What is the one best test to perform to throughly test the performance of the Motherboard and not just the CPU ?
Is ther one test that can test
Motherboard
CPU
RAM
Cache
Bus speed
Etc....
I guess a all made in USA 486 is not possible, all those Taiwanese chips inside 😁
matze79 wrote on 2020-02-08, 17:08:I guess a all made in USA 486 is not possible, all those Taiwanese chips inside 😁
Well, according to the “Buy America act”
To be labeled “Made in USA” a product needs to have at least %50 parts made in USA.
These computers are also assembled in USA.
So while you can’t have a totally “Made in USA” 486 computer they are close.
Only the floppy drive I can not find Made in USA.
Everything else you can.
So I am testing computer that have the “Made in USA” label printed on them.
What I am testing is mainly the motherboard setup.
CPU, RAM, Cache, Video, Bus speed, etc.
I am looking for just 1 test that can test all these features and provide 1 combined score.
Current State of the “All USA 486” computer.
Candidate #1
VEGA. VS486F-3VL Motherboard
http://www.elhvb.com/webhq/models/486vlb3/vs486f.html
AMIBIOS ID string 40-0700-006259-00101111-111192-SYMP-F
- 8-30 pin SIMM slots (1-32meg FPM DRAM)
- 3-32bit VESA Local Bus slots
- 8-16bit ISA slots
- 64k-1024k CACHE support in 8-32pin sockets + 1 TAG RAM socket
- AMI BIOS American Megatrends 486DX
- Symphony Chipset (MB-SYP243LV-V12)
- ZIF 3 CPU socket which supports these processors:
INTEL 80486SX/DX/DX2, ODP586SX
- Supports speeds of 25/33/40/50/66 MHz.
- Manufactured by: Young Micro Systems Inc. USA 1993
CPU - IBM Blue Lighting, 486dx2-66 ( Made in USA )
RAM - 16mb ( 2 x 8mn ) , Texas Instruments , -60, 30-pin. ( Made in USA )
Video card - Diamond Stealth 24. ( 1mb ) ( Made in USA )
Controller - Acculogic VLB ( Made in Canada )
Hard drive - Conner 540mb. IDE ( Made in USA )
Sound card - Media Vision PAS16 ( Made in USA )
CDROM - 52x ( Sony )
Floppy drives - 1.44 and 5.25
While not all the components are “Made in USA” the base motherboard and ram and cards are from North America.
According to the USA made in America act. As long as 50% of the components are made in USA the product can be labeled “Made in USA”.
Nobody here gives a rat fat about the "Made in USA" Act
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
What “Made in USA” components would you guys like to see put into this Ultimate Made in USA build ?
You can choose from the motherboards and cards I have posted.
Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-01-06, 12:34:What “Made in USA” components would you guys like to see put into this Ultimate Made in USA build ?
You can choose from the motherboards and cards I have posted.
Couldn't care less as long as the system works and is reliable...
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
Hey guys,
I have another “Made in USA” VLB socket-3 486 motherboard.
What Made in USA CPU do you suggest or I could go German with and AMD CPU ?
66 or 100mhz.
I think it supports 100mhz CPUs
I think I've found your motherboard's documentation : http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/5487
Could you please take a clearer shot so I can add it to the page and also make a BIOS dump using this http://cd.textfiles.com/microhaus/mhblackbox3 … MORY/GETROM.ZIP ?
According to the documentation your motherboard offcially supports a 66MHz chip at most.
Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative
Actually its this one.
Which was produced by several manufactures and has several different names.
