[In-progress] Gaming in 2006 - a 10 year old, $1200+ PC (Pentium D, X1900, DDR2)

[ONOTech]

 

INTRODUCTION

Today we have i5s, i7s, and even 8-core consumer desktop processors. I've always wondered how gaming was pre-2007 when dual cores were the new big thing. Well, I had a Pentium D laying around and some extra $ so I decided to see for myself how gaming was 10 years ago.

 

But yes, the point of this build log is to test the parts with their generation of games at their resolution, and perhaps put it up against some newer (not by much) games to see when the parts started to become obsolete. 

 

PARTS LIST

Purple - ordered, Green - arrived

I started by scrounging through old Newegg web pages for accurate price listings for the ten year old hardware. You wouldn't believe this.

Pentium D 945 - $550 in April 2006.

2GB DDR2 RAM - $200 in April 2006.

ATI X1900 256MB (YES 256) - $450 in May 2006

That is already $1200 without the power supply, storage, or case. Crazy to think how far we've come. I just purchased an x1900 for $15 on eBay. Haha.

Some Hard Drive (idk the storage, if it is PATA or SATA, I will check)

EVGA 500W PSU

Total = $1200+ (probably around $1500)

 

But yeah, if you guys are looking forward to this log - follow it!

 

Part 1: Parts Arriving!

Spoiler

WAIT FATTY

Gaming Benchmarks (2004-2007 games):

Spoiler

WAIT PLSSSSS

Gaming Benchmarks (2008+):

Spoiler

pls

 

[PlayStation 2]

EVGA didn't make PSUs until 2013, bub.

[ONOTech]

Just now, Dan Castellaneta said:

EVGA didn't make PSUs until 2013, bub.

Well, I'm referring to the main components of course. I'm not gonna use a 10 year old power supply to power up a gaming machine, even if it is 10 years old lol

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, ONOTech said:

Well, I'm referring to the main components of course. I'm not gonna use a 10 year old power supply to power up a gaming machine, even if it is 10 years old lol

lol

[Kobathor]

How many computers do you own?!!??

[ONOTech]

1 minute ago, Kobathor said:

How many computers do you own?!!??

Hehe. Well, I have my main one. My mom's that I built. My $260 one for my little brothers and now this one. I probably won't use this one for anything. I just had most of the components laying around and decided, "what the heck" haha.

 

But don't worry. I know users on here with like half a dozen PC's in use

[Kobathor]

Just now, ONOTech said:

Hehe. Well, I have my main one. My mom's that I built. My $260 one for my little brothers and now this one. I probably won't use this one for anything. I just had most of the components laying around and decided, "what the heck" haha.

 

But don't worry. I know users on here with like half a dozen PC's in use

I could have sworn you had more build logs.

 

Well, whatever. Nothing wrong with having lots of computers. I wish my parents would let me into their computer, since their i5-3570 + Circa 2008 nVidia Quadro GPU doesn't fare them too well. Actually, I could upgrade the CPU to an i7-3770- though there are none that are cheap enough to justify buying. My dad uses AutoCAD 2007, which doesn't run on 64-bit OS's, so he's limited to 4GB of RAM. Then there's 6 drives in the PC, including 3 SSD's. His computer needs cleaning, but he is totally happy with it.

[ONOTech]

3 minutes ago, Kobathor said:

I could have sworn you had more build logs.

 

Well, whatever. Nothing wrong with having lots of computers. I wish my parents would let me into their computer, since their i5-3570 + Circa 2008 nVidia Quadro GPU doesn't fare them too well. Actually, I could upgrade the CPU to an i7-3770- though there are none that are cheap enough to justify buying. My dad uses AutoCAD 2007, which doesn't run on 64-bit OS's, so he's limited to 4GB of RAM. Then there's 6 drives in the PC, including 3 SSD's. His computer needs cleaning, but he is totally happy with it.

I've had a few - they're all in my sig.

 

That actually sounds pretty solid, though he needs to upgrade his AutoCAD version. He'll see a worlds difference with 8+GB of RAM. The 3 SSDs are a nice touch

[Kobathor]

Just now, ONOTech said:

I've had a few - they're all in my sig.

 

That actually sounds pretty solid, though he needs to upgrade his AutoCAD version. He'll see a worlds difference with 8+GB of RAM. The 3 SSDs are a nice touch

Well, the problem is that newer versions of AutoCAD cost $6k more than he wants to pay for it. He works at a small architecture business with his boss, since everybody else has been laid off after 2008. I don't think he'll make the switch.

[stconquest]

I still have my Pentium D system (HP - Pentium 820 - GeForce 7300LE - 2GB RAM (DDR2 800MHz) - 250GB HDD).  The HDD is SATA.

[ONOTech]

7 hours ago, stconquest said:

I still have my Pentium D system (HP - Pentium 820 - GeForce 7300LE - 2GB RAM (DDR2 800MHz) - 250GB HDD).  The HDD is SATA.

Noiceee. My HDD is IDE although my motherboard supports SATA. I heard these things can be OC'ed pretty high

[stconquest]

Just now, ONOTech said:

Noiceee. My HDD is IDE although my motherboard supports SATA. I heard these things can be OC'ed pretty high

I need a new PSU to get it up again.  I had it out last week, cleaning it up and stuff.  I remember trying to OC it, but my proprietary ASUS board is locking the CPU settings out. 

