VOGONS


dis mobo, 486

Topic actions

First post, by bloodbath2you

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

ASUS VL/I486sv2gx4 rev 1.7

has anyone tried this one, im curious what do you think about it... any good/bad experience? performance issues? quality? tricks?

mine is currently running win95 rtm on a 10 GB HD, 32 mb ram, sb32 and a crappy avance logic video card, video perfomance sucks but overall is quite acceptable, is this motherboard worth for any upgrades? 😈

Attachments

  • 20171018_223324.jpg
    Filename
    20171018_223324.jpg
    File size
    3.34 MiB
    Views
    1314 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 1 of 23, by Ampera

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Put a heatsink on that 486 right now before you kill it. Those DX4s NEED a heatsink (not should have one) NEED one. It should even say so right on the chip. A DX2-66 can run without, but not a DX4.

I would also suggest not using Windows 95 on a 486. Yes it's somewhat designed for it, but the issue is that the overhead of running the Windows daemons is massive, and will eat away at the little performance you have.

Reply 2 of 23, by Anonymous Coward

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Maybe a 3.3V DX2-66 can run without, but the 5V model needs either a fan or heatsink for reliable operation.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 3 of 23, by bloodbath2you

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Ampera wrote:

Put a heatsink on that 486 right now before you kill it. Those DX4s NEED a heatsink (not should have one) NEED one. It should even say so right on the chip. A DX2-66 can run without, but not a DX4.

I would also suggest not using Windows 95 on a 486. Yes it's somewhat designed for it, but the issue is that the overhead of running the Windows daemons is massive, and will eat away at the little performance you have.

gonna buy some thermal paste next week, but damn... without a heatsink looks so cool! hehehe

why not win95? considering is RTM, it performs good and i also dont play much(but doom), i use it mainly for programming and learning assembly, is easier than pure dos for text editing and experimentation.

Reply 4 of 23, by BitWrangler

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Anonymous Coward wrote:

Maybe a 3.3V DX2-66 can run without, but the 5V model needs either a fan or heatsink for reliable operation.

Also, cyrix and AMD dx2s may need them more than intel.

Edit: Though wait, have I ever seen a cyrix DX2 without a bonded on passive heatsink?? Don't think I have.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 5 of 23, by BitWrangler

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
bloodbath2you wrote:

gonna buy some thermal paste next week, but damn... without a heatsink looks so cool! hehehe

Actually it was "common practice" to fit heatsinks dry until the latter half of the socket 7 era, then super 7s ones were coming with thermal pads on. I was a smerterse, so I was using zinx oxide thermal paste from late 486 days, but I was also overclocking everything I got my hands on, so it needed more help than stock installs.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 6 of 23, by Samir

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

95 will run decently well on a dx4, but you need 64mb of ram and need to lock down the swap file to a fixed amount (like 64mb). Then windows won't be hard drive bound as much and everything will be a lot snappier.

Reply 7 of 23, by kanecvr

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Samir wrote:

95 will run decently well on a dx4, but you need 64mb of ram and need to lock down the swap file to a fixed amount (like 64mb). Then windows won't be hard drive bound as much and everything will be a lot snappier.

32 megs is fine for win95. Minimum is 8MB, while recommended (my m$) is 16 - with 32MB win95 runs great. Win98 is a different story. It's sluggish with 32MB, and will only be smooth with 128.

Reply 8 of 23, by BitWrangler

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

If you have 2 HDD channels, sticking swap on another spare drive on the other channel speeds things up no end vs having it on the OS drive. This is true even if the drive is half as fast as the main drive. I think you get a minor improvement with an equal drive on the same channel, at least the heads stay in the right places on the respective drives even if they have to share the data pipe and aren't bopping back and forth from one side of the disk to the other.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 9 of 23, by Samir

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
kanecvr wrote:
Samir wrote:

95 will run decently well on a dx4, but you need 64mb of ram and need to lock down the swap file to a fixed amount (like 64mb). Then windows won't be hard drive bound as much and everything will be a lot snappier.

32 megs is fine for win95. Minimum is 8MB, while recommended (my m$) is 16 - with 32MB win95 runs great. Win98 is a different story. It's sluggish with 32MB, and will only be smooth with 128.

Thank you for posting this! Yes, 32mb is good for w95. I got 98se and 95 mixed up. 64mb on 98se is like night and day compared to 32mb and 128 wakes it up for sure. 256mb and beyond don't seem like it makes as much of an impact.

Reply 10 of 23, by Samir

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
BitWrangler wrote:

If you have 2 HDD channels, sticking swap on another spare drive on the other channel speeds things up no end vs having it on the OS drive. This is true even if the drive is half as fast as the main drive. I think you get a minor improvement with an equal drive on the same channel, at least the heads stay in the right places on the respective drives even if they have to share the data pipe and aren't bopping back and forth from one side of the disk to the other.

