clueless1 wrote:

I have heard that there are some (maybe only a couple) of older games that do not like more than 16MB of ram. Truth be told, when 486s were new, they were selling with 4 or 8MB usually. So I would say either 8 or maximum of 16 would be more than enough for anything you would run on it.

Yeah, I am leaning towards 16MB at the moment.

rick12373 wrote:

Yes that board. I think it has the cache not sure how much. I have attached a picture of the board. I will be switching that CPU, I have several options for that. I have an AMD DX4-100. Will that work on that board? If I have the cache would 32MB be the best option?

According to motherboards.mbarron.net, that board only supports 5V CPUs, so the DX4 would not be supported as it uses 3.3V:

http://motherboards.mbarron.net/models/486vlb3/vi15g.html

However, on the AOpen FTP there is a jumper settings table that has entries for "3.45V CPU Type":

ftp://www.aopen.com.tw/pub/tech/jumper/vi15g/default.htm

But I don't know if those settings are for a different revision of the board that contains a voltage regulator for 3.3V support.

TheMobRules wrote:

According to motherboards.mbarron.net, that board only supports 5V CPUs, so the DX4 would not be supported as it uses 3.3V: […]
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rick12373 wrote:

Yes that board. I think it has the cache not sure how much. I have attached a picture of the board. I will be switching that CPU, I have several options for that. I have an AMD DX4-100. Will that work on that board? If I have the cache would 32MB be the best option?

According to motherboards.mbarron.net, that board only supports 5V CPUs, so the DX4 would not be supported as it uses 3.3V:

http://motherboards.mbarron.net/models/486vlb3/vi15g.html

However, on the AOpen FTP there is a jumper settings table that has entries for "3.45V CPU Type":

ftp://www.aopen.com.tw/pub/tech/jumper/vi15g/default.htm

But I don't know if those settings are for a different revision of the board that contains a voltage regulator for 3.3V support.

I also have an Intel DX2 66Mhz. That would work right?

Yes, the DX2 is definitely supported.

I have been digging through my storage and I have 3 prospective sounds cards and an I/O card made by Promise (still boxed!). The sound cards are:

Sound Blaster 16 Value (CT2770)
Sound Blaster SCSI (CT1770)
Sound Blaster Awe32 (CT3780)

I think the Sound Blaster 16 is a better fit for a 486 of the era. Would there be anything wrong in using the SB16 Value? I could use the SCSI SB16 and use the I/O card for the connection of the CD-ROM.

I also have a converter for the PSU but I think it is designed to let you use a modern PSU with an AT case and motherboard. I want to use it to let me use the old motherboard with a modern PSU and ATX case. There are 2 wires coming from it that I assume would be used to connect to the old power button on an AT case. Could they be adapted to connect to an ATX case power button? Or do I need to get something else?

rick12373 wrote:

I have been digging through my storage and I have 3 prospective sounds cards and an I/O card made by Promise (still boxed!). Th […]
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I have been digging through my storage and I have 3 prospective sounds cards and an I/O card made by Promise (still boxed!). The sound cards are:

Sound Blaster 16 Value (CT2770)
Sound Blaster SCSI (CT1770)
Sound Blaster Awe32 (CT3780)

I don't know anything about the 1770 and the 3780. I have only owned a 2770 once, and it is really noisy.
I bought it new in 1995, and it had that "static" noise going all the time and I could hear the HDD reading and writing,
through the speakers. I actually did not need a HDD-Led 🤣 On the other hand, it is quite compatible with SB16 games.
If the 1770 has lesser noise, then choose that over the 2770. If the 3780 has no OPL chip, then avoid it.

Has anybody had experience of the Sound Blaster 16 SCSI (CT1770)?

rick12373 wrote:

I also have a converter for the PSU but I think it is designed to let you use a modern PSU with an AT case and motherboard. I want to use it to let me use the old motherboard with a modern PSU and ATX case. There are 2 wires coming from it that I assume would be used to connect to the old power button on an AT case. Could they be adapted to connect to an ATX case power button? Or do I need to get something else?

