# XP Project (Not a insane or glory project)



## puma99dk| (Apr 26, 2020)

A couple of months ago I thought about building a XP Gaming machine to play some older titles that just works better on XP then Windows 10 and will bring a really great experience for not a lot of money so purchased some used parts like the cpu, mobo, ram but a brand new psu because used once in the sfx factor is still expensive and is usually 500Watt or more when on sale used.

Parts I already owned:
Audio: Asus ThunderFX
Case: Factal Design Core 500 (1x140mm fan)
SSD: KingFast F6Pro 240GB

Used parts:
Combo deal for about £29.50 / 34.37 USD with shipping
CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 (Listed by the seller)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i
Board: Asus P9D-I Server & Workstation ITX (USB 3.0 works great in Windows XP SP3 even it's a Intel chip.)
RAM: Apacer 2x2GB ECC PC3-8500 CL7 (Board works with ECC and was included in the price).

GFX: MSI GTX 750 Ti Gaming (Twin Frozr IV cooler and I believe it's the OC model not sure if this was the only model MSI made back then.)
Price I think was £58.21/72USD

New part:
PSU: SeaSonic SSP-300SFG 80Plus Gold
around the same price as the GPU.

I was aiming for a ITX system because I wanted it to be small and don't take up so much space and I wanted to reuse med old Fractal Design Core 500 case with the 140mm case fan in the top to help keep the noise and temp level down and the Twin Frozr IV on the GTX 750 Ti is overkill but is really not making a any sounds while keeping it cool.

As far as I know the GTX 750/750 Ti based on Nvidia's Maxwell GPU was one of the lasted cars being supported officially with the driver version 361.81 for Windows XP 32bit and you are all free to correct me if I am wrong.

I had some UEFI boot issues on the Asus P9D-I board which was really weird but got fixed and thanks for the users who helped me out trying to fix the boot issue I had that can be read in this thread: USB Boot issue on Asus P9D-i

How the build look:

 
 
 
 

After fixing the boot issue I had I installed Windows XP from USB with Easy2boot and it went smooth as butter and it's really fast booting after the workstation board has booted that takes like a min or something weird   

When I see the Windows XP boot logo the small indicator underneath doesn't even load anything and XP just boots up thanks to the SSD 

What is running a fine machine like this without trying 3DMark2001se to see the score?

I didn't expect this setup to score as well as it did to be honest:


I have just completed Call of Duty today it's one of the games that are installed as you can see on the desktop and I had fps between 100-125fps all the time no stutter or lag issue and the game loads insanely fast.

Things I didn't expect:
I read around even on Reddit that Intel USB 3.0 was a no go on Windows XP so that was a downer until I just installed the Intel chipset driver from Asus' website and even the USB 3.0 installed and is fully working and I use them for the Asus ThunderFX which also got official driver for XP 32bit.

Things I knew going into the project:
1. I wanted it to be ITX because I already had a case and size needed to be small.
2. I was planning to use my Asus ThunderFX no matter onboard audio or not.
3. I wanted a GTX 750 or GTX 750 Ti the no external power version.
4. I wanted it to be low powered that's also why I purchased a solid brand PSU.
5. Any components I want to change? - Answer: Short answer is no.


One of the reasons I didn't went for a i5/i7 quad-core was kinda the price I wanted to use max about £120/148,44 USD plus that a quad-core cpu can cause problems with all cores and threads enabled for some games so an i3 was great and hopefully it will be even the clock speed is only 3.40GHz I hope that will be enough.

This is my Retro XP gaming box and it's not a fancy, insane or glory project just for me so I can play some old games when I want to 

If there is anything questions comment and I will try to ask and I am not hoping for anything specific of posting this small build only for me it brings back memories from a time where I was young and had a great time in my life that I remember a little of.


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## stinger608 (Apr 26, 2020)

Wow, that's a sweet little retro build man!!!!!


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## puma99dk| (Apr 26, 2020)

Thank you @stinger608 it's not retro hardware doe but it needs to be a good experience gaming on it


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## Cranky5150 (Apr 26, 2020)

WOW.....that's a nice little build there my friend! The age of those parts and OS takes me back a good bit of time ! LOL  Well done !


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## Mats (Apr 26, 2020)

puma99dk| said:


> ... after the workstation board has booted that takes like a min or something weird


Every time it boots? Sounds like something in BIOS you can disable, like waiting for PXE or whatever.


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## puma99dk| (Apr 26, 2020)

Mats said:


> Every time it boots? Sounds like something in BIOS you can disable, like waiting for PXE or whatever.



That's with PXE disabled already it's a workstation/server board that's properly the issue and the bios battery ain't good anymore 

But I haven't found a replacement yet because it's attached by cable not directly to the motherboard and I do not wanna custom "jerry" something together that "might" work so if anyone know where I can buy one it would be great.