Great idea. I forgot we actually did this on our 30-286 and 486 builds. Agh! I'm losing as much data in my brain as rotting floppies. 😢 😵 😠 😒

Reply 11 of 23, by bloodbath2you

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
BitWrangler wrote:

If you have 2 HDD channels, sticking swap on another spare drive on the other channel speeds things up no end vs having it on the OS drive. This is true even if the drive is half as fast as the main drive. I think you get a minor improvement with an equal drive on the same channel, at least the heads stay in the right places on the respective drives even if they have to share the data pipe and aren't bopping back and forth from one side of the disk to the other.

WHAT!?!?!?

Reply 12 of 23, by bloodbath2you

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

suddenly the post came back to life 😁

the pup is running with a headsink now, improved some timigs(write-through l1 and l2 seems a LOT faster than WB) and tried some OC but with no luck.. this particular revision has different jumpers and the only manual around is the rev2.0. after trial and error 120Mhz wont past boot, but id rather overclock it in 2.5x 40Mhz than 120Mhz /3x. and keep the voltage at 3.3v, but the question is how the f* i set it at 2.5x 🤣

trying to finish quake just like anyone in a 486, honestly has been quite fun

Reply 13 of 23, by kanecvr

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
bloodbath2you wrote:

trying to finish quake just like anyone in a 486, honestly has been quite fun

Excuse me for saying so, but your definition of fun is a bit masochistic 😊

Reply 14 of 23, by Samir

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
bloodbath2you wrote:

suddenly the post came back to life 😁

the pup is running with a headsink now, improved some timigs(write-through l1 and l2 seems a LOT faster than WB) and tried some OC but with no luck.. this particular revision has different jumpers and the only manual around is the rev2.0. after trial and error 120Mhz wont past boot, but id rather overclock it in 2.5x 40Mhz than 120Mhz /3x. and keep the voltage at 3.3v, but the question is how the f* i set it at 2.5x 🤣

trying to finish quake just like anyone in a 486, honestly has been quite fun

That's interesting that wt is faster than wb as wb has always been a faster cache architecture by design.

It always amazes me how much more could have been squeezed out of the 486 design. There was actually a 486dx-50 that ran at 50Mhz (we bought one to compare it side-by-side with a dx2-50 back in the day), and with a quad clock multiplier on that puppy it potentially could have been a 486dx4-200, which would have probably brought it up into p120 p133 speed territory, except years earlier. Intel's decision to move to the Pentium line was a business decision which I can't fault since AMD and others were catching up with 486 clones at the time. But man, the potential of the 486...

Reply 15 of 23, by Samir

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
kanecvr wrote:
bloodbath2you wrote:

trying to finish quake just like anyone in a 486, honestly has been quite fun

Excuse me for saying so, but your definition of fun is a bit masochistic 😊

Nah, those games are mild now compared to what there is today. 😲

Reply 16 of 23, by bloodbath2you

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Samir wrote:
bloodbath2you wrote:

suddenly the post came back to life 😁

the pup is running with a headsink now, improved some timigs(write-through l1 and l2 seems a LOT faster than WB) and tried some OC but with no luck.. this particular revision has different jumpers and the only manual around is the rev2.0. after trial and error 120Mhz wont past boot, but id rather overclock it in 2.5x 40Mhz than 120Mhz /3x. and keep the voltage at 3.3v, but the question is how the f* i set it at 2.5x 🤣

trying to finish quake just like anyone in a 486, honestly has been quite fun

That's interesting that wt is faster than wb as wb has always been a faster cache architecture by design.

It always amazes me how much more could have been squeezed out of the 486 design. There was actually a 486dx-50 that ran at 50Mhz (we bought one to compare it side-by-side with a dx2-50 back in the day), and with a quad clock multiplier on that puppy it potentially could have been a 486dx4-200, which would have probably brought it up into p120 p133 speed territory, except years earlier. Intel's decision to move to the Pentium line was a business decision which I can't fault since AMD and others were catching up with 486 clones at the time. But man, the potential of the 486...

yep, sometimes i think how the dx4 could have been if was a bit more optimized, becuase it really was meant to be something in the middle, but the step from to the pentium is quite big. anyway you know, just bussiness.

Reply 17 of 23, by bloodbath2you

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
kanecvr wrote:
bloodbath2you wrote:

trying to finish quake just like anyone in a 486, honestly has been quite fun

Excuse me for saying so, but your definition of fun is a bit masochistic 😊

anything for quake <3

Reply 18 of 23, by Ampera

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I've played Quake on my DX4-120.

On almost all averages I get better performance with PC-DOS 2000 than Windows 95, however there IS DOS mode, so I GUESS you could use that.

However I still prefer straight up DOS, because everything you could possibly want to run on a 486 is Win16 or straight DOS anyways.

OS/2 is kinda cool, but there is a LOT you have to do to it until it actually does what you want it to. The Win16 and DOS implementations are a bit meh to say the least, not to mention that there's still an overhead from the OS daemons running.