First post, by toastdieb
So I'm finishing up my first "from-scratch" 486 build (as in, starting from an empty case and a mobo, instead of just upgrading/restoring a prebuilt unit) or at least it's as finished up as any good PC ever is, haha. We'll start with photos - apologies for the size of these, as well as for the poor lighting in some of them.
The case. NOS AT from Summer '95, bought from ebay. I like the looks, turbo button and LED display of this guy. I hate everything else about it, haha.
It's Cyrix ST! I installed this guy because if something went wrong and the CPU got fried somehow, I wouldn't miss it too much. Eventually I'll replace it with the Intel DX4-100 I actually picked up for this build.
Cache chips. These came with the mobo and appear to be vintage, so thankfully I get to avoid dealing with sorting out fake cache chips from real ones, at least for now.
Mobo, ATX PSU, ATX-to-AT adapter, 30-pin SIMMs and video card installed. This was to test that the mobo would POST after the first one was a dud. Izzy says hi.
This kind of seems to defeat the purpose of the CPU fan.
Cable management is when you manage to fit all the cables in the case.
Part list:
Case - NOS AT Case from ebay. Not sure of the brand. Box says "DALLAS" on it, the front panel says "PEARL CASE" on the back of it.
Mainboard - WinTech MV035F, AWARD BIOS. 8 ISA, 3 of which have VLB. Supports up to 128MB RAM, provided via 4 30-PIN SIMMs or up to 3 72-PIN SIMMs. No onboard I/O except keyboard.
CPU - Presently installed is a Cyrix ST486DX2-66GS. This is to be replaced with an Intel 486DX4-100 once I get around to it.
PSU - Yes.
Memory - Pictured are 4 4MB 30-pin SIMMs of unknown provenance. Presently, I have installed 2 32MB 8x36 60ns parity 72-pin SIMMs from Kingston.
Video - Diamond SpeedStar Pro VLB, 1MB
Audio - Soundblaster 16, CT2940. No OPL3, Yes IDE.
Controller - DTC 2278E VLB Multi-I/O. 2 40-pin IDE, 1 34-pin floppy, 1 9-pin serial, 1 25-pin parallel, 1 25-pin serial and 1 game port.
A: - Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy
C: - Maxtor 270MB 3.5" HDD
D: - StarTech CF-to-IDE w/ 3.5" bay mount
E: - Samsung 48x CD-ROM
This machine is running MSDOS 6.22 and DeskMate 3.05 (because hilarity), not sure yet if I'm gonna install Windows 3.x or not. The "goal" insomuch as there is one is to run early 90s DOS games better than my Vectra VL2 4/100 can, but I have also been contemplating adding some network capabilities as well, so we'll see.