kixs wrote:

Junkie_386: nice collection of boards :) I have 4 or 5 hybrid boards... […]
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Junkie_386:
nice collection of boards 😀 I have 4 or 5 hybrid boards...

feipoa:
I have a similar project planed for years now 🤣

I tested one of my Opti hybird boards with DLC-40 a few years ago and it gains a few fps with vlb card in 3Dbench. Quake is specific as it needs a fast FPU. I'm sure it wasn't any difference there or maybe just minimal.

What hybrid boards do you have - I'm looking for a BIOS replacement for my one hybrid OPTI495XLC one.

I don't own any OPTI-based motherboards. I haven't really bothered to look for one because I keep running into negative comments about OPTI hybrid boards.

I'm hoping this board will perform alright.

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/U/UN … OPTI-386WB.html

+
256KB cache.
MR BIOS.
Socketed oscillator.

-
OPTI 83C391B + 82C392 chipset (Perhaps not the hottest chipset)
Only two ISA dividers.
No name board.

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/U/UN … OPTI-386WB.html

386_junkie wrote:

Your thread has got quite subjective... it seems to go in different directions every time I go and comeback... and being 386 related, I like it!

In answer to the thread title though, "the best 386 motherboard"... you have touched on one of my flagship projects. I believe the answer to this would be from the below eight: -

@ 386_junkie, I have a OPTI-495SLC 386/486 motherboard but it doesn't post, I think the bios is bad. Do you by chance have bios for it or know where I can get the bios?

The BIOS for OPTI495 is readily available in both AMI or MRBIOS. However, I think it would be nice to have a copy of that MR-BIOS for OPTI 391.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

The BIOS for OPTI495 is readily available in both AMI or MRBIOS. However, I think it would be nice to have a copy of that MR-BIOS for OPTI 391.

What can this MR-BIOS do that earns all this mentioning I've seen lately?

Overall you can get a small speedup of maybe 1-2%, because MR-BIOS appears to manage system timings more efficiently. It's also better at detecting CPUs, and sometimes adds modern features like Y2K and LBA support.

Hm, LBA would be a big bonus to me.

I noticed a fairly generous increase in RAM throughput when I switched from AMI to Mr BIOS on the same motherboard. The CMOS setup itself had significantly more features and the layout/organisation was nicely presented. I wonder if the ps/2 mouse TSR will work with MR BIOS boards...

feipoa wrote:

I noticed a fairly generous increase in RAM throughput when I switched from AMI to Mr BIOS on the same motherboard. The CMOS setup itself had significantly more features and the layout/organisation was nicely presented. I wonder if the ps/2 mouse TSR will work with MR BIOS boards...

Hmmm... Is this something that a hardware mod needs...?

I went on a hunt for this MR BIOS for the ALI M1429 / OPTi 495XLC boards I have but to no avail.
On the other hand, I've run into screenshots of its setup so I'm pretty sure that this is the same MR BIOS my cached Ti486SLC-33 board has.
It's half compatible with bigger HDDs. If I partition a drive in this system it seems to work with full blown 486 boards that couldn't fully use one that had been partitioned in a more modern system (they could only see the first partition).
But an Acorp TX couldn't see its entirety in LBA mode, it had to be set to "Large" instead. Interesting, it worked as "LBA" in 486s. I'll try this HDD in very late DOS systems too when I have the time. If it's OK in a BX and a KT7A then I suppose it's fine.

SiS Rabbit is very good for 386.

Fast Memory Access 😀

matze79 wrote:

SiS Rabbit is very good for 386.

Fast Memory Access 😀

and hard to obtain these days.

MRBIOS is chipset dependent, so your slc bios won’t work in a dx/dlc board. I’m pretty sure mr bios for opti495 and Ali 1429 are both available on a Russian bios site.

The MR BIOS for OPTI 391 will be provided later when I get the time to test the motherboard(s).

Anonymous Coward wrote:

MRBIOS is chipset dependent, so your slc bios won’t work in a dx/dlc board. I’m pretty sure mr bios for opti495 and Ali 1429 are both available on a Russian bios site.

Unfortunately I found there none for ALI M1429 and only one VLB OPTi495 - for a hybrid with VLB as per the attached text 😐
Mine is "pure" 386 with ISA only.

Sorry i haven't been on
School got a little overwhelming!
Anywho, 386 chipsets seem INCREDIBLY confusing. What do i look for?

Jupiter-18 wrote:

Sorry i haven't been on
School got a little overwhelming!

That's what I thought until I had kids. Undergraduate and graduate school pales in comparison to the never ending time suck from one's own offspring. Your course work will be over in a relatively short amount of time.

Jupiter-18 wrote:

Anywho, 386 chipsets seem INCREDIBLY confusing. What do i look for?

It will probably boil down to what is available at the time you decide to purchase. When you are at that point, perhaps we can provide a critique based on the the options you have narrowed down.

Seems like a plan to me.

This two, can someone identify them?

Ooh, i like the look of that bottom one. Has all the features i'm kind of looking for (as far as ISA only goes).