Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-01-02, 01:46

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I've run into this on some motherboards. Usually the first SIMM is closer to the northbridge chipset. Yes, this is the logical thing, but in this case the upper slot if further away from the chip. In this sentence does "later BIOSes"refer to the Asus PVI board or the Lucky Star LSD board? If the …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-01-02, 00:39

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

So i was baking today. Not pastries and other eatable substances but one of those fast VLSI-200 286 motherboards. Its health deteriorating gradually - not booting up every time and so on. If i bend it gently here and there it would eventually wake up until go silent again. At some point it …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2022-01-01, 20:17

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I am looking at the same manual. Both 64kx8 and 128kx8 work. Wanted to check if either one worked better for you, etc. Back to LSD. Stared a bit longer at your last notes and screenshots, compared them to my previous posts and ran some brief tests here. 1. The 20.4 fps in Quake 1 was achieved with …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2021-12-31, 18:52

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Yes this is for 60/66 FSB. Matrox Millennium 2064W R3 (but R2 is same 100%). So far this is the best PCI card for DOS graphics on 486 class hardware. Keep in mind that there are at least 2 BIOS versions available. The later BIOS version helps with Quake 1 frame rate. Most likely the 0.2 fps …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2021-12-31, 16:40

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Good stuff Chadti99. Nice to see the mod ticking. Just checked here. WB mode is possible regardless of CACHE WRITE CYCLE value. On this board WT mode is same or faster than WB. For Q1 specifically it matters which video card is used. If MGA - 20.4 fps in WT and 20.3 in WB. If Voodoo3 - 20.3 in both …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2021-12-30, 04:52

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Thanks. Vanilla Quake 1 needs minimum of 6Mb RAM, but don't loose faith - Feipoa aims at 2x20MHz with SXL2 CPU and RAM extension card in addition to the 4Mb on-board. There is a slim chance it works. That's were we get to see these frames per minute. For now i will let him take the flack on that one …

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Re: The World's Fastest 486

Posted on 2021-12-28, 17:55

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

@Sphere478 We are talking about the same thing. Close proximity of these hot/cold surfaces causes rapid heat transfer through the surrounding air and we get to the dew point quickly. The Pacific ocean is next door, so air humidity is high here. We either fill the gaps and surrounding areas with some …

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Re: The World's Fastest 486

Posted on 2021-12-28, 09:39

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks @BitWrangler. @Sphere478 Looked at this stuff quit a bit. Also posted bunch of findings in another thread. Based on my observations I am inclined to think that water condensation happens because of the close proximity of surfaces with significant temperature difference. If the CPU needs 0-5C …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2021-12-28, 09:10

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Posted a while ago about what was supposed to be the final chapter of peak 286 overclocking to 27.5MHz and 0 wait states + other performance improvements. Link here . But ever since then i felt that the VLSI-200 system can handle 30MHz at 0 wait-states. Achieved it today while looking at some other …

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Re: The World's Fastest 486

Posted on 2021-12-28, 04:22

by

by pshipkov

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

12v Peltier will need EXTENSIVE air/humidity control. We can go there eventually but let's leave it for 2022. As a first step we need to determine the highest temperature past which the cpu gets unstable. From what I see this is around 5C, give or take a few based on the quality of the die. If we …

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Re: The World's Fastest 486

Posted on 2021-12-28, 01:35

by

by pshipkov

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

@chadti99 I also noticed that Voodoo3 gets us +0.1 fps at 200mhz compared to MGA, but still a bit slower in Doom for example. What ram you are using to be a problem for 200mhz.

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2021-12-27, 07:06

by

by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

OK, so it is the L1:WB issue that you are referencing. If that is the case, I've no issue whatsoever. I've installed W95c, NT4, various software, tested games, benchmarks, etc. No problemo armano. Do you recall what BIOS version is on your 2842? I'd have to double check, but I think mine is v2.0. …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2021-12-26, 21:24

by

by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

My last few posts were messy. First i talked about Adaptex AHA-8240 instead of 2840, then kept talking about L2 WB issue with the SCSI adapters instead of L1 WB cache issue. Got too checked-out for Christmas. Fixed the occurrences. --- Good chance you got higher AHA-2840 results because you managed …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2021-12-26, 09:01

by

by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Yes, using Acard scsi to ide adapter with CF cards. Strongly prefer CF cards over mechanical HDDs. CF are just too practical to avoid. I think the issue with L1 WB cache and Adaptec AHA-2840# is specific to this motherboard (or maybe the SIS 471 chipset). At least with several other boards/chipsets …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2021-12-26, 06:52

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I messed up the number of the SCSI controller - i meant 2840. Remember trying that jumper but experienced reliability issues on the same board with same CPU. That Adaptec SCSI controller was slower than good VLB EIDE ones from that time, so i moved on and didn't look at the problem since then. Are …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2021-12-26, 05:27

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I was unable to test the EIDE interface because cannot find a driver. No idea how the cache chips are used. SCSI perf is a bit lower than Adaptec 2840VL, so unlikely the cache is doing something extraordinary there. Otherwise the whole package is nice - the entire I/O shebang on a single card. There …

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Re: Hello, World! :D - Robert B's PC builds - oogle away freely :)

Posted on 2021-12-26, 05:15

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Thanks for the clarification. I figured their purpose is something like that.

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Re: SiS or UMC Motherboard for 486?

Posted on 2021-12-26, 05:12

by

by pshipkov

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have all the respect for Michal Necasek, but this particular article is off. That SIS board is incomparable to Alaris Cougar. It is just a next-gen product on a different level. SIS 496/497 is the better 486 chipset compared to UMC UM8881. But make sure you pick the right motherboard.

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Re: Hello, World! :D - Robert B's PC builds - oogle away freely :)

Posted on 2021-12-26, 03:20

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by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I am well aware of the agp standards. Thanks for the link, but didn't find anything in there about physically blocking part of the port. It is not that important really.

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Re: Hello, World! :D - Robert B's PC builds - oogle away freely :)

Posted on 2021-12-26, 01:54

by

by pshipkov

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I don't remember seeing this before. Searching for "agp blanking" keeps returning display issues. So what it is ? Protection from uncareful users putting cards in the wrong place ?

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