Nice work as always.

That's a very fine machine! Well done 😀

The DVD drive and the floppy emulator ruins the look on this case. Never ever seen a DVD drive from years later in a 486 machine..
But the case it self looks very clean..

Robin4 wrote:

The DVD drive and the floppy emulator ruins the look on this case. Never ever seen a DVD drive from years later in a 486 machine..
But the case it self looks very clean..

It's more about convenience than cosmetics. 3.5" and 5.25" floppies suck. It's just easier using these drives... but I hear ya and appreciate the constructive criticism. To each his own....

Yes! The case is clean after a few hours of scrubbing! You may also ask why I'm using a VLB card in a motherboard that has PCI. To that I say..."why the hell not?!" 😀

I have several of these cards lying around. Why not use them? They aren't getting any cheaper to aquire like the masses of PCI cards out there.

Very nice, I like the Floppy emulator & DVD. Classic 486 hardware with currant useful hardware balance just right

Artex wrote:

It's more about convenience than cosmetics. 3.5" and 5.25" floppies suck. It's just easier using these drives... but I hear ya […]
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Robin4 wrote:

The DVD drive and the floppy emulator ruins the look on this case. Never ever seen a DVD drive from years later in a 486 machine..
But the case it self looks very clean..

It's more about convenience than cosmetics. 3.5" and 5.25" floppies suck. It's just easier using these drives... but I hear ya and appreciate the constructive criticism. To each his own....

Yes! The case is clean after a few hours of scrubbing! You may also ask why I'm using a VLB card in a motherboard that has PCI. To that I say..."why the hell not?!" 😀

I have several of these cards lying around. Why not use them? They aren't getting any cheaper to aquire like the masses of PCI cards out there.

It wasnt really criticism, only a opinion from my own. But i do agree with you that its more convenience.. Only it doesnt look really matching together (strange combination).
I hope i didnt hurt your feelings.

Robin4 wrote:

It wasnt really criticism, only a opinion from my own. But do agree with you thats more convenience.. Only is doesnt look really right.

No harm done! I really do appreciate ALL feedback with these builds! Everyone has different tastes and I think it's fun to put my own personal 'twist' on these weekly builds. I really do enjoy it (as I'm sure everyone else does too!) 😀

Can you explain why you did choose a DVD ROM player on a 486 system? I dont think using dvds on a 486 wouldnt really make sense.. Because of the speed its running..and the technology wise.
Or was it more, because you didnt had an other one available?

One reason might be better compatibility with CD-R and CD-RW discs? I also use DVD drives in all my systems.

Ok, thanks for the explanation.

philscomputerlab wrote:

One reason might be better compatibility with CD-R and CD-RW discs? I also use DVD drives in all my systems.

Phil's got it. Compatibility is #1. I burn a lot of re-writeable discs and these drives make it a lot easier. Otherwise it's the 1.44MB-at-a-time virtual floppies or running an ftp server after firing up mTCP. Sometimes it's quicker to burn a DVD-RW....

another great build! this time it has enough Roland 🤣 🤣 🤣

That's 8kb lvl1, not 16, on DX2s 😀

sunaiac wrote:

That's 8kb lvl1, not 16, on DX2s 😀

Doh... Copy/Paste fail. Thanks!

Cool. You should hook up a Sony CDU-31/33A to the CT1690 to really make it shine! 😀 Nice MOBO BTW.

Nice Looking build and killer Roland MPU that complete audio possibilities with the SB Pro 2 😀 , but it seems that it's running a bit slow for its specs 😕 .
Could PCI be the culprit by introducing default WS to keep system stability for RAM/CPU/VLB operations or something like that ? 😒
DooM and DooM II should be playable on a DX2 66 WB or WT with an S3 VLB card (> 25 FPS), DUKE3D should start to be playable (not really enjoyable or you have to o/c it at 80 Mhz with a 40 Mhz BUS for something smooth) by reducing screen size and audio settings.

darksheer wrote:

Nice Looking build and killer Roland MPU that complete audio possibilities with the SB Pro 2 😀 , but it seems that it's running a bit slow for its specs 😕 .
Could PCI be the culprit by introducing default WS to keep system stability for RAM/CPU/VLB operations or something like that ? 😒
DooM and DooM II should be playable on a DX2 66 WB or WT with an S3 VLB card (> 25 FPS), DUKE3D should start to be playable (not really enjoyable or you have to o/c it at 80 Mhz with a 40 Mhz BUS for something smooth) by reducing screen size and audio settings.

Yeah, somethings definitely off. DOOM is really choppy at full screen. Timings are tight as a drum in the BIOS. I'm going to swap memory tomorrow, and maybe try a single 60ns 16MB stick. May swap the VLB card as I'm seeing some anomalies on-screen during gaming {vertical banding}.

Robin4 wrote:

Can you explain why you did choose a DVD ROM player on a 486 system? I dont think using dvds on a 486 wouldnt really make sense.. Because of the speed its running..and the technology wise.
Or was it more, because you didnt had an other one available?

A 486 can burn DVD's with the appropriate hardware and software. 486 DVD burner
A 486 can playback DVD movies with the appropriate hardware and software. MPEG 1/2(DVD) hardware decoder cards
A DVD burner in a 486 could serve as a backup means if one so chooses this method. A DVD reader could also be used to read data discs for system restoration.

Nice build 😀

I do also prefer DVD-RW drives for the same reason.
DVD-RW drives are also (often) better when it comes to reading scratched discs.