Atrend 4GPV3 486 VESA Motherboard
http://www.elhvb.com/webhq/models/486vlb2/4gpv3.html
( A.K.A. - VLB Galaxy 486V1 )
( A.K.A - MB-486-CONTAQ 012093 U4L2-0 )
( A.K.A. - Mecer B860 )
- BIOS ID string X0-0100-001117-00101111-060692-CTQ596-F
- 8-30 pin SIMM slots (1-128meg FPM DRAM)
- 2-32bit VESA Local Bus slots
- 8-16bit ISA slots
- 64-256k cache support in 8-28pin sockets + 1 TAG RAM sockets
- AMI/Award/MR Bios
- CONTAQ (German) 82C596 A Chipset
- Supports the following cpu's at 25/33/40/50/66MHz
INTEL 80486SX/80486DX/80486DX2, P24C, P24T
CYRIX CX486M6, CX486M7
AMD AM486DX/DX2
- Green PC Connector
- Manufactured by: Atrend Technology Co. Ltd. or VisionEx + CTL corp. USA 1993
Actually, This motherboard was branded by several USA companies including: Atrend, Mecer, and VisionEx.
--------------------------------------------------
GREEN-B 4GPV3 486 VESA Motherboard
- BIOS ID string X0-0100-001117-00101111-060692-CTQ596-F
- 8-30 pin SIMM slots (1-128meg FPM DRAM)
- 2-32bit VESA Local Bus slots
- 8-16bit ISA slots
- 64-256k cache support in 8-28pin sockets + 1 TAG RAM sockets
- AMI/Award/MR Bios
- CONTAQ 82C596 A Chipset
- Supports the following cpu's at 25/33/40/50/66MHz
INTEL 80486SX/80486DX/80486DX2, P24C, P24T
CYRIX CX486M6, CX486M7
AMD AM486DX/DX2
- Green PC Connectors
- Manufactured by: VISIONEX + CTL Corp.
=======================================================================
Turbo switch JP95 Green PC LED JP39
Turbo LED JP10 Green PC connector JP40
Speaker JP11 Green PC connector JP41
Power LED + keylock JP13 32bit VESA slots SL1,SL2
Reset switch JP15 External battery JP17
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CMOS normal JP16 1-2
CMOS clear JP16 2-3
PQFP CPU enabled JP1 open
PQFP CPU disabled JP1 closed
=======================================================================
Cache Bank 0 Bank 1 TAG 0
---------------------------------------------------------
64K 4 - 8kx8 4 - 8kx8 1 - 8kx8
128K 4 - 32kx8 none 1 - 8kx8
256K 4 - 32kx8 4 - 32kx8 1 - 32kx8
Cache JP7 JP8
---------------------------------------
64K 2-3 2-4
128K 1-2 2-3
256K 1-2 1-2
=======================================================================
CPU Type JP2A
---------------------
CYRIX 2-3
AMD 1-2
INTEL 1-2
CPU Select JP2 JP3 JP4
-----------------------------------------------------
80486SX(PQFP) open open open
80486SX(PGA) 2-3 open open
80487SX 1-2,3-4 1-2 closed
80486DX/DX2 1-2,3-4 2-3 open
P24C/P24T 1-2,3-4 1-2 closed
=======================================================================
(if using PGA cpu use JP5, if a PQFP cpu use JP5A)
CPU
Speed ID3 JP5 JP5A JP33 JP36 JP37 JP38 JP72
---------------------------------------------------------------------
25MHz open 2-3 4-5 2-4 closed 1-2 2-3 closed
33MHz open 2-3 4-5 2-4 closed 2-3 1-2 open
40MHz closed 1-2 3-5 2-3 open 1-2 2-3 open
50iMHz open 2-3 4-5 2-4 closed 1-2 2-3 closed
50MHz closed 1-2 1-2 open 2-3 1-2 open
66iMHz open 2-3 4-5 2-4 closed 2-3 1-2 open
=======================================================================
VESA Wait States ID2
-----------------------------
0 wait state open
1 wait state closed
=======================================================================
There are two versions of that board 4GPV3 and 4GPV3.1 afaik. 4GPV3 uses SIS 82c206 and 4GPV3.1 uses HMC 82c206 (or is on my 4GLX3 [4GPV3.1]
Re: 80486 BIOS image collection
added: found this update to jumper settings while searching for info in December, never found the full manual.
Was tagged for the Atrend Galaxy 3 [4GPV3]... You may find it useful.
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Why do I need to change the bios ?