It looks like this something you can sometimes see in a laptop:


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## Mats (Apr 26, 2020)

I bet that black battery holder contains a stock CR battery, have you googled the yellow number?


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## Mats (Apr 26, 2020)

Yeah it says "CR2032".


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## puma99dk| (Apr 26, 2020)

Mats said:


> Yeah it says "CR2032".



I know but I am not a good solder anymore my hands shake too much


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## Mats (Apr 26, 2020)

You can buy them with a cable, they're not that rare. 





__





						CR2032-2E31R - Google Search
					





					www.google.se


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## puma99dk| (Apr 26, 2020)

Mats said:


> You can buy them with a cable, they're not that rare.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks for the last part with the CR2032 that was what I was after, I have pently of CR2032 around it's just if it's 2 wires connect one to each side that's easy to change but if prices is really good why waste time?


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## Mats (Apr 26, 2020)

Yeah you're right. Unless you have conducting tape it's not worth the trouble. Don't solder, the battery can explode..


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## chaoshusky (May 2, 2020)

Ah, a Mini ITX board? Strange, i just got a little ASUS J1800 board to upgrade my router soon.. And yes Server boards can tend to take a while to boot! Shame you live so far away, i have a ton of retro machines and hardware including several duplicates.. I don't really need about 9 Socket A boards for example... xD

I'll load XP and Max Payne onto my 486 Tower and after half a week when it's finally installed we can see how many minutes per frame we get and also if it melts.. I can still solder quite well too, just about to change some MosFETs on a couple of AGP cards.. If you can get an iron that's many many miles long i can help! Haha..


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## chaoshusky (May 2, 2020)

Oh, if you do end up having issues with some games that don't even like Dual Core chips (Need For Speed Most Wanted from 2005 comes to mind...hated my Athlon X2 lol) i'm sure you know about Prio for task manager that can save Processor Affinity settings etc for you? ^^ That's how i can get 3DMark 2001SE running under Windows 10...  I forgot to post about my Quad Pentium server in my about page...dang!


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## Kissamies (May 2, 2020)

chaoshusky said:


> Oh, if you do end up having issues with some games that don't even like Dual Core chips (Need For Speed Most Wanted from 2005 comes to mind...hated my Athlon X2 lol) i'm sure you know about Prio for task manager that can save Processor Affinity settings etc for you? ^^ That's how i can get 3DMark 2001SE running under Windows 10...  I forgot to post about my Quad Pentium server in my about page...dang!


Hm, I had no problems with NFSMW with C2D E6400 @ 3.4 & Radeon HD 3870X2 back in the day. Supported even Crossfire!


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## chaoshusky (May 2, 2020)

Yes, it did support CrossFire.. I actually have a pair of 3870X2 cards sat in the spare room! And a dead 4870X2 that needs a couple of new RAM chips.. But it was only with AMD Dual Core CPUs, i didn't mention Intel did i?  Sadly i was an AMD fan up until i finally went Intel with the first Core i7 on socket 1366, that machine is still going now with a Xeon installed instead lol can't say i'm a fan of theirs now either, they're up to something... Everyone mocks Intel if they use multiple Dies on the same package but AMD can do it, everyone whines if Intel stick more cores on but AMD can do it.. And now they're vulnerable to meltdown too plus apparently have cheaper, weak Silicon that get damaged by their own boost clocks/voltage.. FX CPUs were a joke too! Haha.. But yeah, a lot of older stuff takes a crap when you have several cores/HT.. Yet AquaMark could use HT if it sees you have a Pentium 4!

Back on track though, funny you should mention a C2D as i just got a Shuttle XPC SG31G2 with the fastest one you could get, E8600 i think? Clocked at 3.16GHz anyway, came with 4GB DDR2 and 500GB HDD for £46! XP running on an i3 with DDR3 RAM should be interesting though.. I've ran it on my Hex core Xeon machine and it runs like lightning..even fast on the Phenom II X4/X6 and FX 8320 i have actually.. And my old Athlon X2 6000+!


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## Kissamies (May 2, 2020)

E8600 is 3.33GHz, E8500 is 3.16GHz.

I should play with my XP machine, too lazy now. First I'm going to have some HD 4890 CF testing on my main PC..


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## phill (May 2, 2020)

If you ever need a i5 3470/3570, I believe I have a few spare.....  You know, just in case 





Think I might have posted this up before hand but I've slept since then.... lol 

But I must say, loving the XP build


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## puma99dk| (May 2, 2020)

Thanks all, this XP build just runs great, low noise and max fps I am currently gaming Call of Duty Offensive it's so nice gaming the original once with WWII and they just work and aim is better then I last time I tried it.

Last time I tried Medal of Honor Spearhead aim really horrible on Windows 10 and so with the original game I so hope this just works on XP it did that back in the day.

I have installed The Godfather The Game and The Godfather II gaming the first a bit and I completed Call of Duty 1.


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