Can still build NEW Windows XP machine in 2021!

This may come as a shocker to most ppl, but u can still build a new PC that runs Windows XP in 2021. Everything in this PC build will be brand new (except the CPU, which is nearly impossible to find new these days).

The build we're looking at is an Ivy Bridge machine (the very first to have 3D transistors and also the very last to support Windows XP).

The LGA 1155 motherboard(s):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-for-In...puter-Motherboard-DDR3-PLACA-MAE/262780641441

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-for-In...X-Computer-Motherboard-Mainboard/263886031243

(The above ones only support SATA-II). If you need SATA-III, can visit Banggood and do a search for motherboards with socket type LGA 1155.

The RAM:

From eBay of course. And yes, retailers still sell these brand NEW! Highly recommended Kingston 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3 type DIMM at 1.5V.

The CPU:

It will be a pre-owned Ivy Bridge (3rd gen Core) CPU of course. I highly recommend anything with 35W TDP. They usually have a T suffix to indicate low thermal heat dissipation requirement (ie. g1620T, g2030T, etc.). Even if you have a bad CPU cooler, "T" CPU's will never heat up!

The CPU cooler/fan:

Can get from your local computer shop. Most will support LGA 1155 sockets in addition to others.

The Graphics Card:

Good thing all Ivy Bridge CPUs have integrated graphics on the CPU chip. So, you can have whichever motherboard and it will still have Intel HD graphics.

The (Windows XP) Drivers:

You can visit MSI, Asus, etc. to get their LGA 1155 motherboard drivers. Regardless of brand, they all have the same chipset, including those listed above. So drivers from brand name motherboards will work with unknown ones too!

Setting up your Windows XP PC:

Instructions don't come with many no-brand-name motherboards. This doesn't matter much, becoz u can follow the instructions that come with your PC case or the PSU itself and that would have been the same instructions u find in an MSI or Asus motherboard manual!

 

Installing Windows XP... Remember to set HDD mode to IDE in the BIOS (AHCI mode will cause Windows XP setup to crash).

 

Installing Windows XP on an AF (Advanced Format) HDD... Remember to install Windows 7 first to align the partitions. Windows XP doesn't play nice with AF HDDs, which is why we need Windows 7 to align them first.

So, setup your machine first with Windows 7. Wipe everything. Delete all partitions and rebuild thru Win7 setup. Then can install Windows XP to a secondary partition afterwards!

 

This is really cool to know! I have tried installing XP by botching on Win 7 drivers on my main rig (Ryzen 7 2700, 16gb RAM and RX 5700) but was unable to get the graphics driver working, so was stuck at 640x480

 

Cheers for this informative thread! I've been curious about Windows XP and newer hardware. I noticed your qualifying comment, "Everything in this PC build will be brand new (except the CPU, which is nearly impossible to find new these days)" which is rather significant considering older CPUs are likely on short supply.

Are you aware of any talk about enabling new CPUs to function with Windows XP? What I mean is, has anyone come across articles or repors that indicate support for newer CPUs? Apparently people collecting older computer parts as a hobby, which might be a detriment to those with older hardware who may need to repair some parts to ensure they can still operate XP. Then again, this thread indicates that newer hardware might offer some "new" opportunites for the XP user, which is neat!

Come to think of it, I find it somewhat funny that on the one hand, peolpe are collecting "retro" software and programs as collector's items; while on the other hand, people are *still* using that "old" software because it still works and in many aspects, serves as a decent productivity tool.

And this part here, "Regardless of brand, they all have the same chipset, including those listed above. So drivers from brand name motherboards will work with unknown ones too!" is useful to know. Great!

Oh, and I've shared your comment here: "Installing Windows XP... Remember to set HDD mode to IDE in the BIOS (AHCI mode will cause Windows XP setup to crash)." as a response to this thread here:
https://www.xpforums.com/threads/win-xp-wont-boot-in-achi-mode-hp-z420.934341/
Hopefully it helps.

 

Hi Archaem, I don't think people are still using XP just for the sake of it. XP Pro SP3 is still by far the best Windows. It's highly configurable and you get much more control (e.g. privacy and efficiency). I have a set of useful programs that can only run on XP. The only problem I have is some companies keep bugging us to upgrade. My work around is to keep another machine (W10) just in case the browser won't let log on properly. I can just go over there for that task. Though so far I have not the need to. I expect it would happen eventually.

A well configured XP Pro SP3 runs so fast on a duo core machine (I don't even know how others put up with W10), it's magnificent on any faster machine. Finding the correct XP drivers during install is a real pain, but once done is great. I only use W7 for playing games and W10 for surfing.

 

I can relate. A lot of games on Gog (Good Old Games) that were made during Windows 98/ME era simply work better in Win7.

An example, this game made in 2000, produces ear-deafening sound loudness in Windows XP. But the volume is just right/normal in Windows 7. Something to do with DirectX sounds not working normal under Windows XP:

 

I stopped buying machines past Ivy Bridge. Why I need a faster machine just so it can perform worse under Win 10 than my Win XP rig?

 

They probably CAN run Windows XP... Just u won't be able to find drivers to get the display past 640x480 resolution (or was it 800x600?) and choppy videos that stutter becoz using software rendering instead of the GPU.

An anecdote, the very ancient Microsoft QuickBasic (QBASIC) made during MSDOS era still works in Windows 10, just that you can only output colored text. Attempting to draw lines and circles will cause the program to crash!

