If the BIOS doesn't support hard drives with capacities >500MB. you can use overlay software to access the drive's full capacity.

[EDIT]

Interesting to see that they used a non-rechargeable lithium battery. Probably the board's saving grace. You can still buy those particular Tadaran batteries too.

No wonder it looks so clean. Here's the same board that Malik bought in 2009, but with a rechargeable (badly leaking) battery:
486 Motherboard Shipment Arrived

So the motherboard BIOS still controls the HDD size, even with an add-in controller card? It's been so long since I've worked with a 486 i can't remember!

That is correct the bios controls the size limits for most boards, that battery that came with your board is lithium based which is good as the barrel of cancers (nicads) always loves to leak and destroy everything. Your board is nos so nice buy, just give a 1-8gb drive a try and if the board doesn't take the full capacity then it is limited. I got lucky with mine but you can use overlay software to make up the difference. Beyond that get some more ram and you are set, if anything I am finding socket 3 pretty easy to work with in my ventures.

Be sure to get an i/o ide and floppy controller (single card) that has all the cables to it so that you don't have to scrounge.

They hold a charge pretty good, them batteries. Strange that it is dead.
Nice purchase anyway. 😀
If you can not find an AT case, then go searching for an AT compatible ATX case.

brostenen wrote:

They hold a charge pretty good, them batteries. Strange that it is dead.
Nice purchase anyway. 😀
If you can not find an AT case, then go searching for an AT compatible ATX case.

Or just mod a modern one that has enough room 😉
Drill the board tray and thread the holes for the stand offs then mount as normal. 😀

So I didn't need to remove the battery. 🤣. Oh well, at least I did a clean job of it.

Does $30-50 seem fair for an I/O controller? I was surprised how much they were commanding. I expected them to be in the $10-15 range.

clueless1 wrote:

So I didn't need to remove the battery. 🤣. Oh well, at least I did a clean job of it.

Does $30-50 seem fair for an I/O controller? I was surprised how much they were commanding. I expected them to be in the $10-15 range.

Keep digging around on eBay as some are listen for as little as $15 a pop, there might be a few vlb controllers for cheap but there are some isa that are priced low. If you get any vlb cards make sure the seller isn't a dumbass that ships in bags (I got ripped off recently).

Congrats on getting a 486 board! "You have taken your first steps into a larger world..." 😁

Judging by the year of your BIOS (1993), it likely supports LBA (>500MB) for HDDs. At least all my 486 motherboards with 1993 BIOS support LBA. In any case there are alternatives, so go with a 1-8GB HDD as suggested (or CF + adapter).

That video card should be fine, I have a CL-GD5430 which is quite similar and it performs well, has good compatibility. Do not expect awesome performance on SVGA resolutions (640x480x256c) and up, but for the standard 320x200 DOS games of that era it is more than enough.

Regarding the I/O controller, sometimes cheap options pop up on eBay. Personally, I wouldn't spend any extra $ on a VLB controller as I don't think the performance increase is worth it over an ISA card. Keep in mind that at the time the drives were significantly slower, and that bottleneck would mask any improvement a VLB controller could provide. So unless you want use specific features, such as a controller with cache, or you manage to get a VLB card for free I would stick with ISA.

One final thing: if you go with a CF-IDE adapter, sometimes it wants to be the only thing in its IDE channel, so if you're going to use an optical drive you can consider a sound card with an integrated ATAPI controller to have the drives on separate channels.

clueless1 wrote:

So I didn't need to remove the battery. 🤣. Oh well, at least I did a clean job of it.

Depends on how nice you want the board to look 🤣 I soldered an rechargeable button cell battery onto one of my 486 boards. 😀
Some boards do not charge and some do charge the battery, just be aware of that. 😉

This is the same kind of battery that I bought on eBay... (I think that it is cheap)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-LIR2032-Li-ion-3- … 4MAAOSwpDdVGVUE

The 486 has a special place in my heart, as it is the first platform that I built my own PC on. Up to about 1991 I was on the Apple IIe. Then I got a Packard Bell 386 and the following year built a 486SX/25 (around 1992-3). But I haven't touched 486 components since, so a lot of my knowledge will have to be re-learned.

I do have a couple of AT-compatible ATX cases with those pop-out spots for serial and parallel ports, so I should be good there. I'll have to jury-rig a backplate.

Not sure how I will handle the power switch though. I have one built into my ATX-to-AT PSU adapter. I'll have to see if that can be worked into the existing power button on the case. Ideally I will come across an AT case with turbo LED, since this mobo has a turbo header I'd like to take advantage of.

Thx for the feedback! Especially about the ISA vs. VLB controller. Yeah, I want VLB, but I suppose ISA will work fine with an old/slow HDD. I already have spare ISA soundcards and floppy drives, so I'm not too far off from having a bootable DOS system. Mainly I want to run VGA benchmarks. 😀 I have no desire for SVGA gaming on this, as my main DOS rig is already set up for that.

brostenen-cool, thanks for the tip! My "fix" seems to be working fine, but if I get to the point where I want a cleaner look, that seems like a sweet solution.

Thanks. 😀

For power buttons, then I have bought a couple of these for some future AT in an ATX case, or homemade AT case (if I ever get to that):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-New-Mini-2-pin-Rou … xwAAOSwUgNXPJY0

A little soldering and use of shrinkwrap, might just be enough, after drilling holes for these connectors on the frontpanel somewere.
I have two, meaning I can use them for power and turbo. 😉

Another option you can consider for the power switch is to replace the momentary ATX power button of the case with a self-locking on/off button of the same type, and then solder the new button to the adapter green & black wires.

Of course, this depends on the type of button your case uses, but I have noticed that many ATX cases use these little 8mm square buttons:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10Pcs-8x8-mm-Square-B … R0AAOSwqu9VPR2Q#

If you can do this, it would allow you to cleanly re-use your case power button without having to drill any extra holes. For the turbo button you would need another kind of solution though, such as what brostenen suggested.

*brostenen is using a battery type that is not suitable for this purpose.

Yeah, this is what I have now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261220357324?_trksid= … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
If I could somehow mount that behind the case power button, I wonder if it would push in enough to activate.

clueless1 wrote:

So I didn't need to remove the battery. 🤣. Oh well, at least I did a clean job of it.

Does $30-50 seem fair for an I/O controller? I was surprised how much they were commanding. I expected them to be in the $10-15 range.

Check your inbox. I might be able to help you.

clueless1 wrote:

Yeah, this is what I have now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261220357324?_trksid= … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
If I could somehow mount that behind the case power button, I wonder if it would push in enough to activate.

If you have an ATX case allready, then post a pisture of the ATX powerbutton. (from inside the case)
Users here might be able to help you figure out a solution. 😀

Here's some pics of the case.

clueless1 wrote:

Here's some pics of the case. […]
Show full quote

Here's some pics of the case.

overview.jpg

outside_frontpanel.jpg

inside_frontpanel.jpg

power_inside.jpg

I own that same case!

A 486 is always something special 😀

For the power switches, in the end I used one of these 3.5" to 5.25" bay devices. On the sides there is some space and I just drilled two holes and put switches in. One for power, one for turbo 😊

You can do the same thing with a read slot cover, but then you got to reach around. Still works well.