Indrid Cold wrote:

Just bought (finally!) a full 486 on eBay, € 51 + shipping: […]
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Just bought (finally!) a full 486 on eBay, € 51 + shipping:

Here the specs:

Motherboard: Unichip 486 WB 4407 Rev 1.1
CPU: Intel A80486DX-33
VGA: Cirrus Logic VLB CL-GD5428
HD/Floppy controller: MIO-2080
HD: IBM H3256-A3 256MB IDE
Floppy
PSU: SK-230W (?)

Fingers just crossed 😜 The seller has told me it is in fully working conditions, and in very good shape - it isn't included any boot floppy. Is there anyone who can tell me more about this machine and its components? It reminds me my beloved Olivetti machine.

That is a really nice looking case!

I have an Unichip 486 WB 4407 motherboard, although in my case it's Rev 1.0. I got it for free as it was going to be scrapped (it was presumed dead), but I removed the battery and after fully cleaning some minor corrosion and setting jumpers it booted up without issues with a DX2-66.

It works fine, but for some reason when using it with 16MB of 60ns RAM it isn't stable with the automatic advanced chipset configuration (I have to change DRAM Wait States from 1 to 2 in the BIOS). With 4MB however it has no issues with the auto settings even if I use slower memory (70ns). 😒

I assume I haven't set the optimal values for the different options in the AMI BIOS, but there are no details for the different settings (the VLB ones in particular are quite obscure) and I haven't been able to find much info about it online. I even have the manual, it includes different "optimal configurations" depending on the processor type but it has been unreliable... also it seems to be a generic manual for different UNI486WB motherboards since the diagrams on it show only 2 VLB slots even though mine has 3.

By the way, I can scan the manual if you have any issues with the jumpers/settings, as I said it is quite poor but it's better than nothing.

First time I'm posting on this thread, although I have bought a couple of items over the past 2 years. Most of my retro hardware I've collected or kept over the years before I joined Vogons.
Thought I'd just share an old "vintage computer" (as the seller advertised it) that I bought this week for around $10.

Note it only has a 1.2 MB Floppy drive (no CD-ROM and/or 1.44 MB floppy drive).

It's an AMD 386DX-40 MHz with 2 MB of RAM and also came with a 250 MB hard drive.
Probably nothing special about it, but I've been looking for a nice vintage AT case and this is exactly what I was looking for (even has a nice LCD display as well).

What is of interest is the motherboard - it's a Dataexpert EXP3406 3/486 hybrid motherboard with 2 Vesa Local Bus slots (with an OPTI495XLC chipset).
My original 486DLC had a similar board, but that motherboard died years ago. So, this a nice addition to my collection.
Surprisingly, the battery has not yet leaked out, but this will be de-soldered very soon.

I was expecting some sort of VGA graphics card inside, but instead found an 8-bit monochrome display adapter in the PC.
Anyone know anything more about this card? It has an HMC HM6311 chipset.

I'm not that familiar with the older type cards, but this one has the standard 9-pin (pre-VGA) connector and it also has an additional 25-pin connector (which appears to be a parallel port).

Included in the sale was also an old HP Deskjet printer, but I doubt whether I will have any use for it.
The HP Deskjet will probably end up at a recycle centre, since I can't think of any practical use for it (I don't think you can find cartridges anymore for this model).

Also included was a monochrome monitor with the 9-pin connector. Can't seem to find anything about this model (model number DM-14DT1), but I guess it's probably some generic model.

Sweet system. Proper flashback bizness.

Nice stuff you guys have bought lately.

I have bought two more Voodoo II cards (~15 euro each).

First an interesting Voodoo II. A "Powercolor Evilking II"* with 12MB (12 chips) 100 MHz memory.
*That is not what the manual I got says it's called at all (C3DFX2) but that seems to be what everybody online is calling this card.

The front dosnt look that special.

The back is... empty.

The second card is a Orchid Righteous 3D 12MB (24 chips) with mixed 83 MHz and 100 MHz memory, I already have one of these so with luck they will like each other.

Also included but not pictured, a SLI cable and a VGA passthrough cable.

TheMobRules wrote:

That is a really nice looking case! […]
Show full quote

Indrid Cold wrote:

Just bought (finally!) a full 486 on eBay, € 51 + shipping: […]
Show full quote

Just bought (finally!) a full 486 on eBay, € 51 + shipping:

Here the specs:

Motherboard: Unichip 486 WB 4407 Rev 1.1
CPU: Intel A80486DX-33
VGA: Cirrus Logic VLB CL-GD5428
HD/Floppy controller: MIO-2080
HD: IBM H3256-A3 256MB IDE
Floppy
PSU: SK-230W (?)