 

The only IDE device in that system was the optical drive.  So if you need to go to SATA for any reason, you are still withing normal operating parameters.

[Coaxialgamer]

Why not use an athlon 64 x2 ? The pentium D and netburst was a mess in general.

[ONOTech]

Just now, Coaxialgamer said:

Why not use an athlon 64 x2 ? The pentium D and netburst was a mess in general.

Just because I had the Pentium D laying around. Athlon 64 X2 was a lot better, but buying an AM2 motherboard and a new CPU and cooler would set me back like $60. Maybe more

3 minutes ago, stconquest said:

I need a new PSU to get it up again.  I had it out last week, cleaning it up and stuff.  I remember trying to OC it, but my proprietary ASUS board is locking the CPU settings out. 

 

The only IDE device in that system was the optical drive.  So if you need to go to SATA for any reason, you are still withing normal operating parameters.

That stinks. There are probably bios hacks out there for it if you really want to mess around with the OC settings, but I bet it isn't that serious. 

 

It's crazy though - a SATA optical drive 10 years ago went for around $50. The HDD must have been a fortune

[stconquest]

2 minutes ago, ONOTech said:

Just because I had the Pentium D laying around. Athlon 64 X2 was a lot better, but buying an AM2 motherboard and a new CPU and cooler would set me back like $60. Maybe more

That stinks. There are probably bios hacks out there for it if you really want to mess around with the OC settings, but I bet it isn't that serious. 

 

It's crazy though - a SATA optical drive 10 years ago went for around $50. The HDD must have been a fortune

$1000 CDN for the whole system.  Came with peripherals and a monitor.  PC tech was actually getting cheaper at that point.

[ONOTech]

1 minute ago, stconquest said:

$1000 CDN for the whole system.  Came with peripherals and a monitor.  PC tech was actually getting cheaper at that point.

Do you know what the standard resolution at that time was? I wanna say 1280x720. I think the prosumer gaming resolution was 1600x1200

[stconquest]

Just now, ONOTech said:

Do you know what the standard resolution at that time was? I wanna say 1280x720. I think the prosumer gaming resolution was 1600x1200

I believe it was 1024x768 (4:3).

 

 

[AlienALX]

God, the Pentium D was awful.

[ONOTech]

1 minute ago, AlienALX said:

God, the Pentium D was awful.

 I know. All clock speed and nothing else. But I had it on me and decided to use it.

 

Also, I guess I'm a part of that 1% in your signature...right? Haha

[AlienALX]

Hehe, when I reach three pages my finger starts to glow red....

 

I built a rig in 2007 just before I left the USA and I remember eyeing up the Pentium D (I hadn't built a rig since 2003) and my mates saying "Nooooo, it's shit". I settled on a 1.8ghz Conroe? was it? core 2? that was one of the first. It did 3ghz. I can't tell you how fucking mind blowing that was lol. That an a Radeon 1600 Pro because it was the only dual slot card I could afford and I wanted it to look macho.

 

Bugger me, how my life has changed since then...

[ONOTech]

3 minutes ago, AlienALX said:

Hehe, when I reach three pages my finger starts to glow red....

 

I built a rig in 2007 just before I left the USA and I remember eyeing up the Pentium D (I hadn't built a rig since 2003) and my mates saying "Nooooo, it's shit". I settled on a 1.8ghz Conroe? was it? core 2? that was one of the first. It did 3ghz. I can't tell you how fucking mind blowing that was lol. That an a Radeon 1600 Pro because it was the only dual slot card I could afford and I wanted it to look macho.

 

Bugger me, how my life has changed since then...

This is too funny. I had to mark it as solved. 

[paww]

17 hours ago, AlienALX said:

Hehe, when I reach three pages my finger starts to glow red....

 

I built a rig in 2007 just before I left the USA and I remember eyeing up the Pentium D (I hadn't built a rig since 2003) and my mates saying "Nooooo, it's shit". I settled on a 1.8ghz Conroe? was it? core 2? that was one of the first. It did 3ghz. I can't tell you how fucking mind blowing that was lol. That an a Radeon 1600 Pro because it was the only dual slot card I could afford and I wanted it to look macho.

 

Bugger me, how my life has changed since then...

This reminds me of my very first PC I built around the same time

 

Pentium D 925 3.0GHz

Radeon X1650PRO 256MB

 

I remember having these wild expectations of being able to run games at crazy high settings.. disappointment ensued. 

[ONOTech]

5 hours ago, paww said:

This reminds me of my very first PC I built around the same time

 

Pentium D 925 3.0GHz

Radeon X1650PRO 256MB

 

I remember having these wild expectations of being able to run games at crazy high settings.. disappointment ensued. 

Must have been the GPU?

 

The Pentium D flopped, but I'm sure it was enough for the games at the time.

[ONOTech]

X1900 is on its way. Should be here in two days

[ONOTech]

I finally got this thing built. I've tested everything out and I'll post the benchmarks and the log video sometime tonight. For now, enjoy some pictures/screen caps!