XP Rig Build Advice

[fingersmcknee]

After not having a PC for the last few years I plan to dive back in with a machine using Win XP that will reliable play the 30+ classic games I want to experience again. An inexpensive rig that plays Witcher 2 (2011) and older titles would be perfect!

The trick appears to be finding decent performance hardware that offers XP drivers. Go back too far and the parts are difficult to find. Go too recent and there are no XP drivers available.

Does anyone have a recommendation to help narrow down the range of hardware I should be looking at? Perhaps a certain time period shortly before manufacturers started dropping XP driver support?

My goal is to build the rig for < $300 w/o monitor.

I'd hate to start buying parts only to find they don't work with XP... big thanks for any assists!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is this a joke? Making Witcher 2 playable is going to cost you more than $300.

And why XP?

 

[fingersmcknee]

I was hoping people wouldn't start off by condescending.

XP because I know the games will work and after all these years XP works alright. Had the misfortune of struggling with 7 - no thanks! And 8 sounds like another move in the wrong direction for Microsoft.

Fair enough if it will cost more than $300. I have been out of the PC scene for a while and didn't know. How much do you think I am looking at?

 

[postmortemIA]

my PC is fairly recent (Z77 chipset, Radeon 7850), and I had all XP drivers... nvidia has drivers as late as March 2014, while AMD drivers are bit older. As long as you don't get laptop, I see no problem.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Windows 7 will play many older games without problems if you install them outside of c: > program files to avoid any security (UAC) issues.

What are some of the games you're talking about?

I'd guess that most that use 3D will run properly in Windows 7, and the rest might run in a VirtualBox VM (free) with XP installed.

I'd go with nvidia if you insist on harder XP instead of a virtual machine. When I was using a Radeon 6850 it had all kinds of driver problems running under XP but ran OK under 7. (My 4870 with older drivers ran fine under XP.)

 

[fingersmcknee]

Thanks to the last couple posters. I did a bit of research and it looks like even very recent hardware offers XP drivers so I can roll with XP without much trouble.

Dave: a wide variety of games ranging from Fallout (original), Thief, Deus Ex, all the way up to titles like Witcher 2 and Stalker: Call of Pripyat. I will think about your idea of going with 7 and virtual boxing XP.

Looking to get in on the cheaper side if I can, so I will probably lie in wait for sales on some of the older hardware. Given that I was running Witcher on GTX285 (ancient now) and similar level components of that era I think I will do just fine.

 

[lehtv]

Windows 7 will play many older games without problems if you install them outside of c: > program files to avoid any security (UAC) issues.

Just disable UAC altogether, it's useless.

 

[escrow4]

Haswell thankfully doesn't support XP and any new hardware post Haswell likely won't either. You may as well go 8.1 and a VM or dosbox for anything old that won't play ball.

 

[infoiltrator]

For cheap AMD fm2+ motherboard ($55-90)and A-10 6800 $110) CPU, 2X4GB RAM ($65) 1866. WD Blue 1 TB goes about $60. Rosewill FM-02 case is $30 on amazon with prime. Corsair CX-430 goes on sale for $40-50 before $20 rebate,
Rosewill Ranger-M is "better."
You can try using on board video, about HD 6670 Equivalent. DVDRW about $15 shipped from newegg.
Alternate would AMD FM2 Athlon chip 7xxx series, $70, no video. GPU at around $150 GTX750Ti. (more than you need for old games I think)
Alternate, since old games will be single or double threaded an Intel Pentium and H61 or H81 motherboard.

 

[mikeymikec]

Just disable UAC altogether, it's useless.

Unless you either think that running everything as admin is a good idea, or having to switch users or log off to run something as admin is a good idea, otherwise no, it's not useless.

It's designed for two purposes:

1 - Training developers not to program in unnecessarily security-sensitive ways.

2 - To try and reduce the possibility that malware achieves admin privs.

Considering that the number of system-level infections in my experience / line of work has dropped like a stone since newer versions of Windows than XP hit the mainstream, I would say it's a success. In the days of XP, in my experience about 9 out of 10 infections managed to acquire higher than standard user privs. Since XP, 9 out of 10 infections didn't manage to acquire higher than standard user privs, IMO/experience.

---

Back to the topic, I'm running some games from the nineties like Tomb Raider 2 on Windows 7 without any problems. I'm not sure I can even think of a game I couldn't get working on Win7, whereas a number of games readily spring to mind that I lost somewhere along the way when migrating from Win9x to the NT kernel, and even those I probably could get working with dosbox if I were so inclined.

Actually no, I can think of one I couldn't get working on newer versions of Windows, Wipeout 2097, but then it had a serious bug in that seemingly tied the notion of racing speed in the game to the speed of the processor, and I think I was crashing into walls in a split second from the race starting on the Celeron 300A.

 

[lehtv]

Unless you either think that running everything as admin is a good idea, or having to switch users or log off to run something as admin is a good idea, otherwise no, it's not useless.

