First post, by chrisNova777
- Rank
- Oldbie
hey guys; i have kind of completed my 386DX40, and my 486DX280 systems, and now moving on thanks to a friend giving me an old motherboard of his.. to building a 586! to add to my computer collection.
i managed to find an AT tower/case for under 20$ locally! 😉 and im pretty happy with it its got a bit of rust on the bottom of the metal chassis but im going to fix it up and make it look new again i think I've taken it all apart and i plan on spray painting the metal parts a glossy white.. lucky for me the AT case has the LCD front panel to set the Mhz speed aswell... which is totally the type of case i was wanting for this 586 build!
the case came with a PSU but no memory or cpu, which suits me fine - because that way
i can decide which to get... and this new mobo supports 2 dimm's aswell as simms and its a Gigabyte motherboard (well known brand)
heres the model: Gigabyte GA586VX rev3.36 (sounds like a well known thoroughly revised model, i put some links/notes here: http://www.oldschooldaw.com/forums/index.php/topic,4627)
as u can see, for whatever reason, the COAST module was never added to this board
but i still have the PcChips m507 board from the last thread i started :
anyone able to help ID this 586 Socket 7 mobo?
which has the Coast module slot.. a user from this site msged me and offered to send me a 256 or 512 cache stick
that was very appreciated !! nice to have a cmmunity of retro users that are nice like that 😉
this board also has a different number of PCI vs ISA slots (4pci on the gigabyte board vs 3pci on the PCChips)
4pci slots might actually be alot better as i will probably use a PCI based video card + also need a PCI slot for
a SCSI interface - ISA slot options will be used for compatibility with FM synth Sound cards + MIDI interface cards
i believe the Gigabyte board supports all 4 types of pentium architectures up to a P55C without the need for an external VRM? i read something along those lines anyway in the manual i think (http://download1.gigabyte.asia/Files/Manual/m … _ga-586vx_e.pdf)
1) original P5, 2) P54C, 3) P54CS, 4) P55C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P5_(microarchitecture) […]
1) original P5,
2) P54C,
3) P54CS,
4) P55C
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P5_(microarchitecture)
so it will support a 233MMX cpu aswell as an 8GB Compact Flash (LBA)
but im probably going to go with a
>>3rd gen (P54CS) pentium architecture cpu : 133Mhz Pentium (June 1995)
or a
>>4th gen (P55C) 166Mhz Pentium (Jan 1996)
for the moment i only have in my possession a:
>>2nd gen (P54C) 75Mhz Pentium (Oct 1994) that was given to me
is it just me or does this gigabyte board have no battery????
or is the battery encased in the RTC ? not sure
i plan on spray painting the metal parts a glossy white and maybe trying to retrobrite the plastic part
if anyone has any tips or ideas on what to do. what to avoid.. to achieve a better end result
i know alot of u guys have done similar projects before me, id love to hear any tips or advice
thanks guys 😉
http://www.oldschooldaw.com | vintage PC/MAC MIDI/DAW | Asus mobo archive | Sound Modules | Vintage MIDI Interfaces
AM386DX40 | Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 (486DX2-80) | GA586VX (p75) + r7000PCI | ABIT Be6 (pII-233) matroxG400 AGP