First post, by Elia1995
- Rank
- Oldbie
First of all, I hope this is the correct forum section, as I'm new here, I wouldn't want to post on the wrong section, but since it's a "system specs" break-through overview of my current MS-DOS "project", it should be fine, otherwise feel free to move on the right section 😊
I was "browsing" my home for old PC hardware to get started on my "Project 98" (A perfect, old-school, Windows 98 computer with MS-DOS dual boot) and I found this nice, shiny (well... after I dusted it off 🤣 ) and still working Olivetti M4 434 computer resting behind a couch (don't ask me why...) exactly like this:
So I took it, brought it downstairs, dusted it off and opened it to see what beauties that chassis was hiding inside and I found out that it had 3 empty "horizontal" ISA slots + an extra empty "vertical" one behind, 2 ram slots and a bunch of IDE slots.
Here are the specs I originally found it with the first time I opened it:
- Intel 80486 CPU;
- 10 MB of RAM;
- A broken 3-1/2 floppy drive (it didn't read any floppy disk);
- A broken Quantum ProDrive (I think ? It's a Quantum for sure, but ain't sure if it's a ProDrive or a Fireball) hardisk (I have no idea how many MB it is, it's written nowhere and I couldn't make it work neither with a modern IDE-to-USB controller, it's completely dead);
(the PC speaker was still working fine, though 🤣 )
So my "retrogamer" and "computer-fanatic" instincts made me wannabe to try to revive it... and I managed to do it (thanks also to my father's help, those ISA cards are so strong to insert and remove, I even cut myself removing one...) !!!
I changed the 3-1/2 floppy drive with a working one, I also changed the dead hardisk with a (roughly) 500 MB one (I also have an 8 GB one, but even though the BIOS detects it perfectly, when I try to boot from A: to install MS-DOS, it gets stuck at "C: SAMSUNG *model*", perhaps this motherboard has some problems with LBA drives ?), my father also found his old 5-1/4 floppy drive (I've never had the pleasure to use any 5-1/4 floppy disks as a child... better remedy now that I'm almost 21 🤣 ) and we added it, we tried to get a working IDE CD-ROM, but the BIOS seems to refuse to recognize it (although I haven't tried anymore after installing MS-DOS with the SAMSUNG CD-ROM drivers... if you're familiar with MS-DOS on VMWare, you probably know these ones...) so I'm currently using an external one from Creative via parallel port, I added a low-end sound card and yesterday I finally changed it with a much better one (today I installed the drivers and it's working perfecly well), currently it's missing a graphics card and despite the "power" of the 486 CPU makes almost any 2D game run perfect (well, at least the ones I tried so far...), it gets laggy with 2.5D and 3D games such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D and Exhumed (the only 3 "3D" games I've tried so far), although Ken's Labyrinth, which is also a 2.5D game runs perfectly smooth (I guess Doom, Exhumed and Duke Nukem 3D are a bit more complex even though they're not fully 3D like what would be Quake...) and so also does "One Must Fall 2097", even though it's a 2D fighting game, it's rather complex, but it runs perfectly smooth...
I also upgraded the RAM memory to 40 MB, which might be a bit overkill for a 486 machine, but since I'm currently missing a graphics card, it's some extra "fuel" to sustain certain games (even though Duke and Doom lag, they're still playable nonetheless).
So... these are the current specs of my "modded" Olivetti M4 454 S:
- CPU: Intel 80486 (obviously I can't upgrade it to a Pentium, the socket wouldn't let me 🤣 )
- RAM: 40 MB total (2x10 MB) (I ain't sure exactly what kind of DDR that motherboard mounts)
- Disk drives: 3-1/4 floppy disk on A:, 5-1/4 floppy disk on B:, Creative x32 CD-ROM Parallel port drive on D: with the "ASPI_CD" driver (hard work to make it work, but I did it !!!)
- Storage: 500 MB IDE, not LBA, hardisk
- Sound card: First I installed an Avance Logic (I dunno the exact model, I'll check and eventually update the post later), now I'm using a Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 CT3670 with 2 RAM sticks (I don't know how to check how much ram is installed and it's written nowhere on the sticks)
- Graphics card: Still missing... I hope to find an ISA graphics card in my father's old hardware one day... or perhaps be able to purchase one which is fully compatible with my motherboard and MS-DOS 7.10
- I use some gameport joysticks, one is an exact clone of the SEGA Genesis one 🤣
- I also added a "capture card", it's a card with an S-Video out which, supposedly with a S-Video to RCA cable, I can connect to my Hauppauge HD PVR and record videos from it, but I haven't tried it yet...
So... yeah, that's my current status on my "MS-DOS Project" and I'm still working on it, I hope to get a perfect MS-DOS machine out of it one day (eventually I'll get a Pentium motherboard or I don't know...), but currently "as it is", it's running a lot of 2D games from Apogee flawless at up to 60 FPS (I have no actual way to calculate the FPS, since there's no thing like FRAPS for DOS, but "by eye" they are as smooth as 60 FPS, considering the monitor (Sampo AlphaScan 520) I must use with it, due to the lack of "full pins" VGA ports without a graphics card, probably has a 25-30Hz frequency) and some Epic MegaGames ones aswell (such as Jazz Jackrabbit and One Must Fall 2097).
Now that I got this Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 CT3670 working, I'll also try out some MIDIs and other cool stuff (I want to learn how "soundfonts" work and how to load them...) and I'll test more games while I keep upgrading this machine.
Ah yes... I currently didn't take any photo of the "current" status of the computer, but I will probably take some tomorrow, when I go to my father's home where I'm working on it 😢
Currently assembled vintage computers I own: 11
Most important ones:
A "modded" Olivetti M4 434 S (currently broken).
An Epson El Plus 386DX running MS-DOS 6.22 (currently broken).
Celeron Coppermine 1.10GHz on an M754LMRTP motherboard