It's designed for two purposes:

1 - Training developers not to program in unnecessarily security-sensitive ways.

2 - To try and reduce the possibility that malware achieves admin privs.

Considering that the number of system-level infections in my experience / line of work has dropped like a stone since newer versions of Windows than XP hit the mainstream, I would say it's a success. In the days of XP, in my experience about 9 out of 10 infections managed to acquire higher than standard user privs. Since XP, 9 out of 10 infections didn't manage to acquire higher than standard user privs, IMO/experience.

I highly doubt the improved security on OS's newer than Windows XP is attributable to a "Are you sure?" dialog box.

 

[goobernoodles]

I highly doubt the improved security on OS's newer than Windows XP is attributable to a "Are you sure?" dialog box.

Do you work in IT? Because there are a lot of people out there that - when it comes to computers - are dumb as HELL. UAC should be on for 90%+ of people. Personally, I leave it on now, as it's a good fail-safe to know when something malicious may be trying to run.

 

[Techhog]

Unless you either think that running everything as admin is a good idea, or having to switch users or log off to run something as admin is a good idea, otherwise no, it's not useless.

It's designed for two purposes:

1 - Training developers not to program in unnecessarily security-sensitive ways.

2 - To try and reduce the possibility that malware achieves admin privs.

Considering that the number of system-level infections in my experience / line of work has dropped like a stone since newer versions of Windows than XP hit the mainstream, I would say it's a success. In the days of XP, in my experience about 9 out of 10 infections managed to acquire higher than standard user privs. Since XP, 9 out of 10 infections didn't manage to acquire higher than standard user privs, IMO/experience.

---

Back to the topic, I'm running some games from the nineties like Tomb Raider 2 on Windows 7 without any problems. I'm not sure I can even think of a game I couldn't get working on Win7, whereas a number of games readily spring to mind that I lost somewhere along the way when migrating from Win9x to the NT kernel, and even those I probably could get working with dosbox if I were so inclined.

Actually no, I can think of one I couldn't get working on newer versions of Windows, Wipeout 2097, but then it had a serious bug in that seemingly tied the notion of racing speed in the game to the speed of the processor, and I think I was crashing into walls in a split second from the race starting on the Celeron 300A.

This isn't an issue unless you're bad with computers or you use your computer in public...

 

[lehtv]

Do you work in IT? Because there are a lot of people out there that - when it comes to computers - are dumb as HELL. UAC should be on for 90%+ of people. Personally, I leave it on now, as it's a good fail-safe to know when something malicious may be trying to run.

No, I don't work in IT per se, I work in IT related sales and study CS. But based on my experience of having set up multiple laptops for my family members - who are by no means good with computers - UAC is useless. In about 3-4 years of typical home use like email, browsing, multimedia, mild photo editing etc., there hasn't been a single case where UAC would've helped, that I know of. That being said, they're not really knowledgeable enough to even have the ability to install third party software. They mainly use the software that I've preinstalled, as it fills their needs.

When it comes to messing about with system files, typically that involves a use scenario where the person is knowledgeable enough not to need the confirmation dialogs to begin with. But I can imagine there being borderline cases who may benefit from the warning dialogs, e.g. people who have tasks that slightly surpass their current level of knowledge, and are still learning.

I can't really comment on whether UAC helps with avoiding run attempts of malicious software. Maybe, but the risk doesn't seem worth the hassle in my experience.

 

[mikeymikec]

I can't really comment on whether UAC helps with avoiding run attempts of malicious software. Maybe, but the risk doesn't seem worth the hassle in my experience.

This is a much more useful thing to advise than what you originally said.

This isn't an issue unless you're bad with computers or you use your computer in public...

Good for most people, then.

 

[ultimatebob]

I recommend buying an old refurbished Dell OptiPlex 330 or 360 desktop machine and put a half decent used video card in it. It shouldn't cost you more than $300, and there are XP drivers out there.

Oh, and UAC works great in Windows 7 if the user doesn't have an Admin account. They need to enter an admin password before you can click Yes

 

[vailr]

Haswell thankfully doesn't support XP and any new hardware post Haswell likely won't either. You may as well go 8.1 and a VM or dosbox for anything old that won't play ball.

It's the software that supports the hardware, not the other way around.
What makes you think that XP couldn't be run on a Haswell machine?
I recently built a Haswell based machine using these components, running OSX Mavericks (64-bit):

MSI H81 mATX motherboard: ~$13 AR
Intel i3-4130 CPU (with onboard Intel HD 4400 video): ~$120
2x 4 Gb DDR3: ~$25 AR
mATX case: $0 AR
DVDRW: $15
USB 2.0 bracket: $2
430W Corsair PSU: ~$20 AR
Total: under $200.

