First post, by simon_e_hall
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Well, I thought it was time to start a new build, as my current 486DX EISA build is beginning to show signs of needing to retire.
My first thought was to buy a complete 486 system to do up, but oh, my God, even those in terrible shape are being sold for more than a complete Intel i5 system, which is crazy, those that shows signs of being 'renovated' are going for even crazier prices, so back to building from scratch.
So I plodded around the internet looking for another 486 motherboard (with EISA if possible) and ideas, then I saw this bad boy and in a moment of weakness purchased it.
A few things caught my attention:
1) Only one battery usually EISA has two.
2) No leaks or signs of leaks from that battery, which believe me when I get my hands on it is being removed straight away.
3) That VLB slot, which would address a serious short coming in my current machine, the video speed (currently using an EISA VGA card).
Before I bought the board did some research, as I was not familar with Domino.
The closest motherboard I can find is the JOINDATA SYSTEMS, INC. G486HVL
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/J/J … 86-G486HVL.html
but that has two VLB slots, the pin outs and chip layout pretty much are a mirror image.
There is a label on the board which says MB-4DELI2H, typed that into Google and nothing came back, which is annoying as I found it here:
http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboards/9368
Which states Domino, so I will be very interested to get it running (after removal of the battery) and see what CFG the motherboard needs, to clarify who makes it, but at a guess looks like a bespoke cut down (I hope not too reduced) motherboard made by Join Data for Domino.
Also I am sure the serial numbers of the board on that site and the purchase site match.
Now I see mixed information about the HiNT chipset all over the internet when I was researching that, especially as it does not fully implement EISA properly without some tweaks to the CFG files (https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.ms-window … 2/c/uDh7RWrEltc). However, I did notice the 85C206 chips and a couple of PAL chips, so I am hoping this might be a hybrid (or P-EISA) board, which addresses some of those issues.
Now the direction I am hoping to go with this build is a throw back to the days of beige, my usual builds are normally black inside and out, braided cables, rounded cables, etc. thought I would try and do a throw back instead, I am not too fussed on period correct cards, so hopefully will update you all further as this continues.
So plan is new beige case, might risk a new old stock with original PSU, after a recap and Portable Appliance Test.
3 EISA slots, perfect number, as this will hold networking and SCSI as that is what they are perfect for, SCSI is my main concern with this chipset.
ISA, Good old Sound blaster and IO Card
VLB, graphics, no brainer! Think I have a Dimanond something card with the ability to have 2MB on it somewhere.