Thin Clients / Retro PCs

[Roxy.music]

Do you use a thin client for retro gaming, if so which one do you use, and what mods have you done on them? I got interested in them because of this guys videos on them. I got this one

not sure if i made the right choice as i have to upgrade the CPU.
What i would like to know is will i be able to do Windows98 and Dos gaming on it?The other thing is the flash and other stuff to upgrade it is so expensive .
And if you have to pay out for all that stuff you might as well get a better Pc.
Should i have gone for this one instead

the ones i have seen at my price point seem to only have 256mb of Flash memory.
I hope there are people on here who own one of those.
People who do Pc reviews on urube all ways get them so cheap.
I have to pay a lot more.They seem cheaper in the USA you are lucky people.and what with all those big *Goodwill stores* you have over there.

 

[vir]

You can download PCem.

 

[Roxy.music]

Is it better to go for an old PC like this one

Packard Bell Computer - Mini Tower PC Case - Card Reader - DVD - Vista Ultimate​

Packard Bell Tower Computer

Foxconn Properietary Motherboard
VGA Video Output
USB 2.0
Windows Vista Ultimate Activated (MCE COA)
1GB DDR2 RAM
Radeon X600 Graphics
Pentium D 3.0Ghz Processor £35 all in.

Packard Bell Computer - Mini Tower PC Case - Card Reader - Win MCE - Quad Core​

Foxconn Properietary Motherboard
VGA Video Output
USB 2.0
Windows Media Center Edition with COA
3GB DDR2 RAM
Radeon X600 Graphics
Core 2 Quad Processor for £40 of course i could upgrade the graphics cards on the Pc,s what would you recommend if i went that route.I don,t want to pay more than £20 for one.
Will either perform better than these two?

or this one

. £30

 

[maflynn]

Is it better to go for an old PC like this one

What are you looking to do?

I think it might hard to recommend what would be best, if we don't know what the intended usage would be

Personally, these look so old, that I don't think they'd be useful anything now a days. You may be better served with a newer computer but that's just me.

 

[pshufd]

I'd look for something with a 22 nm CPU. The performance per watt of those old CPUs is awful.

 

[Roxy.music]

What are you looking to do?

I think it might hard to recommend what would be best, if we don't know what the intended usage would be

Personally, these look so old, that I don't think they'd be useful anything now a days. You may be better served with a newer computer but that's just me.

I have just bought the one i show here.Not used it yet though.I must say the prices for the upgrades of that stuff ,are expensive here in the uk. 13 pound for a Flash 4gb dom. that includes postage from China that was the only seller i saw selling it on eBay .As Phil in the video says it needs more than the 512mb . But is 4gb enough for Windows 98?.Or would i be better off getting this for the same price ?

 

[Roxy.music]

Retro gaming is kind of a loaded question. Newer devices can't boot DOS/Windows 98 while older devices don't have the CPU performance and GPU features to run newer games.

Maybe try DOSBOX-Xwith something like this that should be more capable in performance while close to the budget of the other two relics.

https://dosbox-x.com/

$99 Intel Celeron N4000 4GB/64GB and it looks like it includes a battery bank
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/review...dows-10-4gb-memory-64gb-storage-black/6418696

Thanks for the info about the Dosbox.I will leave the kids laptop though.The hp5710 is a very capable machine.

 

[Roxy.music]

If we’re talking about PCs of that size, I’d rather go for something like a Steam Deck.

You can just download and install PCem if you have a powerful enough CPU, emulates retro PCs with Pentium II and Voodoo graphics just fine, might as well be the WinBox to DOS’s DOSBox. I installed Windows 98 SE on mine and was playing Thief Gold the other day. Was kind of giddy all this was possible now TBH.

I did get the first one but it was broken so sent it back.And got the hp5710 one nut as the guy in the video says the 512mb in the machine is not even enough for Dos.He upgrades to a 4gb Dom Flash.The price of that retro stuff is really exspncive .And very few places sell it the cheapest i can find is 13 pounds in China shipped.Would i be better with this at double the memory what do you think?

 

[Roxy.music]

What are you looking to do?

I think it might hard to recommend what would be best, if we don't know what the intended usage would be

Personally, these look so old, that I don't think they'd be useful anything now a days. You may be better served with a newer computer but that's just me.

