Even the "before" pictures it looks like a nice clean well looked after PC.
What OS does it have at the moment and what will you be installing on it?
Look forward to seeing it brought into the new century with CF cards, etc

Very nice! Love that case!

I had to remove the VGA pin on my Compaq 386s/20

chinny22 wrote:

Even the "before" pictures it looks like a nice clean well looked after PC.
What OS does it have at the moment and what will you be installing on it?
Look forward to seeing it brought into the new century with CF cards, etc

It hasn't been used much and was in storage for the last 10-15 years.

At the moment, MS-DOS 6.20 / Win 3.1. Will likely only tweak the DOS installation and upgrade Windows to 3.11 for networking.

I will be using a CF card as secondary storage. For me, hard drives are a part of the retro computer experience, so the system drive will always be a hard drive

foey wrote:

Very nice! Love that case!

I had to remove the VGA pin on my Compaq 386s/20

Yeah, your thread was the reason why I remembered that pin 9 wasn't necessary! I'm using a KVM switch cable as a VGA extension that conveniently has this pin missing - didn't have to modify anything, fortunately.

While not particularly reccomended, on a few video cards I had without that pin, I used the end of a heated paper clip to make a hole for the pin and never had trouble

Did IBM ever sell different video options for that computer? That proprietary card seems goofy but so did a lot of things on many computers before last decade.

oerk wrote:

Everything onboard, and PS/2 connectors - nice for a 486! Unfortunately the VGA connector has Pin 9 missing, had to use a fitting VGA extension for my 15" LCD.

All early VGA implementations will have that pin filled in (presumably to prevent people from plugging in other D-SUB devices that weren't VGA). Some VGA cables and (a lot) of CRTs will have that pin missing to correspond with that as well.

All IBM PS/2s (and subsequently PS/1s) will have PS/2 connectors. The Model 25 for instance is an 8086 computer with PS/2 ports!

With that aside that's an impressive computer; would probably be great for sound cards due to the (eight) ISA slots. One odd thing is that the blue lightning chip has a metal top with those wacky IBM 'coin' heatsinks. Definitely refreshing to see a rather uncommon machine than a generic cacheless packard bell or compaq.

Man, i've fallen in love with IBM machines. They were build hell-for-stout and if you can get past how EVERY single one is proprietary pain in the ass, they are wonderful machines to play on.

GXL750 wrote:

While not particularly reccomended, on a few video cards I had without that pin, I used the end of a heated paper clip to make a hole for the pin and never had trouble

That's a good tip, thank you. I will keep this machine, so there's no damage to collector value or anything to consider...

GXL750 wrote:

Did IBM ever sell different video options for that computer? That proprietary card seems goofy but so did a lot of things on many computers before last decade.

I don't know, but look at this one, which seems to be an earlier version with a different board layout without VLB:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/486er-Computer-IBM-PS- … N-/271566564131
I wonder if this one had the video onboard or on a card. I think the seller is a member here (FGB?). Maybe he can shed some light on this.

raymangold wrote:

With that aside that's an impressive computer; would probably be great for sound cards due to the (eight) ISA slots. One odd thing is that the blue lightning chip has a metal top with those wacky IBM 'coin' heatsinks. Definitely refreshing to see a rather uncommon machine than a generic cacheless packard bell or compaq.

Yeah, don't know what I'd do with more than one or two sound cards... but it's nice to have the option.

The heatsink sure is quirky. Seems to do the job though.

Does anyone know what the CPU socket is for?

luckybob wrote:

Man, i've fallen in love with IBM machines. They were build hell-for-stout and if you can get past how EVERY single one is proprietary pain in the ass, they are wonderful machines to play on.

Yeah, but this one actually isn't all that proprietary. PSU is standard, drives are standard, memory is standard, expansion is standard if you don't count the video "card". And I'm pretty certain one could remove it and install a regular ISA/VLB card.

So, according to this:
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/ibm-blue-lightnin … ds-fastest-386/
...the blue socket should be able to run any regular 5V 486.

