Ok here are 3 Mobos I'm willing to put my hands on.
Once again I don't know the brand or model and it is quite difficult to me to identify them, but they look pretty good to me. What are your opinions on these ones guys?
Special attention to the Optic chip Board as it can work with a 386 CPU.
Also the last one, the PCI looks pretty nice!
Are you sure the OPTi board can accept 386 CPUs? I only see a 486 socket on the board.
"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
The first board is a DataExpert EXP4044. It does not support a 386, it's just a regular Socket 3 board. It appears to be a decent enough board, although I do see one possible issue: even though it has a DX4 installed, and the documentation says it supports 3.3V CPUs, I don't a voltage regulator anywhere. I could be missing something, but I do see empty spaces near the corner of the CPU socket... there's a possibility that it may be a 5V-only revision, or that the regulator has been removed.
The second board I haven't identified yet (and frankly, am too lazy to really try very hard). I know the SiS 471 is a good chipset, and the four 72-pin SIMM slots are a nice feature. The battery will need to be removed, but at least it doesn't appear to have leaked at all. It's definitely 5V only, so you'll need an Overdrive chip or one of the Evergreen/Kingston/etc. adapters if you want to use a DX4 or 5x86.
The last one is an MSI MS4144. Really not much to say about it... if you want a PCI 486 board, it looks like one of the better ones. I'm pretty sure somebody on here has one... RG100 maybe?
wrote:The first board is a DataExpert EXP4044. It does not support a 386, it's just a regular Socket 3 board. It appears to be a decent enough board, although I do see one possible issue: even though it has a DX4 installed, and the documentation says it supports 3.3V CPUs, I don't a voltage regulator anywhere. I could be missing something, but I do see empty spaces near the corner of the CPU socket... there's a possibility that it may be a 5V-only revision, or that the regulator has been removed.
The second board I haven't identified yet (and frankly, am too lazy to really try very hard). I know the SiS 471 is a good chipset, and the four 72-pin SIMM slots are a nice feature. The battery will need to be removed, but at least it doesn't appear to have leaked at all. It's definitely 5V only, so you'll need an Overdrive chip or one of the Evergreen/Kingston/etc. adapters if you want to use a DX4 or 5x86.
The last one is an MSI MS4144. Really not much to say about it... if you want a PCI 486 board, it looks like one of the better ones. I'm pretty sure somebody on here has one... RG100 maybe?
Umm, so the last board is the famous MSI MS4144? I'm going to read documentation about it, I want to know why is it so well regarded.
Something to think about is PCI versus VLB. Having PCI greatly increases the number of cards you can use. However I am sure there are those who would say you need VLB for the "authentic" 486 experience.
Just my opinion - I'd stay away from the middle one just because it had a varta battery on it 🙁
How comfortable are you with soldering?
wrote:Something to think about is PCI versus VLB. Having PCI greatly increases the number of cards you can use. However I am sure there are those who would say you need VLB for the "authentic" 486 experience.
Just my opinion - I'd stay away from the middle one just because it had a varta battery on it 🙁
How comfortable are you with soldering?
I'm cool with soldering...I mean, looking at the VLB MOBOS I'm willing to solder if the middle one is better than the first one. But again...by better I mean chipset wise...
As far as I know, VARTAs are far better than GP. There's no reason to stay away from them, is there?
wrote:Something to think about is PCI versus VLB. Having PCI greatly increases the number of cards you can use. However I am sure there are those who would say you need VLB for the "authentic" 486 experience.
Just my opinion - I'd stay away from the middle one just because it had a varta battery on it 🙁
How comfortable are you with soldering?
VL Bus was also a later addition to 486 systems, so it could also be argued that only 16-bit ISA slots constitute a genuine 486 experience. And what about EISA? Where does that fit in?
Get the pci board, gives you option of using any socket 3 processor + a wide variety of pci devices.
Otherwise id pick the top vlb board
wrote:Get the pci board, gives you option of using any socket 3 processor + a wide variety of pci devices.
Otherwise id pick the top vlb board
Yes, PCI should be much more practical.
I'm going to go for the PCI one...definately!
...on the other hand I've heard that the 486 implementation of PCI is not really that good (compared to pentium)
My S3 Trio PCI VGA card is running great considering i'm running at 40MHZ FSB and the ZIDA 4DPS has no PCI divider. PCI has always worked very well in 486's even back in the day.
I like the 1st and 3rd boards :
1. CPU socket is way out in it's own corner. Would be good for an overkill heatsink fan combo (but might get in the way of hard disk placement if installed so).
2. For the 1st board - VLB slots for VLB cards - a hallmark for 486, but not required though. Would be a great board to install a Tseng ET4000 VLB card or one of those rare 3D Blaster VLBs for a kick. 😁
3. I myself am using a PCI based 486 similar to the 3rd one. Using a Virge DX card on it for both DOS and Windows 3.11.
4. The 1st board can accomodate very long cards without getting hindered by front panel/speaker/led pins and wires obstructing them, easily. Other boards might need adjustment of where to place long cards. But then again, there are only a few cards that are very long - LAPC-I, SBAWE32 (older, "full" models).
The 1st board requires a Floppy/HDD/I/O card though. The 3rd has everything ready.
Ok, just got the last board for 20 euro. A decent price I think. Didn't want to risk with the other ones. Never had a VLB, maybe in a future. I just see PCI being a bit more practical when it comes to Graphic Cards.
You will have to let us know what you do with it 😁
wrote:You will have to let us know what you do with it 😁
Guess 😀
