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Build

xXdragonbatXX

xXdragonbatXX

Senior member
I have a bunch of computer games that say XP only for the OS, will they work on win 7 home premium 64 bit? What about the games that say win xp or better? Most of them came out 2007 or 2008.

If not, will this work for a cheap build? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TPLL

Already have RAM and PSU.
 
Some games will work with later copies of windows, some will need to be run in compatibility mode and some will not run. Sorry I can't be more help but that is just how it is.

P.S

Copy/paste the sticky thread from this forum here and fill out the answers.
 
The build will work, and that video card may do OK on games from 2007-2008, but considering the occasional deals available on video cards you can get a lot more performance per dollar going with something else at only a little higher total system cost... though I don't know what is the current bang for buck leader this week.
 
I just built a very similar system for a friend, if you have any questions about how it runs let me know and I'll see if I can get you answers (benchmarks, frame rates, etc). I know she's been playing GTA IV and Fable 3 on 720p on it, but I'm not sure what the framerates and settings are at.

I built a
Silverstone GD04
Silverstone 400W PSU
Gigabyte H61-M
Celeron G540 2.5GHz
stock intel cooler
4GB Corsair XMS 1333MHz
EVGA GT 630
Asus N15 PCI WiFi
Hauppauge TV Tuner card
500GB WD Blue


I didn't test it but I can tell you the GT630 seems weaker than say an HD6670 and it's not much cheaper, but I've used HD6670 on two other Celeron/Pentium systems and had problems on both with BSOD on loading Windows with the card installed. Those Celerons/Pentiums run extremely low temps with the stock cooler which is nice. I would like to see benchmarks comparing the two however, as I don't think their is much to gain from the Pentiums over the Celerons except for a few hundred MHz clock speed and a slightly larger cache. The GT630 just seems too weak to really consider, but unfortunately the GT640 is almost twice the price. NVidia really needs to drop the price on the GTX 650 and lower cards.
 
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If it's so old a game it really does require XP, you can probably just run it through a virtual machine and take the performance hit.
 
^^ Newegg just had a GTX 650 last week for $72 after a coupon code and $10 rebate, and there are recurring deals on Radeon 7770 for about $80 to $90, past deals on 7750 for $70 AR. I'm too lazy to look up the benchmarks but the 7770 (depending on which game titles) should be around double to triple the performance of the GT630.

Then again, maybe a GT630 really is enough for '07-'08 games at certain resolutions. It's something I doubt I could even find benchmarks for.
 
I had a 7900GS in my PC back then, I think the GT630 pretty well beats it in performance. I was looking at the two cards when I was putting the PC together, they're about the same size which is weird to think a high end card back then was that small.
 
^ GS version though, isn't that the lower powered version of the (same or downscaled?) GPU so there's less PCB needed for the power circuitry?

How the two compare is going to depend on the game engine, DX version, etc. For example I used to own an nVidia FX5900 which nobody liked because on the newest DX games at the time it didn't perform well, but at older games it smoked a lot of cards that beat it at newer games. For a more direct comparison the same is true of 7600GT vs 8600GT, though on a smaller scale.
 
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The easiest thing (and probably the cheapest) would be to upgrade your Windows 7 to Windows 7 Pro so you can use "Windows XP mode," a built-in WinXP simulator.

Also, Google the games to see if there's any easy fix. Typically, there is an easy tweak to the game to make it work in Windows 7.
 
Prices should be a lot lower in August on some of these parts with Richland APU's coming out (I would think that might have some effect on prices) and Haswell, though Ivy Bridge Pentiums and Celerons just came out so maybe not.

Video cards might come down a bit as well with the 700 series coming out soon. That might get you into a GTX 650 for cheap.

I don't know how close you are to KC but the Microcenter in Overland Park has Celeron G1610 for $35 and a Pentium G2020 for $50.
 
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Sleepingforest said:
The easiest thing (and probably the cheapest) would be to upgrade your Windows 7 to Windows 7 Pro so you can use "Windows XP mode," a built-in WinXP simulator.

Also, Google the games to see if there's any easy fix. Typically, there is an easy tweak to the game to make it work in Windows 7.
Click to expand...

I do not have experience trying to GAME with the setup I'm about to propose, but VirtualBox+XP might work out better.

But before getting XP, perhaps trying Windows 7 compatibility mode could work with the game might be a solution that doesn't burn the pocketbook at all.

If the OP wants to buy, then a used Core 2 Duo rig can be had for 100-200 dollars, although the memory speeds will be slightly slower.
 
Most XP-era games (2001-2006) can be made to work fine in Windows 7. For old DOS and Windows 9x games there's always GOG.
 
I just know it says XP only on every game expect 2 of them and those say xp or vista. And I know like forest said to have xp mode you need pro or ultimate which is $180.

I have a good PSU and brand new RAM laying around so I thought maybe a cheap XP build would be better option for me since I want to budget $100 more then a upgrade copy of win 7.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/U0M1
 
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Have you actually tried playing the games? Or tried an XP virtual machine? Or do you just want an excuse to build a new machine (which is fine, but it's irrelevant if you just want to play older games)
 
No I haven't because I don't have much room on my HDD and I really don't want to install a 7 disk games right now.

Also I kinda don't want to add a floppy drive to this computer (my favorite games are on floppy disk, sue me) so I am kinda wanting to make a new old computer anyway with a HDD just for those games because I some how managed to use over half of a 500gb HDD in a week...

Most of the games I got are 3 disk but one of them that says XP only (battlefield 1942 collection) and it is a 7 disk game and that is really the only one I wanted and my cousin gave me all her games so I might sell on or two of them for some money for this new computer.
 
Those "7 disk" games will probably use up less space than an install of bf3. If the game is old enough to run on floppy, you can run it fast enough on a virtual machine without taking a performance hit. Or just install XP in a separate partition... you'll need less than 6 gb for XP itself.

You can build another machine you want, but it sounds like there's nothing stopping you to do what you want on this machine.
 
Only thing stopping me is...I don't wanna put 14 more games on my HDD until I get all my.computer programming software and everything else installed...

And I have no clue how to virtual machine or whatever...
 
if you are a student here is W8 pro for 70 bucks

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productID.264954100


If that still doesnt cut it for you then i guess why are you here? You seem to already know what you want, we are telling you it can be done for less and much easier, take the advice or not I suppose.


note with W8 you will still need an XP product key (I assumed you already had one, but realised you may NOT)

unless you are cool with something in a legal grey zone
 
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I'll fork over the 220 for ultimate and get a floppy drive, SSD and my 1tb HHD bam $300 in the hole and all is good.

I won't ever get win 8 unless I am forced to with a gun to my head...
 
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