Great news. Same seller that I ordered the 694D from has prepped for sending an entire 486 kit - VLB GPU and I/O controller, 3com and UMC NICs, and a OPTI soundcard. I'll keep y'all posted soon enough.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-01-17, 00:05:

That's a very nice $5 worth, yah be a nice top end XP card without hacks and workarounds.

I always love finding GPUs in box. especially cheap. Some thrift stores price retro parts and computers very cheap, and others over price them.
Either way, I prefer looking for parts at the thrift stores rather than paying ebay prices for things.

This arrived today. It's practically a card containing an entire 486 to be installed inside old Macs to obtain a hybrid machine both mac-os and windows, very fascinating. It will be very difficult to make it work because in those years Macs were very rigid and not very compatible, plus the Mac I have (a Powermac G4 Quicksilver might be too modern)

I know what I have to do this evening 🤣

Whoever recapped it used OSTs of the oldest kind known to mankind, from when they didn't complete the merger with I.Q. Yikes.

It did POST, however I have to do the following from now on:

- clean the board of dust
- change the coolers with beefy 462 coolers
- recap
- Windows reinstall once I pull off data from its 40GB drive
- maybe SCSI Ultra160 fun provided I can find some working drives
- max out RAM and GPU as much as I can
- flash a different BIOS - strange enough, my board is a DTK OEM board, given there was a huge DTK Computer sticker on the AGP)
- ???

PcBytes wrote on 2024-01-18, 15:34:

I know what I have to do this evening 🤣

"Play" 3DMark 🤣

Sure will once recapped. I have a 9600 Pro awaiting to sit in that AGP slot.

Bought this machine for 10 euros, no HDD.

A7N8X-E Deluxe, 2800+, Ti 4200 8x 128MB and the very pretty Zalman CNPS6000Cu.

I found these a while ago. I have no idea about them. Anyone know anything about these?

I'm not sure about the top one. Maybe a serial card? The bottom one looks like some kind of card that adapts an internal floppy drive cable to be used on some proprietary external interface.

I believe that there was no standard for external floppy interfaces, so this could be compatible with an IBM, Mac, or some other drive manufacturer.

I don't think it's safe to guess, as voltage can be passed along pins where it's not supposed to. I recall hearing about how even Apple changed their floppy pinout at some point, but not the interface connector, and connecting the wrong drive to the wrong generation of computer would damage the drive.

A whole bunch of interesting stuff. Bought not today, but just received the last box.

It's going to be amazing Socket 5 EISA build - something like middle of 1995 (P133 just appeared on the market) but with some older cards.

Asus PCI-E/P54NP4 - dual socket 5 motherboard. Notice full absence of any I/O ports just like on the earliest 386s.
Asus PCI-SC200 SCSI controller is included (BIOS is part of the mobo BIOS chip as I understand)
And a beast - 5v -> 3.3V converter in form-factor of PCI card 😀 to feed PCI bus.

1GB SCSI drive, ST31200N.
Toshiba XM-3401 SCSI 2x CDROM with caddy - wanted for so long time.

EISA SCSI caching adapter with 4MB of RAM onboard. It's older revision of NCR chip than on SC200, interesting to compare speed of both and how cache controller affects the performance. The adapter has i386sx for the caching purposes.
EISA network card, seems like NE2000 compatible one.

2 P133 CPUs. IDK, maybe OTI sound card, something like Mozart-16 will be period correct and exotic enough for that build.

Number Nine Imagine 128 is a videocard. I suppose, this empty socket will accept another 512KB of VRAM for Cirrus Logic DOS part.

I want to try Windows NT 3.51 and probably early Linux distros. A kind of powerful workstation - entry level server.

rkurbatov wrote on 2024-01-18, 23:48:

Number Nine Imagine 128 is a videocard. I suppose, this empty socket will accept another 512KB of VRAM for Cirrus Logic DOS part.

I'm really curious about this secondary memory socket/footprint, since at first glance it looks like it connects directly to the Imagine 128 chip. Macintosh Imagine 128 cards also carry a 256K x 16 DRAM chip (a different part than the VRAM) in spite of not having a compatibility chip. I searched #9's old 128FAQ and they didn't mention the memory socket at all, it's not clear to me what it's for.

pancakepuppy wrote on 2024-01-19, 00:44:

rkurbatov wrote on 2024-01-18, 23:48:

Number Nine Imagine 128 is a videocard. I suppose, this empty socket will accept another 512KB of VRAM for Cirrus Logic DOS part.

I'm really curious about this secondary memory socket/footprint, since at first glance it looks like it connects directly to the Imagine 128 chip. Macintosh Imagine 128 cards also carry a 256K x 16 DRAM chip (a different part than the VRAM) in spite of not having a compatibility chip. I searched #9's old 128FAQ and they didn't mention the memory socket at all, it's not clear to me what it's for.

