VOGONS


First post, by Van Denhawk

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Hi

I am new to old pc's and dos gaming. I have a new AMI Enterprise-IV Motherboard to play classic dos games to the early ninities games. What is the general opinion of this motherboard?

I have an ATX case but the motherboard is a bit too big, in the manual it says I need a baby AT case, Is there anywhere online or shops etc I can still get this type of case?

Finally the motherboard is a socket 2 board but I have an intel 486/DX2-66Mhz processor which is a bit smaller than the socket, will it still be ok for this motherboard?

Thanks

Reply 1 of 6, by Tetrium

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Where are you located?
AT cases are hard to find nowdays, though that may depend on your location.
AT cases "should" fit in a full-ATX tower, though you'd need the correct backplate (with only 1 opening for large keyboard). If you happen to have any spare ATX cases standing around, I'd suggest try one of those.
Some ATX cases can be a bit too "short", so to say.

Do you have a white Socket 2 Socket? Could you PLEASE take a pic of it?!?
Years ago I found a motherboard with a Socket 2 socket which looked exactly like a Socket 3 socket, except for the "2" instead of the "3" and I've been searching for evidence of this Socket 2 ever since 🤣!

And a warm welcome to Vogons!
If you want some reading about retro computing, may I suggest the link at the bottom of my post? 😀

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 2 of 6, by DonutKing

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Finally the motherboard is a socket 2 board but I have an intel 486/DX2-66Mhz processor which is a bit smaller than the socket, will it still be ok for this motherboard?

If you mean there is an extra row of pins around the outside of the processor, then yes this is normal. The Pentium Overdrive utilised these extra pins but normal 486 or 586 processors don't.

If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.

Reply 3 of 6, by Tetrium

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Van Denhawk wrote:

Finally the motherboard is a socket 2 board but I have an intel 486/DX2-66Mhz processor which is a bit smaller than the socket, will it still be ok for this motherboard?

Fyi, the Pentium Overdrive for Socket 3 (and 2) looks like this from the underside (It's the right hand CPU, the left hand is a standard Socket 7 CPU):
http://s941.photobucket.com/albums/ad254/inte … nt=DSC00501.jpg
Unfortunately I don't have a pic of a 486 and a POD side by side atm, so this will have to do.

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 4 of 6, by Van Denhawk

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Thanks for the replies

Tetrium wrote:
Where are you located? AT cases are hard to find nowdays, though that may depend on your location. AT cases "should" fit in a fu […]
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Where are you located?
AT cases are hard to find nowdays, though that may depend on your location.
AT cases "should" fit in a full-ATX tower, though you'd need the correct backplate (with only 1 opening for large keyboard). If you happen to have any spare ATX cases standing around, I'd suggest try one of those.
Some ATX cases can be a bit too "short", so to say.

Do you have a white Socket 2 Socket? Could you PLEASE take a pic of it?!?
Years ago I found a motherboard with a Socket 2 socket which looked exactly like a Socket 3 socket, except for the "2" instead of the "3" and I've been searching for evidence of this Socket 2 ever since 🤣!

And a warm welcome to Vogons!
If you want some reading about retro computing, may I suggest the link at the bottom of my post? 😀

I am in England, UK

It is a blue socket 2 on the motherboard.

Thanks, back in the days I was an Amiga 500 owner. It was a great system but didn't get round to playing on it much unfortunately. I have a new Amiga A1200 but also want to play vintage dos games as I missed out on PC gaming.

Reply 5 of 6, by Van Denhawk

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I have another question. If I manage to find an ATX case that will be big enough to fit the motherboard, then there is a problem that the power supply will not suitable for the AMI motherboard because the connectors of the
power supply are for ATX motherboards. Could I use this to connect the AMI Enterprise motherboard to the power supply?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATX-power-supply-adapto … =item230c360eb6

Or will it be better looking for a baby AT power supply which might not be very easy to find?

Thanks.

Reply 6 of 6, by Tetrium

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Van Denhawk wrote:
I have another question. If I manage to find an ATX case that will be big enough to fit the motherboard, then there is a problem […]
Show full quote

I have another question. If I manage to find an ATX case that will be big enough to fit the motherboard, then there is a problem that the power supply will not suitable for the AMI motherboard because the connectors of the
power supply are for ATX motherboards. Could I use this to connect the AMI Enterprise motherboard to the power supply?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATX-power-supply-adapto … =item230c360eb6

Or will it be better looking for a baby AT power supply which might not be very easy to find?

Thanks.

Yes, you can use a normal ATX PSU with this adapter 😉
Only remember to better use an older model ATX PSU for compatibility reasons. If you mind having a large opening in the back of the ATX case, you can get one of those AT2ATX backplates which basically is a backplate just like any other ATX motherboard, but has only 1 larger hole in it for the keyboard

Btw, most AT PSU's I found back in the days when 486's were on the side of the road were of poor quality.

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!