do a search for AT cases right now on ebay, they are all priced between 50-100$ for a case.. some with a PSU some without.. and thats not included shipping .. or import charges

That is why I said you don't need an AT case for an AT build. You can just use a cheap ATX case. Many of those have AT compatible mounting holes... and you could always drill the missing ones on newer designs.

if i could find a cheap motherboard it wouldnt really be a problem to order a 50$ baby AT case & PSU
trouble is people are postin boards for 200$+ for a motherboard that doesnt have video, or io controller built in..
like anything, people will exploit whatever they can for profit...... the human race disgusts me

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-ISA-486-Rev-1-4- … =item2801f90e44

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-VL-I-486SVGO-REV … =item2804f2fe25

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ISA-486SV2-Rev-3-1-AT … =item1c528b8ad6

*spits on the ground*

if anyone has any hardware theyd like to part with and would give me a chance to buy it off them at a normal price id love to have a decent 486 system to relive my youth + explore the roots of computing - but i am too smart to let myself be exploited for profit.. especialy when i have computers that are 10 times better and im not even trying to play any old dos games. i dont get how they think this board is worth more than a q6600 quad /w 8gb of ram.. #mindblown

maybe I missed it in the thread but are you located in the US? if so look locally. Craigslist and flea markets. Its going to be harder if your not near any cities but buying almost complete systems isn't that hard to find here. Sure its gotten harder but if your diligent you'll probably find a old 486 or earlier system on Craigslist within a month for under $100. I just picked up 2 AT cases last week (one with a 486 VLB MB inside + video card ect...) for $50

don't rely 100% on EBay. also go to the Vintage Computer Forum. they have a Wanted thread there and post what your looking for. many of those guys can help you out for reasonable amounts.

im in canada.. Ontario..
its the same everywhere now. people trying to charge crazy prices for this old hardware.
if i had of bought back in 2010 it would have been close to free.

This is untested, has everything but you'd need to find a propertary case or just run it without one (or build one, if you are crafty). Also I don't know what bus the onboard stuff is attached to. It even has PS/2 ports for mice.

This one and this other one are also cheap, from Ukraine

Or this one with free international shipping from someone at Greece. Depending on shipping costs this might be even cheaper than the other ones.

Browsing for an specific model can be a recipe for disaster: sellers that do list them might know a bit too much about that kind of hardware and sell them for a premium if they have any industrial application, or if it is a particularly sought after item. Just search for 486 in the motherboard section and look things up manually.

EDIT: oops, the greek one seems to have issues with the keyboard controller. Oh well... it even shipped with a RAM stick.

i appreciate u trying to help.. but i dont have an ISA/VLB io controller either... or an ISA/VLB graphics card.. or a mouse that will work.. or an AT case 😁
i need to get an AT keyboard to PS/2 keyboard adapter aswell.. a million things i need to get this to happen 🙁

im kind of leaning towards a TX chipset socket 7 board now aswell.. it has everything included.. is compatible with pci graphics cards i already own, works with my mice, is mountable in cases i already own, has an integrated io controller, takes SDRAM of which i have Plenty to spare, takes ATX PSU of which i have many... then i would just need to get a pentium cpu , between 75Mhz-233Mhz.

i will keep looking on ebay for a 486.. but itll probably be months before i find a good buy. im horrible at luck when it comes to finding things on ebay. and i doubt i have the skills to fix up a broken board.

But isn't the whole PCI graphics card thing the whole problem? That the software you wanna use has issues with PCI graphics cards? Before settling on a build you need to stablish what hardware would not give you jitter issues. I think S3 Trio64 cards also do not do bus mastering, but you'll need someone to check that for you. Later cards have a higher probability of doing so.

If you stablish a PCI hardware combination that would not give you jitter issues, there is the possibility that you do not even need slowdown measures. If the MIDI software isn't speed sensitive you might as well get the most powerful Pentium MMX you can get for a i430TX system and be happy.

i have no way to know if its speed sensitive without going thru with the experiment to find out..
it all stems from me wanting to use this software the way it was used in 1993 time.. when cubase on pc was revered to be most close to the atari in terms of performance. it was thru my close research that i came to suspect that the changes of architecture happening with pcs from around 1994-onward maybe had something to contribute to it not having the same reverence in terms of midi performance.. and then usb came and usb is even worse for fast midi because of the packeted structure in how it works.

the VL/I-486SV2GX4 & VL/I-486SV2G & the VL/I-486SVGO are the perfect boards for me.. but there are none for sale that i can find.
dont suppose anyone here could suggest any other socket 3 boards that have 2 VLB slots, + PS2 Mouse support aswell as Coin Battery???

the ISA-486SV2 that has the VLB slots would also work perfectly, (despite that it lacks ps2 mouse support) there are a few available for under 100$ that have no VLB slots..
perhaps i should just go for those.

or maybe i should go back to looking for a 486 laptop.
*sigh*

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VESA-VL-IDE-VL400GW-1 … %3D252058025206

is this a decent io controller?
will a VLB controller such as this work in an non-VLB slot at reduced speed/efficiency?? or does it NEED to be a VLB slot to even work??

I am pretty sure you need a vlb slot to use a vlb card. Heck ISA IDE controller cards are usually cheaper than VLB ones 😀

At this point my suggestion would be to find a good OEM 486 machine that meets your requirements TBH. They usually have ps/2 and just WORK all around man.

ODwilly wrote:

At this point my suggestion would be to find a good OEM 486 machine that meets your requirements TBH. They usually have ps/2 and just WORK all around man.

unfortunately typing in "good oem 486" into ebay doesnt work 😊

I still think you need to expand your search beyond just ebay if you want anything close to reasonable. You could try searching for dell, compaq, tandy, ast even Packard Bell 486 machines.

i placed a classified ad
http://toronto.craigslist.ca/tor/wan/5200555438.html
but i doubt anyone will answer it!!

Ya gotta get more imaginative than that with your search terms man. type in 486 and find a gateway or whatever (OEM) 486 system. Gateway 2000, Acer, Dell, whatever. The stuff is old enough at this point that ya gotta either overpay online or find it localy. Be patient most of all, I have had a line on a dx2-50mhz Gateway 2000 system for over 2 months now and may now just be picking it up this week 😀 time and $ are your friends.

hmm i just found out that ALI is actually ACER ??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_Laboratories_Incorporated

how is the M1429/M1431 chipset..?? anyone know?

Acer Labs Inc., their chipset division separated as ULI later on, which eventually got bought by nVidia. Acer seems to prefer their Acer brand rather than ALi nowadays.

i was expecting at least someone to come forward with some type of solution re: the serial/ps2/usb mouse problem
to suggest a mouse + adapter combo at least?? i guess noone is reading this thread!

if someone could propose a solution to add ps2/usb mouse to a serial computer it would greatly affect my options to buy a board.

Buy an OEM 486 on eBay CA with PS/2: problem solved. Or use Search Tempest.