bristlehog wrote:

Of sound cards, if you aren't that deep into ISA sound, you may want to get yourself a Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold ($30-$40)- a versatile ISA card compatible with DOS games, whilst having a high quality output you'd need for listening music.

Ive never seen any one sell one for more than 15$. I had to sell two for 10$.

sorry??

So you are really going to buy this hardware to run Windows 98 3D games and browse the modern internet? I think you should read more about the typical hardware for a Windows 98 gaming PC (1998-2000).
http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php? … 98&pub=2&id=167 (Voodoo2 is in this issue among other things)

No, i want to made ""machine"" with quality components only... 😀"Internet" and "gaming" is second product... 😀

If Intel Pentium II / III isn't 'quality', then what is?

I am not speaking about PII or PIII these processors are very good....I am speaking only about "quality" components like Voodoo 3D accelerating graphic card, whitch i can use in my PC.. 😀

bristlehog wrote:

Believe me, your surfing experience would be pretty screwed up. You really need a Pentium 4 to surf heavy sites with acceptable speed. Even a Pentium 3 with Direct3D accelerator is too slow. 5x86 surfing with no accelerator other than Voodoo2 will probably be only worthy for showing off but not for comfortable surfing.

When I started downgrading (it was some 1,5 years ago) I also was full of thoughts like 'I will show them my great rig and they will praise and worship me', but I failed horribly due to complete lack of any experience.

I can happily surf most websites on my Pentium 3, but youtube videos run slowly even at 360p, although they ARE watchable. "Most websites" though in this case, would refer to things that are computer related and not stuff like facebook (which I don't use at all), or twitter and other things. And "happily" of course depends on expectations. If you expect a browsing experience similar to a modern system, then of course a Pentium 3 would disappoint. But, I'd say most plain html based sites (i.e. no flash/silverlight and similar) are totally fine. On a 486 class system on the other hand... Naw, not a chance 😁

SondejCZ wrote:

I am not speaking about PII or PIII these processors are very good....I am speaking only about "quality" components like Voodoo 3D accelerating graphic card, whitch i can use in my PC.. 😀

What we are trying to explain is that you don't put Voodoo2 SLI into a 5x86 and have any fun, nor do you browse the web. 5x86 is far too slow. Even if it is "quality". Even if you could get it to run 200 MHz, which by the way is incredibly unlikely. It would still be like 1/4 the speed of a Pentium II 233.

If you want to build a 5x86 machine that's cool but you need to think about what you actually want to do with it in the end...

A 486 would have trouble even getting the browser started. I only used OffByOne last time I had to surf on the 486...

For that 5x86 thing (by the way do not equal it to Pentium or K5 or Cyrix 6x86 ever) I would recommend just using a PCI S3 Trio64v+ or ViRGE card. Also a motherboard that supports actual cache will help too. Also don't think 1998 for it - it's 1997 at best.

and for 3d cards, a Voodoo2 i'd prefer over Voodoo1 and S3 Virge/Rush because it can do a multitexturing setup, which means less surfaces sent off from the CPU to process on the card for GLQuake. 😀

Hi! 😀 So, now I have a problem...... I dont have functional mouse in COM1,2 and PS/2 🙁((( Whats the problem? 🙁

Are these ports on a bracket, did they come with the board? Are these onboard? what did you do allready yourself to figure out the problem etc.

More details please, no one here has a crystal ball (well, it IS retro 🤣 and has nice graphics i heard.... )

On a 486 class system on the other hand... Naw, not a chance

This isn't true. HTML5 only sides are actually fast on a 486.
Now things with javascript, heavy CSS, tons of images and other stuff do get a little slow but it is mostly bearable
if you stay away from the super bloated sites.

OP: How are your IRQs configured?
Do they work if you only have the video card in and nothing else?

smeezekitty wrote:

This isn't true. HTML5 only sides are actually fast on a 486. Now things with javascript, heavy CSS, tons of images and other st […]
Show full quote

On a 486 class system on the other hand... Naw, not a chance

This isn't true. HTML5 only sides are actually fast on a 486.
Now things with javascript, heavy CSS, tons of images and other stuff do get a little slow but it is mostly bearable
if you stay away from the super bloated sites.

OP: How are your IRQs configured?
Do they work if you only have the video card in and nothing else?

Yes smeeze... I'm sure there is a html5 to text-mode dos-commandline only browser that will render html5 "relatively" quickly. But for a normal userfriendly browser exprience, even with simple REAL WORLD pages (i.e. no carefully selected, made for the purpose pages) then using a 486 for browsing is pretty bloody slow. Only just loading a simple web browser with a graphical user interface is slow.

LunarG wrote:

smeezekitty wrote:

This isn't true. HTML5 only sides are actually fast on a 486. Now things with javascript, heavy CSS, tons of images and other st […]
Show full quote

On a 486 class system on the other hand... Naw, not a chance

This isn't true. HTML5 only sides are actually fast on a 486.
Now things with javascript, heavy CSS, tons of images and other stuff do get a little slow but it is mostly bearable
if you stay away from the super bloated sites.

OP: How are your IRQs configured?
Do they work if you only have the video card in and nothing else?

