for this config 16-32m would be authentic.

tayyare wrote:

I have very few posts in this tıopic, mainly due to the (almost) lack of any nice bargains in my Retro life. Today is different […]
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I have very few posts in this tıopic, mainly due to the (almost) lack of any nice bargains in my Retro life. Today is different though! 🤣

The local IT tech of the company that I'm working for is aware of the fact that I love those "ancient useless shit" and before sending any old hardware for recycling, he let me take a look and take whatever I want. The stuff was almost always not so interesting (P4 era things that I rarely bother to take).

Wow...Not today. 🤣 All for free 😊

Here is the list:

Conner CFS210A 210MB HDD
Conner CFS635A 635MB HDD
Intel PIII 550 Slot CPU (SL3FJ)
Intel PIII 650 Slot CPU (SL3KV)
Teac FD-55GFR-570-U 1.2MB 5.25" FDD
Generic S3 Trio64 V2/DX PCI Display Adapter
Axle GF2 MX400 64M AGP Display Adapter
Sound Blaster 16 Wave Effects CT4170 ISA Sound Card
Generic ISA Multi I/O IDE Controller (J3ITN-171)
Towertech TT2000 CL 5422 ISA 1M Display Adapter
Tseng Labs ET4000AX (FIS VGA 4000) 1MB ISA Display Adapter
An unknown PCChips variety PCI 486 Motherboard (fake cache) with a TI 486DX2-80 CPU and some (16MB?) 72 pin RAM and CPU cooler
An unknown EISA 486 Motherboard with an Intel 486DX2-66 CPU and some (8MB?) 30 pin RAM and CPU cooler

Here are the pics of motherboards. Can anyone identify them? EISA board has serious CMOS battery problems. Which one of the Dallas chips should I replace (It has two)?

WhatsApp Image 2018-07-31 at 18.17.56.jpeg

WhatsApp Image 2018-07-31 at 18.18.31.jpeg

I think that's a PC Chips M918. Looks similar to mine anyway, but mine has socketed cache.
The SiS-based 486 board looks fun to play with. What's the purpose of the double RTC modules?

feipoa wrote:

I think that's a PC Chips M918. Looks similar to mine anyway, but mine has socketed cache.
The SiS-based 486 board looks fun to play with. What's the purpose of the double RTC modules?

Thanks a lot for the info. Mine is soldered "writeback cache" unfortunatelly 🤣

I checked the two Dallas chips, one is a realtime clock, but the other is a "non-volatile SRAM". I have no experience with EISA boards until today, but I remember that they have some sort of "method" to save EISA card configration parameters. Coud it be it?

That sounds familiar. I thought there was a version of the real-time clock module which also contained the non-volatile SRAM. So wondering why they needed the two ICs.

http://www.esapcsolutions.com/ecom/drawings/m_486manual.pdf

ESA TF-486 Motherboard.

Late model 486 motherboard with 2002 bios, Boot from CD-ROM? I had to have it!

Also has headers for a pS2 Keyboard and Mouse.

The RTC still holds a charge.

Its similar to my other PCI ALI 486 motherboard, the Level 2 cache doesnt like higher dram speeds and appears to benchmark quicker without it anyway.

I was testing with a Gainbery 5x86-133 but it doesnt seem to like running at 160mhz, I still have the voltage set to 3.3V so might switch to 5V and let the interposer work out the optimal setting, probably wont make a difference anyway, its a PQFP chip, any good for 160mhz?

I've always been interested in these ESA indrustrial 486 boards, but too many examples of ALi M1487/M1489 with slow L2 performance was always a concern.

I've never seen a Gainbery 5x86-133. Can you share a photo? I've seen the Evergreen with QFP Am5x86-133 though.

My Evergreen interposer with Am5x86 runs well at 160 MHz, but I added a fan, upgraded the VRM on the interposer (more current output), and made it variable voltage. However, before this mod, it seemed to work at 160 MHz. I wonder if your issue is motherboard/FSB related?

derSammler wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

There is very little practical difference between S1 and S2.

