Retro AMD build. SLI possibly? Need ideas.

[HesCalledTheStig]

Budget (including currency): undecided (USD)

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Games from the era. 

Other details: Abit SLI motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+, 2gb (512mb x4) Corsair DDR 400mhz Platinum RAM.  
 

A friend was going to toss this because it had been lying around for years. I, being the thoughtful person I am, relieved him of it and have re-homed it into my old mining chassis. For the immediate future I’d like to set it up to play games that were from the same era as the cpu and then slowly upgrade it to the highest specs the board will allow. This includes an SLI setup. I just need help choosing parts and games to run on it. Any thoughts?

 

[GOTSpectrum]

My first gaming PC was an ABIT board, with a Pentium D, the intel MCM chip... those were the days. But damn did that thing like to run hot

[jaslion]

Gtx 280's are basically free. Could also get hd5870's for next to nothing.

[shoutingsteve]

I love that 15 years ago is "retro" to this community.  Haha.  Remember that you will need the physical SLI bridge for it to work.

 

Be sure tat you swap out the CMOS battery for a fresh one.

 

I recommend Clive Barker's Undying for that era, and Titan Quest if you liked Diablo, Roller Coaster Tycoon would work well, and FEAR is a great FPS from that era.

[HesCalledTheStig]

1 minute ago, GOTSpectrum said:

My first gaming PC was an ABIT board, with a Pentium D, the intel MCM chip... those were the days. But damn did that thing like to run how 

Id like to try my hand at over clocking the CPU in this a bit. I’ve never done any over clocking before so I’d like to see just how far I can push this older cpu. 

[HesCalledTheStig]

3 minutes ago, shoutingsteve said:

I love that 15 years ago is "retro" to this community.  Haha.  Remember that you will need the physical SLI bridge for it to work.

 

Be sure tat you swap out the CMOS battery for a fresh one.

 

I recommend Clive Barker's Undying for that era, and Titan Quest if you liked Diablo, Roller Coaster Tycoon would work well, and FEAR is a great FPS from that era.

All great games. I always forget about Undying. Put a lot of hours on that game. And I hear you about the retro thing. PC hardware just advances and goes obsolete so fast. I love playing with the older stuff though. Makes me feel young haha. 

[GOTSpectrum]

2 minutes ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

Id like to try my hand at over clocking the CPU in this a bit. I’ve never done any over clocking before so I’d like to see just how far I can push this older cpu. 

If you want a card that came out around the same time as this then an Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX would be a great option, you could go a couple GPUs newer, but realistically you will be CPU limited

[HesCalledTheStig]

2 minutes ago, GOTSpectrum said:

If you want a card that came out around the same time as this then an Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX would be a great option, you could go a couple GPUs newer, but realistically you will be CPU limited

I actually have a 7900 I think. Was there a 7900gs?  It sounds familiar. I’ll have to check my parts bin lol. I plan on upgrading the cpu to the highest the board can take and that will determine what cards I choose.

[da na]

My XP rig has an Athlon 64 x2 6000+ and GeForce 6800. I would recommend GTX 200 series, from my understanding they do not suffer from the solder ball issues which killed all my 8000/9000 series cards.

[HesCalledTheStig]

Just now, Mel0n. said:

My XP rig has an Athlon 64 x2 6000+ and GeForce 6800. I would recommend GTX 200 series, from my understanding they do not suffer from the solder ball issues which killed all my 8000/9000 series cards.

I was thinking about a 200 series. I just realized that I’d probably need to run an older OS. I should probably find an older, non wide screen monitor or a CRT. 

[da na]

5 minutes ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

I was thinking about a 200 series. I just realized that I’d probably need to run an older OS. I should probably find an older, non wide screen monitor or a CRT. 

I use mine with a 1920x1200 Dell monitor, from 2008. Looks fantastic and they're insanely cheap.

[HesCalledTheStig]

1 minute ago, Mel0n. said:

I use mine with a 1920x1200 Dell monitor, from 2008. Looks fantastic and they're insanely cheap.

Off to ebay I go, lol!

[da na]

Just now, HesCalledTheStig said:

Off to ebay I go, lol!

Get it from a local library throwing out old monitors or something. Got mine from a university who was selling hundreds of these for $10 each and I bought 3 of them. Much cheaper to get them locally, shipping them would cost way more than the monitor is worth (as they are above the 20" mark and weigh a solid 10+ lbs, since they're CCFL backlight.)

