Budget build for retro gaming

[Rogerborg]

Love-a-duck, have you seen the prices of iX processors lately?

I'm looking to throw together a desktop for young Master Borg. He's not into Far Cry of Duty 27, more retro stuffs, so I don't need a photo-realistic gore system, just the best bang for my #BlameBrexit buck.

What are the cooler kids rocking these days? I haven't put anything together for years, I'm totally out of the loop, but I'd like to pay sub £300 for the case and its contents, the subbier the better.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[colink98]

Happy to raid some of my spares box's at work/home.


Stuffs in the spares boxs include

plenty of mech HD's
DDR3 and DDR4 memory
XFX HD6950 GPU

ive just pulled an i5 3450 (LGA1155) from a carcass of a workstation that's MB was shot and im sure that would be a good CPU for starers.

your welcome to as much or as little as you want to build the lads machine.

let me know what you want and i will get it in the post in a day or so.

no need for any monies.
season of good will and all that.
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PCX125 (stolen) - CBF600 (current)
Ride it like you stole it.
ride sensible and not like an idiot and you wont get 6 points in one week.

[King29]

Is it a system you want to build with your own fair hands (dad built that) or a system just to suit purpose?

If just to suit purpose then I'd buy a used desk top from Gumtree or Fbook. £70 should get you an Intel I3 machine or an I5 with 4 or 8 gig of ram and 500 GB hard drive. Drop a GTX 1030 in £53 currently at Overclockers. All done and dusted for under £130 including delivery of card.

[wr6133]

New or used?

I'm still running an OC'd Ivybridge 3570k and it games fine (granted with a GTX 1070 but until recently I was happy on SLi 670's). Should find one on ebay for not alot.

If you want cheapest of the cheap I have an old (and crap) AMD FX6100 + mobo you can have for the cost of postage. No idea if it still works it's been sat around for a few years.

I have a GTX670 on my shelf to if you want to buy it.

[Pjay]

There's a lot to be said in favour of buying new.

Something like this base model would be ideal, and then you could use your spare monies to buy a decent used GFX card.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302540536586

Considering most of the work these days is done by the GPU, there's not so much gains to be had from buying faster CPU's.

Added to the fact you want it for older gaming, it would be something to mull over for sure, I'd spend £150 on a decent card and then some more RAM and you've done well and got a PC with a warranty.
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struan80 - I'll go first - satisfied tick 1

[Rogerborg]

Dad Build is fine, I was just taken aback by component prices.

I've PM'd ColinK98 about his kind offer, although if he's been at the cooking sherry, that £150 box looks reasonable - although they seem to be saying that it's scavenged parts inside.

Fall back to the fall back is Gumtree and a chucked-in-card. I'm fine with that, Mrs B's currently on a Gumtree special for her knitting patterns and recipes.

Thanks all, BCF is the best.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[King29]

Not sure how far Tollcross park is from you? bloke selling a decent system for £120 and for another £20 he'll double ram to 8 gig and put in a 500 gig rather than 250 gig. £140 all in, seems a bargain to me for that price.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/desktop-workstation-pcs/dell-optiplex-790-very-fast-and-cheap-pc-with-ssd/1278721908

[colink98]

[chris-red]

It depends how retro, Unless you get a GOG release you can struggle getting pre 2000 stuff to run on Windows 10.

If you can play the standard release on current hardware easily it ain't retro
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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[Lord Percy]

[RhynoCZ]

I also enjoy classic games,

So far, I could run every single game on win7 and when I had a DOS version I use the DOSBOX(*see below). The only issues I've ever had were due to 64bit OS not supporting whatever bit the installer to 2 games was. I could get around it, eventually, but it was a hassle. I can't remember the first one, but the second game, that I still own a legit copy of, was Monaco Grand Prix 2.

As said, you may find a way around many restrictions. But less popular the game was/is worse it is to find any tricks how to run it, if you find any at all.

So, to sum it up, if you want retro gaming, go with 32bit OS and run as many games as you can via DOSBOX.

* Why DOSBOX?
Playing retro games isn't just about getting them to run. The biggest issue you can have is the HW incompatibility. We're talking sound cards, graphics cards, but also CPUs, joystics, keyboards, mice.... DOSBOX emulates them all very well. We're talking perfect audio, video, game speed (CPU), using whatever USB keyboard, mouse, gamepad... you name it.

