First post, by BetaC
- Rank
- Oldbie
I have managed to get a deal that I at least think is good. I snagged a GA-486VT on ebay that had a heatsinked 486DX2-66, seemingly full cache, and an unknown quantity of RAM for $100 after shipping and taxes. When it eventually gets here, I am planning on dropping it directly in to my Gateway P-75 since it just uses their old 486 case. I already have a VLB Mach32, a known good PSU, and as of today I have a working ISA IO card that includes Parallel, Serial, Floppy and IDE. I am aware that I would be getting better speeds with a VLB IO card, but realistically speaking, games that will actually need to increased speed will be better played on one of my Pentiums anyways.
As for why I am asking for advice, it's simple. I have no real experience with a PC machine of this age, and I am wondering if I am technically missing anything in my setup. I have a serial mouse, and an AT keyboard, so input is good. I don't have any ISA networking, but I don't really have a reason to need it connected to anything. I am possibly using a WD Caviar drive for my HDD, since I don't anticipate needing more than 1GB for a 486 and below system, but can throw in an unused SD-IDE adapter if I do end up needing more.
For sound I will be using my SB-16 2740 instead of my YMF based card, as TIE fighter plays perfectly "slow" on my pentium machine at 640*480, and that is the only game where the MIDI bugs caused by lolcreative actually bug me. For that card, I am unable to figure out if it genuinely has an IDE header, or if the 40 pins are not actually IDE. Also, since it is a partially plug and play card, will I need to do anything special with it when I try to set it up? I have been using Unisound for my other systems, so should I continue with that instead of the creative drivers?
As for more pressing issues, how should I go about circumventing the battery? I have been attempting to do research on my own for this topic, but I seem to be finding more arguing about the best way to do it instead of a "so long as you have this and this, you are good" kind of answer. I do know it's one of the blue 3.6v batteries. When it comes to this specifically, would using a 1/2 height AA PRAM battery work well as a replacement?
Also, if I were to swap in my 486 SX-33 for the sake of it, would I need to go about cooling that as well? the gateway case I am using does have a fan that blows over roughly where the chip will be, so it won't be sitting there, baking with only a PSU fan to slowly suck air out. Even then, would I even want to put the SX in for any real reason? Can I force the DX2 to run at a lower speed using the jumper settings the board comes with?
Thanks in advance for any help. I know I am partially overthinking, and that I can probably find a few answers when my brain isn't solder-fogged. Yes, I used breathing protection, so I'm only inhaling a little bit of, well, everything.