few CPUs are junk. It's a great choice for an early ISA only Socket 1 board. They are great for non-3D/light 3D DOS gaming. A dozen might be a bit overkill, and normally people will be looking for a DX2-66, DX4-100, or DX4-120. They have many advantages over a 386, like cache, improved efficiency, and support for VLB.

Whatever you do, don't give it to a scrapper. No CPU deserves to be melted down for gold. 🙁

11 of them to be precise. A mixture of SX411, SX826 and SX679. They don't appear to have been used. I won't throw them away since they take up little space, but I was wondering what on earth could be done with them. Maybe some benchmarking project? Maybe get hold of a 80487 and see how the system runs with/without it.

I wish someone would give me a dozen DX4-120s.

Well.... When running 486's, I think the best for 486 era gaming are something like 486dx2-66 to 486dx2-80.
So anything above and below that, are mostly for benching, collections and project machine's.
With project machines, I mean something like building a stable 50mhz FSB, VLB-system.
Or doing the fastest 486 class machine. Wich in the end, can be done better when going for a P1 setup.

EDIT:
When you have been handed that many 486sx25 CPU's, then why not sell most of them and buy a 486dx4-120?

I had a look on eBay and although there are a couple listed there they don't appear to be hot sellers... I'll probably just keep them.

OT: I also recently acquired a ST486DX2-66GS. I don't know anything about this chip. Is it faster than an Intel 80486DX2-66?

Well.... 120 editions are nowere to be found on eBay.
Yesterday I got one through shere luck, so out of curiosity I searched eBay for 120's.
My guess is that they are indeed becomming really hard to find now.
None to be found. So I guess Amibay will be the place to find one then.

If you can find some Amd-486dx4-120. Can you link that search here?

brostenen wrote:

Well.... 120 editions are nowere to be found on eBay. Yesterday I got one through shere luck, so out of curiosity I searched eBa […]
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Well.... 120 editions are nowere to be found on eBay.
Yesterday I got one through shere luck, so out of curiosity I searched eBay for 120's.
My guess is that they are indeed becomming really hard to find now.
None to be found. So I guess Amibay will be the place to find one then.

If you can find some Amd-486dx4-120. Can you link that search here?

The DX4-100 is virtually indistinguishable. Just bump the FSB speed to 40Mhz and throw the multiplier on 3 and you have a DX4-120. It's almost the exact same thing.

And as I said, they are good if you ever find a Socket 1/2/3 board without VLB or PCI. They run like a middle of the road 386. Strap a decent 386 ISA card on there, something like a SB16, and you're golden.

Errius wrote:

OT: I also recently acquired a ST486DX2-66GS. I don't know anything about this chip. Is it faster than an Intel 80486DX2-66?

ST486 are actually Cyrix 486. They are a bit slower then Intel/AMD as Cyrix didn't clone/copy Intel 486 design like AMD but reverse-engineer it so there are differences in the design.

Ampera wrote:

The DX4-100 is virtually indistinguishable. Just bump the FSB speed to 40Mhz and throw the multiplier on 3 and you have a DX4-120. It's almost the exact same thing.

In reality, they are not the same. Bumping a 100 to 120, is just an overclocked 100 and not a 120.
Looking at the numbers, you have overclocket with 20% wich is an increase I never recommend on any CPU.
Yet alone, on any vintage hardware. It's a bit like saying that a K6-III-500 is a K6-III-550 when OC'ing.

brostenen wrote:

In reality, they are not the same. Bumping a 100 to 120, is just an overclocked 100 and not a 120. Looking at the numbers, you h […]
Show full quote

Ampera wrote:

The DX4-100 is virtually indistinguishable. Just bump the FSB speed to 40Mhz and throw the multiplier on 3 and you have a DX4-120. It's almost the exact same thing.

In reality, they are not the same. Bumping a 100 to 120, is just an overclocked 100 and not a 120.
Looking at the numbers, you have overclocket with 20% wich is an increase I never recommend on any CPU.
Yet alone, on any vintage hardware. It's a bit like saying that a K6-III-500 is a K6-III-550 when OC'ing.

No, but it's pretty damn near close.

And 120Mhz runs totally fine with me. I have never had a single issue with my config, and my cooling is nothing special. The 486 chips are more robust than modern, but you could even OC a 5Ghz chip to 6 depending on coolant, and if it's made by Intel.

My last 486 was a Cyrix 5x86 100 (1995-1996), but I was using it at 40MHz (by mistake) AND it was working without a glitch (PCI board, no VLB). It did not even have a CPU fan, just that nice green passive cooler/heat sink, although CPU fans were quite popular and common for all DX4 type CPUs.

I'm really liking the ST486DX2-66GS. It runs most late DOS games well. The big exception is Quake which plays like molasses. I can't believe some people actually played Quake like this in those days.

My Verdict is hold onto them and sell/give/trade them with other people who want to use them in their retro-builds for other hardware on another forum or elsewhere. 486 stuff keeps getting harder to find (and I know this well - the 80486 era is my favorite era).

Another option could be to try selling them on CPU-World, especially since you mention they look unused.
Also they aren't really that practical since even an SX-33 could do anything an SX-25 could.

Tetrium wrote:

Another option could be to try selling them on CPU-World, especially since you mention they look unused.
Also they aren't really that practical since even an SX-33 could do anything an SX-25 could.

A free SX-25 is more practical than an expensive SX-33

I would just keep them and maybe someday people will find a good use for them when supplies of 386s have dried up completely, if all else just wait and sell them to "hipsters" who just want them for display.

Ampera wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Another option could be to try selling them on CPU-World, especially since you mention they look unused.
Also they aren't really that practical since even an SX-33 could do anything an SX-25 could.

A free SX-25 is more practical than an expensive SX-33

Not since he probably won't actually be needing all 11 of them, that doesn't sound very practical to me so he might as well sell a couple of them for something that he can actually use.

My reply was more about adding to the suggestions made by brostenen and creepingnet btw.

IF they ST DX2 has writeback cache, it might be faster than an intel DX2 with writethrough cache, which was the most common type.