Congratulations! 😁 I really hope you can get 200 MHz out of it. Please can you upload a photo? What's the manufacturer? And the model? Also PCB revision number? Got a stick of EDO RAM handy? Have you got an ADW P75? Got any VGA cards that can handle a 50 MHz bus speed? Are you going to use a compact flash or a real HDD?

If you need any help getting it up and running, just ask! 😀

Don't know yet. As far as I know it's homebuilt, so no name on the case and I don't know which motherboard it is yet. I want to do a solid state drive of some sort with it because I don't know how reliable my old hard drives are anymore. I'd hate to get the thing put back together then go through installing DOS and Windows only to have it fail a week later. What's a good CF adapter to use in one of these? Not sure what PCI cards I have that can handle the speed but I have tons of PCI video cards. Are there any known to work at that speed?

I think I have that same board, those cache chips are fake.

RG100 recoils in horror! Oh no! It's a PC Chips board! Get your money back!

http://motherboards.mbarron.net/models/486pci/m919v1.htm

Those 2 chips in the bottom left hand corner are the mobo's L2 external cache, but they are likely to be fake. Also, the brown slot is a COASt cache stick slot. Unfortunately, it's fake. You may want to read the PC Chips M919 mobo "survival guide", here -

http://th2chips.freeservers.com/m919/unoff/m919.html

Very unfortunately, I have a couple of these boards, and the very best one (with working cache) does not reach 200 MHz. I'm really sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Being fair, that chipset is pretty stable and I think scores decently with games.

TheLazy1 wrote:

Being fair, that chipset is pretty stable and I think scores decently with games.

Yes, I agree - there's absolutely nothing wrong with the chipset. It's what the chipset is stuck on to, that's the problem. And that's a PC Chips motherboard. Having said that, the decent "real cache" M919 mobo I have did do 180 MHz. But it had real cache, and there was something "not too bad" about it. The manufacturer may have been Amptron, not PC Chips.

For a "normal/regular" 486, any M919 board is OK. But very unfortunately sliderider has paid top dollar for it, and wanted to overclock it to 200 MHz. That's why I was shocked, and suggested that he get his money back.

After all the bother I put the poor guy to to get him to lower the price I really wouldn't feel right trying to back out of the deal. I'll have to live with it. At least this one seems to be one of the later versions that solves a few of the earlier versions problems. I'll have to keep looking to see if I can find another 486 PCI board in the future but I doubt I'll be able to find one with the same chipset any time soon for a reasonable price.

The manufacturer may have been Amptron, not PC Chips.

There's no difference. PCChips, Amptron, etc. aren't actual manufacturers, they're just names slapped onto the boxes by Hsing Tech.

sliderider wrote:

After all the bother I put the poor guy to to get him to lower the price I really wouldn't feel right trying to back out of the deal. I'll have to live with it. At least this one seems to be one of the later versions that solves a few of the earlier versions problems. I'll have to keep looking to see if I can find another 486 PCI board in the future but I doubt I'll be able to find one with the same chipset any time soon for a reasonable price.

I think I have a 486 board with a UMC chipset and real cache I would be willing to part with for shipping + as little as you want.

OK. But you could consider this - give him $X dollars, as a "I'm really sorry about this but...". If I were literally in your shoes, I would give the guy $30 and say "Sorry I've made a mistake, I don't want the board." If he's upset, go ahead and buy it. If you do get it, I can help you with any questions. Also, Old Thrashbarg's got a similar M919 too. Interesting info re: Hsing Tech!

BTW, are UMC PCI 486 mobos selling for large amounts at the moment? I haven't really been paying attention to them these days. I got some a year or two back, when things weren't quite so costly.

When you've got the mobo up and running, I can give you advice about compact flash drives and video cards etc. It does make a difference if you are not attempting huge overclocks.

Also, Old Thrashbarg's got a similar M919 too.

Er... no I don't, actually. It never showed up. 😒

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Also, Old Thrashbarg's got a similar M919 too.