What i want to do is have a Xp i5 SFF Pc or this Tower one for 50 pounds

Dell Precision Tower T1600 E3-1225 3.1GHz 8GB 500GB HDD Fire Pro V4800 W10 PC.​

High end Workstation Tower. i want it for retro Gaming. Sadly it has been sold now. It would have been a bargin for 50 pound.​

 

[sracer]

Retro gaming is kind of a loaded question. Newer devices can't boot DOS/Windows 98 while older devices don't have the CPU performance and GPU features to run newer games.

Maybe try DOSBOX-X with something like this that should be more capable in performance while close to the budget of the other two relics.

https://dosbox-x.com/

$99 Intel Celeron N4000 4GB/64GB and it looks like it includes a battery bank
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/review...dows-10-4gb-memory-64gb-storage-black/6418696

Wow, I didn't realize that the Kano PC was on clearance! That's a great price for it.


I have a neo-classic X230 ThinkPad that I bought specifically to natively run older OSes and retrogaming. I have a few SSDs for it, one with Win 7, and another with Win 10. I paid $35 for that X230 and another $30 for a small SSD.

Surprisingly, this thing is actually very snappy and could actually be a daily driver.

But the problem with vintage hardware (and the X230 isn't all that old) for the purposes of retrogaming and computing is the growing scarcity of components and the time spent hunting down device drivers for those components. Most vintage components will end up costing more than the computer itself.

Then there is the space required for a dedicated CRT, CPU tower/desktop, keyboard, etc. If space is not a problem, then it is obviously not an issue.

There's something unique about owning vintage hardware to run vintage software. I get it. I've done it. But... if the purpose is simply to have access to vintage software, there are better ways to do that.

I'm a big fan of virtualizing those environments to run vintage software. It takes LESS time to learn how to use software like VirtualBox than it does to track down device drivers and troubleshoot issues with ancient hardware.

The greatest benefits of using virtual machines (VM) are:

• you can have more than one VM on a single physical computer
• you can duplicate a VM to tinker and experiment with without risking damage to the "main" VM
• you can move the VM to another physical computer when you change your computer
• you don't need a separate physical computer to host the VM (it can be run on a person's main computer)

I'm quite surprised at just how little hardware is necessary to run virtual machines.



Although VMs can run on a person's main and only computer, if someone whats to use a physically different device for this purpose....

I can confirm @mi7chy 's recommendation with regard to ability for the level of hardware found in the Kano to be able to run DOSBox... and even to run virtual machines with WinXP.

Here's a hidden gem of a laptop that I use for this purpose...

Asus Vivobook 11.6'' L203MA

The L203MA has the Celeron N4000 processor, 4GB RAM / 64GB eMMC, USB-C, USB 3, HDMI out, headphone jack, microSD card slot. (I also have an E203MA, but that has 2GB RAM / 32GB eMMC that I run Linux on)

Here's the L203MA... I bought this used on eBay for $70... it had a few scuffs on the top lid so I put a few decals on it to cover them up AND to differentiate it from the E203MA which looks identical.


The photos don't do it justice, but the screen is bright and sharp.


Here are a few desktop shortcuts to be able to easily run Win 3.1.1, DOS, and Win XP. I also have RetroArch installed and configured for every game console from the Atari 2600 up to and including the Playstation 1.



The Celeron N4000 is quite capable to run VMs of those older operating systems (and DOSBox).

 

[maflynn]

[MOD NOTE]
There was a mixup in a thread merge and thin client threads were merged with a completely unrelated thread. I've done my best to pull all the posts back - my apologies for this goof up.

 

[Roxy.music]

Wow, I didn't realize that the Kano PC was on clearance! That's a great price for it.


I have a neo-classic X230 ThinkPad that I bought specifically to natively run older OSes and retrogaming. I have a few SSDs for it, one with Win 7, and another with Win 10. I paid $35 for that X230 and another $30 for a small SSD.

Surprisingly, this thing is actually very snappy and could actually be a daily driver.

But the problem with vintage hardware (and the X230 isn't all that old) for the purposes of retrogaming and computing is the growing scarcity of components and the time spent hunting down device drivers for those components. Most vintage components will end up costing more than the computer itself.

Then there is the space required for a dedicated CRT, CPU tower/desktop, keyboard, etc. If space is not a problem, then it is obviously not an issue.

There's something unique about owning vintage hardware to run vintage software. I get it. I've done it. But... if the purpose is simply to have access to vintage software, there are better ways to do that.

