Bought a network card for my Macintosh Color Classic.

New in box Asus PCH-DL. Intel 875P/6300ESB based dual socket 604 board

Already have a PC-DL, but saw this come up and could not help myself.

So I've been drinking the 486 Koolaid lately and I decided I wanted to get into it. I don't really have a history with the 486 and yet here I am. I believe my first (family) computer was a Packard Bell with an early Pentium. Well maybe one of those school computers were likely a 386/486.

Anyways I bought this 486 mainboard (Epox GXA486SPM) along with a DX2, a Am5x86, and some unknown ram. Its missing it eprom chip, but I have a programmer arriving today. So we'll see how that goes.

Then I bought an entire 386sx computer because I just wanted the case. So now I guess I have a 386 as well. I don't even know how to get started with this, but I guess I'll figure it out as I go along.

The main thing I'm worried about is that PSU. I wouldn't know how to check it for safety.

Don't cut the wires!! From the looks of it you need to remove the whole front bezel of the case first. Then you will have access to two screws that will enable you to remove the PSU switch from the case. The PSU switch is attached to the PSU cables and the black adhesive tape is there for a reason, so that there's no wire exposed (these carry mains voltage). Leave it as it is.

However the whole thing looks quite clean to me, I'm not sure you need to remove the PSU from the case...

The black tape or heatshrink could also be hiding some blade style connectors that can be easily removed.

Not a tape. This is thick wall heat shrink tubing. Soldered, don't mess with this, just unscrew the switch from the chassis, but this involves removing the plastic bezel off the metal chassis first.

Cheers,

Nice stuff Aublak,
See if you can get some L2 cache chips in the future. Depending on the software you're running, improvement may vary a lot. From a few percent to 50.

Look, I've had my Model 50 486 wide open recently and been testing out some cards. Clone is just that.. a clone.

So this post is about a great little tool I got along with it (made in Taiwan, not China):

And so I punched a hole with it, the first time in my life..ever. Didn't even practice.

Perfect hole. Snug fit, far better than adapting a bracket from a Token Ring card. Secure fit imo, but not screwed down to the card. Take your blank cover to be punched from the memory expansion board or similar to make it a notch above this.

Like I said earlier I picked up a AM5x86. And I did some research on it and the board. And I dunno if my 486 board is compatible due to voltages.

However I did remember seeing a weird AM5x86 at the recycler. It was soldered to a bunch of sandwiched boards. I think it was a 5x86 with a voltage regulator. hmm. The recycler is a pretty cool guy, he might let me trade my current 5x86 for the modified one if it comes to that.

MMaximus wrote on 2020-09-23, 19:51:

Don't cut the wires!! From the looks of it you need to remove the whole front bezel of the case first. Then you will have access to two screws that will enable you to remove the PSU switch from the case. The PSU switch is attached to the PSU cables and the black adhesive tape is there for a reason, so that there's no wire exposed (these carry mains voltage). Leave it as it is.

However the whole thing looks quite clean to me, I'm not sure you need to remove the PSU from the case...

Oh, okay. I see. Yes, I have to remove the front cover. I feel like such a retard. I still want to open up that PSU and looking inside. That PSU is older than me. The thought of sending currents through that thing makes me uneasy.

Yeah, its super pristine. You could even call it shiny. Its been living in a very dust-free environment.

Got an ADZ 133MHz 5x86 myself with the Aries VRM. It's a wonder piece of history.

Aublak wrote on 2020-09-23, 22:38:

Like I said earlier I picked up a AM5x86. And I did some research on it and the board. And I dunno if my 486 board is compatible […]
Show full quote

Like I said earlier I picked up a AM5x86. And I did some research on it and the board. And I dunno if my 486 board is compatible due to voltages.

However I did remember seeing a weird AM5x86 at the recycler. It was soldered to a bunch of sandwiched boards. I think it was a 5x86 with a voltage regulator. hmm. The recycler is a pretty cool guy, he might let me trade my current 5x86 for the modified one if it comes to that.

MMaximus wrote on 2020-09-23, 19:51:

Don't cut the wires!! From the looks of it you need to remove the whole front bezel of the case first. Then you will have access to two screws that will enable you to remove the PSU switch from the case. The PSU switch is attached to the PSU cables and the black adhesive tape is there for a reason, so that there's no wire exposed (these carry mains voltage). Leave it as it is.