I have a DX33 and a Cyrix DX2-66 to test (though the Cyrix is possibly a 3.3V part). Should I risk it?

oerk wrote:

So, according to this: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/ibm-blue-lightnin … ds-fastest-386/ ...the blue socket should be able to run […]
Show full quote

So, according to this:
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/ibm-blue-lightnin … ds-fastest-386/
...the blue socket should be able to run any regular 5V 486.

I have a DX33 and a Cyrix DX2-66 to test (though the Cyrix is possibly a 3.3V part). Should I risk it?

As long as you stick to 5v chips and dont put them in wrong, you cant kill anything. a POD83 is probably your best bet.

Yeah, most likely an Overdrive socket. On OEM systems that had the CPU soldered to the motherboard, you would sometimes have a socket provided with which to upgrade to a nicer CPU. I've only seem them in the flesh on IBM systems but they were used at least a little by all the OEMs from the era.

As far as I know the DLC already in your system was ultimately a 386 at heart albeit very heavily tweaked.

hell-for-stout

It even has the kickover baseplate. I wonder if it qualified for one by some internal IBM engineering guideline, or just by marketing wanting to show that you 'bought IBM'.

I haven't checked how my "386" performs yet :p - if it's seriously below a DX2-66, I might consider an upgrade. Problem is, I have several faster chips, but all of them 3.3V...

Don't want a Pentium Overdrive. I have other machines for that.

It even has markings that the computer mustn't be operated without the baseplate installed.

oerk wrote:

I haven't checked how my "386" performs yet :p - if it's seriously below a DX2-66, I might consider an upgrade. Problem is, I have several faster chips, but all of them 3.3V...

Don't want a Pentium Overdrive. I have other machines for that.

It even has markings that the computer mustn't be operated without the baseplate installed.

Blue Lightning is very competent-- even moreso with cache (but I can't see if it has any since some of the board is obscured). Don't be surprised if it outperforms a handful of faster 486es. An overdrive would be the most logical upgrade on that system if you don't want to use blue lightning... although you really get a far less unique CPU by doing so.

The main thing, as far as I can tell, that made the Blue Ligntning perform so well was the addition of an internal L1 cache which a proper 386 lacked. Clock for clock, a 486SX will be a little faster. However, if you run anything dependant on FPU, a 486DX will blow the thing away. Having the FPU internal gave the 486DX a huge advantage back in the early 90s.

FWIW, some folks in Australia did, a decade ago, a better job explaining vintage CPUs better than most of us can.
http://redhill.net.au/iu.html

It does have 128K of L2 cache, I found out that much. Since Blue Lightning supposedly can only cache 16MB RAM in L1, 128K L2 should be enough as well.

Yeah, I have a thing for unique CPUs - my second running system uses a K5 even though I could easily swap it for a K6 or Pentium MMX, my third system is Slot A. I could build a trouble free BX system instead, but that's too mainstream for me :p

I don't intend to run Quake on this system, having no FPU doesn't bother me.

The Red Hill site is great, I've already read through everything in the past. Definitely worth another reading, though - thanks for reminding me 😀

Is there a socket to add a 387? There seems to be references in the manual for the PS/1000 type 2168 to adding a coprocessor.

Very nice machine. Always wanted a IBM 486SLC/DLC or Blue Lightning after reading about them on Red Hill.

BuuBox wrote:

Is there a socket to add a 387? There seems to be references in the manual for the PS/1000 type 2168 to adding a coprocessor.

Unfortunately not. There's a full blown socket 2 for a replacement 486, but no 387 socket.

Do you have the manual? I didn't get one with the machine.

Did some upgrades and testing yesterday, update to follow...

So far I've upgraded the RAM to 16 MB, added a Shuttle HOT-233 sound card, a NE2000 compatible NIC, a 5 1/4" FDD, and a CF card adapter as secondary slave.

The sound card is giving me problems, I'm probably swapping it for a CT3980 AWE32.

Currently installing Windows 3.11 and getting networking running.

It's my first time running a CF card in a computer. So far, this is working great! It had no trouble detecting the 2GB card, zero problems using it in DOS.

oerk wrote:

Do you have the manual? I didn't get one with the machine.

I just came across a service manual searching for specs when I read this thread: http://ps-2.kev009.com/pccbbs/aptiva/63g2028.pdf

Website looks like a useful resource for IBM machines.