Most Modern Windows XP Gaming Rig - 5th Gen Ryzen Supported!

[aoxomoxoa]

I was able to get my hands on a Ryzen 5 5600 for free via some weird mail mix up, when I ordered some parts from Newegg. I of course used this to my advantage to challenge myself on whether or not I can install the most modern XP gaming rig I can. With some difficulty and no ACPI support (lol), I was able to get a Ryzen 5th gen Windows XP PC up and running. The best part? I have very little driver incompatibilities! LAN, sound, graphics and USB 3 all work. thanks to the fan-made Windows XP Integral Edition, coming with drivers out of the box to help install XP on newer platforms. Without this software, I would have a major headache and this project could not be possible.

 

Here are the specs:

Ryzen 5 5600 CPU - one core enabled, disabled hyperthreading. XP doesn't play nice with multiple cores.

16GB DDR4-2400 - I know, low speed for Ryzen, but XP only detects 4GB and I doubt memory speed matters for let's say Oblivion and Half-Life 2 on 3440x1440.

AsRock X370M Motherboard - got this as a deal when an eBay seller sent me a faulty motherboard and send this one as a way of apologizing.

EVGA GTX 960 FTW - this is the latest graphics card to *officially* support XP. To my knowledge, people have gotten the 980Ti and even the Titan to play nicely with it, given some minor driver tweaks.)

256GB SSD - don't need much storage to play older games. 256GB seems to be adequate enough for my needs, for now.

EVGA 750W non-modular PSU - no need to say more.

 

My favorite part is that my GPU has Displayport, so I can use XP on my ultrawide monitor, at a resolution of 3440x1440.

 

Here is the HWInfo for the XP build for tha proofz.

 

[thrasher_565]

nice i have a xp build going trying to get a titan x for it 960 will have to do i guess. also looking for more ram not that it needs it

 

 

[emosun]

Now you just have to find an xp compatible program that actually uses the hardware

[TheHyperGamerGuy]

Dude, This build is sick. All the drivers work? Like, are there supported chipset drivers? Onboard devices all work and what not?

[igormp]

1 hour ago, aoxomoxoa said:

XP doesn't play nice with multiple cores.

How so? I don't remember having issues with my dual core CPU back then, I'm curious to know which kind of issues you faced.

1 hour ago, aoxomoxoa said:

but XP only detects 4GB

You could always go for the professional x64 version.

[Eigenvektor]

2 hours ago, aoxomoxoa said:

16GB DDR4-2400 - I know, low speed for Ryzen, but XP only detects 4GB and I doubt memory speed matters for let's say Oblivion and Half-Life 2 on 3440x1440.

That's a 32 bit OS for ya… 2³² possible addresses = 4,294,967,296 byte = 4 GiB

 

You need a 64 bit to go beyond 4 GB (technically server versions of Windows could go beyond 4 GB with PAE/AWE, but that requires a compatible CPU, compatible drivers and compatible software, not sure modern CPUs still support the 36 bit Physical Address Extension)

[aoxomoxoa]

On 1/1/2024 at 10:57 PM, TheHyperGamerGuy said:

Dude, This build is sick. All the drivers work? Like, are there supported chipset drivers? Onboard devices all work and what not?

The only driver incompatibilities I have are listed below on the devmgmt.msc. It does not affect performance for me, so I just left it alone.

 

On 1/2/2024 at 12:00 AM, igormp said:

How so? I don't remember having issues with my dual core CPU back then, I'm curious to know which kind of issues you faced.

You could always go for the professional x64 version.

Windows XP only included native support for one-two cores, anything above that in gaming does not play nicely and could have some glitches (at least games from that time period). AFAIK Professional x64 does not have good game support.