don't want to reboot right now but AFAIK DOS drivers for SB Live work with Audigy2 with a small patch.

 

So you mean it looks more like the AGP Pro Universal? Basically do your research on what a card looks like prior to buying it. If you are going to Ebay for a card, make sure to only look at ones with REAL photos and not a stock photo.

And if you go to use Windows 98 instead of 2000, be aware the maximum vram size you can have is 256MB. You can use a 512MB card in Win98 but only with the generic display driver. If you try to use the real video driver, you will likely get a Windows protection error. So stick to 128-256MB AGP if using 98.

EDIT. If it helps, here are the specs for my Win98 PC:
board: Intel D850MV
RAM: 768MB RDRAM PC800
CPU: Pentium 4 2.0GHz
Video: ATI Radeon 9600 XT 256MB AGP
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Live PCI
HDDs: 20GB WD, 20GB Maxtor
CD: 48x Compaq "Spare" CD-ROM ATAPI
PSU: Antec 400W ATX

 

In that era i first had a P3 450Mhz with a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP and ofc Windows 98 SE. It could play Unreal and Half-Life just fine.
After that I had an Athlon XP 1800+ and a Geforce 4200 TI and played Halo PC.

 

On the AGP front, it's a case of RTFM. What's the board? Look it up, see whether it was AGP, 2X AGP etc. The XP 2000+ is from 2002, so it's more likely 2X or 4X AGP. Likewise, see what RAM is compatible in the manual.

By then, you had the ATI R300 GPU, so the Radeon 9700 (9800 came out in 2003) competing against the GeForce4. The last Voodoo cards were pretty much dead by then.

Never judge caps by look.

 

This is the best picture I could get of the AGP slot on the motherboard, which is a Pheonix M7VIG. It doesn't match the website's picture. I'm guessing my motherboard is an OEM Version, because the computer is prebuilt (Although it appears to be made from off the shelf parts) by Systemax. The RAM is reporting at PC133 and DDR1. The caps appear to be working fine, because the motherboard is working perfectly, and there are absolutely no traces or hints of cap damage or leaking.

 

Caps don't have to bulge, leak or go pop to be bad, this could be a good excuse to pick up a decent multimeter!

 

Update: I was looking at the wrong motherboard variant, It's using an AGP 8x

 

That's actually a Biostar motherboard. Phoenix is a BIOS. And there's no such thing as an OEM version of a motherboard - a motherboard is a motherboard.

Anyway, the board only takes DDR266, so if you're using DDR400 it'll probably clock down, but might fuss. And it's 4X AGP. If you meant it's actually the M7VIG 400, it'll do up to DDR333, but still 4X AGP. If it's the M7VIG Pro or Pro-D, it's DDR266 but 8X AGP. Technically, it's an Award BIOS, but Phoenix took them over.

Back to the caps - a multimeter isn't going to help much. You need to test them out of circuit ideally, or use a capacitance meter, by which time you might as well just change them if you suspect they are causing issues.