You cannot use the adapter directly with the ATX power button since you need an on/off type switch, ATX power button is momentary. To use an ATX case you have 3 options basically:

• Connect an old AT power switch to the adapter and see if you can fit it in your case instead of the ATX power button (uncommon, but some older ATX cases have mount points for AT style switches)
• Replace the momentary ATX power button in your case with a self-locking button of the same size (generally it's one of those little square buttons, they are available for very cheap on eBay) and connect the new button to the adapter
• Leave the ATX power button as it is and try to mount an on/off switch somewhere else in the case (i.e. by drilling holes, or on a PCI slot cover)

I think I might have some on/off switches somewhere. I will see if I can mount one somewhere on the case. So far this ATX case seems to match up well with the AT board.

TheMobRules wrote:

You cannot use the adapter directly with the ATX power button since you need an on/off type switch, ATX power button is momentar […]
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rick12373 wrote:

I also have a converter for the PSU but I think it is designed to let you use a modern PSU with an AT case and motherboard. I want to use it to let me use the old motherboard with a modern PSU and ATX case. There are 2 wires coming from it that I assume would be used to connect to the old power button on an AT case. Could they be adapted to connect to an ATX case power button? Or do I need to get something else?

You cannot use the adapter directly with the ATX power button since you need an on/off type switch, ATX power button is momentary. To use an ATX case you have 3 options basically:

• Connect an old AT power switch to the adapter and see if you can fit it in your case instead of the ATX power button (uncommon, but some older ATX cases have mount points for AT style switches)
• Replace the momentary ATX power button in your case with a self-locking button of the same size (generally it's one of those little square buttons, they are available for very cheap on eBay) and connect the new button to the adapter
• Leave the ATX power button as it is and try to mount an on/off switch somewhere else in the case (i.e. by drilling holes, or on a PCI slot cover)

You can also create a latching device which triggers on or off from the momentary switch. This can be done using flip flops, transistors, a micro controller, etc.

Changing the switch is easier, though.

OK, forgive how useful I am being, but I found a switch in my random stuff. I have attached a picture. How would I attach this to the power adapter previously pictured? The wires that are supposed to go to the power switch from the adapter are black and green.

rick12373 wrote:

TheMobRules wrote:

You have the Acer/AOpen Vi15g right?

Each 72pin SIMM slot on that board is an entire bank, so it's not necessary to install SIMMs in pairs.

Regarding the amount of memory, either 16 or 32 MB will be fine if you are running MS-DOS games and applications. Assuming you have 256KB of cache, 32MB should be the max cacheable RAM in Write-Back mode.

Yes that board. I think it has the cache not sure how much. I have attached a picture of the board. I will be switching that CPU, I have several options for that. I have an AMD DX4-100. Will that work on that board? If I have the cache would 32MB be the best option?

I can't see clearly, but does your board's SIMM sockets also have gold colored connectors instead of the usual silver-colored ones?

Afaik, the VI15G is the only board I have that actually has gold-colored SIMM sockets.

Btw, afaik my board won't accept 3.3v CPUs either, only 5v. I think it has to do with some voltage regulator missing on older revisions.

What I do like about this board is VLB and coin cell battery in one 😁

The inversed Molex connector near your CPU socket was for a fan I think (could be considered one of the earliest implementations of the now standard CPU HSF connector 😜).

rick12373 wrote:

OK, forgive how useful I am being, but I found a switch in my random stuff. I have attached a picture. How would I attach this to the power adapter previously pictured? The wires that are supposed to go to the power switch from the adapter are black and green.

Green wire goes to the "plus" on the switch, the middle is for the light inside the switch, and the third is ground that goes to a black wire.

brostenen wrote:

rick12373 wrote:

OK, forgive how useful I am being, but I found a switch in my random stuff. I have attached a picture. How would I attach this to the power adapter previously pictured? The wires that are supposed to go to the power switch from the adapter are black and green.

Green wire goes to the "plus" on the switch, the middle is for the light inside the switch, and the third is ground that goes to a black wire.