Don't listen to the purists that say you can only have proper gaming experience on a 13 inch CRT CGA monitor with IBM CPU and PC speaker beeps.

By the way, if you can't operate a MS DOS system, don't worry. Just find the executable file in your desktop, and drag it over the DOSBOX icon, everything loads up automatically. And also, everything is ready to go, you do not need to fiddle with anything.

* Windows retro gaming?
Whatever HW, just make sure you have 32bit OS, ideally XP, W7 works too. Try to get a AMD gfx card, they work better in older games, even the recent cards. Nvidia works too, but not that well.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Rogerborg]

Lucasarts, Stronghold, Minecrack, Terraria, Starmade, that sort of stuff. Let's not get too Godwin, we're just talking "not a birrion porygon" requirements.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[RhynoCZ]

I'm not sure about W10, but W7 on any modern HW would run those games with no issues.

The LucasArts (adventure games, original versions) might require DOSBOX or ScummVM, which is not an issue to run on anything. It's also on GOG = no DRM and 100% compatible with modern HW and W7/8/10, both 32bit and 64bit.

All the Stronghold games are also on GOG.

The rest of your that sort of stuff list is fairly modern and will play with no issues on anything fairly recent.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[chris-red]

[M.C]

Retro for me is pre-128bit (so PS1, N64 etc.). Even though you can play GTA 3 on your phone and have been able to for about 5 years (christ that makes me feel old), emulation still seems to be patchy, and you really need original hardware to play 128bit games properly (Dreamcast, PS2 etc.).

PC I dunno, the overlap's huge by comparison. I was still running Win 98se on an Athlon XP in 2006 (still got the system), and that ran DOS games (Wolfenstein 3D, original Worms, Street Fighter 2 etc.) fine.

Spectrum/Atari stuff's like looking at cave paintings as we were already in the 16bit era when I was a kid.

[Cadbury]

If ColinK98 can't sort that HD6950 then I've got an old 9600GT sitting at home if you want it. I don't think it's good as the AMD card, but we are practically neighbours, so getting it to you won't be a problem.
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NC700x.

[Rogerborg]

When good intentions go stalky.

Thanks for the offer, I'm drowning in the milk of human kindness here. I'll check in with the K-ster and let you know if I'm still on the scrounge.

...

Checked, yay, I'm all sorted.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Rogerborg]

BUMP.

OK, stuff's on its way (so much win). I'll need to go used for the MB, and after adding a case I'm getting close to the price of:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/382308405950

Does this look like a suitable home for the i5, DDR3 and XFX 6950? i3 3220 is socket FCLGA1155 and takes DDR3, so I reckon I'm good if I add a meatier PSU.

My main concern is that the XFX is full length x full height and I believe double-fat, and Acer are cagey about what size of cards that box and board will take.

Infideltubes suggests:

https://i.imgur.com/AJE0aeQ.jpg


If not that, can anyone suggest a sure fire winner from:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/PC-Desktops-All-in-Ones/179?LH_BOPIS=1&LH_FS=1&LH_PayPal=1&LH_RPA=1&Processor%2520Type=Intel%2520Core%2520i3%25202nd%2520Gen%252E%7CIntel%2520Core%2520i3%25203rd%2520Gen%252E&rt=nc&_sacat=179&_sop=15&_udhi=150&_udlo=50

Urgh, I really have come all over all Confused Dad.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[dydey90]

After getting very upset at the price of a SNES these days, I bought some USB controllers and downloaded retropi, for my Pi. I can't fault the emulation for Nintendo stuff from what I've used it for.
Looking at the specs, it should be able to cope with Xbox/PS2/GameCube stuff without much of a problem but I haven't tried it.

I wouldn't mind having an old pooter around for retro gaming though, I tried to get Star Wars Episode I (the game) to run on my 64 bit windows 7 machine and couldn't get anywhere. Same with podracer, which I still have the legit original CD for.
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This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[M.C]

[RhynoCZ]

Cool you get the I/O shield as well. It's quite rare to get a full set when buying used motherboards, or at least here it is.
____________________
'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[King29]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHTMZHcFaJE

[M.C]

[RhynoCZ]

[King29]

Nah, spending gtx 1050 money for what is required is pointless. GTX 750 TI, R9 260(x) would suffice and save precious beer tokens.