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CPU choice for retro build

Arachnotronic

Arachnotronic

Lifer
I want to build a "retro" system that runs Windows XP because some of my older games don't run well (or at all) on Windows 10.

What is the fastest CPU (AMD or Intel, I don't care) that fully supports Windows XP? I know there's no chance of running Windows XP on modern Intel/AMD chips.

Thanks!
 
Your issue isn't the OS, it's finding XP compatible drivers for your motherboard and components. Whatever you do, check that XP drivers are available for then before you buy anything.
 
How "retro" are we talking hardware wise? If it's only software with some USB devices as hardware at most I'd suggest virtualization instead.
 
Was thinking about trying to run a virtual desktop to load Win98 to run some old MechWarrior games that didn't even run on WinXP. What's the best virtual application out there?
 
kawi6rr said:
Was thinking about trying to run a virtual desktop to load Win98 to run some old MechWarrior games that didn't even run on WinXP. What's the best virtual application out there?
Click to expand...

I tried running Earthsiege 2 in a Windows 98 VM- the game ran fine, but I couldn't get it to recognise my USB joystick, unsurprisingly. 🙁
 
kawi6rr said:
Was thinking about trying to run a virtual desktop to load Win98 to run some old MechWarrior games that didn't even run on WinXP. What's the best virtual application out there?
Click to expand...
Personally I like using VirtualBox as it's free, and has decent support for passthrough of 3D acceleration and USB. Though the oldest OS I run right now is Windows 2000.
 
I actually have another box sitting around doing nothing I could just dedicate as a virtual machine just for that. Would suck if the joystick didn't work though I wont play those games with a mouse.
 
kawi6rr said:
I actually have another box sitting around doing nothing I could just dedicate as a virtual machine just for that. Would suck if the joystick didn't work though I wont play those games with a mouse.
Click to expand...

To be honest I'd recommend just getting an old Pentium 3/4 box with an AGP slot and a proper analogue joystick port, installing Windows 98 on it, and using that.
 
NTMBK said:
To be honest I'd recommend just getting an old Pentium 3/4 box with an AGP slot and a proper analogue joystick port, installing Windows 98 on it, and using that.
Click to expand...
This, totally. You could probably throw in a PCI Creative Labs sound card too. Or, what were the other popular card brands?
 
Out of curiosity i changed the HDD on my C2D laptop, that was originaly using W7, and installed WXP since all drivers were available, it worked so well that i kept the latter OS and just used it to write this post...

On the AMD side Piledriver based CPUs/APUs are the last gen that has full support, wich include Trinity based APUs like the A10-6700.....
 
Last edited:
Abwx said:
Out of curiosity i changed the HDD on my C2D laptop, that was originaly using W10, and installed WXP since all drivers where available, it worked so well that i kept the latter OS and just used it to write this post...

On the AMD side Piledriver based CPUs/APUs are the last gen that has full support, wich include Trinity based APUs like the A10-6700.....
Click to expand...

An APU would actually be great for my usage, since I don't want to have to go hunting for an old dGPU as well.

I'll look into the Piledriver stuff.
 
NTMBK said:
To be honest I'd recommend just getting an old Pentium 3/4 box with an AGP slot and a proper analogue joystick port, installing Windows 98 on it, and using that.
Click to expand...
That would mean I would have to spend money, the other computer I have is doing nothing so I would prefer to do that. It's nothing great i think its an AMD 860k or something like that, I had my son build for his first computer. I remember it being a pretty good machine when he was using it though so I figure why not.
 
windows xp works fine until at least Ivy Bridge, I think Haswell also had drivers?
as for VGA, GTX 960 is the newest thing with drivers,

if you want to go more "retro" with the specs, it really depends on the games you are trying to run, XP was a popular as a gaming OS until 2009-2010 and it started in 2001-2002., you go from early Pentium 4 to Nehalem days, Geforce 3 to Fermi.
 
Arachnotronic said:
I want to build a "retro" system that runs Windows XP because some of my older games don't run well (or at all) on Windows 10.

What is the fastest CPU (AMD or Intel, I don't care) that fully supports Windows XP? I know there's no chance of running Windows XP on modern Intel/AMD chips.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
What kind of games are you talking about?
 
Arachnotronic said:
An APU would actually be great for my usage, since I don't want to have to go hunting for an old dGPU as well.

I'll look into the Piledriver stuff.
Click to expand...

If you can scrounge up a board with a Brazos APU, those have XP support too. But they're lower performance of course.

My own "XPBox" is based on the ASUS C60M-I board, with a C70 APU. Works very well for legacy stuff. An E350/E450 would be better, but I wanted lowest possible power consumption.
 
If you're going to play old games with it I'd recommend getting an older graphics card like a GeForce 7950 GT or something. A lot of these older games don't render 100% properly on newer cards.
 
If you're getting an older GPU as well at least get an 8800 of some sort. G80 was such a big step up and probably easier to find since so many people got them.
 
Mopetar said:
If you're getting an older GPU as well at least get an 8800 of some sort. G80 was such a big step up and probably easier to find since so many people got them.
Click to expand...
My 8800GTX is still going strong since XP era. Now it's stuck in win 7 but still capable doing anything beside playing latest games. It just the matter of how old his game is. Because there's some games that work better in pre-CUDA or openCL era cards.
 
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