 

Well now, this comment was a pleasure to read.

Driver availability seems to be one of the primary obstacles with running XP on newer machines. Sure, many people seem to be running XP though a virtual machine environment, however as you mentioned, XP is a considerably lightweight operating system, so I imagine running it through a virtual setting adds extra computer resource consumption that is not necessary. Arguably speaking, I think it makes sense to run an "emulator" software through XP rather Windows 10, because XP is lighter, therefore more of the computer's resources can be devoted to the emulating software instead of the operating system itself. Of course, since XP is no longer supported, such a framework is not likely today -- however I think the reasoning makes sense.

Perhaps if the lack-of-driver support issue can be overcome, then people will have an opportunity to operate Windows XP on their new machines. Of course, there is the "security" issue that's often raised, however that's probably a topic for a different thread.

 

It seems the issue of driver compatibility is raised time-and-again and this, along with the "security" issue(s), seem to be the two major weaknesses of XP today.

In case anyone's curious, Microsoft still has a version of their (XP supporting) "Windows Driver Kit" available from their website from the following link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11800

Here is a description of the Driver Kit:

 

Having said that, I find that if you persist you will usually find the right drivers. Recently, I have built an i3 desktop and an i7 Dell laptop and they both work so well with XP Pro SP3. Even the Atom N150 netbook doesn't have choppy video (usually netbooks have the worst performance if the graphics is rubbish). At one time I nearly gave up hope looking, but found the drivers at an unlikely place. Some techies are very kind they upload the hard-to-find drivers for others. I found one set at archives dot org.

To make XP Pro SP3 run securely and efficiently, the first thing to do is to turn off services that we don't need.

Some users don't realise that if you don't turn on a service, that cannot possibly be an issue. e.g. Turn off "Remote Desktop" (Telnet should be off by default). I actually find it a lot more secure running XP Pro SP3 than other systems. I don't even use virus checkers (just the old Sygate firewall). As long as you know how to configure XP Pro adequately. Try only use limited user status when surfing on line. Basically, think from a programmer's point of view.

I have users who follow my advice, they have never had a virus on their XP machines. They run so much faster than their relatives' W10 machines (kept spinning during updates which nobody knows what on earth they are).

PS For me, the only time that XP Pro SP3 ran miserably was when it was installed on a Celeron (doesn't matter how I tweaked it). I now will not touch any Celeron.

PPS The weakest link in XP is on browser related issues. A lot of companies they simply refuse to make their system backward compatible with XP (e.g. forms all messed up even with simple tasks). The workaround is to have a w10 machine as a contingency measure.

 

Which Celeron CPU is this? I have never dealt with a Celeron before Ivy Bridge. BUT to me an Ivy Bridge CPU is an Ivy Bridge CPU whether it's branded under the Core brand Celeron brand or Pentium brand...

 

@Hunter2021 I can't remember, except that the two machines were both Celeron M (single core). I think dual core is probably fine. The first one was an old Dell the last one was a Sony Vaio VGN-FS415E I bought without checking (I wrongly assumed they were all Intel Pentium M. The videos just wouldn't play smoothy then I realised too late). Lucky, it was a cheap buy. XP Pro SP3 runs so fast on dual core i3 i5 etc.

My only problem now is with the browser support issues. I can't quite work out why the BBC clips play on Basilisk yet won't play on Mypal nor Firefox (or whether it's just due to settings).

 

The modern Celerons and Pentiums are just reworked i3/i5/i7 to make them cheaper, require less cooling. Completely different from the Celerons and Pentiums of old...

 

Alright so I'm gonna reveal this neat trick. I browsed eBay, bought and used two very cheap generic CPU coolers/fans from China in two PC builds. They're generic but have the blue Intel logo afixed to the fans.

Anyways, I did a CPU stress test got it working at 100% all the time for 30 mins. CPU temp. never went over 58 degrees Celsius. This is pretty amazing considering the CPU coolers were only something like $8 USD shipped each. Attests to the power of having a low TDP CPU. U can use really cheap coolers and that will b sufficient!

 

Thank goodness for that. The old Celeron laptops are just not fit for purpose. To have XP Pro SP3 running smoothly, a Pentium M 1.7GHz+ (ideally min 2 GHz) is the minimum requirements. Dual core is great, i3 i5 i7 just run like a dream. I have just built one on a Dell i7 laptop. It's amazing!

 

For a 10GB ethernet card, you can download and use ATTO's fastframe drivers for Windows XP for seemingly any Intel X520 or X540 card that has single or dual RJ-45 ports on it.

The caveat is that, even if it's not an ATTO brand card, the drivers may show the card as being an ATTO adapter.

 

Remote desktop changed a lot of the walking around for me. I can even rdp into my windows 7 systems from my windows 98se system! So wild to see windows 7 running on 98se hardware, haha. And you can do this from your xp system anytime you need win 7 or win 10 and never leave your seat.

 

My silver bullet for security was the xp steadystate add-on which allows you to lock down xp like a windows embedded system. In fact, steadystate was the precursor to virtualization and windows embedded as it loads all xp changes into a virtual layer that are discarded at reboot/restart, so you literally change mess with anything and everything, download viruses and reboot and they should be gone. Now, I haven't extensively tested that part, but I know on the xp embedded thin clients I have that it's pretty much bulletproof.

This allows a lot of us to do exactly what we want xp to do--boot the same way we left it and allow us to use it.