Whats the motherboard?

Trank wrote:

Whats the motherboard?

Its an American Megatrends motherboard from 1993.

Update:

Found this handy guide on AMD processors and Temperatures, So I've got that part covered. I'll use this when testing the chip. Now I just need conformation on whether its 5v tolerant or not

You can get an IntelDX4 in the overdrive version. Comes with a voltage regulator board integrated, as well as a heat sink.

I'm not aware of any 5V AMD DX4, only DX2. If your board is that old, you might actually not see much difference between DX2 and DX4. At least I didn't when I compared them.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

You can get an IntelDX4 in the overdrive version. Comes with a voltage regulator board integrated, as well as a heat sink.

I'm not aware of any 5V AMD DX4, only DX2. If your board is that old, you might actually not see much difference between DX2 and DX4. At least I didn't when I compared them.

True, but I've already looked into them, and they're quite expensive. I saw the AMD one for $12 and scooped it up. I realized that it goes into diminished returns, but to see that 100mhz on startup is too cool. I'll be running it with Win95 and 256 megs of Ram, so it'll be a beast PC (well, circa 1995 at least).

ookamithewolf1 wrote:

Trank wrote:

Whats the motherboard?

Its an American Megatrends motherboard from 1993.

American Megatrends is not the mainboard manufacturer, it's a BIOS software company. Most boards from 1986 to 1992 use AMI Bios.

On topic - running a 3v CPU at 5v will kill it. I've actually encountered this back in the day - people installing 3.3v CPUs in 5v only boards. The machines seemed to run for anywhere between 7 to 30 days, but after that they would either get unstable or fail altogether.

If you insist on using that particular mainboard, you can find either 486 overdrive or 586 upgrade chips that run at 5v.

ookamithewolf1 wrote:

I'll be running it with Win95 and 256 megs of Ram, so it'll be a beast PC (well, circa 1995 at least).

Old 486 mainboards have a memory limit of 64 to 128MB of ram so I highly doubt you'll be runing 256MB in it. Most sistems have 4 x 72 pin simms with a maximum density of 32MB / slot (on boards way newer then your 1993 5v only witch I'm betting only supports 16mb / slot) Even if it would possible, it would run like crap because most 486 boards can barely cache 64MB of ram, let alone 128 or 256.

I'm only saying this so you won't make the mistake of buying expensive 64 mb server simms only to find they won't work in your board. Besides, there's nothing you could possibly run on a 486 that would take advantage of more then 32MB of ram.

Potentially an interposer with the requisite VRM would work, if you can find one.

it will be destroyed at 4.6v max. what amd said is "5v io tolerant", not 5v vcc.

Thank you for all the Data. I've come to the conclusion that without a voltage regulator one cannot run a 3v chip in a 5v slot. I'll use the DX1 chip I have now. Unfortunately I discovered exactly what my motherboard is, and its not great. It's a Genoa Systems Turbo Express 486VL Board. It turns out what I mistook for eight 72 pin ram slots are actually 30 pin ram slots, and it only supports 32MB of ram. It also supports very little L2 cache. It's a beautiful looking board, but I may end up selling it since I can't use it now. I had hopped for at least 128 Mb, since I like to overpower my computers. I don't even have any 30 pin ram.