System recommendations for games made 6 to 3 years ago?

[pclatino]

System recommendations for games made 6 to 3 years ago?

Games made today are awesome and require some serious horsepower. However there were some super great games that came out when 3DFX and NVIDIA made accelerated graphics the way to be. Games like Jedi Knight II, Jane's F15, F/A-18, USAF, Rainbow Six, Half Life, Sports Car GT, etc.

As you will tell by my other post on Technical Support, I am having major problems with my good ole trusty PIII 840Mhz PC and it looks like I might need to upgrade, change hardware.

Therefore, I wanted to ask the vintage gamers out there, do you have any recommendations on a system that would be inexpensive and stable for playing 6~3 year old games? Mainly I am looking for stability on Motherboard, CPU, OS, video and sound cards.

Eventually I would like to put together a system that can play the latest, hardware-intensive games out there, but at this time, I am looking for system that could replace my PIII 840Mhz for old games and desktop PC.

Thanks in advance.

[Imperion1]

I know this isn't an answer to your question. But, what kind of problems are you having with your current system? Have you tried a format and reinstall? Checked your system for Bugs and Virus'?


As for building an inexpensive system, how much were you planning on spending? How long do you expect to keep the system before upgrading? Buying parts online? Most parts should be bought this way, keep from spending too much locally.

Good system:
Motherboard: Asus A7n8x-x $73 @ Newegg.com
Cpu: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton core (OEM $85: Retail $90) @ Newegg.com
Sound: you can either use the onboard sound on the motherboard or get either the Creative Audigy LS Retail for $57 or Guillemot Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 Retail for $43 (currently on sale) @ Newegg
Video Card: Sapphire Ati Radeon 9700 Pro 128mb for $289 @ Newegg
Hard Drive: 80Gig 7200rpm either one of these (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=1) will be good.
Memory (Ram): 1 Stick of 512mb PC 3200 (2.5 cL), either Micron, Crucial, or Corsair can be found @ Newegg between $80 and $110.
Memory (continued): Or you can go 2 Sticks of 256mb to run in Dual DDR (little bit of memory performance gain).
Go for a DVD-rom drive instead of Cd-rom, DVD drives are cheaper now than what they used to be. Here (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=1) are some good ones for you. 16x DVD read and 48x cd read.
For the case, you can always go local, like a mom and pop shop. Get a cheap case, then go buy a good power supply (or order online). Preferrably at least a 400watt ps.

[Magua]

That system would definately run all the old games, and all the new ones as well. I wouldn't spend money to replace that computer with a similarly powered one, I would fix it or go for an upgrade.

[Bluehail]

Buy my 333Mhz computer that I'm using right now. Plays Quake 3 better than half-life though. Sometimes I feel the HL engine is crappy.