You sir are awesome! I really should have known that! 😕

Tetrium wrote:

I can't see clearly, but does your board's SIMM sockets also have gold colored connectors instead of the usual silver-colored on […]
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rick12373 wrote:

TheMobRules wrote:

You have the Acer/AOpen Vi15g right?

Each 72pin SIMM slot on that board is an entire bank, so it's not necessary to install SIMMs in pairs.

Regarding the amount of memory, either 16 or 32 MB will be fine if you are running MS-DOS games and applications. Assuming you have 256KB of cache, 32MB should be the max cacheable RAM in Write-Back mode.

Yes that board. I think it has the cache not sure how much. I have attached a picture of the board. I will be switching that CPU, I have several options for that. I have an AMD DX4-100. Will that work on that board? If I have the cache would 32MB be the best option?

I can't see clearly, but does your board's SIMM sockets also have gold colored connectors instead of the usual silver-colored ones?

Afaik, the VI15G is the only board I have that actually has gold-colored SIMM sockets.

Btw, afaik my board won't accept 3.3v CPUs either, only 5v. I think it has to do with some voltage regulator missing on older revisions.

What I do like about this board is VLB and coin cell battery in one 😁

The inversed Molex connector near your CPU socket was for a fan I think (could be considered one of the earliest implementations of the now standard CPU HSF connector 😜).

Yes, it has the gold. I am going to use an Intel 486 DX2 66 MHz. It had a 486 DX 33 MHz in the board when I got it. From looking at the jumper settings I found that I did not have to change any of them for this CPU. I hope that is right, I guess I will find out when I am able to fire this sucker up!

rick12373 wrote:

Yes, it has the gold. I am going to use an Intel 486 DX2 66 MHz. It had a 486 DX 33 MHz in the board when I got it. From looking at the jumper settings I found that I did not have to change any of them for this CPU. I hope that is right, I guess I will find out when I am able to fire this sucker up!

This is basically only important if you put SIMMs with tin-plated contacts in your board and then leave those in those gold-plated SIMM contacts for a prolonged amount of time due to corrosion, which might cause instability over time.

For me personally this isn't much of an issue, as I got plenty gold-plated FPM modules with no other gold-plated SIMM-socketed motherboards to put them in.

Tetrium wrote:

rick12373 wrote:

Yes, it has the gold. I am going to use an Intel 486 DX2 66 MHz. It had a 486 DX 33 MHz in the board when I got it. From looking at the jumper settings I found that I did not have to change any of them for this CPU. I hope that is right, I guess I will find out when I am able to fire this sucker up!

This is basically only important if you put SIMMs with tin-plated contacts in your board and then leave those in those gold-plated SIMM contacts for a prolonged amount of time due to corrosion, which might cause instability over time.

For me personally this isn't much of an issue, as I got plenty gold-plated FPM modules with no other gold-plated SIMM-socketed motherboards to put them in.

That is good to know. I have a big bag of SIMMs. Some of them might be gold

brostenen wrote:

rick12373 wrote:

OK, forgive how useful I am being, but I found a switch in my random stuff. I have attached a picture. How would I attach this to the power adapter previously pictured? The wires that are supposed to go to the power switch from the adapter are black and green.

Green wire goes to the "plus" on the switch, the middle is for the light inside the switch, and the third is ground that goes to a black wire.

I think the P8 and P9 connectors are the ones that go in to the motherboard, but what is the P10 for?

OK, I have looked at pin diagrams 100 of times before and connected them up on more modern boards. But this one has me a bit confused. I have the pin out information from http://motherboards.mbarron.net/index.html but I can't seem to get my head around it. When I actually look at the board I can't seem to identify which pin is which. I think I see "20" written at the bottom left but then that would make the pins go from left to right, unless I am looking at it upside down. Anyway, I will post a picture of the motherboard and the info from the web site. Maybe one of you learned gentlemen can set me straight.

Based on the white mark in the top right of your picture (which should be pin 1), the "20" on the lower left and trying to match the diagram with the text on the board, this would be the pinout for the front panel on the picture you posted:

10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11

BTW, this will also be very useful for me since I just got a VI15G and will get to pick it up in a few days! 😁