Quake Mods: Finding The Sweet Spot

It's time to go back to Quake. Hell, it's time to play the rest of Quake - I've only ever known the shareware version, which I played to death. The original, in all its brown'n'blocky glory, looks pretty much a mess on my 1440p monitor, which overcomes a certain determination to be a purist. So I delved into the world of mods. Turned out I could make id's old dear look what some might consider to be amazing, and certainly a whole lot younger than its advanced years - but at what cost? Excluding that of my own life, which resident Dylan goes electric protester hardcore Quake enthusiast Alice has threatened to take as a result of me playing the game in anything other than lowest-res software mode.