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486DX2 M915I Build Log

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First post, by RobDos

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Now begins a new adventure, this one I'm taking my time on. The last system I built took about 7 months and it's still not done so I expect this to take me a while.

What I have so far:

Baby AT Mainboard, M915I or 80486VIP haven't yet confirmed which
https://www.elhvb.com/webhq/models/486pci/80486vip.html
It seems to have LBA with a 8GB limit, it's odd because the BIOS only has primary master/slave yet the board list secondary, looking at the traces most run to the 'primary' and it makes me wonder if the two onboard IDE ports are actually master/slave and meant to look like 'dual channel'- I'll have to test this out.

Generic 40 Pin Female IDE to SD card adapter
https://www.soarland.com/40-Pin_Female_IDE_To … roduct-227.html

Intel P24D 80486 DX2 66Mhz, HSF appears to be epoxied to CPU
2x 4MB , 1x8MB FP SIMM MEMORY

DIY PC D480W-W-RGB ATX Mid Tower Case, 2x 5.25" Bays

Sound Blaster 16 CT2910 ISA

S3 Trio64V+ 4MB PCI Graphics card

On order/waiting for it to arrive:

QD6500A 2.0 Vesa Local Bus multi IO controller.
1x 64K x 8 BIT SRAM DIP-32 + 8x 128K x 8 SRAM DIP-32

Due to limited space I am not sure how to address floppy, I would like a 5.25" but that means I need a expensive dual floppy to fit in this case with a CD rom.

I'm looking for inspiration, ideas and tips.

P3 Slot 1 - 512MB PC100 - 128GB SSD - RADEON 9200 SE , SB Awe64 ISA - GOTEK MOD

Reply 1 of 4, by Disruptor

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No L2 cache?

Reply 2 of 4, by pan069

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Disruptor wrote on 2021-11-26, 19:58:

No L2 cache?

Seems this is one of those boards that usually comes with fake cache. So either that or empty sockets, same out come. 😆

Reply 3 of 4, by RobDos

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Disruptor wrote on 2021-11-26, 19:58:

No L2 cache?

1x 64K x 8 BIT SRAM DIP-32 + 8x 128K x 8 SRAM DIP-32

On order from China, 2-12 weeks 😜
This board did not have fake cache, just none and the BIOS chip is socketed. Better than some of the versions of this board.

P3 Slot 1 - 512MB PC100 - 128GB SSD - RADEON 9200 SE , SB Awe64 ISA - GOTEK MOD

Reply 4 of 4, by RobDos

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Made some progress today,
I was hoping to use a IDE to MicroSD card but I can't seem to get it to boot, FC1306T is the listed chip with a small flash, but doesn't seem to be bootable.
Did manage to benchmark it, format the drive Fdisk etc.. all appear to work just not booting (partition is active)

P3 Slot 1 - 512MB PC100 - 128GB SSD - RADEON 9200 SE , SB Awe64 ISA - GOTEK MOD