Back in the day, when Windows 98 reigned supreme, we actually thought that beige plastic was the right kind of material for all our PCs. And judging by my black aluminum laptops, maybe we were right. We’re planning to celebrate the 30th anniversary of that old OS, so maybe it’s time to take a look at Maingear’s latest tower PC maker Retro98 in honor of the most affordable time in PC gaming history.
The Retro98 tower follows Maingear’s previous nostalgic build, the Retro95 from last year. While that pre-configured PC wasn’t big enough to slide in a modern GPU, the new mid-tower accommodates a full ATX motherboard. There are some oddities inside the large beige box, including the traditional “ketchup-and-mustard” power cords. The front I/O ports, which include two USB-A 3.2, one USB-C, and a headphone jack, are hidden behind the Maingear logo on the bottom. Oh, and there’s a working LED fan speed display and a turbo button on the outside.
You’re going to ask me about that floppy drive, aren’t you? Sorry to say, this PC won’t let you sing the traditional, “don’t copy that floppy,” as you access your old version of Leisure Suit Larry on a floppy disk. The chassis of the Retro98 is a repurposed SilverStone FLP02 case. Those three top trays are 5.25-inch expansion bays with an adapter cage. In the more expensive version of this PC, Maingear placed the pump and reservoir combo in the space behind those two areas. I personally would be better served with an optical disc drive to connect my old copy of Planescape Torment then work day and night to make it work. You can insert a modern floppy drive into USB and plug it in. Unfortunately, those bay doors won’t open with the satisfying “fwap” you might remember from 27 years ago.
There are three configurations of Retro98, although it will cost you if you want something that will push the frame rates. A model with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 GPU will set you back $2,500. One with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU and RTX 5080 GPU will cost $3,500. If you want the latest heat, the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU and the hulking RTX 5090 GPU, it will cost even $5,000. Each of these models comes with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage.
The “extremely extreme” version comes with open-loop liquid cooling developed by Alphacool, and all the high-end features besides 64GB of RAM and 4TB of fast Gen5 SSD. Get ready to win; that version will go for $9,800. Back in the day, the first model Apple Mac released that year would have cost $1,300, or a little more than $2,600 adjusted for inflation. In today’s economy affected by a severe memory shortage, you can get a crappy machine, but not a bad price.
At least, you don’t have to worry about getting your RAM and maintaining this structure. Maingear and other pre-configured PC builders have a “BYO RAM” program, where you can pay for a PC and send your own memory sticks to be installed. In an email, Maingear told Gizmodo, “The Retro98 is not part of Maingear’s BYO RAM program. The units only come with RAM from Kingston. The PCs are already pre-built.”
Maingear said there are only 32 of these units available in the base models, along with six more expensive liquid-cooling versions. You don’t have to pay through the nose to get that nostalgic PC gaming experience you want. At the same time, we enjoyed several previous Maingear builds. If you’re too lazy to get your stuff (and believe us, that GPU is still going to be expensive), then Maingear’s machines might be what you’re looking for.