[HesCalledTheStig]

Just now, Mel0n. said:

Get it from a local library throwing out old monitors or something. Got mine from a university who was selling hundreds of these for $10 each and I bought 3 of them. Much cheaper to get them locally, shipping them would cost way more than the monitor is worth (as they are above the 20" mark and weigh a solid 10+ lbs, since they're CCFL backlight.)

That’s where I got a lot of my older machines and parts. Now, we have a recycler in town that all the schools and what not donate everything too. Ive tried to buy from the recycler and they won’t sell unless I buy in bulk. I could probably travel a little further out and try though.

[iSynthMan]

That CPU is the equivalent to the legendary Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 I had in my second PC, back in 2007.

 

I even ran a GTS 450 on that CPU before I upgraded to a Phenom II X4.

 

I would go with 9800 GTs in SLI. Some nice games to play and push the system to the limit would be GRID (2007), NFS ProStreet, NFS Undercover, Crysis...

 

I love RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, from 2005. It would run great on that rig. Maybe try the original F.E.A.R. too.

[HesCalledTheStig]

Do the phenom II CPU’s use the same socket?  Also, when I set up SLI, will I need to look for a specific bridge or are they pretty standard?  I’ve never setup SLI before so this is a learning experience for me. 

[iSynthMan]

3 hours ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

Do the phenom II CPU’s use the same socket?  Also, when I set up SLI, will I need to look for a specific bridge or are they pretty standard?  I’ve never setup SLI before so this is a learning experience for me. 

The Phenom II cpus use am3 socket but works on am2+ motherboards.

 

You have to check your motherboard cpu support page, maybe it supports the first Phenom family, from before the IIs.

[HesCalledTheStig]

58 minutes ago, iSynthMan said:

The Phenom II cpus use am3 socket but works on am2+ motherboards.

 

You have to check your motherboard cpu support page, maybe it supports the first Phenom family, from before the IIs.

I’ll have to do some research on it. The most i’ve done so far is power it on to make sure everything was working. Trying to find a decent, period correct, graphics card to run in it until I can find 2 matching cards for an SLI setup.  I have a 7900 GS that was released the same month and year as the CPU but I’m not sure if that can be ran in SLI. 

[iSynthMan]

22 minutes ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

I’ll have to do some research on it. The most i’ve done so far is power it on to make sure everything was working. Trying to find a decent, period correct, graphics card to run in it until I can find 2 matching cards for an SLI setup.  I have a 7900 GS that was released the same month and year as the CPU but I’m not sure if that can be ran in SLI. 

From what I researched online, it can.

 

I have an ASUS Sli bridge that's new in the bag, never used. I don't know much about them, but an older one should be pretty cheap.

[HesCalledTheStig]

56 minutes ago, iSynthMan said:

From what I researched online, it can.

 

I have an ASUS Sli bridge that's new in the bag, never used. I don't know much about them, but an older one should be pretty cheap.

I actually found an exact match to my 7900 on eBay along with a handful of 2 way SLI bridges. Looks like I can get both for under $30 total shipped. Maybe a little less if I’m patient and actually try bidding instead of using Buy It Now. 

[iSynthMan]

5 hours ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

I actually found an exact match to my 7900 on eBay along with a handful of 2 way SLI bridges. Looks like I can get both for under $30 total shipped. Maybe a little less if I’m patient and actually try bidding instead of using Buy It Now. 

Honestly, if the price is good, just get it.

 

Id rather not deal with eBay auctions and have bots, sniping bids and the like ruin my day, just my two cents.

[HesCalledTheStig]

5 hours ago, iSynthMan said:

Honestly, if the price is good, just get it.

 

Id rather not deal with eBay auctions and have bots, sniping bids and the like ruin my day, just my two cents.

I’m glad I hesitated because the auction wasn’t for the same card that I own.   It was a different manufacturer and I’m not sure if that would make a difference. I dug through my parts stash and also found a Radeon x1950xtx 512mb card. I know k can’t SLI this card but it might be a better option until I find the right pair of cards.  

[iSynthMan]

On 10/8/2022 at 11:34 AM, HesCalledTheStig said:

I’m glad I hesitated because the auction wasn’t for the same card that I own.   It was a different manufacturer and I’m not sure if that would make a difference. I dug through my parts stash and also found a Radeon x1950xtx 512mb card. I know k can’t SLI this card but it might be a better option until I find the right pair of cards.  

Nice Radeon.

 

Its recommended, but not necessary to use exact identical cards from the same vendor to Sli.

[HesCalledTheStig]

24 minutes ago, iSynthMan said:

Nice Radeon.

 

Its recommended, but not necessary to use exact identical cards from the same vendor to Sli.

Yeah, I’m searching for an exact match. I’ve found a few on eBay. Jut looking for a decent deal.