Er... no I don't, actually. It never showed up. 😒

Blessing in disguise? 😉

retro games 100 wrote:

RG100 recoils in horror! Oh no! It's a PC Chips board! Get your money back! […]
Show full quote

RG100 recoils in horror! Oh no! It's a PC Chips board! Get your money back!

http://motherboards.mbarron.net/models/486pci/m919v1.htm

Those 2 chips in the bottom left hand corner are the mobo's L2 external cache, but they are likely to be fake. Also, the brown slot is a COASt cache stick slot. Unfortunately, it's fake. You may want to read the PC Chips M919 mobo "survival guide", here -

http://th2chips.freeservers.com/m919/unoff/m919.html

Very unfortunately, I have a couple of these boards, and the very best one (with working cache) does not reach 200 MHz. I'm really sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

That website says the slot is not a COAST slot and not to put one in there or you could damage your power supply. There is a different type of cache module that fits in there and in researching this board further I have found some people who have the correct cache module who says it works.

retro games 100 wrote:

OK. But you could consider this - give him $X dollars, as a "I'm really sorry about this but...". If I were literally in your shoes, I would give the guy $30 and say "Sorry I've made a mistake, I don't want the board." If he's upset, go ahead and buy it. If you do get it, I can help you with any questions. Also, Old Thrashbarg's got a similar M919 too. Interesting info re: Hsing Tech!

BTW, are UMC PCI 486 mobos selling for large amounts at the moment? I haven't really been paying attention to them these days. I got some a year or two back, when things weren't quite so costly.

When you've got the mobo up and running, I can give you advice about compact flash drives and video cards etc. It does make a difference if you are not attempting huge overclocks.

Finding any 486 PCI board regardless of chipset for a reasonable price is getting harder. The UMC ones just seem really hard to find compared to others like Opti. I have several searches saved on ebay to help me find one but haven't had much luck. When any 486 PCI board comes up with a low BIN it gets sold really quickly.

sliderider wrote:

That website says the slot is not a COAST slot and not to put one in there or you could damage your power supply. There is a different type of cache module that fits in there and in researching this board further I have found some people who have the correct cache module who says it works.

Technically speaking, it isn't a COASt slot, because it doesn't accept a real COASt cache stick. And that's because it's fake. The thing you put in there doesn't affect the mobo's performance. I tested this here. (About 3/4ers the way down the page.)

I'm really not convinced that the cache stick is fake. It's not like the fake cache on the motherboards where they could slip it past uninformed buyers... people who knew to install a separate cache module would have known what it was supposed to do, and they would have noticed if the things weren't real.

I have heard that some BIOS versions on those boards would just ignore any external cache, so maybe that's what's going on? Have you tried using the 'Cachectl' utility (which is included with Cachechk, I believe), to see what happens?

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

I have heard that some BIOS versions on those boards would just ignore any external cache, so maybe that's what's going on? Have you tried using the 'Cachectl' utility (which is included with Cachechk, I believe), to see what happens?

I'm really hoping to sort out my boxes of retro junk soon. As soon as I spot this particular one, the one with the "fake" (or hopefully not fake) COASt-like stick, I will run Cachectl and report back with any results. Fingers crossed it isn't fake. I would love that to be the case. 😀

BTW, I remember the COASt-like stick says "For use with M919 only" on it, or words to that effect. Just a random bit of info. Doesn't mean anything. Just thought I'd mention it. 😀

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

I'm really not convinced that the cache stick is fake. It's not like the fake cache on the motherboards where they could slip it past uninformed buyers... people who knew to install a separate cache module would have known what it was supposed to do, and they would have noticed if the things weren't real.

I have heard that some BIOS versions on those boards would just ignore any external cache, so maybe that's what's going on? Have you tried using the 'Cachectl' utility (which is included with Cachechk, I believe), to see what happens?

I checked with that util on my bogus mobo before I binned 2 years ago it and that cache slow is just a slot they "glued" on the mobo...it does nothing 😜

retro games 100 wrote:

RG100 recoils in horror! Oh no! It's a PC Chips board! Get your money back!

Exactly what I was thinking.
For $135 you could've bought any board you wanted.
If it came with a case, that's good.
The 5x86ADW isn't very valuable either, at least not anymore. I got 2 last month for 5 bucks each.

Dammith, I truly feel sorry for you!
At any rate, some users here have posted that this board isn't a total loss and could be useful.