Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-06-27, 00:10

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Somehow managed to find one of my dream motherboards, and cross it off the list. Never thought an AMI Mark V Baby Screamer would pop up. Gonna make for one interesting 386 setup, likely with a 486SXL at the helm. For now, seller’s pics. 674AA709-1BFD-4379-96A2-799D5A7EE608.jpeg 0F8CCDD2-E110-431C- …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-06-26, 20:38

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@pshipkov Apologies about the delay, but I did some more testing. I used a PGA132 SXL-40, like the one pictured here (actually, this is one of the two I have in my possession now). I don't have an SXL2-50, but the SXL-40 is the same pretty much; I don't know if it can do 55MHz, but it can do 50MHz …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-06-23, 18:36

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Alright, I pulled out my MS-3124 after storing it away for some time and decided to give it a go with a PGA132 SXL-40 for the heck of it. The board worked pretty well, all things told. I didn't notice any stability issues, although CTCM1.6n hung. CTCM1.5b seemed okay, which is generally a measure of …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-06-19, 14:37

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

While I have a brief moment, I wanted to add something about the MS-3124. I’ve had this board for a while and I can indeed confirm the difficulties with SXL CPUs. DLC parts also do not work well, if at all. However, this board is very strange insofar as it isn’t truly capable of taking a PGA168 CPU. …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-05-02, 15:58

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I’ve been thinking about this issue and wondering if there’s something else at play. The OPTi 495SLC and 495XLC are, from what I understand, pre-bug fixed versions of the OPTi 495SX. The -SX is a little bit different, in that it can seemingly run much tighter cache and DRAM timings out of the box. I …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-05-01, 18:27

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

You're quite welcome! I'm glad that the datasheet proved useful. The thing about the 50MHz, 66MHz, and 80MHz options is that this board is using them as clock-doubled inputs, divided internally by the IMI SC425, so as to feed 25MHz, 33MHz, and 40MHz FSBs for 386-class CPUs. From what I gather, most …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-04-30, 23:56

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

My pleasure! I have v1.2 of this board, equipped identically but for the chipset--mine uses the OPTi 495XLC, which-from what I can tell-only adds support for Cyrix-specific L1 WB features for their 486S and 486DX2/4 series with the non-standard, non-Intel pinout. The jumper layout and other ICs are …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-04-28, 17:59

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Glad to be of service! I apologize that it took so long to get the numbers squared. The board itself proved to be part of the issue, in that it just had so many quirks and problems. Getting this board setup to where it worked well was 90-95% of the battle; that's not to speak discouragingly of the …

---

Re: Micro Conversions Game Wizard Voodoo 2 Bracket Situation

Posted on 2023-04-27, 00:37

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Not to necro an old thread of mine, but I found a reasonable and simple solution to this: The PCI bracket from a Matrox Millennium fits, as should that from a Mystique. I had a dead Millennium, and figured it was worth a shot. It's important to note that the metal screw tabs must be bent toward the …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-04-27, 00:18

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@pshipkov Excellent work on the 386 hardware. Your results are invaluable and your time is much appreciated! Thank you for this Herculean effort-it has been quite exciting, to say the least, and I am very interested in seeing where your next stop is hardware-wise! Thank you for doing this indeed! :D …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-04-11, 00:00

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A freak $35 deal led me to this beauty. I'm interested to see how it compares with its VRAM brother, presuming it works. There's no difference (other than in DOOM) amongst the Mach32s, but I believe this to be a tad faster in DOS than the Graphics Pro Turbo... Mach64DRAM_Seller.jpg I've been …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-04-10, 22:49

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A freak $35 deal led me to this beauty. I'm interested to see how it compares with its VRAM brother, presuming it works. There's no difference (other than in DOOM) amongst the Mach32s, but I believe this to be a tad faster in DOS than the Graphics Pro Turbo... Filename Mach64DRAM_Seller.jpg File …

---

Re: Asus PVI-486SP3 v.1.22 and 66MHz FSB

Posted on 2023-03-23, 15:43

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Interesting. This inspired me to check the ASUS VL/I-SV2GX4’s MX8315PC clockgen datasheet. Low-and-behold, it has 60MHz and 66MHz options too. Intriguing stuff. Does anyone know if there is a PCI divider on this board, like the LS-486E? EDIT: Your Intel DX4 at 2 x 66MHz seems really fast. It’s not …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-23, 15:10

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

two dallas chips ? and two fpu's ? Exactly what rasz_pl said. A lot of EISA boards have “less-conventional” Dallas setups, since they need some sort of battery-backed NVRAM to store EISA configuration information. Most use a 1387/1488/something of that sort, but this uses a separate NVRAM module …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-03-23, 00:51

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Picked up this neat AIR 486SE board. Lots of discrete PALs/GALs/logic on this one. Seems to have a Dolch-branded Phoenix BIOS. It needs a new Dallas RTC and I’d bet money the NVRAM’s battery is shot. It runs a fixed 33MHz FSB, probably derived via the 66.67 MHz oscillator. I’ve been curious about …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-03-20, 16:12

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

These dates really make the situation even funnier! I am kind of surprised that Viatris never launched a trademark suit and shut this down! After all, Dolby sued PC Chips for their HX Pro chipset, which was just their renaming of the ALi Aladdin III. As far as I am aware, this is not exactly VIA's …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-03-04, 01:29

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@AnonymousCoward Agreed. I don't know why, but it seems that OPTi always pushed integration as a "premium" marketing feature. I guess they had good sales guys haha. --- @BitWrangler I'm excited to see where this beast goes. Hopefully you can wake it up and scare away any evil spirits preventing POST …

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-03-02, 17:18

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I think the level of integration designates the Premium moniker. Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine. Seems like the 601 is just a buffer chip, but, unlike the 602, lacks an RTC.

---

Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2023-03-02, 15:39

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Efar has a somewhat interesting history as a re-labeler. From what I gather, based on the work of the guys at The Retro Web, it seems that, for example, the Efar 802GL is a clone (?) of the SiS471 . Note the board linked here that has two variants on the same PCB. One is equipped with the 802GL and …

---

Re: BIOS Wanted for FIC 486 VE-V EISA/VLB Motherboard

Posted on 2023-02-22, 01:59

by

by WJG6260

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the tip! I tinkered with it some more and got things going. I had to set System BIOS Cacheable to disabled, and then it booted just fine and recognized all 1024k of L2. It’s weird to me that it will only boot with System BIOS Cacheable set as disabled and yet 0ws on cache and DRAM is fine …

---