I think I'm gonna finally restore my oldest PC back to its (close to) factory state. · 5:52am Mar 17th, 2019
I'm gonna find some period-correct hard drives instead of using the SD-IDE adapter, replace the Geforce fx 5200 with the original S3 Virge that shipped in the system, replace the Sound Blaster AWE32 that barely fits in the case with the original Sound Blaster 16, and top it off with something between Windows 95 and Windows XP, excluding the latter.
EDIT: So I guess I'm gonna keep the Sound Blaster AWE32 in the system. I was thinking of dual-booting Win95/98se and Windows 2000, with the former for DOS compatibility and the latter for better USB and application support. Windows XP just lags too much, and is a pain to get working drivers for the hardware. Like, every Nvidia driver I've ever tried BSODs, but Win2k goes along fine. The only thing I lose with Win2k is support for my USB wifi dongle, which in the long run really doesn't matter all that much since I grew up using this computer without ever having internet access in the first place.
The only upgrades I'm keeping are the AMD K6 downclocked to 166MHz, and the 384 MB of RAM, bumped up from the original 8 MB that shipped in the system.
EDIT: Also, I'm keeping the Ethernet and USB cards in the system. Though I am used to using floppy disks and cd/dvd burners, I'd just like to save the hassle of transferring files. With USB all I need is a flash drive, and with ethernet I could just network share a folder.
Also, USB wifi adapters. Because when you have no ethernet, just connect to whatever wifi hotspot you've got around. 'Cause I have no ethernet jacks besides the single free jack on my router that I use for testing non-wifi enabled systems.
Why?
Because I think that computer would make a nice no-distractions writing machine.
Also, I already achieved my goal of full-motion video and Minecraft on that computer, so it's really just been sitting around collecting dust since I see no way to further buff the computer outside of maxing out the RAM at 512 MB. No newer video card seems to work without soft locking the system at POST, the CPU in the system was already never supported in the first place by the BIOS (hence the underclock) and also draws more power than the CPU VRM on the motherboard can provide (also why there's the underclock).
So yeah.
I still have everything down to the original Logitech Mouseman Serial mouse, and the keyboard and speakers are currently in use on my main PC.
The only thing that's missing? The big ol' CRT monitor that came with the system. We gave it to the same thrift store that I now often get components at.
Closest thing I've got instead is a janky cheapo LCD monitor with a half-broken stand, but it's got the same screen size and resolution as the original monitor, and I do actually remember using the LCD screen that's currently in my shed as the display for that PC shortly after we got rid of the CRT.
Anyways, there's my tech rambling for now.
I'm still very proud of myself for getting Minecraft to run at 12 seconds per frame on that PC in Windows 2000.
Sounds like fun. Since you're keeping ethernet on there, you could probably install an old copy of Opera on there for web browsing, maybe WinAmp for occasional music playing. A bunch of mp3's might be a bit much for a period correct hard drive, but I bet you could put some midi and mod files on there, so you could play some music while writing.
Probably a good system to set up some text adventure games on, too.
--Sweetie Belle
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Opera 12 supports basic HTML5, and if I remember correctly runs on 2000. My main concern would be that it'd eat up the meager 166MHz CPU's resources if I try to load really anything beyond Google.
MP3 playback is fine. It sounds great on the ol' Soundblaster, both the 16 and the AWE32.
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Yeah. I suggested it largely because Chrome and Firefox both aren't great on systems with low memory. Modern Opera is just Chrome, but back when it ran on Windows 2000, it was its own thing, and I seem to remember it being a good browser.
I was thinking more of storage space as far as mp3's. Midi and mod files are both rather smaller in size. Mod files were kinda neat, anyways...
--Sweetie Belle
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Yeah. K-Melon 74 works fine as well, though 75 had much better html5 support, but 74 is the last version to run on 2000.
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As far as mp3s go, since I'm keeping a USB card installed, I can just load a flash drive with songs instead.
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I used to like Phoenix back in the day, but that's just straight up is what Firefox used to be called, back when it was a lightweight stripped down browser.
And yeah, you could stick a flash drive in for additional storage, I suppose. Or an sd card reader, and use sd cards. That way it sort of mimics using floppies. I've heard of people hacking sd card readers in instead of a floppy drive on some really old retro systems.
Still think that'd be a good system for text adventures. You could grab a copy of Windows Frotz, and you could easily pick up all sorts of games for it. And, you know, Fallout 1 & 2, Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale, Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Simon the Sorcerer, Diablo...
--Sweetie Belle
5029361
Yup.