The last one was looking at was this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/486-VLB-motherboard-a … =item416c558297
But it's probably not worth it

hehe, good I am not the only one. Thinking about the same thing. Those parts seemed reasonably priced.

but ya know..I think the thing is... building it, getting it up an running would be fun, and there would be a certain nostalgia, but then you'd realize you've played all these games before, it will never be "new" again, and next week it would be sitting in the closet...

or maybe not (shrug)....

Of course, having a 486 is simply FUN, I highly recommend it. I dont use it every week ( too many geeky things to do) but Its nice to have the possibility.
I keep looking at Freebies on Kijiji. Got two 486 this way in the last year. Found a few in the trash also, but i guess i was lucky.
By grabbing freebies and scavenging, you do not get to chose THE machine you want but at least this way you do not feel the guilt you might feel from purposely buying it on ebay. You can always say " Hey it was just there so i took it!! '" It works really!!

Problem is at this point, i have so much stuff its starting to get harder to manage... Sigh...
Remember Tetrium's attic? Im getting there.

MaxWar wrote:

Problem is at this point, i have so much stuff its starting to get harder to manage... Sigh...
Remember Tetrium's attic? Im getting there.

I've gone from a 1/4 of my 2 car garage to HALF in the last year. 🙁 This doesn't count my Library of boxed dos games.

but yea, that 486 setup on ebay is CHEAP as it gets for a barebones 486 setup. If I was in the market for any of those parts, I would be bidding.

luckybob wrote:

but yea, that 486 setup on ebay is CHEAP as it gets for a barebones 486 setup. If I was in the market for any of those parts, I would be bidding.

Cheap they are, but do not forget the inevitable sniper war in the last 10 sec :p

That voice saying 486 486 doesn't go away, so you might as well just get it over with. They're not particularly practical but they are great fun to play with, and so what if you shove it in the cupboard, you'll pull it out again a few months later I'm sure!

I'd put a bid in on those parts if they were local to me.

I have an OEM Acer 486. I was lucky as I got it local and for a pretty low price. It works well, but I simply prefer to use my Super Socket 7 Time-machine. It's a Pentium 200, clocked at 133 and with L1 and L2 cache disabled. Gives you ~ a 386DX.

The things are support for larger HDDs, USB which works under Windows 98SE (for copying games or drivers), modern BIOS which you can update to the latest version, great documentation, drivers for W95 and W98, ATX for modern ATX cases and PSU...

I believe the IT industry was a bit like the wild west in the 486 era. With Super Socket 7 there were a lot more standards and quality control I believe. Slot 1 (BX440) is even better, but not as flexible for old games.

Well, seems like the planets are lineing up for my 486. Found a local guy who wants to sell some old computer stuff. Here is what he is offering as a complete system:

Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 486 motherboard + Intel DX4-100MHz
4x8MB RAM
Creative Soundblaster 16 CT1770 SCSI (Soundblaster wihtout hanging note bug)
SB 16 manual
Sony SCSI CD drive with caddy (Didn't know caddy CD systems existed!)
50-pin SCSI cable
PS/2-bracket
VL-bus Adaptec AHA-2840A SCSI I/O controller card.
16bit ISA controller card LGS-A2 IDE / Floppy / COM I/O card
VL-bus VGA card S3 Vision864 1MB
VL-bus Cirrus Logic CLVGA542XVL 2MB
3COM Etherlink II 10mbit ISA network card
IBM SCSI 50-pin 9 GB harddrive /w cable
5 1/4 floppydrive
486 AT case w/ PSU

Price: 70 dollars. Should I go for it?

Yes 😀

Why do you even ask?! 😲

Filosofia wrote:

Why do you even ask?! 😲

Just wanted to ask the 486 experts in here if it was a good deal and if the parts were OK (appears good to me). I've been in contact with this guy for some time to buy one or two video cards, but it turned out he "suddenly" had more for sale after we had some conversation over old retro hardware. I have been thinking about a 486 system for some time and after receiving this offer I'm really tempted.

call me crazy, but $70 is a bit steep. The highlights of the list are the soundcard and the vlb scsi card. The board is good, but would sit unused on my shelf like the nine button on a microwave...

luckybob wrote:

call me crazy

Crazy! 😀

I think it's a good buy because it has everything ready to go. Don't forget, time for hunting for bits on ebay, postage, putting it all together...

Price is "good" if you compare it to what youd find on say, ebay, but id try to negotiate a bit :p

luckybob wrote:

call me crazy, but $70 is a bit steep. The highlights of the list are the soundcard and the vlb scsi card. The board is good, but would sit unused on my shelf like the nine button on a microwave...

Personal moment of mad impetuosity- I used the 9 button on the breakroom microwave this morning at work. I hit "90" seconds instead of 1:30. Like a boss! Oh, and I would go for it- build the 486, you know you want to.

Whenever I think about hooking up my old P120 or 486DX2/66, I'm always reminded of two things:

1. Despite all the games that work on them there's plenty that don't because of CPU speed, graphics card limitations, audio card limitations or whatnot.

2. DOSBox. :P

I really am more about the software than the hardware. *shrugs* Oh well. :P

There's also the fact that parts for a 486... especially a VLB 486... are not going to be interchangeable with my current systems... different slots, different RAM

AND most of the boards that I have seen for sale are not what I would call the "better" boards. I have three deal-breakers: (1) CPU chips soldered to the board, (2) barrel batteries, and (3) dallas clock chips

Seems like boards didn't start getting "good" until the late 486 and early Pentium era

Barrel batteries, no big deal unless it leaked all over. Just remove it and use external battery.