Fingers just crossed 😜 The seller has told me it is in fully working conditions, and in very good shape - it isn't included any boot floppy. Is there anyone who can tell me more about this machine and its components? It reminds me my beloved Olivetti machine.

That is a really nice looking case!

I have an Unichip 486 WB 4407 motherboard, although in my case it's Rev 1.0. I got it for free as it was going to be scrapped (it was presumed dead), but I removed the battery and after fully cleaning some minor corrosion and setting jumpers it booted up without issues with a DX2-66.

It works fine, but for some reason when using it with 16MB of 60ns RAM it isn't stable with the automatic advanced chipset configuration (I have to change DRAM Wait States from 1 to 2 in the BIOS). With 4MB however it has no issues with the auto settings even if I use slower memory (70ns). 😒

I assume I haven't set the optimal values for the different options in the AMI BIOS, but there are no details for the different settings (the VLB ones in particular are quite obscure) and I haven't been able to find much info about it online. I even have the manual, it includes different "optimal configurations" depending on the processor type but it has been unreliable... also it seems to be a generic manual for different UNI486WB motherboards since the diagrams on it show only 2 VLB slots even though mine has 3.

By the way, I can scan the manual if you have any issues with the jumpers/settings, as I said it is quite poor but it's better than nothing.

Thanks mate, it would be really appreciated! Can you inform me when you'll finish to scan the manual? I'll send you my mail, really thanks. Meanwhile, I've found info about I/O VLB card:

https://th99.bl4ckb0x.de/c/C-D/20666.htm

Seeing as the 55x 512MB CF Cards seem to be more than adequate for my little 486 project, I got a couple of these because right now I've got a regular adapter hanging off a ribbon poking through an empty slot at the back of the case. This has been fine for testing, but it looks shit, screws up the airflow and I suspect also prone to shorting out on the back of the case. Based on this and the fact I will probably want to pull the card out to update the web, I figured these were the way to go. I might not install the second one and just put blank in there instead, but I am sure I will use the adapter somewhere anyway.

Now I just need to find my 44-Pin adapter as I stole it from my Zenith to test something ages ago and I want to install one of the 512MB cards in there, I don't want to have to buy another adapter. I am sure it will show up, seem to think it was stuck at the back of my desk with a 40-Pin adapter stuck to it, or it might have been loaned to my K6 trashpile rig.

Seagate 351A/X "hardcard" style w/controller. This will be very useful as one of my XT PSU's only has two power connectors. Upon booting, I noticed a well organized HDMIV interface. Most of the drives I find are a mess.

Got this at a yard sale today (together with a complete Playstation original and a nice boxed Leisure Suit Larry - Magma Cum Laude). It has few blown capacitors on the motherboard which I will need to replace. However, I am curios what PIII is that? It seems the machine is a Compaq Presario 5000. Is that a Celeron or a proper P3 ?

vladstamate wrote:

Got this at a yard sale today (together with a complete Playstation original and a nice boxed Leisure Suit Larry - Magma Cum Laude). It has few blown capacitors on the motherboard which I will need to replace. However, I am curios what PIII is that? It seems the machine is a Compaq Presario 5000. Is that a Celeron or a proper P3 ?

That is a Coppermine Pentium III 700 MHz with 100 MHz FSB, its a proper Pentium 3.

Why were you uncertain about whether that was a real PIII? A Celeron would say Celeron on it, wouldn't it? Nice find though!

vladstamate wrote:

Got this at a yard sale today (together with a complete Playstation original and a nice boxed Leisure Suit Larry - Magma Cum Laude). It has few blown capacitors on the motherboard which I will need to replace. However, I am curios what PIII is that? It seems the machine is a Compaq Presario 5000. Is that a Celeron or a proper P3 ?

<snip pictures>

Just so you know how to find it yourself for the future. I could read the stepping code, so all I did is type that in to google:

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&site=&s … 5.0.zpzijzxFh7Q

The first result is here: http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL3VL.html

You can even remove a step and just use http://cpu-world.com/ from the start. The front page of the site has a box in the top left corner into which you can type the CPU model, in your case SL3VL which will usually return the exact model you are using. It also accepts the numbers used by AMD like AXDA2600DKV3C and ambiguous terms like Pentium 233 which may return multiple results in a drop-down box below the text input or on the resulting page if you hit Go.

