Project 2004, a retro time capsule

[wolf]

Do you have a GPU-z of one of the GT 730s you have ?
I wonder what Core configuration and memory type they have (since this is OEM card).

Yep here you go.

This was part of the research I had to do, as there are no less than 3 distinct types of GT730, not including model sub variances like my 5 having different VRAM chips rated at the same spec, and different VRAM amounts.

Of the 3 I purposely chose the highlighted model as I wanted the more efficient Kepler version, and wanted the significantly cheaper DDR3 version. Although the GDDR5 cards are significantly more performant, they were also a lot more expensive, and I just didn't need the extra performance in this case.

Also managed to find some absolutely dirt cheap ($15 AUD for two) 4:3 1280x1024 @ 75hz monitors, so I have three of those for the 3 cloned rigs now while my baby (1st one) has the CRT

Current games list shown too, and with circa 170GB free still, there's more to come!

 

[AusWolf]

Yep here you go.

View attachment 353288

This was part of the research I had to do, as there are no less than 3 distinct types of GT730, not including model sub variances like my 5 having different VRAM chips rated at the same spec, and different VRAM amounts.

Of the 3 I purposely chose the highlighted model as I wanted the more efficient Kepler version, and wanted the significantly cheaper DDR3 version. Although the GDDR5 cards are significantly more performant, they were also a lot more expensive, and I just didn't need the extra performance in this case.

View attachment 353289

Also managed to find some absolutely dirt cheap ($15 AUD for two) 4:3 1280x1024 @ 75hz monitors, so I have three of those for the 3 cloned rigs now while my baby (1st one) has the CRT

Current games list shown too, and with circa 170GB free still, there's more to come!

View attachment 353290

Ah, the fully enabled Kepler core. That's the only version worth getting. Shame it's DDR3, though.

 

[wolf]

Ah, the fully enabled Kepler core. That's the only version worth getting. Shame it's DDR3, though.

It was a concious decision as picking up at least 3 GDDR5 versions was going to cost me significantly more, and based of GT710 DDR3 testing, be quite a bit over the target performance.

On a similar note I have a Quadro K1200 (had to mod the 64-bit xp drivers myself to support it ) which is basically GTX750 spec and performance w/128-bit GDDR5. In like for like situations it's over 2x as fast as these GT730's but it just feels excessively fast, and there's something about that I don't really like all that much, like there's no more charm or challenge to running the games at all.

 

[Ruru]

Man I'm jealous of that Antec case.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

XP x64 Edition mostly was OK on socket 775, which was the latest I remember testing it on. Unfortunately, it seems to break Halo CE audio, due to a bug.

 

[wolf]

Had some friends over last night for a bit of a LAN and hang, had some fun ass 4p multiplayer with some of the games I've got. Some didn't work for various reasons, like the same license and given the boxes are clones it makes sense, I have a list of bugfixes to troubleshoot but we got to play these in MP;

• NFS Underground 2, some drag races, circuit and sprint
• Flatout 2, destruction derby and races
• Star Wars Jedi outcast, lightsabers only no force powers
• Serious Sam 2
• Unreal Tournament + UT2004
• Call of Duty + 2

Over the night more than once someone fired up and took an SP game and got a nostalgia dose too Looking forward to the ecosystem growing, hopefully both in games and cloned PC's that join the fleet.

My only regret is not taking more photos, man the belly laughs we had....

 

[eidairaman1]

Athlon XP Still Applies

 

[KrazyT]

Had some friends over last night for a bit of a LAN and hang, had some fun ass 4p multiplayer with some of the games I've got. Some didn't work for various reasons, like the same license and given the boxes are clones it makes sense, I have a list of bugfixes to troubleshoot but we got to play these in MP;

• NFS Underground 2, some drag races, circuit and sprint
• Flatout 2, destruction derby and races
• Star Wars Jedi outcast, lightsabers only no force powers
• Serious Sam 2
• Unreal Tournament + UT2004
• Call of Duty + 2

Over the night more than once someone fired up and took an SP game and got a nostalgia dose too Looking forward to the ecosystem growing, hopefully both in games and cloned PC's that join the fleet.

My only regret is not taking more photos, man the belly laughs we had....

The good old time of LAN !
Still remember the Coop in Serious Sam 2, 4 players ... it was epic !

 

[Ruru]

Yep here you go.

