VOGONS


Compact Flytech 386.

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First post, by tabm0de

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Bought 2 flytech computer without knowing what it really was, only thing the computer case showed was the ports and a 3.5" floppy drive so with that conclusion i thought it couldnt be anything then a 486... well i was downgraded since it was a 386 haha, still nice, the price for the two identical computer was €40~

The size of case is really cool and the motherboard is small and confusing haha, some damage to floppy drive which still work but unsure if i will change it for a new floppy drive or a gotek..

Some specs/pictures:

The case ( added a simple ess sound card with dreamblaster s2 )
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386 sx-30, bios ( memory uppgrade from 1mb to 4mb 😉 )
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Graphics card, which seams to have diffrent modes from cga/ega to vga as there is jumper settings for it?.
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System information cpu test
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Superscape benchmark
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Motherboard
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Cpu, HAY wait a minute didnt bios say 386 sx-33? wtf is a amd sx-40...
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Unsure what this is, cache/vga memory?? if i could finde some info about the chips to order more.. ( any one knows? 😉 )
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Psu vs floppy drive, now we talking size!
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Here is a url for the high res pictures on my dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b65ic37b59acxpn/AA … guVKYJOWRa?dl=0

naa, nothing yet...

Reply 1 of 27, by DeafPK

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Now that tickles my fancy! I actually have this weird passion for compact / SFF computers. That motherboard looks like a prehistoric mini ITX board. Also kudos for the integrated PSU. Is it totally fanless? Swap the HDD for a CF card and voila - super silent retro box.

Otherwise preeeetty low end stuff there. Without betting money on it, I'd guess those chips are video memory. Have you tried pushing it up to 40 MHz?

"an occasional fart in their general direction would provide more than enough cooling" —PCBONEZ

Reply 2 of 27, by tabm0de

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The case has one 50mm fan which is loud and going to be changed, the box did not come whit hd and I already installed a cf adapter.

As you said the chips seams to be for the video to go from 256kbs to 2mb.
Changed the speed to 40mhz which didn’t do anything speed wise hehe

Whit the memory at 4 mb I can’t even try doom :p will se if it can takes 4mb modules, otherwise as you said it’s a funny weird compact 386.

naa, nothing yet...

Reply 3 of 27, by tayyare

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tabm0de wrote:
The case has one 50mm fan which is loud and going to be changed, the box did not come whit hd and I already installed a cf adapt […]
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The case has one 50mm fan which is loud and going to be changed, the box did not come whit hd and I already installed a cf adapter.

As you said the chips seams to be for the video to go from 256kbs to 2mb.
Changed the speed to 40mhz which didn’t do anything speed wise hehe

Whit the memory at 4 mb I can’t even try doom :p will se if it can takes 4mb modules, otherwise as you said it’s a funny weird compact 386.

Yes they are definately for video memory, but upto 1MB, not 2.

I clearly remember we were playing Doom (and even Doom II) on 386DX40s, but an 386SX might be just pushing it, otherwise 4MB is actualy enough for both Doom (design point) and even Doom II (recomended minimum).

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000

Reply 4 of 27, by 386_junkie

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This is a great little system... I like the compactness.

DRAM is definitely for graphics... I would recommend maybe just upgrading this with an ISA card.

Good to see the mini 386 systems out there!

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 6 of 27, by tayyare

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tabm0de wrote:
The case has one 50mm fan which is loud and going to be changed, the box did not come whit hd and I already installed a cf adapt […]
Show full quote

The case has one 50mm fan which is loud and going to be changed, the box did not come whit hd and I already installed a cf adapter.

As you said the chips seams to be for the video to go from 256kbs to 2mb.
Changed the speed to 40mhz which didn’t do anything speed wise hehe

Whit the memory at 4 mb I can’t even try doom :p will se if it can takes 4mb modules, otherwise as you said it’s a funny weird compact 386.

You need to change all the jumpers mentioned on the board. There are two jumper groups (JP22 and JP1/JP5) defined as "40MHz" and I believe you also need to adjust JP40 to 80MHz.

The chips you are looking for the VGA RAM upgrade is 44256 (could be named differently from brand to brand like 4?256 or ?4256, according to what I remember). If you populate the whole 8 sockets, you will get 1MB.

My own 386SX only supports 1MB modules but your system seems to have a very modern BIOS (for an 386SX) so it is probably be ok. Also, just in case, this is an SX so you don't need to populate all 4 RAM slots, 2 is enough.

Lovely PS/2 socket, by the way 🤣

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000

Reply 7 of 27, by matze79

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The Trident will not give you more speed with more vram.
just higher resolutions.

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board

Reply 8 of 27, by tayyare

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matze79 wrote:

The Trident will not give you more speed with more vram.
just higher resolutions.

It's not even VRAM, it's common low speed DRAM 🤣

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000

Reply 9 of 27, by Anonymous Coward

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Please dump the BIOS on this baby.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 10 of 27, by pojo

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Hehe, I think I have purchased this exact machine from the original poster.

I managed to upgrade the video RAM to 1MB, I used Hynix DRAMs (HY534257AS-70).

Right now I'm experimenting with getting OnTrack installed so I can use a large-ish hard disk on it.

The PSU is making a high frequency "chirping" noise, I will recap it to see if it helps.

Reply 12 of 27, by dionb

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Download & run uniflash 1.40. Choose save to file (or something like that). Upload that file.

DeafPK wrote:

Now that tickles my fancy! I actually have this weird passion for compact / SFF computers. That motherboard looks like a prehistoric mini ITX board.

Nope, it's a very minimal but - by the looks of it - standards compliant LPX form factor board.

Reply 13 of 27, by Anonymous Coward

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The BIOS is from 1996, which makes it the newest 386 BIOS I've ever seen. The Acer M1217 chipset it uses is a very common one on 386SX motherboards too.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 14 of 27, by tabm0de

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

Please dump the BIOS on this baby.

Sure, np, i will se if i can do it befor my vacation otherwise i do it after 😉

naa, nothing yet...

Reply 15 of 27, by tabm0de

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pojo wrote:
Hehe, I think I have purchased this exact machine from the original poster. […]
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Hehe, I think I have purchased this exact machine from the original poster.

I managed to upgrade the video RAM to 1MB, I used Hynix DRAMs (HY534257AS-70).

Right now I'm experimenting with getting OnTrack installed so I can use a large-ish hard disk on it.

The PSU is making a high frequency "chirping" noise, I will recap it to see if it helps.

I did get two 😉 one was enough for me since i already have to much stuff 😜

Ps ez-driver worked fine for me on it.

naa, nothing yet...

Reply 16 of 27, by feipoa

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Fascinating! AWARD v4.51G on a 386!

Are you able to use one or two ISA cards? And which cards made the final cut?

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 17 of 27, by tabm0de

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Two cards are possible but not max sized ones 😉 but shouldn't be any problem to put in a soundcard and a better graphic card.

naa, nothing yet...

Reply 18 of 27, by feipoa

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Good idea. And maybe use LPT to ethernet for the NIC. Apparently there weren't too many 386SX boards with an option for cache. I hope you get that figured out.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.