Watch Slickdeals.net & Fatwallet.com for similar kinds of newegg.com or tigerdirect.com deals. There'd be no problem running XP 32-bit on that vintage of hardware, if that's a workable solution for you.
Note: an AHCI or Raid driver would be required when installing XP (if bios is left in default AHCI mode). To do that, either a modified installer disc that includes the required drivers, or else a USB floppy drive. XP won't accept drivers loaded from a USB thumb drive. The less preferred option: change the bios setting from AHCI mode to IDE mode.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Is this a joke? Making Witcher 2 playable is going to cost you more than $300.

i5 760's go for under $100 and there's a 4870 sitting in FS/FT for $35. You're not going to play it on uber but that's over the recommended specs.

 

[escrow4]

It's the software that supports the hardware, not the other way around.
What makes you think that XP couldn't be run on a Haswell machine?
I was recently able to build a Haswell based machine using these components, running OSX Mavericks (64-bit):

MSI H81 mATX motherboard: ~$13 AR
Intel i3-4130 CPU (with onboard Intel HD 4400 video): ~$120
2x 4 Gb DDR3: ~$25 AR
mATX case: $0 AR
DVDRW: $15
USB 2.0 bracket: $2
430W Corsair PSU: ~$20 AR
Total: under $200.

Watch Slickdeals.net & Fatwallet.com for similar kinds of newegg.com or tigerdirect.com deals. There'd be no problem running XP 32-bit on that vintage of hardware, if that's a workable solution for you.
Note: an AHCI or Raid driver would be required when installing XP (if bios is left in default AHCI mode). To do that, either a modified installer disc that includes the required drivers, or else a USB floppy drive. XP won't accept drivers loaded from a USB thumb drive. The less preferred option: change the bios setting from AHCI mode to IDE mode.

XP drivers do not exist for Haswell, for that board:

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/H81MP33.html#/?div=Driver&os=Win8.1 64

Win 7 is the minimum. Vista and XP are dead. Literally.

 

[Cerb]

Take yourself down from The Witcher 2 to something more like Doom 3, and $300 will do the job just fine. Get a refurb C2D rig (it will likely come to you with Windows 7 Pro), add an older video card, like a Radeon X series, or FX 5900XT, and you'll be fine (the older video card so that you can use features, and tweak settings, that simply aren't there in new cards and drivers).

Any game newer than maybe '04 or '05 aught to not need an older OS to run well, and should just be run on new hardware and software.

Edit: you might need to go back to A64 for some video cards, though, due to AGP support for C2Ds being on the rare side, at least w/ Intel chipsets.

 

[gus6464]

This has to be a joke thread. I mean XP just goes EOL and then someone goes "hey guys I want to build a machine with XP!"

 

[Techhog]

This has to be a joke thread. I mean XP just goes EOL and then someone goes "hey guys I want to build a machine with XP!"

It annoys me too, but some people just refuse to adapt to anything new. At this point, if you want to take the risk and hassle of running XP, that's your choice. The reason given is one of the silliest I've ever heard though...

 

[vailr]

XP drivers do not exist for Haswell, for that board:
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/H81MP33.html#/?div=Driver&os=Win8.1

As an experiment, I just did a fresh install of XP 32-bit on my Haswell H81 system. The XP chipset drivers (and other system device drivers, such as audio, LAN, etc.) are definitely available, even though motherboard maker support sites may not offer them.
Note: To make the install easier, I changed the default bios HD controller setting from AHCI to IDE.
Intel Chipset Device Software Version 9.4.4.1006 WHQL

http://station-drivers.com/index.php/downloads/Drivers/Intel/Chipsets/Chipset-Device-Software/

If you do a Google search of "install XP on Haswell", you'll get many examples of needing such a hardware/software combination. Such as: a $250,000 electron microscope, whose (German?) maker has gone out of business, and the controlling software can only be run on an XP machine.

 

[escrow4]

As an experiment, I just did a fresh install of XP 32-bit on my Haswell H81 system. The XP chipset drivers (and other system device drivers, such as audio, LAN, etc.) are definitely available, even though motherboard maker support sites may not offer them.
Note: To make the install easier, I changed the default bios HD controller setting from AHCI to IDE.
Intel Chipset Device Software Version 9.4.4.1006 WHQL

http://station-drivers.com/index.php/downloads/Drivers/Intel/Chipsets/Chipset-Device-Software/

If you do a Google search of "install XP on Haswell", you'll get many examples of needing such a hardware/software combination. Such as: a $250,000 electron microscope, whose (German?) maker has gone out of business, and the controlling software can only be run on an XP machine.

I'd prefer direct from Intel, not a random French website, and the last official Intel drivers are from 2011. Sure the other ones are there but there is no official support for Haswell on XP. Like this:

https://communities.intel.com/thread/49510

 

[vailr]

I'd prefer direct from Intel, not a random French website

Then I guess you'd also prefer not getting a motherboard made somewhere random like China, Taiwan, or some other foreign country?

Intel HD Graphics Driver 14.56.0.5441 for XP

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GR...tel-HD-Graphics-Driver-145605441-for-XP.shtml