First post, by Great Hierophant
- Rank
- l33t
I have already given a preview of this system in another thread, but I want to officially announce it now
Generic AT case w/3x5.25" & 3x3.5" bays (1 internal)
Intel 486DX/2 66
ASUS ISA-486SV2 v3.1 w/256KB Cache
8MB FPM RAM (8x1Mx9 @ 60ns)
Diamond Stealth 24VL w/1MB
Gravis Ultrasound ACE 1.0 w/1MB
Roland MIF-IPC-A & MPU-401
Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 CT-1750 ASP DSP v4.05
Eagle Novell NE2000T
Kouwell KW-560D VLB IDE & I/O controller
1GB Compact Flash w/IDE adapter
Generic IDE/ATAPI 24x CD-ROM
Epson SD-880 Combo 5.25" & 3.5" Floppy
Generic 3-button Serial Mouse (Microsoft/Mouse Systems switch)
Roland CS-30 Stereo Micro Monitor
KDS VS-7p VGA Monitor 17/16"
IBM Model M Keyboard 1391401 w/AT cable
This system is designed to be a fast 486 system that someone could have built circa 1994. I had recently gone on something of a buying spree but also used parts I had been acquiring from here and there for years.
Of course, now that it is built, it needs to be perfected :
1. The BIOS (AMI 8/8/93) does not support IDE drives larger than 504MB, so almost half the space of the CF card goes unused. I will get the XT-IDE Universal BIOS and stick it in the Boot ROM socket of the NIC. 504MB can get filled up really quickly, especially when you are using floppy versions of disk games.
2. The floppy drives probably need a good cleaning, need to get cleaning disks.
3. The internal battery has been removed, but it has a header for an external battery. Will need to buy a battery pack. Board does not appear to use rechargeable batteries.
4. I have had some issues with hard drive corruption, I am not sure whether it is due to my using the IDE Block Mode setting or using the fast speed modes on VLB IDE controller.
5. I need to get the NIC on my network and on the Internet. Unfortunately my router is on a different level of my house and every other internet enabled device in my house is wireless. I have had success with Win 95 and Win 98 machines in the recent past, but this will undoubtedly be more challenging.
6. The cache chips on the motherboard are 20ns modules. I know there are faster ones out there. My BIOS defaults to 1 W/S, and if I want it to do 0 W/S instead, I may need faster chips.
7. My motherboard has 8x30-pin SIMM slots and I have all eight filled with 1MB sticks. Board supports 32MB and I could have that amount if I filled the banks with 4MB sticks instead. My BIOS has slow and fast RAM access, and it defaults to slow.
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