I use this a lot to find differences between revisions of CPUs, such as the differences between SX419 and SX810, both of which are Intel 486DX-33 chips. In case you wondered, the SX419 is older, doesn't have power management and runs hotter so I'd pretty much chosen my SX810 for the application I wanted the chip for before even having to do my own original research - I still did my research and singed my finger when testing the temperature, maybe I should get some equipment to measure that instead of just prodding hot surfaces with a damp finger, or else, use the equipment I own already that hasn't been out of its box much.

Thank you all for the help, I did not know I can search like that. I never owned either a P3 or a Celeron (during that time, I was using AMD almost entirely 😀). I already ordered the capacitors to replace. It was also missing the DIMM memory and a coin, so I ordered those too. The machine itself was $5 but it does contain a CDRW drive, a CDROM drive, a HDD and a 1.44Mb floppy.

I am disappointed at the lack of AGP slot though. I will have to find a good PCI card. What should this be paired with for a matching time period GPU?

Voodoo 3 pci, Geforce 2mx pci, Geforce 4 mx, or a FX series card like a FX5200 or FX5500.

At that time 3D acceleration was still pretty new - the CPU is from 1999. Common accelerators are the nVidia Riva TNT 2, ATI Rage 128 and 3DFX Voodoo 3, they're all kinda crappy really and some of them can cost more than they should. I personally would look out for a PCI GeForce 2 MX of some kind as they aren't usually prohibitively costly, will be compatible with Windows operating systems of the time and will most likely run everything better than the cards from 1999. The Radeon 7000 PCI seems to be the same price as the GeForce 2 MX400 PCI - generally £20 - £40 seems average.

There may be cheaper and better solutions I am not aware of and other people might have different ideas to me on this.

I'd just grab the cheapest PCI card from like the GF4/R9000 era onwards, to be honest. Even the basic ones should be more than powerful enough for a 700 MHz PIII.

V3 PCI = some real swag 😀
I would put that board in a nicer looking case, I had a tualatin one that the case simply rotted away.

Indrid Cold wrote:

TheMobRules wrote:

That is a really nice looking case! […]
Show full quote

Indrid Cold wrote:

Just bought (finally!) a full 486 on eBay, € 51 + shipping: […]
Show full quote

Just bought (finally!) a full 486 on eBay, € 51 + shipping:

Here the specs:

Motherboard: Unichip 486 WB 4407 Rev 1.1
CPU: Intel A80486DX-33
VGA: Cirrus Logic VLB CL-GD5428
HD/Floppy controller: MIO-2080
HD: IBM H3256-A3 256MB IDE
Floppy
PSU: SK-230W (?)

Fingers just crossed 😜 The seller has told me it is in fully working conditions, and in very good shape - it isn't included any boot floppy. Is there anyone who can tell me more about this machine and its components? It reminds me my beloved Olivetti machine.

That is a really nice looking case!

I have an Unichip 486 WB 4407 motherboard, although in my case it's Rev 1.0. I got it for free as it was going to be scrapped (it was presumed dead), but I removed the battery and after fully cleaning some minor corrosion and setting jumpers it booted up without issues with a DX2-66.

It works fine, but for some reason when using it with 16MB of 60ns RAM it isn't stable with the automatic advanced chipset configuration (I have to change DRAM Wait States from 1 to 2 in the BIOS). With 4MB however it has no issues with the auto settings even if I use slower memory (70ns). 😒

I assume I haven't set the optimal values for the different options in the AMI BIOS, but there are no details for the different settings (the VLB ones in particular are quite obscure) and I haven't been able to find much info about it online. I even have the manual, it includes different "optimal configurations" depending on the processor type but it has been unreliable... also it seems to be a generic manual for different UNI486WB motherboards since the diagrams on it show only 2 VLB slots even though mine has 3.

By the way, I can scan the manual if you have any issues with the jumpers/settings, as I said it is quite poor but it's better than nothing.

Thanks mate, it would be really appreciated! Can you inform me when you'll finish to scan the manual? I'll send you my mail, really thanks. Meanwhile, I've found info about I/O VLB card:

https://th99.bl4ckb0x.de/c/C-D/20666.htm

Here it is!

Thanks TheMob!

Picked up a Logitech WingMan Attack joystick at a Thrift store when out biking. Still need to test it, but if it works fine, it should be a small step up from the Gravis Analog Pro I found earlier. It doesn't help that the Gravis joystick has an issue with the trigger getting detached 😐