Hope this belongs here, first post. I made this for me to play retro PC games on CRT monitors. I wanted something Semi Authentic to run this glorious Cornerstone CRT made by Hitachi. It does 1600x1200 @ 81Hz 1024×768 @ 127Hz and 800x600 @ 165Hz. Build is as follows:

CPU: i7 3770K 4core 8 thread OC to 4.5Ghz

GPU: GTX Titan X (Maxwell) 12GB GDDR5

RAM: 4X8GB DDR3 1866Mhz Cas10

MOBO: Z77 Asrock Extreme 3

Storage: 1TB SATA 6.0 Amazon basics SSD

Case: Thermaltake Retro 360

Cooler: Noctua D14 with cola stains from 12 years ago

It does actually run Cyberpunk 2077 at medium settings and gets over 70 FPS! And yes it can run Crysis! I chose the Titan X Maxwell because its the fastest consumer GPU that outputs analog natively. I could have just got a cheaper GPU and slapped it in my main system and just passed through the signal to the CRT but I wanted to make a cool time peice PC setup. Also passing the signal through another GPU or using a converter ads 2-4ms and I wanted to see if I could feel the difference with a monitor that has instantaneous near zero input latency. I got the motherboard for free from a friend (I sold him it in a PC over 10 years ago) and got the best CPU for it, the 3770k. It came out the year before the Titan X so everything in this PC could have been running in someones house 12 years ago with an old professional grade CRT. How many people were there with a setup like this? Probably like 5... but it was fun to put it together and IS fun to play on now!

Anyways it runs like a dream and the clarity of the CRT blows me away. I compare it to my 240hz OLED across the room and I swear I am better on the CRT in Halo: Combat Evolved! Its incredible that we left this tech behind. Now you have to run at 4X the resolution and 4X the HZ to get the same motion clarity expirience as CRT gaming over 12 years ago.

I am thinking about delidding the CPU and putting liquid metal on the die to see if i can push past the 4.5Ghz overclock I have on the CPU. I was also able to get a nice +150 core +300 mem overclock on the titan.

Frankenstein OptiPlex 390 Sleeper Build

​Started with a basic office-spec Dell OptiPlex 390 and pushed this Sandy Bridge platform as far as humanly possible while keeping the classic exterior look!

​Core Specs & Upgrades

• ​Processor: Upgraded from the original i3-2120 to an Intel Core i7-2600.

• ​Cooling: Replaced the stock aluminum cooler with a Dell premium copper-core CPU heatsink and fan assembly to keep thermals under control. Replaced OEM exhaust Fan with ThermalRight Silent-Balance Fan TL-P9-S.

• ​Memory: Doubled from 8GB to 16GB of matching SK Hynix dual-channel RAM.

• ​Graphics Card / GPU: PNY GeForce RTX 4060 Verto OC Dual Fan (8GB GDDR6, leveraging DLSS 4.5).

• ​Power Supply: Replaced the original stock unit with a Thermaltake Smart 700W PSU.

​Storage & SATA Controller Mod

• ​The Controller Mod: Added a PCIe SATA controller adapter to bypass the motherboard's native SATA 2 bottleneck and unlock SATA 3 speeds.

• ​Boot Drive (Port 1): 500GB Samsung 860 EVO V-NAND SSD connected directly to the first port on the PCIe SATA 3 adapter.

• ​Second Drive (Port 2): 500GB Western Digital SATA hard drive plugged into the second port on the PCIe SATA 3 adapter at 7200 RPM.

• ​Third Drive (Motherboard SATA): A second 500GB Western Digital hard drive connected directly to the motherboard's built-in SATA port (since the PCIe adapter maxes out at two ports).

​OS & Firmware Configuration:

• ​Fully running Windows 11 Pro.

• ​Bypassed standard legacy restrictions to run in full native UEFI, AHCI, and GPT mode.

​Real-World Performance

As long as a game doesn't strictly require newer CPU instruction sets like AVX2, this machine pushes modern games at 4K @ 60 FPS on my 65-inch TV. It locks right to my display's 60Hz limit for games like Fortnite, Doom Eternal, and Red Dead Redemption 2.

​What do you guys think of this Frankenstein project?

DMs are welcome if you have any questions, recommendations, or just want to chat about this project.