Showerthoughts

Here I'll be laying out the build ideas I currently have floating around in my head somewhere, but are either non-viable or otherwise not really planned.

Faster Voodoo 1

CPU: Intel Pentium II 400 MHz (Deschutes)
GPU: 3DFX Voodoo 1 + S3 Virge/DX
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Value
Motherboard: Pretty much any i440BX

While it would've been nice to scale the Voodoo 1 a bit further and guarantee that games like Turok run at stable 60 FPS, the loss of Pentium MMX's downclocking versatility and therefore access to speed-sensitive games makes this build not worth it. I don't have infinite space in my room to have a separate build for each and every era - I'd rather at least try to encompass several at once. That being said, I'll still keep this in mind, just in case.

You Can (Not) Reinvent the Wheel

CPU: AMD K6-2+/500ACZ, hardware modded
GPU: 3DFX Voodoo 1 + 3DFX Voodoo 3 3000
Sound: Aureal Vortex 2 + Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Value
Motherboard: Any decent Super Socket 7

A build with a powerful K6-2+ or K6-3+, paired with a Voodoo 3, is widely regarded as an "all in one" build that encompasses DOS and up to Win98 eras of games. Adding a PCI Voodoo 1 to it would also allow one to play static linked DOS Glide games that don't run on other Voodoos.

Two big caveats - performance in games like Unreal and Quake 2, which is not as good, and I'd have to overclock both the CPU and the graphics card just to reach around 40 FPS in those games, which I'd rather not do if I'm to ensure my hardware lives longer. There's a hardware mod that would allow a K6-2+ to increase its L2 cache from 128 KB to 256 KB, effectively turning it into a K6-3+, but I'm rather scared about delidding the thing, and my soldering skills aren't as good yet.

3DFX's Last (Affordable) Hurrah

CPU: Either a Intel Pentium III-S 1.4 GHz (Tualatin) or an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 1.833 GHz (Barton)
GPU: 3DFX Voodoo 3 3000
Sound: Aureal Vortex 2
Motherboard: Any that goes with whatever CPU I end up going with

I'm putting this one out here in case I feel like pushing my Voodoo 3 to the limit and make it run the CPU-demanding Deus Ex at decent framerate. There are conflicting reports on what works best for it, hence the choice. Then again, is there even a point in this one, besides recording a few benchmarks?

[insert 9/11 joke here]

CPU: Intel Pentium III-S 1.266 GHz (Tualatin)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 3 Ti 200
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Motherboard: Any with Tualatin support

A period-correct 2001 build. Not viable at all, as it doesn't cover that many games. My upcoming Insanity build will take care of that just fine.

Two Thousand 2: Electric Boogaloo

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2700+ 2.167 GHz (Thoroughbred)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti 4200, or a 4600 if I ever find one
Sound: Any Creative X-Fi card would do
Motherboard: Any Socket 462 one

A period-correct 2002 build. Non-viable for the exact same reason. Besides, I don't want to deal with more open-die processors AND with Athlon XP's hefty power requirement at the 5A rail that modern PSU's kinda lack. Apparently, the GeForce 4 Ti cards are the only ones capable to show all of Splinter Cell's graphical features, as the architecture is similar to the Xbox's graphics chip. But a whole ass build for one game? Nah.

GeForce FX's Redemption Arc

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.2 GHz (Northwood)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce FX 5900 XT 128 MB
Sound: Any Creative X-Fi card would do
Motherboard: Any Socket 478 one

A period-correct 2003 build. I might actually get back to this someday, as I'd like to see what a later FX card is capable of, despite the whole series lacking in DirectX 9 performance. Apparently, it also works well with nGlide if I feel like pretending it's a Voodoo 5 5500. Socket 478 is generally friendly with modern PSU's.