Reply 20 of 42, by Matth79
My first full build (after doing some upgrades on a purchased 486, to DX2 and replacing a malfunctioning VLB IDE) is still my favourite.
The "7 bays in my desktop" setup, with a Cyrix 6x86L (I forget which speed), a villainously hot CPU voltage regulator (aided by a front fan), a Cirrus 5446 PCI
The bays ended up loaded with:
1. HDD (a horrifically expensive 4GB)
2. Later, a second HDD - 1.7GB *story at end
3. Floppy drive (3 1/2")
4. Tape drive (3 1/2") - needed some metalwork adjustment to accommodate a bulge in the top plate
5. Floppy (5 1/4")
6, 7, Optical drives, paired as CDROM, CD-RW, later DVDROM / CD-RW
The 3 x 5 1/4 were stacked on the right.
The 3 1/2" were vertical, in two detachable frames, both of which had to be removed to access the RAM.
PS. The 1.7GB drive was a warranty replacement for a 1.2GB picked up for a fiver with a bit of warranty left, I knew from the date on it, and expected a drive of that capacity from a table of mixed drives to be DOA, it was, and successfully RMA'd it
That machine also carried (in final form):
ISA Modem
ISA 2Mb floppy controller - Ditto dash for the tape drive
ISA SB16 ASP MCD (originally ran a CR563B)
ISA Scanner card, later replaced by ISA Parallel card (used as extra for a Parallel flatbed scanner)
The paper label was a reminder for the resources - I think I had to use DMA #0