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First post, by retro games 100

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Browsing my 'local' ebay, I don't see many 486s available!

I'm talking about a "whole computer" for sale, not just a motherboard for instance.

Have I missed the '486 party' ?!

Reply 2 of 19, by Amigaz

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Seems most of them have gone to recycling.

I bet lots of people have parts lying around somewhere but they don't feel it's worth the effort selling since you don't get much

Here in Sweden it's almost impossible to find anything pre Pentium II, recycling has worked well here but the biggest problem is that we seem to have a mentality here to just throw away "old" stuff instead of selling it to the people "in need"

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 3 of 19, by retro games 100

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Dosfreak said - "Suprise! It's 2008!"

Ah, but think how many were made though! 😀

Amigaz said - ..instead of selling it to the people "in need"

Absolutely man, we are the people in need!

<shouts to any 486 owners> Hey! Over here! 🤣

Reply 5 of 19, by Amigaz

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If it weren't for the friendly german's on Ebay.de I I would have the working 486 DOS boxes I have now.

😎

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 6 of 19, by Malik

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I just bought 2 486 motherboards from eBay. (Yet to arrive - should be home by next week). I prefer to build my own setup, since it's cheaper and you also get to know if something goes wrong while using it.

These come with one i486DX2-66 in one motherboard and one i486DX4-100 in another motherboard which also has some pci slots.

There are some websites selling whole 386 and 486 cpu units in eBay. (Sorry, forgot the sites, but still available in eBay now). But the shipping will be a bit too much.

I also shopped for 128MB of EDO ram.

Already have the Tseng ET4000/w32p VLB. I have a LAPC-I, a SB32 PnP (CT3600), AWE32 (CT3671) and AWE 64 Gold in the ISA department.

My old P-133 P54C's AT casing is still available with me with intact AT Power Supply. I also have the PS/2 keyboard to 5-pin AT Keyboard connector. And have got some serial mice.

Building a 486 system beats buying the latest 3D blasting SLI system in terms of excitement and sheer pleasure. My main machine setup has a 9800GTX SLI system but pales in comparison to the wonderful music of Monkey Island 2 using LAPC-I or even while listening to the Weeping Willow in King's Quest V.

Guess I'm an oldy who just can't forget the golden nostalgic years of the Reign of the DOS Empire!

Reply 10 of 19, by Amigaz

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There are about 2-3 seller on Ebay selling old, vintage PC stuff that have these hilarious prices 🤑

Better buy the parts and build from scratch

Find a nice 486 motherboard that supports Writeback cache, 3/5 volt CPU's
And has the CPU socket located at a "smart" position so it won't obstruct long ISA cards
And stay clear of the motherboards that has that cache slot that looks like a pipeline cache slot.
PC chips made those boards and they are completely L2 cacheless...even with a cache module installed

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 11 of 19, by Amigaz

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Malik wrote:
I just bought 2 486 motherboards from eBay. (Yet to arrive - should be home by next week). I prefer to build my own setup, since […]
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I just bought 2 486 motherboards from eBay. (Yet to arrive - should be home by next week). I prefer to build my own setup, since it's cheaper and you also get to know if something goes wrong while using it.

These come with one i486DX2-66 in one motherboard and one i486DX4-100 in another motherboard which also has some pci slots.

There are some websites selling whole 386 and 486 cpu units in eBay. (Sorry, forgot the sites, but still available in eBay now). But the shipping will be a bit too much.

I also shopped for 128MB of EDO ram.

Already have the Tseng ET4000/w32p VLB. I have a LAPC-I, a SB32 PnP (CT3600), AWE32 (CT3671) and AWE 64 Gold in the ISA department.

My old P-133 P54C's AT casing is still available with me with intact AT Power Supply. I also have the PS/2 keyboard to 5-pin AT Keyboard connector. And have got some serial mice.

Building a 486 system beats buying the latest 3D blasting SLI system in terms of excitement and sheer pleasure. My main machine setup has a 9800GTX SLI system but pales in comparison to the wonderful music of Monkey Island 2 using LAPC-I or even while listening to the Weeping Willow in King's Quest V.

Guess I'm an oldy who just can't forget the golden nostalgic years of the Reign of the DOS Empire!

No GM midi wavetable card for you AWE32? 😳 😉

My retro computer stuff: https://lychee.jjserver.net/#16136303902327

Reply 12 of 19, by retro games 100

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You guys are right - I need to get a 486 mobo, and then take it from there.

I'd really like one with 1 PCI slot - that 486 DX-100 mobo sounds great!

Can you still buy AT power supplies new?

And can you put old 486 AT mobos inside some new cases?

Thanks a lot, regards, Robert.

Reply 13 of 19, by Malik

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I forgot to mention : I also bought a Turtle Beach Montego II with the Yamaha DB60XG daughter card. So that should take care of GM and XG formats. Yes, an AT power supply should be available. I'll post my motherboards' pictures and the installed setup pictures soon. It's good to see so many nostalgic pc enthusiasts around! Yeah, building from the scratch is much better.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 14 of 19, by Malik

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I forgot to mention : I also bought a Turtle Beach Montego II with the Yamaha DB60XG daughter card. I'll attach the daughter card to my AWE32 or use the turtlebeach on my pci based 486. So that should take care of GM and XG formats. Yes, an AT power supply should be available. I'll post my motherboards' pictures and the installed setup pictures soon. It's good to see so many nostalgic pc enthusiasts around! Yeah, building from the scratch is much better.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 15 of 19, by Malik

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I think you can put the 486 board in SOME new cases. My mid range pc case has multiple etched markers for few different board layouts. I think you have to "strafe" the board to align the ISA slots to the case's slot fins. This may just leave the AT keyboard connector in the I/O opening in the case. Which in turn will leave a large gap at the I/O slot opening. This can be easily covered with any simple material like cardboard and tape.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 16 of 19, by Anonymous Coward

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Sure, AT motherboards will fit into ATX cases and can use ATX power supplies without any problem. You just need the correct back panel and a ATX-AT converter cable with power switch. It's really the way to go since many of the old 486 cases look like ass now.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 19 of 19, by GL1zdA

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retro games 100 wrote:

I clicked on a random item; "Generic 486 Tower PC"

Shipping cost = US $542.33

😳

Try to find a seller in your country. Of course you need to be patient, but from time to time you can find really good offers. I recently bought a very nice, clean and complete 386 - working 'out of the box' and domestic shipping cost me less than 10$. Probably also shipping a PC from nearby countries wouldn't also be very expensive - for example shipping inside Europe would cost me about 50$, but I would consider it, if I find very rare and working PC. You probably clicked something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com.my/Dell-Optiplex-450LE-48 … 1713.m153.l1262
It's Express shipping, thats why it is 500$. If you look at the others, it would be 100$ standard shipping, but I would have to have a very good reason to pay that lot of money.

Buying a whole working PC has one major advantage over buying parts: you know that it works and you can test your new upgrades whether they work. Its frustrating if you buy several parts, put them together and realize they won't even start - you wont even know which part doesn't work.

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