I've seen cards where there is soldered chip, the same one as for Cirrus Logic card judging on marking. But agree, that's strange that it's located not near the CL chip. I can try adding working VRAM, I have a batch for PCI videocards. Nothing was tested yet 😀

https://vintage3d.org/n9.php#sthash.DJaa03Vc.dpbs - see, there is second version of this card (with some 3D acceleration). There are two versions - one with CL chip having both soldered and socketed memory chips. And another one without it (seems like only VGA mode supported for DOS, whatever). And both memory chips for CL (just like CL itself, located on the back of this version of the card) are absent.

On Stason such socket for V2 is called "masking memory socket".

Bought a couple of nice 486 bits recently, a nice 3 Volt DX4-75 and a Lucky Star LS-486E Rev:D board, board is from a fellow collector and is in working condition. The build idea started because I managed to find the exact case my original 486 had back in the day and it would be nice to have a similar build.

I actually own a Rev:F version of this board but it recently decided to let the magic smoke out of the VRM Mosfet when I tried powering it up to test it, pretty sure its repairable but will have to wait till I can find time to both track down a new Mosfet and be able to do the repairs and testing.

Not sure if the Rev:F board is better than the Rev:D, I know there are more hacks for the Rev:D out there so it may be the better option for a modded 486.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-01-19, 01:25:

Not sure if the Rev:F board is better than the Rev:D, I know there are more hacks for the Rev:D out there so it may be the better option for a modded 486.

I don't remember exact model of my first PC motherboard, but it could be it. SIS496/497, 2 memory slots and the same location of elements colors and so on. I just bought DFI AK-75AC for no reason. It's exact copy of my second motherboard (Canyon CN-7TABAS, typical Taiwanese clones story). Don't make me start hunting for this one 😜 I already have two beautiful 486 mobos!

rkurbatov wrote on 2024-01-19, 01:32:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-01-19, 01:25:

Not sure if the Rev:F board is better than the Rev:D, I know there are more hacks for the Rev:D out there so it may be the better option for a modded 486.

I don't remember exact model of my first PC motherboard, but it could be it. SIS496/497, 2 memory slots and the same location of elements colors and so on. I just bought DFI AK-75AC for no reason. It's exact copy of my second motherboard (Canyon CN-7TABAS, typical Taiwanese clones story). Don't make me start hunting for this one 😜 I already have two beautiful 486 mobos!

heh

I had wanted a board with ISA, VLB and PCI but .. well the prices for boards like that (untested mind you) are currently STUPID, now if you want a tested working one ..you'll need to mortgage your house first and possibly sacrifice your first born.

But since you cant overclock the bus on boards with VLB very well the lack of it may just be for the best, I have a AM5x86-P75 that will handle 160Mhz with good cooling so it may just end up in this board for a bit.

As for my very first x86 PC ..I remember it well it was a IBM 5150 (5162 technically) with a 286, CGA, MFM HDD and two 1.2Mb floppy drives ....that poor thing got used and abused till we got a AM386-DX40 machine. That 386 was one hell of a rig for its time and I would still have it today if I had some foresight to keep it. (I had other PCs before this, such as a Vic20 and an Amiga 500)

Hell I wish younger me had kept hold of my old rigs and parts.

Law212 wrote on 2024-01-18, 17:41:

I found these a while ago. I have no idea about them. Anyone know anything about these? […]
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I found these a while ago. I have no idea about them. Anyone know anything about these?

I have one of these as well. No idea what is purpose is, someone on the retroweb discord guessed it might be an interface for a external tape drive.

Law212 wrote on 2024-01-18, 17:41:

I found these a while ago. I have no idea about them. Anyone know anything about these? […]
Show full quote

I found these a while ago. I have no idea about them. Anyone know anything about these?

Modicon SA85
https://www.classicautomation.com/Part/am-sa85-000
That indicates Modbus Plus Interface Card, which suggests some industrial network interface.

https://i.imgur.com/w9ZtAQ6.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Khn7v7M.jpg […]
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Veeborg's idea is good. Floppy controller is connected to SYSTEM connector, AT or XT/T1500 connectors go to internal floppy drives and external connector to external device.

rkurbatov wrote on 2024-01-18, 23:48:

Toshiba XM-3401 SCSI 2x CDROM with caddy - wanted for so long time.

Grats on everything you acquired. Very nice parts. Just want to say you should check the caps within this drive, they are known to leak.

vetz wrote on 2024-01-19, 09:26:

rkurbatov wrote on 2024-01-18, 23:48:

Toshiba XM-3401 SCSI 2x CDROM with caddy - wanted for so long time.

Grats on everything you acquired. Very nice parts. Just want to say you should check the caps within this drive, they are known to leak.

Thanks, will check. This will be tricky.

Today's shopping proved rather nice.