The computer in question is an Abit BE62 v2 (refurbed by me) PIII 850E @1200mhz
512mb PC133 @141 2-2-2
Original Millennium Thermal Solutions all copper s370 CPU cooler (prototype)
DvD drive,Maxtor IDE 30g 7200rpm.
Video card is (currently) Geforce 4mx 4000 (crappy I know, but I have a few different models to play with up to the FX5200...all AGP)
I'm not going to try to play crisis or WOW with this old rig, but Max Payne should be playable,along with my flight sims like Crimson Skies,MS Combat flight sim, and MS combat flight sim3
The only real limiting factor is the hdd and I want to reduce load times.
After getting used to my quadcore rig, I'm a bit spoiled towards the older units and it annoys me to wait for the loading bar.
And yes it is a sentimental thing.... I like playing with old junk and seeing if I can push them farther than they would have in their day because nowadays just about every stick of PC133 purchased today will do around 150mhz @2-2-2 timings, and the last few AGP video cards produced are more tolerant of the high bus speeds, and that is important with the BX chipset because you cannot lock the mem at any speed..it is 1:1 in respect to the FSB and you can't change it.
They say that an SSD is the single most usable upgrade and the most gain performance wise...so I'm curious as to how much a diff it would make
And let's face it...nobody ever sees the advertised thruput on mechanical drives, and I would like to see how much a difference there would be over a mechanical drive in that situation.
I know that there are sata cards on the market and I could use a sata drive, but that is not the question I wanted to know.
I am not trying to re-invent the wheel, just want to grease the axle a bit, and mix old tech with new.
Edit: forgot to add that the PIII is Prime stable 14hrs+ Edit: