Re: Humour Thread: Outrageously priced retro gear for sale online

Posted on 2014-04-10, 03:00

by

by feipoa

in Milliways

in Milliways

NIB 486 motherboard for $700. It is not even a very desirable motherboard. It is similar to the 4DPS but without a PS/2 mouse port. http://www.ebay.com/itm//261365026527

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Re: Retrofitting Cache--Any Issues?

Posted on 2014-04-10, 01:15

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have not seen any improvement in performance or stability on a 486 when using 10 ns or 12 ns over 15 ns cache on a 486. I think I tested this up to a FSB of 66 MHz.

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Anecdotal accounts of Windows 7 on dual Tualatin rigs for everyday computing

Posted on 2014-04-09, 22:41

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does anyone have first hand, everyday computing experience with a dual PIII-S Tualatin 1.4 GHz computer on Windows 7? I have two such computers that I am unwilling to retire. One has 2 GB RAM, the other has 3 GB RAM. Both systems fit the system requirements for Win 7 as specified by Microsoft, …

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Re: 486 VLB UMC-Chipset, what is it?

Posted on 2014-04-06, 14:46

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

gerwin wrote: I would like a PS/2 mouse too, if that is at all possible. I am curious how you will pull this off...

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Re: 486 memory settings / memory sticks

Posted on 2014-04-06, 02:43

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by feipoa

in Milliways

in Milliways

According to some Google searching, EDO was introduced in 1994 and became popular in 1995 when the i430FX chipset was released. You need to go by the chips part numbers. Some of them can take a long time to find. If you can't find the part number, then try removing some of the alphabetic suffixes …

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Re: 486 memory settings / memory sticks

Posted on 2014-04-05, 23:21

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by feipoa

in Milliways

in Milliways

There is a part number on the individual memory chips on the stick. Look those part numbers up on Google Search to find their datasheets. Look at the datasheets to see if they are FPM or EDO chips. That is the surest method. Sometimes a manufacturer will have chips that look nearly identical, …

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Re: What happened to Firewire tech?

Posted on 2014-04-04, 11:32

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by feipoa

in Milliways

in Milliways

I also used firewire for my external HDD backups. At the time, I was using an ATI 8500DV AGP graphics card, which has a firewire port on the graphics card. I found this combo graphics card pretty convient and it kept me from needing to buy a USB 2.0 card for some time.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2014-04-04, 11:10

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a Macintosh SE/30 in my collection. 32 MB of RAM , 1 GB HDD, and an ethernet card. I recapped it a few months back. You'll probably want to recap yours before the caps leak everywhere. Mine did. I had to replace the analogue board in it about 14 years ago. I actually need to replace the …

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Re: WinXP and Office XP/2003 Updates after April 2014

Posted on 2014-04-04, 10:59

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by feipoa

in Milliways

in Milliways

Do you think running an old OS like WinNT 4.0 might be more impervious to viruses since the virus program may not be able to run?

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Re: The Ultimate 486 Benchmark Comparison

Posted on 2014-04-04, 10:53

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Graphs contained in the Ultimate 486 Benchmark Comparison have made it to the reference material for an eBay auction. I don't really think it helps the sale of this Evergreen upgrade though. http://www.ebay.com/itm/181365938124

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Re: Promise Ultra100 TX2 PCI problem on 486

Posted on 2014-04-04, 09:04

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I haven't used that particular board. Maybe try a CD/DVD drive on the TX2 to see if it is recognised. Try to disable the motherboard's onboard IDE and set boot priority to SCSI if that option exists.

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Re: Building a high end 486 but need advice

Posted on 2014-04-04, 08:57

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I forgot to mention that these cache caveats are mostly an issue when using an FSB at 40 MHz and greater.

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Re: Promise Ultra100 TX2 PCI problem on 486

Posted on 2014-04-04, 08:42

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recall it working on my 486. What motherboard are you using?

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Re: Low performance on my 486's HDD?

Posted on 2014-04-04, 00:13

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did you try a different IDE cable? Sometimes one or more connectors on the crimped end of IDE cables makes unreliable contact after much pulling and reconnecting to devices. Have you tried a low-level format of the HDD? I seem to recall 386 BIOSes having this option. I once had an issue with a SCSI …

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Re: Zida 4DPS

Posted on 2014-04-03, 21:41

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by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Space Cowboy wrote: And I'll need to find 9 pieces of 32K x 8 for my OEM 486. That is correct. But you also need to set the jumpers correctly on the motherboard for double-banked 256 KB.

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Re: Zida 4DPS

Posted on 2014-04-03, 18:50

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This image taken from the HOT-433 manual should answer your questions concerning TAG and cache chip sizes. 32K x 8 - these are the 28-pin chips with '256' or '257' written on the surface. 64K x 8 - these are the 32-pin chips with '512' written on the surface. 128k x 8 - these are the 32-pin chips …

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Re: Building a high end 486 but need advice

Posted on 2014-04-03, 07:49

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A February 1996 BIOS - that is pretty new for a board with early 1995 datecode chipsets. How to mod an AWARD-based 486 board with stand-alone KBC for an aftermarket PS/2 mouse port is discussed here, http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=36122 While there was some effort to get it working with …

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Re: Building a high end 486 but need advice

Posted on 2014-04-03, 05:40

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That appears to be FPM memory, so I would think it is supported. The board looks nice, but Acer might be dumbing some of the timings down behind the scenes. You could always try using double-banked 256 KB cache instead of single-banked 256 KB cache. While this shouldn't affect the Speedsys scores, …

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Re: Building a high end 486 but need advice

Posted on 2014-04-03, 05:07

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Your speedsys score has improved some, however I estimate it should be closer to 45. From my benchmark spreadsheet, I do not see any difference in the Speedsys "score" from write-back to write-through on AMD 486 chips. Your L1 speed should be around 80 MB/s, L2 around 56 MB/s, and memory throughput …

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Re: Building a high end 486 but need advice

Posted on 2014-04-03, 01:47

by

by feipoa

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

After checking online, it does appear that there were some 120 MHz AMD 486 chips with write-through L1 cache, although from my experience, most 120 MHz AMD 486 chips were of the write-back variety. I do not have any comparative benchmarks for the 120 MHz write-thru chip. I do have benchmarks for the …

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