Yes smeeze... I'm sure there is a html5 to text-mode dos-commandline only browser that will render html5 "relatively" quickly. But for a normal userfriendly browser exprience, even with simple REAL WORLD pages (i.e. no carefully selected, made for the purpose pages) then using a 486 for browsing is pretty bloody slow. Only just loading a simple web browser with a graphical user interface is slow.

I have no idea why I typed HTML5. I meant html. Although Opera 9.6 does have limited html5 support.
Define real world? I frequently browse vogons and vintage computer forums on my 486 without much problem.

"Real World" in terms of browsing. "Oh yeah... I need to check when that documentary on particle physics was on..." *opens browser... enters url for tv-guide into address field*.
Or "Oh damn, I need a different driver build for my SCSI adapter!" *opens browser... enters url for adaptec website into address field*.
When you need to browse only carefully selected websites, then it isn't viable as a "real world" browser alternative. I've done Vogons on my 486 as well, and found that I could read the forum, but as soon as I wanted to post, I ran into problems. Also, the wait for loading pages was quite substantial. This was on the 486 in my sig. Also, it's worth noting that is does appear like most retro-computer related websites and forums are designed to be light-workload, to allow for them to run on old systems.

I am personally impressed with how many things a 486 can still do to an acceptable degree, even ignoring games. Things like spreadsheets, word processing, midi music production in things like Cakewalk are perfectly fine if you're happy for things to move along a a leisurely pace. Web browsing and video playback... and to some extent even something as simple as mp3 playback... are things that "can be done" from a "I dare you" point of view, but not as an actual slow alternative to your day-to-day system.

LunarG wrote:

"Real World" in terms of browsing. "Oh yeah... I need to check when that documentary on particle physics was on..." *opens browser... enters url for tv-guide into address field*.

TVguide isn't a good choice. It doesn't load the listing on Opera 9.6
That said, I don't think I have ever been to that site before you mentioned it.

Or "Oh damn, I need a different driver build for my SCSI adapter!" *opens browser... enters url for adaptec website into address field*.

The adaptec website is actually really responsive and usable.

When you need to browse only carefully selected websites, then it isn't viable as a "real world" browser alternative.

I have gotten so used to working around system quirks that for me, it is.
I have a laptop that at one time was my main system would overheat if you stress the processor too much
so I had to watch the temps all the time and if it started getting hot, I would do what I could to minimize the load.

I have a rooted nook simple touch with 256 MB of RAM. It's browser will crash if I visit certain sites
and the who things will lock up if I accidentially try to play a video on a website.

Another main system used to lock up when I went to youtube or google imagres
so I used to carefully avoid those.

I am pretty used to being careful to avoid what won't work.

I've done Vogons on my 486 as well, and found that I could read the forum, but as soon as I wanted to post, I ran into problems.

What is that about problems posting?

http://postimg.org/image/up6l51c65/

Also, the wait for loading pages was quite substantial. This was on the 486 in my sig. Also, it's worth noting that is does appear like most retro-computer related websites and forums are designed to be light-workload, to allow for them to run on old systems.

Yeah the loading times are a bit much. Especially if it isn't in the browser cache already.
These sites are not as retro friendly as one would hope (mouse over effects on vogons and generally high ram usage on VCF)

I am personally impressed with how many things a 486 can still do to an acceptable degree, even ignoring games. Things like spreadsheets, word processing, midi music production in things like Cakewalk are perfectly fine if you're happy for things to move along a a leisurely pace. Web browsing and video playback... and to some extent even something as simple as mp3 playback... are things that "can be done" from a "I dare you" point of view, but not as an actual slow alternative to your day-to-day system.

Spreadsheets and word processing generally don't need much. I have no idea what "cake walk" is.

My main system was down and I used the 486 as a main machine all day a few months back.

Annoyingly slow at times but mostly workable

I use Youtube so much even my single core Athlon 64 3000+ doesn't give me a satisfactory internet experience... Youtube has practically replaced TV for me. I find it annoying how absurdly unoptimized both Flash and HTML5 implementations in IE and Firefox are, as that system can play 720p Youtube videos just fine if I download them first, and with low CPU usage!

AFAIK for a 486-class machine and depending on the sites you visit, Arachne might be a good choice. You'll have to go Opera+Windows to browse somewhat modern sites though.
I wonder how things would go on the Linux side of things, perhaps there are better options there? I'd think a text-only distro without a lot of services + Links would fly on a 486.

I wonder how things would go on the Linux side of things, perhaps there are better options there? I'd think a text-only distro without a lot of services + Links would fly on a 486.

Links2 uses gobs of RAM. I cannot believe it but it does

I find it annoying how absurdly unoptimized both Flash and HTML5 implementations in IE and Firefox are, as that system can play 720p Youtube videos just fine if I download them first, and with low CPU usage!

Agreed. I hate flash.
You could try playing them in VLC or use youtube-dl and pipe it into mplayer

smeezekitty wrote:

Links2 uses gobs of RAM. I cannot believe it but it does

Oh god... why would it even use it for? It doesn't even display images?!

Anyway, maybe this would be more interesting for the OP to try? http://www.dillo.org/dillo3-help.html