If it is standard AT, your best bet would be to browse Ebay for a compatible mainboard. The CPU should be relatively easy to find, though it would need at least a heatsink

And depending on the motherboard, you may need to buy some RAM as well.

You may have to search for a while before you find one that is affordable. Most of the regulars on ebay with 486 motherboards to sell want ridiculous prices for them. If you do manage to find one somewhere for a reasonable price, don't hesitate because if you found it then it's a sure bet someone else did too and waiting too long means someone else will probably beat you to it.

sliderider wrote:

You may have to search for a while before you find one that is affordable. Most of the regulars on ebay with 486 motherboards to sell want ridiculous prices for them. If you do manage to find one somewhere for a reasonable price, don't hesitate because if you found it then it's a sure bet someone else did too and waiting too long means someone else will probably beat you to it.

^agrees^

Btw, I'd like to point out that Buying and Selling threads aren't allowed on Vogons anymore.
You might have some luck at vintage-computer.com, theres loads of people buying and selling stuff there 😉

Yup! 486 boards cost a fortune these days.

My tip is to look for a Pentium board. They come in AT or ATX layout which makes it easy. With the "cache disable" tricks they can be turned into a 396 or 486DX2. If you find one with a turbo button you have even more options.

I tested heaps of games and hardware and he only thing that gave me issues on a Super Socket 7 board was the Media Vision PAS16 and Sound Blaster 2.0 cards. All of these work fine on my 486 however. Apart from that, I haven't run into any issues whatsoever.

So that's my tip. Look for a nice Pentium board that has a turbo button and you won't look back!

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

... only thing that gave me issues on a Super Socket 7 board was the Media Vision PAS16 and Sound Blaster 2.0 cards.

What issues did you have with an sb2? I never tried mine in anything faster than a 386 [well, my p4 board but that wasn't set up right i think] but i assumed it would work in ss7 boards.

ratfink wrote:

What issues did you have with an sb2? I never tried mine in anything faster than a 386 [well, my p4 board but that wasn't set up right i think] but i assumed it would work in ss7 boards.

All of them just gave me a very loud buzzing / static sound. The first card I got from VOGONs member Amigaz and I thought it was simply faulty. I tested it on several mainboards (Gigabyte BX440 and two SS7 boards).

Later I got 2 more Sound Blaster 2.0 cards and they also did the same exact thing. At that point I knew it was something else.

When I got my Acer 486 I tested the cards and all three worked just fine!

The Media Vision PAS16 plays digital samples in speed on most Pentium+ machines.

Again, no issues on the 486...

PS: The odd thing is that I also have two SB 1.5 cards, and they didn't have this issue.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

All of them just gave me a very loud buzzing / static sound. The first card I got from VOGONs member Amigaz and I thought it was […]
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ratfink wrote:

What issues did you have with an sb2? I never tried mine in anything faster than a 386 [well, my p4 board but that wasn't set up right i think] but i assumed it would work in ss7 boards.

All of them just gave me a very loud buzzing / static sound. The first card I got from VOGONs member Amigaz and I thought it was simply faulty. I tested it on several mainboards (Gigabyte BX440 and two SS7 boards).

Later I got 2 more Sound Blaster 2.0 cards and they also did the same exact thing. At that point I knew it was something else.

When I got my Acer 486 I tested the cards and all three worked just fine!

The Media Vision PAS16 plays digital samples in speed on most Pentium+ machines.

Again, no issues on the 486...

PS: The odd thing is that I also have two SB 1.5 cards, and they didn't have this issue.

That almost sounds like an EMI issue to me, like it's clock speed related.

SavantStrike wrote:

That almost sounds like an EMI issue to me, like it's clock speed related.

Who knows...

It's too weird to investigate further. But every other card I have works. SB 1.5, Pro, 16, 64, MPU401, GUS... It's only these three SB 2.0 cards and they do the exact same thing on a Slot 1 board and two SS7 boards.

The sound produced is so bad that you think right away the card is faulty. A very quiet and faint resemblence of the actual music and the static is as if the sound card is hooked up right into the ISA bus and you hear everything the computer does loud and clear...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Who knows... […]
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SavantStrike wrote:

That almost sounds like an EMI issue to me, like it's clock speed related.

Who knows...

It's too weird to investigate further. But every other card I have works. SB 1.5, Pro, 16, 64, MPU401, GUS... It's only these three SB 2.0 cards and they do the exact same thing on a Slot 1 board and two SS7 boards.

The sound produced is so bad that you think right away the card is faulty. A very quiet and faint resemblence of the actual music and the static is as if the sound card is hooked up right into the ISA bus and you hear everything the computer does loud and clear...

That almost sounds kinda cool 🤣. I'm reminded of the trick where you put an FM radio next to an old computer (clocked at 100mhz or lower). If the case isn't well shielded, you can get some interesting sound coming out of it. Another way is to install faulty spark plug wires and a bad antenna in a car, that will do it too 😁.

Hi Endor. I still have several 486 motherboards, and I don't think I'll ever need all of them. According to your description, one of my boards meets all those requirements. It' a Chaintech 4SLE (other possible names for this model are 486SLE and 4SLE2-Z1), with the following specs:

- Socket 3
- SiS 85C471 Chipset
- 1x 8-bit ISA slot, 3x 16-bit ISA slots, 3x VLB slots
- 4x 30-pin SIMM sockets, 2x 72-pin SIMM sockets
- Jumpers for Turbo Switch and Turbo LED
- 256KB 20ns SRAM cache

and now for the bad news...

- Electrolytic battery 😒

There's a picture of this board here (not mine - other items not included):
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj48/minne … 86SLE-66-MB.jpg

I also have some 486DX2-66 CPUs, but right now I can't remember how many. If more than two, I would be willing to part with one. Maybe some RAM too; I still have plenty of 8 MB 72-pin SIMMs.

NOTE FOR MODERATORS: I hope this post is not considered as either selling or trading. I'm just trying to help Endor81 on his retro project.