Not change the BIOS but save the BIOS to a file 😀
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Merged the "USA machine" posts over to this topic, seemed a bit cleaner that way. Thanks folks for the head's up!
"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen
Stiletto
I guess the WINNERS are going to be the ones that are durable enough to still be working.
Currently the VLB motherboards are in the lead with best performance.
So I will have to benchmark these 3 with the same ram and CPU to get a WINNER.
Candidates
1) Mecer/Galaxy/Atrend - German Contaq chipset motherboard
2) Young Micro - Symphony chipset motherboard
3) Mylex - with Opti chipset motherboard.
I want to run just one benchmark test to test the performance of the motherboard.
What is the best one test to run ?
Topbench ?
Speedsys ?
Dsrystone ?
Other ?
Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-03-03, 12:02:I guess the WINNERS are going to be the ones that are durable enough to still be working. Currently the VLB motherboards are in […]
I guess the WINNERS are going to be the ones that are durable enough to still be working.
Currently the VLB motherboards are in the lead with best performance.
So I will have to benchmark these 3 with the same ram and CPU to get a WINNER.Candidates
1) Mecer/Galaxy/Atrend - German Contaq chipset motherboard
2) Young Micro - Symphony chipset motherboard
3) Mylex - with Opti chipset motherboard.I want to run just one benchmark test to test the performance of the motherboard.
What is the best one test to run ?
Topbench ?
Speedsys ?
Dsrystone ?
Other ?
Pick one for goodness sake. Wouldn't take long to test those three anyway.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
I might test all of them with this config.
CPU - Intel 486dx2-33
RAM - 8mb, FPM 60ns
Caluser2000 wrote on 2020-05-20, 09:03:Nobody here gives a rat fat about the "Made in USA" Act
Speak for yourself and nobody else.
I am going to take into consideration more than just performance.
Things I am going to consider:
1) Specs
2) Max capacity limits
3) versatility of bios config
4) Ease of config in bios
5) CPU - performance and bottle necks
6) Motherboard - BUS speed and customization, slots, battery, jumpers, quality.
7) Cache - capacity , Speed, and customization.
8) RAM - speed, capacity, banks, and preformance
9) Graphics - speed, megabytes, and customization
10) Hard drive - capacity limit, speed, and performance, Quietness.
11) PSU - Watts, and Quietness
12) Case - design, customization, and ease of repair
13) Drives - Default drives that shipped with computer.
I am going to make an excel spreadsheet to rate everything “1 thru 10”.
Currently the “IBM PS/1 Consultant computer” ( model #2155 ) with 486dx2-33 is blowing away the competition.
As for a prebuilt in 1993 it has the best motherboard with bios support for up to 64mb ram and at least a 710mb hard drive.
A nice compact low profile metal case with Non-IBM proprietary parts for easy repair and upgrade path.
It can support an “Intel overdrive 486dx4-100” or “AMD 5x86-133 PowerStacker CPU”.
The Bios even supports the “IBM 486dx2-66 Blue Lighting CPU” ( Cyrix ).
The Multimedia edition came with a Sound Blaster 16 or Pro 2.0 with Panasonic 2x CDROM drive which still work today.
Unlike the Sony 2x CDROM drives which were plagued with bad capacitors the Panasonic drives are still working today.
Its fairly quiet and fast for a 486 computer. Bios boots quickly.
But most importantly what really sets these IBM PS/1 computers apart from the rest is the software and recovery features and menu systems.
This computer was loaded with software and menu systems for ease of use and recovery.
It has batch files for many types of recovery and restore options to keep your computer running like new.
This is what set IBM computers apart from everyone else.
The menu system and batch files are very helpful and made this computer as easy to use as a Mac.
Also this computer has energy savings modes, sleep, and hibernation.
Not common in a 486 computer.
The onboard video was not bad with the Cirrus Logic 5428 graphic chip.
1mb. of video DRAM and Support for 256kb. Of motherboard cache.
In 1993/94 this was a solid performing 486 computer.
