Back in the day, when Windows 98 reigned supreme, we actually thought beige plastic was the right kind of material for all our PCs. And judging by my dirty black aluminum laptops, we might be right. We’re coming up on the 30-year anniversary of that old OS, so maybe it’s time to take a look at the prebuilt PC maker The latest Retro98 by Maingear tower with respect to a not very expensive era in PC gaming history.

The Retro98 tower is a sequel to Maingear’s previous nostalgic build, the Retro95 from last year. While that pre-configured PC is barely big enough to fit a modern GPU, the new mid-sized tower takes a full ATX motherboard. There are other nostalgic accoutrements inside the large beige box, including the traditional “ketchup-and-mustard” electrical cables. The front I/O port, which includes two USB-A 3.2, one USB-C, and one headphone jack, is hidden behind the top-end Maingear logo. Oh, and there’s a handy LED fan speed display and turbo button on the outside.

You’re going to ask me about the floppy drive, aren’t you? I’m sorry to say, this PC won’t let you say the traditional hymn, “don’t copy that floppy,” as you retrieve your old version of Leisure suit Larry on floppy disk. The chassis of the Retro98 has been refitted Case SilverStone FLP02. Those first three trays are 5.25-inch expansion bays with adapter cages. In the most expensive version of this PC, Maingear has placed a pump and reservoir combo in the space behind two of the bays. I personally would be better served with an optical disc drive so I could plug my old copy into Planescape Torture and then work around the clock to make it run. You can install a modern USB floppy drive and hook it up inside. Unfortunately, the bay doors don’t open with the satisfying “fwap” you may remember from 27 years ago.

There are three Retro98 configurations, though they will cost you if you want something to push the frame rates. A model with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 GPU will set you back $2,500. Another with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU and an RTX 5080 GPU costs $3,500. If you want the latest heat, the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU and the hulking RTX 5090 GPUit will cost $5,000. Each of these models has 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage.

The “unapologetically overkill” rendition comes with open-loop liquid cooling co-developed by Alphacool, plus all the top-end specs along with 64GB of RAM and 4TB of faster Gen5 SSD. Prepare to tremble; that version will ask for $9,800. Back in the day, a first-generation Apple iMac released that same year would have cost you $1,300, or more like $2,600 adjusted for inflation. In today’s economy affected by severe memory lossyou get a nostalgic machine, but not a nostalgic price.

At the very least, you don’t have to worry about getting your own RAM and storage for this build. Maingear and some other pre-configured PC building companies has a “BYO RAM” programwhere you can pay for a PC and send them your own memory sticks for them to insert. In an email, Maingear told Gizmodo, “Retro98 is not part of Maingear’s BYO RAM program. The units have RAM exclusively from Kingston.

Maingear says there are only 32 of these units available in base models, plus six in the more expensive liquid-cooled versions. You don’t have to pay through the nose to find that sense of PC gaming nostalgia you’re looking for. At the same time, we had fun some of the said Maingear previous constructions. If you’re too lazy to get your own components (and believe us, that’s the GPU still expensive), then Maingear’s engines might be what you’re looking for.