Cool to see all of the interesting suggestions. Reminds me very much of how I got many of my silly current projects up and running (currently I have a project involving Windows XP, a Dell Atom-based netbook, a Quadro 410, and the shell of a broken 2008 Dell LCD monitor... no I do not have a problem). I feel a very fun alternate-reality version of this build would involve a mATX case, the mPCIe to dual PCI adapter, Windows XP, the 2600XT, and a period-correct PCI sound card. Mounting all of that into a case, converting the USB ports back into headers using off-the-shelf adapters, wiring up the power button, creating a new I/O shield, and perhaps even converting the rear power plug into a female ATX 20+4 connector among other things, would be an extremely silly way to make the most cursed mATX XP build of all time... and of course I would be 100% on-board with it :) The RAM PCIe resource allocation table problem is an interesting one. I've seen it once or twice but totally forgot it happened on these chipsets. It's possible that your solution would be to actually push your RAM more. Since it supports 4GB of RAM there is a very high chance it will support 6GB (1 x 2GB & 1 x 4GB). Doing so should raise the default allocation pool for the PCIe resource table. Pushing older hardware using esoteric methods, strange adapters you didn't even know exist, and abuse of weird quirks in both hardware and software, is a joy I constantly find myself fulfilling all the time. Kudos to you for sticking it out, and have fun playing Portal!
Interesting idea with the 6GB of RAM, I think I'll give it a try. BTW, the dual PCI adapter does work with the reduced RAM but the performance with the Radeon HD5450 was even worse than the integrated graphics so I didn't pursue that route any further. Still a very interesting thing to get hooked up 😁 Oh, thanks for all of the suggestions, they're appreciated! I'm not so sure about the case idea as I quite like the form factor of the Mac Mini and have a lot of nostalgia for it, but it would certainly be an interesting project.
Do the memory modules need to be a matched pair? You could try one of each size and get 3GB of RAM. Maybe cover that bare metal edge with some automotive touch-up paint.
It looks like you're using xfce, something to make sure of is that xfce isn't using its compositor because even in the best of situations, it has a lot of overhead, and in this case it's all quite old hardware. I think the option is in "window manager tweaks". It basically only allows for some simple effects. Kinda ends up being a neat XP-era lightish gaming PC. Unfortunately, Linux is probably not the best match for it. It is quite old and probably also using less-ideal drivers. Kinda impressed it's working particularly well at all with an older AMD GPU.
Cool upgrade, man. I like the fact that you are not afraid of modding by cutting metal and stuff. I made myself a few small form factor brackets for my systems by cutting regular ones. Kudos for putting up so much work into this project. You can play a lot of games with that system now.
Never thought I'd be commenting on hand tool use on a computer video, but here goes. You should use the whole length of the saw blade; you'll find it faster, easier, and less effort than just using a few centimetres
Thanks for the suggestion. In all honesty the saw blade was pretty badly beat up and kept snagging so I was using the one good part that was left. I knew I'd get comments about this 😅
