Nice looking system. If I can afford to some day (and have the space) I'd like to get a 386 myself. I totally get why you went with that case 😁

That's pretty interesting. I used to have the same case, the same CD-ROM drive and the same motherboard. If it weren't for the fact I sold them all off separately years back I'd swear you were the buyer!

I recall that motherboard is one of the few 386 boards that can go up to 64MB. Though, I found the BIOS lacking and the system felt a tad sluggish even after tuning.

thanks lunarg. i may change a lot of parts in this machine, but i'm holding on to this case forever. that switch is just so nice!

well how about that? i did buy the case and motherboard together off ebay, though the cd drive was from one of my old computers. i don't suppose you could tell me anything about the case? it's has no real identifying marks and i'm curious who made it, because i've never seen anything with a switch like this before (not that i've looked particularity hard).

i actually never noticed the huge ceiling for ram on this board before. the front pair of banks are directly under the floppy bays though, with no clearance for anything but 1MB sticks.

i'm not particularly attached to the board, at any rate. any you'd recommend more highly?

You know, I can't really recall which motherboard I sold with my old case. Maybe you did buy it from me after all.

The case is just a standard AT case made by Enlight corporation. This particular one was originally sold as part of a DTK computer, which was a pretty big OEM in the late 80s and early 90s. The big red switch was the industry standard power switch from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. This Soyo board obviously did not originally come in this case, because DTK would have used their own components.

I am actually in the market for a new 386 motherboard myself. I can't highly recommend anything, because all the boards seem to have their downfalls. The board you have should be a pretty decent one. It uses the ETEQ chipset which was one of the better ones, it's made by a big name brand, and it takes up to 64MB of RAM. I haven't yet found any 386 motherboards that stand out as speed demons, but the SiS Rabbit based boards seem to be slightly faster.

I would try running the board with a utility like AMIsetup. I seem to recall the BIOS options being limited, so maybe there are some hidden settings that can be tuned.

Just so you know, this board doesn't officially support the 486DLC, so I wouldn't bother with one of those unless you have a cache coherency interposer.

This is the photo I used to sell my system about four years ago. Are you the buyer?

LunarG wrote:

Nice looking system. If I can afford to some day (and have the space) I'd like to get a 386 myself. I totally get why you went with that case 😁

Then ill think you need to hurry up, otherwise you wouldnt find anything anymore.. These system / parts become more scarces every year you wait longer..

@ topic starter.. I really love your system. It only needs to be very good cleaned with some air canisters.

I like your videocard a lot! And what a solid motherboard!

hah! yeah, that was me that bought it. i've tinkered around with it a bit since then but haven't needed to change much, it's a solid machine. i'm second-guessing myself on the cd drive now, though - the one in there now is compaq-branded, which i thought came from an old compaq i had. but it looks like i just kept the one you sent it with.

no intentions of plugging a 486DLC or any other processor into this board, except maybe a 387 - but probably not unless it's a working pull bought from someone here.

i would really like to get a new isa controller card, though. the mouse port on the current one has fallen apart. there's a couple of these on ebay, one of these... anyone have any advice on this?

Interesting. I could have sworn I sold all these parts separately, but I guess not. I kind of regret having to sell that system, but I've done two international moves and anything redundant had to go. I think I bought that motherboard with the intention of running a DLC, but it didn't have the cache control lines and failed badly. It should be pretty decent as a pure 386 though.

I quite liked that old Enlight desktop case. But you're right about the drive cage being a little too low. You should be able to squeeze 4MB chips in there if you use low profile 3 chip parts. This case also uses non standard drive 5.25" drive rails. Consider yourself lucky that I included all three sets! I originally just had one pair, but I managed to salvage extras by dumpster diving. I think I recall the case is in the early stages of yellowing. It was beautiful when brand new (I think I have a picture of it 1994ish), and a little retrobright might restore some of the original lustre. I think it's a good example of what nice 386/486 systems looked like in 1992.

I'm kind of surprised that the controller card fell apart. It looks like it was my old goldstar prime IIc, which was a pretty solid card. If you need to replace I recommend either another one of those or a winbond. Whatever you get, make sure you can get jumper settings. The first and third card you listed seem okay. Is the first one winbond based?

With that power switch I find myself wondering if that was an older case retrofitted with a newer board

Back in the day I think DTK made pretty good stuff. I still have a DTK socket 7 board that I picked up at a computer show cheap

DTK used that case, and very similar looking Enlight models for anything from 286 to 486. As the sticker on the back said, it was originally a 486. So it's actually a newer case retrofitted with an older board.

Big red rocker switches were still common in the early 486 days.

Interesting system, and nice case!

I also have this very motherboard... have not tested it extensively for measuring performance but it runs well enough, I do like the additional 2 SIMM bank feature... being able to upgrade the DRAM content to 64MB.

Back around 92 or 93, my uncle had a 386DX-33MHz in a nice big case like that (not the same one). That thing was just incredibly awesome for playing the early 90s VGA/Sound Blaster DOS games of the time. It was 200% more awesome than our slimline 386SX-16 at home. It felt like a powerhouse.

Just so you know, you should replace the AA batteries in that holder every few years. Alkaline batteries definitely leak over time.

http://i.imgur.com/WrByCFr.jpg […]
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Love that case, reminds me of the GEM 386 I had years ago that I converted into a PIII eventually. I wonder if the same company made it. Mine was a clone of a Deskpro though.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Just so you know, you should replace the AA batteries in that holder every few years. Alkaline batteries definitely leak over time.

I would recommend to wrap some tape around that open battery box.. If the batterys will corrode. It could fall to down on the ISA cards.. So the cards or the boards could be effected.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

It uses the ETEQ chipset which was one of the better ones, it's made by a big name brand, and it takes up to 64MB of RAM.

I've never heard of this ETEQ chipset brand, but how well do they compare to the OPTi 386 chipsets?

Oh wow, a prodesigner II.
Solid ISA video card, and not the easiest to find.

IMO 12MB is enough for a 386, at least for anything that runs fast enough. If you have more RAM you'd probably mostly use it for cache and EMS.
Also this should avoid issues with the memory window for the VESA LFB (remember ISA cards are restricted to an address range of 16MB). I don't know how compatible the BIOS setting "Memory Hole at 15M-16M" is.