I'm a big fan of virtualizing those environments to run vintage software. It takes LESS time to learn how to use software like VirtualBox than it does to track down device drivers and troubleshoot issues with ancient hardware.

The greatest benefits of using virtual machines (VM) are:

• you can have more than one VM on a single physical computer
• you can duplicate a VM to tinker and experiment with without risking damage to the "main" VM
• you can move the VM to another physical computer when you change your computer
• you don't need a separate physical computer to host the VM (it can be run on a person's main computer)

I'm quite surprised at just how little hardware is necessary to run virtual machines.



Although VMs can run on a person's main and only computer, if someone whats to use a physically different device for this purpose....

I can confirm @mi7chy 's recommendation with regard to ability for the level of hardware found in the Kano to be able to run DOSBox... and even to run virtual machines with WinXP.

Here's a hidden gem of a laptop that I use for this purpose...

Asus Vivobook 11.6'' L203MA

The L203MA has the Celeron N4000 processor, 4GB RAM / 64GB eMMC, USB-C, USB 3, HDMI out, headphone jack, microSD card slot. (I also have an E203MA, but that has 2GB RAM / 32GB eMMC that I run Linux on)

Here's the L203MA... I bought this used on eBay for $70... it had a few scuffs on the top lid so I put a few decals on it to cover them up AND to differentiate it from the E203MA which looks identical.
View attachment 1852898

The photos don't do it justice, but the screen is bright and sharp.
View attachment 1852897

Here are a few desktop shortcuts to be able to easily run Win 3.1.1, DOS, and Win XP. I also have RetroArch installed and configured for every game console from the Atari 2600 up to and including the Playstation 1.

View attachment 1852899

The Celeron N4000 is quite capable to run VMs of those older operating systems (and DOSBox).

The cheapest one i can see on eBay uk IS 120 Lenovo ThinkPad X230 12.5 Intel Core i5. 8gb ram 180gb ssd comes with charger.Thats what i am finding ,i could only see two sellers selling the 4gb dom flash that was from china ,I saw some from other sellers of the 2gb dom but they were more expensive. And like the guy in my video the sound card is way more expensive than the unit it self.Do you think i should i go for for the 4gb dom or the 8 gb compact flash kit for the same price?Space is not a problem for me.I agree about the VM,S but surely games would not as be fast on them as opposed to having the os running natively on a separate PC.I can only see a few on eBay this one ASUS Vivobook E203MA Laptop Intel Celeron N4000 4GB 64GB eMMC 11.6" Windows 10 £160.Prices in the USA are a lot cheaper than the uk. That sounds very interesting sracer:)

 

[Roxy.music]

[MOD NOTE]
There was a mixup in a thread merge and thin client threads were merged with a completely unrelated thread. I've done my best to pull all the posts back - my apologies for this goof up.

No problem ,hope you day is going well.

 

[maflynn]

No problem ,hope you day is going well.

It didn't start off well :O but yeah - thanks

 

[sracer]

The cheapest one i can see on eBay uk IS 120 Lenovo ThinkPad X230 12.5 Intel Core i5. 8gb ram 180gb ssd comes with charger.Thats what i am finding ,i could only see two sellers selling the 4gb dom flash that was from china ,I saw some from other sellers of the 2gb dom but they were more expensive. And like the guy in my video the sound card is way more expensive than the unit it self.Do you think i should i go for for the 4gb dom or the 8 gb compact flash kit for the same price?Space is not a problem for me.I agree about the VM,S but surely games would not as be fast on them as opposed to having the os running natively on a separate PC.I can only see a few on eBay this one ASUS Vivobook E203MA Laptop Intel Celeron N4000 4GB 64GB eMMC 11.6" Windows 10 £160.Prices in the USA are a lot cheaper than the uk. That sounds very interesting sracer:)

ack! those prices! Although I recommend that Asus, ANY laptop with 4GB RAM/64GB storage/Celeron N4000 will do just fine. Search ebay for a computer with those specs, you may find something within your price range.

Regarding the speed of games running in a VM... it depends upon the game. Sure, you won't be able to run Crysis in a VM with the necessary speed, but anything that'll run on those systems you're looking at will definitely run at full speed on that N4000 (which is no speed demon by any measure)

But if you are determined to stick with vintage hardware you really should go with the 8GB CF kit. You don't want to go through effort of upgrading this thing only to have to do it again later if you run out of space.