I am very happy with the result. It would be almost impossible to build a more extreme retro PC for Windows XP. What’s more, thanks to quad-boot with Windows 10 or 11, this PC can still be used for everyday tasks, even if the idle power consumption is also “extreme.”
I also see the finished build as a repository for XP-compatible parts. Who knows, maybe I’ll build the four GTX TITAN X into four separate PCs at some point?
This was one of the coolest PC projects I’ve ever built, and I was really lucky with the prices of most of the components; many of them are now either significantly more expensive or even harder to get hold of. The computer has also become relatively quiet thanks to the maximum-size fans everywhere.
The processor is legendary, 64 GB DDR3 with 2133 MHz clock speed at CL10 is an exception, and functioning PCI Express 3.0, which was never officially supported on Ivy Bridge E, is an absolute unicorn. Add to that a very powerful board and the latest Nvidia graphics cards, which made Quad SLI possible. Everything about this PC is special.
So, is XP running well?
Extreme. Totally unnecessary.
Anyone reading this who is enthusiastic about a similar project should note that the desktop platform with an i7-3770K in tandem with 32 GB RAM and a GTX 980 Ti represents the “optimum.” Everything this workstation PC can do, a desktop PC can also do. Only at a significantly lower price and power consumption.
A desktop will also enable quad-boot on a maximum of 2 TB storage devices.