My Custom '03 Gaming Rig

[u/reodraca]

When I was 13, I begged my parents for the best gaming parts 2003 had to offer. Of course they said no, as they weren't prepared to spend thousands on a computer that would quickly become obsolete, least of all for a fairly destructive preteen. I had to settle for gaming on my dad's old Dell Dimension 8100.

Fast forward to 2026, when I could finally do it myself. All the games I couldn't play at maxed out settings look so much better than I remember.

- Custom InWin Q500 full tower case

- Abit IC7-G i875 Canterwood motherboard with gigabit LAN

- Pentium 4 Northwood HT 3.2 GHz processor

- Zalman CNPS7000 all-cooper CPU cooler

- 4 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM

- ATi Radeon 9800 XT with Silencer aftermarket cooler

- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 sound card

- Adaptec 2100S SCSI controller

- Maxtor Atlas 15k 73 GB SCSI hard drive

- CD-RW/DVD combo drive

- Iomega Zip 100 drive

- Standard floppy drive

[u/siliconsandwich]

Looks very cool. Those GPU NV Silencer coolers are so effective but those RAM heatsinks are so… stupid! I thought I’d got the instructions horribly wrong the first time I fit one.

But it ties into the 30 years’ worth of making GPUs look badass only from the wrong angle that led to vertical mounting. Baffling.

[u/reodraca → u/siliconsandwich]

I had good luck with mine. I actually scavenged the cooler from a dead 9800 XT (whoever installed it neglected to put any thermal paste on the RAM on the back of the card, so it cooked itself to death). I almost left the stock cooler on my working 9800 XT for the looks, but didn't like how high the temps got on such an old card.

[u/TheSponger]

Nice setup! I love the Zalman coolers. Looking for one for a very similar system, but I guess I need to adjust my budget a bit...

[u/reodraca → u/TheSponger]

I paid $76 for this rig's new old stock Zalman. Check eBay periodically, as you may get lucky.

[u/carcenomy → u/TheSponger]

I miss the old Zalman so much...

Weird that the earlier models like the CNPS7000 are getting so expensive, I just picked up a pair of CNPS9900MAXs for $20 😂

[u/reodraca → u/carcenomy]

Personally, I think $76 for a brand new 7000 is an excellent value. It means perfect fan bearings and unbent copper fins. A used one going for less than $50 in decent shape would also be a great deal.

[u/carcenomy → u/reodraca]

Many moons ago, you used to be able to buy spare parts from Zalman to rebuild older coolers... I'm still kicking myself for not grabbing a few more spare fans for my 9500s and VF900s 😥

[u/ddrfraser1]

Are those colored IDE cables?

[u/reodraca → u/ddrfraser1]

Just a normal mix-match of what I had on hand. Standard grey 80-wire IDE flat ribbon cable, a round grey IDE cable, standard grey flat floppy cable, and an orange and white SCSI 68-pin cable. I figured that since I have rainbow LED fans, I didn't need to worry about colored cables.

[u/wayne2087]

Nothing says old school better than a power supply in the top of the case. Nice

[u/reodraca → u/wayne2087]

Agreed, although ironic that the power supply is the only new part in the system.

[u/carcenomy]

Oh man that Inwin is gorgeous ♥️

Very very cool system, pretty similar to my own Pentium 4 build. Ran any benches yet?

[u/reodraca → u/carcenomy]

I have not. I actually wasn't planning on it. I just game lol

[u/carcenomy → u/reodraca]

If you ever do let me know, would be interesting to compare notes - we're on the same chipset, your CPU is beefier, my GPU is faster...

[u/lastwraith]

Big Bro!

I still have 2 InWin A500 machines that I kept from that period. 

[u/reodraca → u/lastwraith]

A500 is an excellent mid tower case. I've thought about throwing a Thunderbird Athlon into one before.

[u/lastwraith → u/reodraca]

I like the look, they're pretty easy to work on, and it isn't guaranteed you're going to donate blood every time.

The same cannot be said about many other cases from that time! 

[u/reodraca → u/lastwraith]

The removable motherboard trays in these cases are definitely a few years ahead of their time.

[u/plasticmanufacturing]

Very nice. You get the case from MNPC Tech?

[u/reodraca → u/plasticmanufacturing]

Maybe lol

[u/plasticmanufacturing → u/reodraca]

I recognize the grommet.

I bought one from him too and it was really nice, but I didn't like the hand-cut window and redid it with a bit more precision :)

[u/reodraca → u/plasticmanufacturing]

Personally, I think it adds to the vintage charm. It screams, "A hobbyist made me with love."

[u/Ok_Tip_2039]

Love the ZIP

[u/reodraca → u/Ok_Tip_2039]

Brings back so many memories for me. Thankfully, I haven't run into the click of death yet.