VOGONS


Show off your 286/386s!

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First post, by swaaye

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I wanna see some finely restored 286 or 386s. Gimme some photos!!!! Anyone running EGA hardware?

Reply 1 of 20, by Anonymous Coward

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IMG_1734.JPG

-IBM Type III 8MHz planar
-16 MB DRAM (512kb on planar)
-2 x BocaRAM AT Plus
-AMI replacement BIOS
-RevTo486 IBM486SLC2-66/cx83s87-40 CPU upgrade
-IBM EGA adapter w/256kb RAM
-Adaptec AHA-1542C SCSI
-Boca Research 16550/ECP I/O
-Sound Blaster Pro 2.0
-3Com Etherlink III 3c509B
-HP 1080MB 5400RPM SCSI HDD
-IBM 1.2mb / IBM 1.44mb FDD
-IBM EGA display and 84-key keyboard

Sorry, I don't have any up to date shots of the internals at the moment.

IMG_0064.JPG

-IBM Blue Lightning DLC2-66MHz 16kb L1, Cyrix Fasmath 83D87 33MHz
-ASI 386/486 VLB mainboard w/256kb 15ns SRAM
-32MB 60ns Parity 30pin
-20GB Seagate Barracuda SCSI HDD
-Adaptec 1542C ISA SCSI controller
-ATi Mach64 4mb VRAM VLB Graphics Adapter
-3com 3c509B ISA 10MBps NIC
-Creative AWE32 +28mb w/WaveBlaster II
-Sony CDU-541 1X Caddy SCSI CD-ROM
-Panasonic 1.44mb/IBM 1.2mb

"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

Reply 2 of 20, by swaaye

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nice systems you have there.

I've been watching the Computer Chronicles show over at the Internet Archive and am definitely slipping into a "living in the past as if it's current" state of mind. 😀 Comdex 1987 wooo!!!

Reply 3 of 20, by GL1zdA

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Nice preserved AT. But a 486 upgrade card? It's like building a 486 with the Pentium Overdrive... Does the motherboard of the second one have 8 SIMM slots, or are you using these ultra expensive 16 MB 30-pin modules?

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Reply 4 of 20, by swaaye

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486SLC2 is basically a 386 CPU. That's more akin to using a Am5x86 than a Pentium OD. Nothing wrong there IMO.

Reply 5 of 20, by Amigaz

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Damn...feel I have to contribute to this thread 😁
Have 5 386 boxes + 2 286's...pics coming soon 😉

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 6 of 20, by Anonymous Coward

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Both of my systems are using a "dingus" that plugs into the original 286/386 CPU socket. I'm not cheating with SBC CPU cards. The 386 motherboard I use is technically more like a 486 board (it has both 386 and 486 CPU sockets), but that's really the best you can do if you want to use a 386 CPU with VLB slots. VLB + 386 isn't even really supposed to work, so it's somewhat of a miracle that mine works at all. I do actually have two 16mb 30pin SIMMs in that system, but they're being used on the AWE32.

"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

Reply 7 of 20, by Davros

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Treasure that keyboard Anonymous Coward, for it is truely the keyboard of the gods....

Guardian of the Sacred Five Terabyte's of Gaming Goodness

Reply 8 of 20, by elfuego

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Davros wrote:

Treasure that keyboard Anonymous Coward, for it is truely the keyboard of the gods....

Definitely!!!

I saw some websites offering those , but of course at insane prices 🙁

Reply 9 of 20, by Anonymous Coward

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All of my computers use IBM clicky key keyboards. I picked up six model M units years ago when they were still considered worthless.

"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

Reply 10 of 20, by elfuego

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

All of my computers use IBM clicky key keyboards. I picked up six model M units years ago when they were still considered worthless.

I envy you 🙁

I went out searching for a decent, yet affordable keyboard a few months back and returned home disappointed with a crappy, but not too crappy Chinese Genius USB keyboard 🙁 I still have one IBM click keyboard back home. Thats my favorite piece of HW after 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 😀

Reply 11 of 20, by Amigaz

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Some pics...more to come.

P1010001.JPG

Commodore 286 12mhz
1024k ram
2.1gig IDE HDD

What's cool with this PC is that it uses an Amiga mouse...and has some unknown built in mono sound (unknown standard)

P1010001%20%284%29.JPG

Dell System 310
386DX 20mhz
16mb ram
140mb ESDI hard drive
Hercules ET4000 2mb gfx card
1.44mb floppy
5.25 1.2mb floppy

First Dell which is branded "Dell" 😀

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 12 of 20, by Amigaz

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p1010002i.jpg

My favourite 386, we use to have these at my first workplace in the early/mid 90's running both in the shops we had and in the main warehouse.

Specs:

- Intel 386DX @33mhz
- Symphony chipset
- 64k cache
- 8mb RAM (8x1mb 30pin simm's)
- 9.1 gig IBM IDE hdd split in 2gig partitions
- Ati Mach32 VRAM ISA gdx card
- Sound Blaster Pro 2
- CMS Roland MPU-401 compatible 8-bit midi card

OS= MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows for workgroups 3.11

Mainly playing older DOS games in this machine and fiddling with vintaghe Windows apps 😀

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 13 of 20, by swaaye

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Nice.

My first 486 had a Symphony chipset and 64KB L2. Along with a horrible Trident 8900C. And I added a SBPro2 to that sys.

Reply 14 of 20, by elfuego

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@Amigaz

All that is nothing compared to that CM-500 in background 😜

Reply 15 of 20, by GL1zdA

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@Amigaz
Are the Commodore cases AT compatible (of course the big desktop ones, not the pizzaboxs) ? How about their quality? Because I saw quite a few Commodore PCs appearing recently on a local auction website and I desperately need AT enclosures for my experiments 😀

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Reply 16 of 20, by Amigaz

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GL1zdA wrote:

@Amigaz
Are the Commodore cases AT compatible (of course the big desktop ones, not the pizzaboxs) ? How about their quality? Because I saw quite a few Commodore PCs appearing recently on a local auction website and I desperately need AT enclosures for my experiments 😀

I think their 486's came in standard AT desktop cases...the 386 and older aren't
This particular 386 has an ISA riser card....the other PC's commodore made used even more proprietary stuff
The case and rest is excellent quality on this one imho...same goes for the older one's which are built like tanks like their Amiga 2000/3000 computers from the same era 😀
Too bad it's not AT 🙁

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 17 of 20, by Anonymous Coward

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Is it possible that the Commodore 386 casing was outsourced to the "Enlight Corporation"? The button/keylock/indicator console looks like their design.

It's interesting that so many had 386 and 486 systems with the Symphony chipset. I didn't think they were all that common. My first PC was also a 486 with Symphony chipset.

"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

Reply 18 of 20, by Amigaz

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

Is it possible that the Commodore 386 casing was outsourced to the "Enlight Corporation"? The button/keylock/indicator console looks like their design.

It's interesting that so many had 386 and 486 systems with the Symphony chipset. I didn't think they were all that common. My first PC was also a 486 with Symphony chipset.

Yeah...it's quite possible..they made the case for the Commodore Amiga 4000T which has a standard full AT sized mobo.
The Commodore Amiga 4000 has a similar case
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/download_photos … a4000_2_big.jpg

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 19 of 20, by GL1zdA

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

-IBM Blue Lightning DLC2-66MHz 16kb L1, Cyrix Fasmath 83D87 33MHz
-ASI 386/486 VLB mainboard w/256kb 15ns SRAM

Could you tell me how this cache combination works? Does it use only the onchip cache or does the motherboard cache work as L2?

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