First post, by PleaseHelpMeAdmin
Hi everyone,
This is my first post here. First of all let me say I just love to see forums still being a thing. Almost every forum community I've been a part of in the past 25 years have died off so I'm glad to see Vogons so active. Been lurking for some time but I've recently been active in buying retro gaming systems. Currently done with a few Win7/XP builds that I'm very happy with and almost done with an SS7 build. Might share those later. Diving into older systems can get a bit technical and I really have to delve deep into my memory from back when to recognize everything. I started building my own pc's when I was 11 in the late 90's during P1/2 era with spare parts and used to have a 286 and 486 at home. Didn't think to tinker with the latter two myself but now I've finally decided I want to build one so I'm figuring out how get the parts and configuration right.
Here's what I'm planning to do with it:
- Run MS-DOS 6.22
- Run Windows 3.11
- 2D/3D Gaming
- Benchmarking ISA/PCI/VLB cards and maybe different CPU/Cache setups
- Some overclocking
- Possibly some workstation use
- LAN-use for Doom
Requirements:
- ISA/PCI/VLB slots
- Socket 3 with support for 3.3V (DX4-100/120) and POD
- ISA NIC for offload on CPU
- 256/512kB of Cacheable DATA SRAM
- 32MB RAM
Nice to have's:
SXGA and 132-column text mode- On-board P/S2
- Sockets for SRAM/Battery (either coin cell or Dallas chip)
What I currently have in mind:
Intel A80486DX4-100 / Pentium OD 83 / AMD Am486DX4-120
Gigabyte GA-486IM (Alternatives would be the PVI-486SP3, 486-VIP-IO for on-board IDE but I would have to splash out an additional 150-200 euros)
2x16MB 60ns unbuffered non-parity FPM-RAM
256kB of DATA SRAM + 256kB of TAG SRAM 15ns 2-1-1-1 (suitable for 40MHz FSB?)
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5429 Tseng Labs ET4000/W32p VLB 2MB
Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 ISA + 8MB EDO-RAM
3COM EtherLink III 3C509B-C ISA
WD Caviar WD84AA 8.4 GB
Winbond - Multi I/O Controller
200W AT PSU
Early 90's SVGA /XGA CRT
How feasible is this concept? What choices should I reconsider or what better alternatives are there? From what I can read in the manual this looks to be alright. I'm just curious about what the requirements would be to boot from disk, since there is no on-board IDE on this Gigabyte. Is a PCI P-ATA card recommended and what options are there for storage? I'm not too familiar with performance differences on old tech. Also is the selected SRAM and FPM-RAM suitable for 40MHz FSB? Thanks for your thoughts.
Off-topic question:
Where can I post something with regards to my account? I've previously created two accounts which are unable to activate. This account is linked to an e-mail I never use and the admins haven't answered for weeks after several requests for help.
Thanks a lot guys!
W7-1: i7 990X / Rampage III / HD7990
W7-2: i7 970 / EX58-UD5 / HD5970
W7-3: C2Q Q9550 / X48T-DQ6 / HD4870X2
WXP1: FX-55 / A8R32 / X1900XTX
WXP2: A64 3700+/ K8N / X850XT-PE
WXP3: P4 3.0 / P4C800 / FX5950U
W98: MMX233 / K6BV3+ / Geforce DDR