How important is thermal paste for these builds? I don't remember ever using it back in the day but is it generally recommended with these chips? I could throw some Arctic MX-4 on these process along with these cheapo Socket 3 heatsinks:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231175128592?_trksid= … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Opinions??

Artex wrote:

How important is thermal paste for these builds? I don't remember ever using it back in the day but is it generally recommended with these chips? I could throw some Arctic MX-4 on these process along with these cheapo Socket 3 heatsinks:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231175128592?_trksid= … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Opinions??

Its really not necessary with <5w TDP
I am currently using a passive AM2 sink and the CPU never gets too hot to touch with it just sitting on it

Agreed,

I know a 3,45 Volt Cyrix DX2-66 can run for years without any cooling at all.
A 3 Volt 486 DX4-100 really needs a heatsink fixed to it. At which point the heatsink gets a little warm, but not hot.
A fan will cool it more, so does paste, but it is optional IMO.

Well...not a good start today. Can't get video on the MB-8433UUD. Tried several processors, memory, etc. 🙁

Artex wrote:

Well...not a good start today. Can't get video on the MB-8433UUD. Tried several processors, memory, etc. 🙁

Tried a different video card?

False alarm (thank God!!) One of the memory SIMMS was a little loose so I had to re-seat it. Here are the results of SpeedSys..

BIOSTAR MB-8433UUD-A
AMD AM5x86-P75 / AMD X-5-133ADZ
32MB EDO RAM
256KB L2 Cache
STB S3 Trio64V+ (2MB)
4GB CF Card (CF->IDE Adapter)

The memory throughput looks low but the L1 speed is good

Here are the results from my 2nd build:

AMD Am486 DX4-100 (A80486DX4-100SV88)
ASUS VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev. 2.0
STB Lightspeed ET4000/W32P VLB (2MB)
16MB RAM (FPM)
256KB L2 Cache
540MB IDE Hard Drive on VLB Promise IDE Controller

Speedsys doesn't tell much. Can you download the Phil's VGA benchmark and run that instead? Phil's Ultimate VGA Benchmark Database Project

Yep - will upload the results tomorrow for you.

I never got around to posting my complete systems. Since you only mentioned you had a 486SX-25, I would suggest going this route to fill all your 4 AT cases:

System 1 - Not many have a working DX-50 (hopefully the board will handle it with your VLB card):
Intel A80486DX-50 - 50Mhz
Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 - Rev 2.0 - 1994 - SiS 407/471 (ISA/VLB) - This board has FSB setting for 50mhz btw
One of the VLB cards that can run at 50mhz FSB basically, not all can do this so you would have to try them all.

System 2 - Classic DX2-66 build, the definition of the 486:
Asus PVI-486SP3
Intel A80486DX2-66 (SL Enhanced) - 66Mhz
PCI or VLB graphics card of your choice 😀

System 3 - Maxed out PCI build
Biostar MB-8433UUD-A - Rev 3.1 - 1997 - UMC 8881/8886 (PCI/ISA)
Cyrix - 5x86-120GP - 120Mhz or AMD-X5-133ADW
PCI graphics card of your choice (I would go with Voodoo3 or Nvidia)
3DFX Voodoo so you can report back to us what Glide games that are playable on a 486 😉

System 4 - Maxed out VLB buid
Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 - Rev 2.1
Cyrix - 5x86-120GP - 120Mhz or AMD-X5-133ADW
TSENG ET4000/W32P - STB Lightspeed VLB Video card (with 135MHz RAMDAC) (1993) (hopefully it will benchmark on top, but test all your VLB cards please to find the fastest!)

If you don't want to similar maxed out builds, then I would build a early 90's highend DX-33 system.

Are there any DOS utilities to grab screenshots by chance?

PCXdump is probably the best one. But it is not as easy as making Screenshots in windows. About SpeedSys screenshots: When images contain large areas of a single color, they are best converted to GIF or PNG, instead of JPeg. Looks better and is smaller still.

gerwin wrote:

PCXdump is probably the best one. But it is not as easy as making Screenshots in windows. About SpeedSys screenshots: When images contain large areas of a single color, they are best converted to GIF or PNG, instead of JPeg. Looks better and is smaller still.

Awesome! I'll try out that utility and try to use GIF or PNG moving forward for these screenshots.

Yeah, and maybe dig up the latest version 4.78 of SpeedSys. I noticed your A80486DX4-100SV8B is not recognized as an AMD part in the current version. It says CPUID not supported?

Be sure to try out how low you can set the DRAM (and CACHE) waitstates in the BIOS.

Was wondering about that as well. I grabbed the latest version and will be spending some time on the two systems today. I'll upload a more complete set of benchmark results using the updated version of SpeedSys and of course Phil's excellent home-brew benchmarking suite.

Spent some time this morning benchmarking these two builds. It's definitely easier working with the MB-8433UUD system - argh. The second system (VLB-based) will not properly recognize any of the hard drives I've thrown at it. I ended up having some success using the CF->IDE adapter with a 4GB CF card attached to a VLB IDE controller, but even then it only 'sees' 1.8GB or so. SpeedSys 4.78 still doesn't recognize a CPUID for the AMD DX4-100 processor. Everything 'just works' with the newer PCI-based Biostar board.

System 1 Specs:
BIOSTAR MB-8433UUD-A
AMD AM5x86-P75 / AMD X-5-133ADZ
32MB EDO RAM
256KB L2 Cache
STB S3 Trio64V+ (2MB)
4GB CF Card (CF->IDE Adapter)

System 1 Benchmark Results:
DOOM: 2134 gametics in 1776 realtics
Superscape: 704 fps
PC Player Bench: 17.7
Quake: 969 Frames 84.4 seconds 11.5 FPS

System 2 Specs:
AMD Am486 DX4-100 (A80486DX4-100SV88)
ASUS VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev. 2.0
STB Lightspeed ET4000/W32P VLB (2MB)
16MB RAM (FPM)
256KB L2 Cache
4GB CF Card (CF->IDE Adapter) on VLB Promise IDE Controller

System 2 Benchmark Results:
DOOM: 2134 gametics in 2087 realtics
Superscape: 635 fps
PC Player Bench: 13.4
Quake: 969 Frames 110.7 seconds 8.7 FPS

Looks good! If you aim for 100 MHz I would go with the Intel DX4. BIOS support is usually better, it gets detected most of the time correctly and the chip is very fast, faster clock for clock compared to the 5x86.

Would you be willing to compare,

Asus PCI/I-486SP3G - Rev 1.8 - 1994 - Intel S8423TX
AGAINST
Biostar MB-8433UUD

using identical hardware? Preferably an AMD X5-133.

I am curious about these Saturn II boards 1) because nobody seems to be using them here, 2) because they support interleave memory, and 3) because wiki claims they have PCI 2.1 support. Mainly, I am wondering if the interleave memory option will have any benefit compared to the UMC 8881. The SiS and UMC PCI 486 boards don't seem to have interleave memory, perhaps because it didn't have much benefit compared to the added cost/complexity to implement?

Your VLB system is too slow.
Write back seems to be disabled too.