View attachment 353288

This was part of the research I had to do, as there are no less than 3 distinct types of GT730, not including model sub variances like my 5 having different VRAM chips rated at the same spec, and different VRAM amounts.

Of the 3 I purposely chose the highlighted model as I wanted the more efficient Kepler version, and wanted the significantly cheaper DDR3 version. Although the GDDR5 cards are significantly more performant, they were also a lot more expensive, and I just didn't need the extra performance in this case.

View attachment 353289

Also managed to find some absolutely dirt cheap ($15 AUD for two) 4:3 1280x1024 @ 75hz monitors, so I have three of those for the 3 cloned rigs now while my baby (1st one) has the CRT

Current games list shown too, and with circa 170GB free still, there's more to come!

View attachment 353290

I hate that there are million versions of low-end cards so you can never be sure by just the name.

 

[AUTOEXEC.BAT]

Right you are!

Yeah there are NFS games that predate this I want to put on, underground (1),hot pursuit, but I feel much older than that is likely best left for an AGP system that I'd also like to get to eventually.

Call of duty absolutely, 1 and 2 and even united offensive are in the list, just struggling to get a copy going so far. Also medal of honour (allied assault?)

I dont know the exact year...... SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE?

 

[Outback Bronze]

Had some friends over

That used to look like my house every weekend from about 2001-2005. Was in my young twenties. Lots of beers and bongs too

My PC was running a P4 HT with 9800pro, back-room PC was P4 HT with 9600XT that was constantly plugged into the hub and my mates would bring their PC's and plug into the 4-port hub then eventually had to upgrade it to an eight port.

Yep, the good old days

 

[dj-electric]

This thread made me miss the highschool years.

man....

Edit: to contribute something on-topic. Its when I used to have a P4 1.8Ghz (Absolute piece of garbage), GeForce MX440

 

[wolf]

I dont know the exact year...... SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE?

It's an early game considering the hardware, but I'm down for it, I'll add it to the list!

That used to look like my house every weekend from about 2001-2005. Was in my young twenties. Lots of beers and bongs too

My PC was running a P4 HT with 9800pro, back-room PC was P4 HT with 9600XT that was constantly plugged into the hub and my mates would bring their PC's and plug into the 4-port hub then eventually had to upgrade it to an eight port.

Yep, the good old days

LAN's and multiple sharehouses that were basically perma LAN were my late teens and early 20's too, hard to pin down what hardware I had at the time but I did personally have a GeCube 9600XT and then a 9800Pro IceQ. It was a frikken blast to recreate some of those times, I can't believe how much we laughed. And in proper uhhh.. homage? the beers and gatorade saxophone were in full swing again

It's up to people like us to keep the tradition alive. It's pretty rare to LAN with modern PC's these days with internet so fast, but a retro local network LAN is a good excuse to hang out. One of my mates left with a clone box too, wants to play some games and install some too

This thread made me miss the highschool years.

man....

Edit: to contribute something on-topic. Its when I used to have a P4 1.8Ghz (Absolute piece of garbage), GeForce MX440

Happy to stoke a bit of positive nostalgia Oh boy I remember the MX440 too, in some ways it was great, you could play everything!... at terrible settings and FPS but hey hard to be mad at it.

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I've changed cards a few times as I test and bench more, currently this 8800GTS 640M is in there, and the 730 in front is what's in the clones. They bench similarly, the 8800 is stronger in older titles and the 730 is stronger in newer ones.

 

[Steevo]

I had that case in black.

Ahh yes, winamp... the dancing sheep

 

[wolf]

Been a while. Progress has certainly slowed. Year got busy.

Suffered a drive failure of most of the downloads I did on my main rig which had all the files to build this box, which was a gutshot and made the clones and cloning process and redundant spare parts all the more necessary now.

Fixed a NFSU2 which was crashing at launch by reinstalling it and that gave me some energy so I ended up installing about 15 more games.

How it started.

How it's going

I've also benched a few more cards since then....

Here's 3Dmark 06

 

[Lord Paulus Cobris (LPC)]

This is trully a blast from the past for me...

I have 44 years, and im still from these times... Playing in friend Lan games... going with my "brick" to lan partys...
And ofc, runing all the great games of the time...

I actually did start in the PC space a couple years back in 1993. A Little before the 3D revolution... Playing 2D and pixel art games...
But my really first "computer" was a ZX Spectrum 128k +2 (so it was a tape version). I also learned Basic on that computer...

Ohhh... im old...

Best Regards,

LPC