I have both and think the S1 sounds better. The S2 applies some crazy overdriven effects on all instruments, making it sound like a SID chip on ecstasy. 😉 Both are great, however, but I would always prefer the S1 if I could choose. Too bad the S1 is no longer available.

You can still get the S1 ...

https://www.excelvalley.com/product/dreamblaster-s1/

Not sure how long they will continue to have stock though

Gosh, I received an S2 recently in the mail. Is it so much worse than the S1? I personally thought the S1 was a damn good alternative to the X2. I plan to pair the S2 with an AWE64Gold using the ChillnPhil. I also plan to desolder the connector on the ChillnPhil so that I can mount the ChillnPhil perpendicular, that is, so it doesn't stick out the back any more.

I can conclude the gainbery is no good for 160mhz, I added a fan no difference, 3.3 or 5V no matter.

I'll have to do some more testing with the cyrix chips, I could get L1 cache working with dram set to normal on a CX586-100 but any faster and I'd loose the cache, I was using 5x86 enhancements so that could've created a conflict?

Unfortunately my "good" cyrix is another gainbery 5x86-120 and part of the board overlaps with jumpers above the cpu, the yellow ones, all my other IBM5x86C chips have no heatsink, what goo do you use, to attach a heatsink to a 486 class cpu?

S2 worse than S1? it's the same chipset - the old S1 one was EOL and S2 uses it's replacement. Sure there is a slight audio difference but it's the same core/engine AFAIK just newer silicone

keropi wrote:

S2 worse than S1? it's the same chipset - the old S1 one was EOL and S2 uses it's replacement. Sure there is a slight audio difference but it's the same core/engine AFAIK just newer silicone

I may be wrong but S2's default has slighly more FM effects by default.

Also IIRC the chips on the S1 and S2 can actually be programmed to alter the effects on the daughterboard for a more dry or more processed sound.

The other difference between S2 and S1 (from what my ears tell me) is that S2 seems to have more filtering and as a result slightly smoother but slightly lower level sound.. Which is fine for me most of the time, although some games without music volume options make things difficult.

dirkmirk wrote:

I can conclude the gainbery is no good for 160mhz, I added a fan no difference, 3.3 or 5V no matter.

I'll have to do some more testing with the cyrix chips, I could get L1 cache working with dram set to normal on a CX586-100 but any faster and I'd loose the cache, I was using 5x86 enhancements so that could've created a conflict?

Unfortunately my "good" cyrix is another gainbery 5x86-120 and part of the board overlaps with jumpers above the cpu, the yellow ones, all my other IBM5x86C chips have no heatsink, what goo do you use, to attach a heatsink to a 486 class cpu?

Thanks for providing the photos. I've only run my Am5x86-133 chips at 3.45 V, so cannot comment on 3.3 V operation. I see some IC's on that Gainbery VRM. Could they not work with a 40 Mhz FSB?

appiah4 wrote:

...but slightly lower level sound..

Ouch. I was hoping it would have a slightly higher sound level.

So is this an AMD part or a Cyrix part?

AMD part unfortunately.

Did Gainbery use the same interposer for the AMD and Cyrix PQFP chips? It seems that the Gainbery Cyrix 133 upgrades were very uncommon.

Got myself my first Kyro card. Not a Kyro II I'm afraid but it was just 4 bucks so why not.

Terratec EWS88MT.

canthearu wrote:

You can still get the S1 ... […]
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derSammler wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

There is very little practical difference between S1 and S2.

I have both and think the S1 sounds better. The S2 applies some crazy overdriven effects on all instruments, making it sound like a SID chip on ecstasy. 😉 Both are great, however, but I would always prefer the S1 if I could choose. Too bad the S1 is no longer available.

You can still get the S1 ...

https://www.excelvalley.com/product/dreamblaster-s1/

Not sure how long they will continue to have stock though

Thanks for that. Was looking for a cheaper alternative to the X2 for my P100 build I am working on.

Received these two NOS Matrox graphics cards earlier this week 😀