However the whole thing looks quite clean to me, I'm not sure you need to remove the PSU from the case...

Oh, okay. I see. Yes, I have to remove the front cover. I feel like such a retard. I still want to open up that PSU and looking inside. That PSU is older than me. The thought of sending currents through that thing makes me uneasy.

Yeah, its super pristine. You could even call it shiny. Its been living in a very dust-free environment.

The IBM PSU in my IBM AT which was manufactured in 1984 is still going strong!

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-09-24, 00:40:

Aublak wrote on 2020-09-23, 22:38:

Like I said earlier I picked up a AM5x86. And I did some research on it and the board. And I dunno if my 486 board is compatible […]
Show full quote

Like I said earlier I picked up a AM5x86. And I did some research on it and the board. And I dunno if my 486 board is compatible due to voltages.

However I did remember seeing a weird AM5x86 at the recycler. It was soldered to a bunch of sandwiched boards. I think it was a 5x86 with a voltage regulator. hmm. The recycler is a pretty cool guy, he might let me trade my current 5x86 for the modified one if it comes to that.

MMaximus wrote on 2020-09-23, 19:51:

Don't cut the wires!! From the looks of it you need to remove the whole front bezel of the case first. Then you will have access to two screws that will enable you to remove the PSU switch from the case. The PSU switch is attached to the PSU cables and the black adhesive tape is there for a reason, so that there's no wire exposed (these carry mains voltage). Leave it as it is.

However the whole thing looks quite clean to me, I'm not sure you need to remove the PSU from the case...

Oh, okay. I see. Yes, I have to remove the front cover. I feel like such a retard. I still want to open up that PSU and looking inside. That PSU is older than me. The thought of sending currents through that thing makes me uneasy.

Yeah, its super pristine. You could even call it shiny. Its been living in a very dust-free environment.

The IBM PSU in my IBM AT which was manufactured in 1984 is still going strong!

Back in the day when they made capacitors right.

Aublak wrote on 2020-09-23, 19:39:

Then I bought an entire 386sx computer because I just wanted the case. So now I guess I have a 386 as well. I don't even know how to get started with this, but I guess I'll figure it out as I go along.
The main thing I'm worried about is that PSU. I wouldn't know how to check it for safety.

That is a good looking 386 desktop. Hope it works well.

Aublak wrote on 2020-09-23, 22:38:

That PSU is older than me. The thought of sending currents through that thing makes me uneasy.

Will probably be more reliable than many modern PSUs.

Usually looking at it is fine, but it's either already dead or it's working fine and just looking at it won't make a difference. You will be able to identify burnt components or leaking caps, but if some component is burnt it probably already failed open so the PSU will most likely not power on anyway and the damage has already been done, and leaking caps will usually not cause the PSU to blow up or not power on. If some component already failed in storage then looking at it will not allow you to identify any problem and the PSU might still blow up, so what I'm trying to say is that you will have to power it on and see what happens in any case.

kolderman wrote on 2020-09-24, 01:12:

Back in the day when they made capacitors right.

When they exploded, they did so properly, and filled the room with acrid smoke letting you know that its ok that you just crapped your pants when it went bang!

I'm referring to both RIFA safety paper capacitors, and also old tantalum capacitors.

Took me some time to find one at a reasonable price. Finally have a Voodoo Card with 6mb (Miro Hiscore 3D).

Sadly came without the VGA to Mini Din 9-Pin cable. So if sb knows how to get one of these, that would be very much appreciated!

Worst case you could make your own cable if you can't find a factory one.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-09-24, 12:32:

Worst case you could make your own cable if you can't find a factory one.

If i can't find one, i will. Btw while looking for it i came across a guy from germany that runs an inofficial support-page for MIRO products.

Very cool guy. Gave me the pin-layout for it.

http://www.mirosupport.de/

Nice find on that website

It's Miro day today it seems. Here's what I just received:

Great serendipity. Was lamenting not having an OPL4-based wavetable card while discussing somebody's Miro PCM20. What turned up on a local site literally minutes later for a very reasonable price? Yep, this beauty.

Amusingly the topic also referenced a Terratec Maestro 32/96, and sure enough this seller also had one of those too 😜
(and no, I'm sure it's not the same person)

Unfortunately that one was priced closer to the going rate, more than I'm currently able to justify to myself, so let that one pass.