Can you build a PC Equivalent to the Original XBOX?

In this video we build and bench a system with very similar specs to the Original Xbox, and find out if it can keep pace with the real deal in gaming performance.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:30 - Refresher on the XBOX Specs
1:48 - Motherboard
2:15 - CPU
2:44 - GPU (and some background)
4:13 - RAM
4:42 - Case
4:54 - PSU (woes)
5:36 - Storage
5:50 - Putting it all together
6:42 - Sorting out the OS
7:08 - Games & Test Conditions
7:53 - Benchmarks
12:16 - Power Draw Figures
13:03 - Conclusion & Thanks

[GreenHamGaming]

Brother, this was fantastic video. The way you explained how each part of the hardware will play a role in the numbers beforehand was fantastic. Very cool video and I love the idea of including power draw figures. I've never thought to do that and it's an important thing to consider with older hardware.

Like let' s say you are building an old PC to put under a TV in the house and deciding between an old Pentium D machine over a Core 2 Duo, not many people consider the fact that a Pentium D 930 will consume say 95W under load over a C2D E6300 which will consume 65W at load all while beating it in performance. Both chips can end up in the same price range on the used market so it's important to consider power usage!

Keep up the good work!

[SPNG]

I forgot to mention this in the video but I thought I'd clarify; I used the original release of Half-Life 2 for testing, not the latest Steam version.
EDIT 6/20/2023: I noticed a lot of confusion in the comments as to what video output I was using for the Original Xbox's footage. To be clear, I used a Pound HD Link cable so it would work with my HDMI capture card, it looks a good bit better than composite but probably not better than some good component cables. When capturing the footage it's possible that I had some settings set incorrectly in my capture software, which could explain the "blockiness" in the image. The PC footage was captured from the Ti 4200's DVI output, which is why it looks so much better. Just wanted to clear that up.

[RuruFIN]

The Xbox CPU is actually a mobile Celeron 733, not a desktop one. That's why it's more close to a P3 than a "normal" Celeron :)

[builder]

I think the 1% lows being harder on the PC is just down to the framerate being uncapped. On a lot of games capping the framerate can alleviate some stutters, especially when there is a CPU bottleneck....and on a single core CPU this holds way more true than on modern systems. Basically if the framerate is uncapped the CPU will be constantly peddling data for new frames to the GPU and when things need to load in the CPU has to slam the brakes on that loop, which is the stutter. If the framerate is capped below whats achievable there are little pockets of breathing room for the CPU where it can catch up on such things so they wont cause stutters later on.
These days issues like that almost exclusively plague games that run primarily on a single thread, that bottlenecks that CPU thread, or if the CPU is a 4c/4t or even 2c/4t model on a game that actually utilizes more cores and has to shuffle several workloads in one CPU thread.

[randy]

The pc may have been a few frames behind in all of your tests but the visual quality was far superior.

[rhobson]

I love builds like this, basically a hommage to something with historical significance, and not just another "let's throw a huge amount of money at this and see how good it is".

I only feel like some Windows tweaks and optimizations could give a better apples-to-apples comparison, specially in the frame times. I remember having a very low-end pc (in fact with a GeForce MX440!) and optimizing the windows installation was what 1) made possible playing quite a few games, and 2) sometimes made me reinstall Windows (you can only go so far...) :D

[btarg]

Linus Tech Tips a while back did a video booting the modified version of windows that the xbox uses on a dev kit, it would be neat to see the real xbox software running on hardware like this one day

[RetroRefreshments]

I had that exact PC tower for my very first PC build my dad and I did together when I was twelve. Boy that was a blast from the past!

[DunklerZebralord]

Wow now that’s what I call a creative idea for a video. Very interesting project. Love it!

[crazedlunatic]

The three major systems from the sixth generation each used different instructional sets from one another, like the GameCube using a PowerPC based instructions, the PS2 using MIPS based instructions, and the Xbox using good ole x86 based instructions. The system that would likely pose the biggest challenge to build would be the PS2, due to the complicated and proprietary nature of the EmotionEngine CPU, and Graphics Synthesizer GPU respectively. Other components within the PS2 are also a lot different than a standard PC’s components, which is why PS2 emulation is notoriously more difficult to achieve despite renewed interest within the PS2’s library. With GameCube, it may be possible to get away with using some off the shelf components since it’s architecture is very similar to that of a PowerPC 750 (The iMac G3) along with some form of custom ATi graphics. In a way, the GameCube is basically more of an iMac system of that time period and less about being a Windows system.

[joebloggs]

It blows my mind how they got HL2, DOOM 3 and Conker Live and Reloaded on these specs.

Live and Reloaded looks like an early 360 game with really good textures and fur that looks good to this day.

[jacksonburch]

I found my dads old Xbox and it amazes me how low the specs are but how well the games play. The games are so optimized it’s astonishing

[Jack-pcsp]

Awesome video, would love to see a sequel to the video using the suggested CPU upgrades and improved RAM speed

[thesteammachine]

Had the exact same PC case back in 2004-2005 . Used to be a 1.5gb of ddr 400mhz, a p4 3ghz and a ati 9600 xt 256mb. (cant believe i still remember XD) . Only one fan at the side of the pc and everything was cooking inside. In summer had to open the side panel but just slightly as the fan was attached to the motherboard and using what was opened, place a big fan next to the pc to blow inside HAHAHA !
This case brought out some good memories mate, thank you !
Half Life 2, Painkiller, Doom 3 and Far Cry original, Yeger and CS 1.6 all on that machine. Good times :)

Interesting enough, I actually started with the OG xbox before having the pc and still have it and collect for it.(playing the same games I did on the pc but now collecting these versions on the xbox )

[finnbianga]

I love that you used the Windows XP installation music at 6:00

[drebolacat]

this is an idea that i’ve had for a few years now, nice to see that someone else thought the same

[PurpleSanz]

You forgot Doom 3! That would have been the ultimate test! Even today, people are still wondering how the original XBOX was able to run that. Also, you could disable VSYNC from NVIDIA Control Panel (or enable Triple Buffering if you wanted to keep VSYNC on), set your Texture Filtering to Performance and Power Management Mode to Prefer Maximum Performance. You could also set your Power Settings to Always On, from Windows Control Panel, and disable all the Windows animations, shadows and theme to maximize your available RAM; you could even disable a lot of stupid services that you won't need at all, like printing or the firewall and stuff. Hell, I would even kill explorer.exe from Task Manager and run the games exe file from there instead. ;D

Nice video, man!

[DarrenReidAu]

Nice video, good old Socket 370 system is great to see in a build on YouTube! I built a few back in day, many thanks!

[_pixelatedsilvera]

great idea for a video! the xbox version of HL2 has a ton of map changes to remove props, decals, or add walls to block off sightlines so that certain areas can stay undrawn from certain viewpoints. You can see a lot of the missing stuff during the comparison of the two versions. I _think_ the BSPs from the xbox version may load on the PC version, but if not I'm sure someone out there has made a compatible version given how the source modding community is.

[CarbonPhoenix]

I cracked up at 9:20 when you called coruscant "croissant" 😂