VOGONS


First post, by Cyberdyne

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I made a nice litle project.
486DX2-66
32MB RAM
Sound Blaster 16
Cirrus Video
LAN
5GB HDD
Self made PSU.
Dell propertary motherboard.
And all that is crammed in an old DVD player.

Pictures:
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imgp0469r.jpg
imgp0468v.jpg

It plays my old game Collection, and old operating system collection. Hard drive has been divided 1GB 1GB 1GB 2GB partitions.

1. DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11
2. Windows NT 3.51
3. Windows 98SE Lite
4. Games and Installation media backup.

Reply 1 of 13, by ratfink

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Love it, especially the self-made psu.

Is the riser a dell part?

Reply 2 of 13, by Cyberdyne

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No the riser is just standard 1-to-2 ISA riser, found it somewhere.
I only sawed few top connectors off. Because it did not fit, only 2, and only one usable, for Sound Blaster. Second one is facing other side, if you remove the hard drive, you can use it for something. I tested my selfmade COVOX thingie in there.

Reply 3 of 13, by MaxWar

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Dude, this is ludicrous, l really an awesome mod! I do not see any cd or floppy drive however, do you have a convenient way of installing/file transfer without lan ? Not that its big deal braker but you do not want to have to replace/format that hdd i suppose 😜

Reply 4 of 13, by GXL750

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Now tell us about the LCD monitor in the background. That sparked my curiosity.

Reply 5 of 13, by Cyberdyne

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The LCD is ripped from somekind of industrial computer BETA Betascan. And moddified to stand on a table. It shows all resolutions OK. Its small i have not measured, but i think 12"-14". It takes 12V and its for testing purposes. I can assemble computers and test them.

To add files ther are cables for secondary HDD or CD, but only if the case is open. It has a standard floppy connector, but something is wrong. A (primary) drive allways gives errors. Only B (secondary) drive works. Maybe there is something different with its pinout. Or maybe its A (primary) motor drive or head enable pin is fried.

On the back of the computer i have external power suply, BLUE COM PORT, is not what it seems, it has +5v +12v and GND in it. Now my other project is making external B floppy drive from the secondary WHITE GAMEPORT. Pin count is suficient.

Reply 6 of 13, by Cyberdyne

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PS. No need to format entire drive. Because of the 4 partitions in there. Last 2GB partition is like backup. Firts 3 1GB partitions are here to play around. And you can allways go to some Abandonware site and download new games 😉

Windows NT 3.51 and Firefox 2.x is perfect for that. Works on a 486.

DOS Arachne is too weird.

Windows 3.11 and IE 5.0 is freezing all the time.

mIRC and FTP works also. Only PLEASE someone make MSN messenger for DOS or Windows 3.1, or even NT 3.51 (All my friends are there!)

Reply 7 of 13, by sgt76

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Cyberdyne wrote:

And you can allways go to some Abandonware site and download new games 😉

Dude, nice build but maybe you're new here and don't know the rules. Just to give you a heads up, such discussions on abandonware are not tolerated here.

www.hotud.org

You'd better not bring that up again before the mods clamp down. Cheers!

Reply 8 of 13, by Tetrium

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Thats one heck of a build you got there!

Sure scary with the PSU so opened up and such though, you'd better not touch it if the thing is turned on

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 9 of 13, by Svenne

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That looks pretty neat. It's amazing how you managed to fit a complete retro rig into such a small case. As Tetrium said though, the PSU looks really dangerous. You should really put some shielding around it.
Also, how well does cooling work? I can't see any air slits on the cover.

Intel C2D 2.8 GHz @ 3.0 GHz | ASUS P5KPL | ASUS GTS250 1 GB | 4GB DDR2-800 | 500 GB SATA | Win 7 Pro/Ubuntu 9.10

Reply 10 of 13, by MatthewBrian

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Is the LAN and video connectors onboard? If it is not, how do you connect those cards and arrange those ports into a nice backplate? (I don't see any LAN cards or video cards on the ISA slot -- only the soundcard. Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Reply 11 of 13, by nemesis

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Cyberdyne wrote:

It has a standard floppy connector, but something is wrong. A (primary) drive allways gives errors. Only B (secondary) drive works. Maybe there is something different with its pinout. Or maybe its A (primary) motor drive or head enable pin is fried.

I've had a very similar problem with a proprietary motherboard from AT&T computer. Only now mine is so screwed up it shows the 1.44mb A drive as a 1.2mb B drive no matter what configuration I use. The degeneration leads me to believe that it's damaged parts and not just a configuration. Of course yours could be totaly different, just thought I'd share my experience with a similar issue. If you get it fixed please post on it so I can try the same thing. 😀

I know this has been said already, but it can't be said enough: AWESOME BUILD! I love every part of it. I even had considered a similar project a while ago but ran into problems with the PSU... I salute you.

Reply 13 of 13, by Cyberdyne

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I only plug the computer it, when the lid is closed, officially. 😜

I am an ABB Engineer and know the dangers of electricity. 😊

Air slit are on the sides. 486 66MHz cpu is ice cold with this cooler. These old motherboard also dissipate allmost no heat. Only PSU is gnerating some heat. And HDD is generating also. Bust there is a smal powerful vent between HDD and PSU.

Lan AMD PCnet and Cirrus 5434 are integrated. Only Sound Blaster is added.

Well.... flopies are allmost redundant anyway. Only for booting, if you mess up your HDD. But maybe i´ll look in to it. Some other day.

The main thing is, that it is running Wolfenstein 3D with perfect sound. And Supaplex with perfect smooth scrolling. 😎