Retro gaming setup. Need help

[Sembo]

Hello once again,

I hope everyone is doing ok in these hard times.

This time I need advice and help regarding a retro gaming setup. My objective is to build/find a 2008 gaming PC with windows XP. I tried to search left and right but no luck(windows xp sp3 cd key way to overpriced imo). The games that I am interested in are rpgs from early 2000s to 2010.

However, I managed to find an old system with the following specs(more precisely I got it for free so I accepted):

Motherboard: MSI MS-7500 Ver 1.0 Socket AM2
Cpu: AMD Athlon Dual Core 4450B @2.3Ghz
Gpu: Ati Radeon 3100 (on board gpu)
OS: Windows XP Pro SP3
Ram: 3Ghz DDR2
HDD: 230 GB
Psu: 240 W (not sure)

Now, from my understanding this is not supposed to be a gaming pc. However, would it make sense changing a couple of pieces of hardware and keep it as a gaming pc for older games?(Rpg games from early 2000s to 2010)

My thoughts and questions are:

1)Replace the CPU with something else, for example an AMD Athlon II X2 270 ?

2)Buy a dedicated gpu, for example an ATI 4850/nvidia 280?

3)New psu?

4)Can I keep the motherboard with the new/suggested components? The thing is that if I change the motherboard I would have to re-install windows xp sp3 and I do not have the COA or the cd or anything(and once again the prices for windows xp sp3 COA are way too much for me at the moment)

Thanks for your time reading this. Any suggestion is appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Mr.Scott]

Go quad core.
Board will accept up to a 9850 AM2 quad core.
New PSU. With a bigger better PSU you could run an era video card of your choice. Good 500w PSU is all you need.
Even amount of ram. Add another 2 gig. You either run 4 sticks or 2 sticks. 8 gig is the board max so just add another 2 gig stick.

 

[EarthDog]

Go quad core.
Board will accept up to a 9850 AM2 quad core.
New PSU. With a bigger better PSU you could run an era video card of your choice. Good 500w PSU is all you need.
Even amount of ram. Add another 2 gig. You either run 4 sticks or 2 sticks. 8 gig is the board max so just add another 2 gig stick.

Yep... the basics!

 

[Sembo]

Ok thank you both for your answers.

I understand that I will need a good 500W Psu. Also, will probably go for the 9850 AM2 quad core Cpu as you suggested.

If I may, a couple more questions

1) when you say an "era video card" what do you mean?
2) I thought that windows xp recognized only 4 GB of Ram? Or I do not remember correctly?

 

[EarthDog]

XP 64 recognizes more.

That said, I'd run 2x2GB. I assume you have 1x2GB and 1x1GB for 3GB total? Get a matching stick of the 1x2GB stick (see SPD tab in CPUz)

 

[Mr.Scott]

1) when you say an "era video card" what do you mean?

A video card from that period of time. Don't go thinking you're going to put a 10xx, 20xx, or 30xx video card in it. Not enough system to run any of those decently.
Probably nothing newer than an Nvidia GTX 580 or the AMD equivelent. Anything newer would be a waste.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

XP 64 recognizes more.

And it don't need 5 GB+ of RAM (like anything Vista and later) to run well! It will run well with only 2 GB of RAM.

 

[Sembo]

Ok thanks! I will do as you suggest

- - - Auto-Merged Double Post - - -

No no. I was aware of this! I will probably for the Ati 4850. Thanks again for the tips

 

[stompah]

Visit your local pc recycling store. I picked up two decent AGP cards for less than $2 each. You can probably pick up an old PCIe card for less than $20.

If that place is worth their salt they will give you some sort of warranty. My store gives a 30 day warranty.