The Mach64 would probably give the best performance out of the three video cards for DOS games. It'd definitely give the best performance in Windows. The SoundBlaster AWE4 is a good card; they sound decent and, being an ISA SoundBlaster, is compatible with just about everything.

I don't think you'll see too much difference in performance between the DX4-100 and the 5x86-133. However, if the 5x86 works, then, naturally, go with that. Just remember that for the 5x86, you'll most likely need to have your motherboard set up for a 2x clock multiplier for it to run at the right speed.

If you have at least 16mb of ram in the computer, Windows 95 might be a good OS to run with since it runs most MS-DOS games from the 90s and you don't have the same memory limits and issues brought by pure DOS or DOS/Windows 3.x.

Ram is another issue that I want to tackle when I get this machine going, but before that, I seem to remember there were at least 3 versions of windows 95 (a b and c). Would "c" be the best for what I'm doing, or does it even matter?
About the RAM: I read that this board supports 256MB of FPM, and provided the sticks work, I have enough to fill it. I doubt that would be an advantage for me in DOS 6.22 or even Win 3.11, but would Win95 make any use of it?

Thank you very much for the technical support so far. 😁

B or C would be equally fine. C added USB and AGP support, included Internet Explorer 4 and fixed some bugs that came up whenever you ran the OS on a Pentium II or Pentium Pro. Considering none of those additions would have an effect on a 486 box, I'd recommend B.

With memory, I tend to think the more the merrier. However, I doubt Windows 95 would do anything with more than 128mb and I really don't think there's much software that would run well on a 486 system that would want more than 64mb. I'd want at least 32mb though.

I think that if you have 256kb cache memory, it should be sufficient for up to 64MB RAM. For 128MB you need 512kb. Maybe with more memory it would perform worse. And I believe also that when having 32-40MB RAM would be just great for windows 95. I can still remember back in 1995-96 I had a Pentium 100MHz and 8MB RAM. I used to run windows 95, but not so great. A year later I thought to try the dimm slot that board had, and added a 32mb dimm, and then it was perfect for windows. The system was very quick, and the hard drive access was reduced very much.

If you want pain on par with a colonoscopy done with a cattle prod, Windows 95A will install with 4mb of RAM and a 486SX.

That doesnt sound like much fun at all.

A guy at OCAU got Win95 installed on a 386DX-40 but he did have 64MB of RAM (4x16MB 30 pin modules).

It would probably run much better than the 486SX with 4MB seeing as how hungry Windows 9x was for RAM.

A guy at OCAU got Win95 installed on a 386DX-40 but he did have 64MB of RAM (4x16MB 30 pin modules). It would probably run much better than the 486SX with 4MB seeing as how hungry Windows 9x was for RAM.

A 386DX/40 was on par with a 486SX/25 for most purposes anyway, so I have little doubt it'd run better.

For OP's purposes, stick with 64MB or less. Win95 runs just fine with 32MB, and great with 64MB. It will absolutely perform worse if you put in more RAM than the cache can cover... Windows tends to use memory from the top down, so it'll end up using the uncached RAM first.

Ok, I found a sealed copy of windows 95 but the only letter I can see on the package is a "D". Any idea how to find out which version it is before installing? 😖
I believe that the board has 256k cache, so if I understand Markk that means that it wouldn't effectively use more than 64MB of ram. That seems so small after using 8GB in my last build (not a 486 obviously). Lol perspective is everything.

(hehe, colonoscopy with a cattle prod!)

No clue. Any more markings on the box? A complete version number maybe?

As for L2 cache, what he meant is that you can install more than 64mb of RAM but it'll render the cache useless.

OK, I feel like an idiot, it's an OEM apparently (box says OEM on it in bold letters), dated 1997 and it says it has USB support. No wonder it was so cheap.
I do have other OS's knockin' around here still hopefully. (My brother gave a ton of our old computer stuff away to make room for our newer ones).

OK, I feel like an idiot, it's an OEM apparently (box says OEM on it in bold letters), dated 1997 and it says it has USB support. No wonder it was so cheap.
I do have other OS's knockin' around here still hopefully.

No, that's probably the one you want. OSR2 was an OEM-only thing.

It sounds likeyou have OSR2.1 (Win95B), with the USB supplement. Of course, the USB support is kinda useless to you, but 95B is (IMO anyway) the most stable of the various versions, and is still pretty light on hardware requirements since it doesn't have all the 'desktop update' and crap.

nemesis wrote:

OK, I feel like an idiot, it's an OEM apparently (box says OEM on it in bold letters), dated 1997 and it says it has USB support. No wonder it was so cheap.
I do have other OS's knockin' around here still hopefully. (My brother gave a ton of our old computer stuff away to make room for our newer ones).

Welcome aboard sir!!!

Don't feel stupid, W95 b and c are available as OEM only. ALL the retail ones are the oldest version of W95 😉.

And so far I agree completely with what the rest has posted here so far (well done mates 😁 hehe! ).

It should be relatively easy finding 4x 16MB simms (these are single sided). 32MB simms are a bit more uncommon (these are double sided and usually EDO) but not hard to find at all.
64MB simms are a damn nightmare to find and many of those are the "composite" ones? You know, the ones with like 32 or 36 chips in total.
Don't get those! Those only work in some HP servers and maybe a DEC Alpha or so.
The composite ones look like this:

Edit: Once more thing. You'll need to know if your board will work with EDO or not! Most 486 boards work only with FPM (=Fast Page Mode) simms.
There are some 486 PCI boards (and maybe VLB) that will woprk with EDO, but most will not.
My guess is that it would be best to try and find 16MB FPM simms (these also come in EDO). Most 32MB simms I found seem to be EDO.

Another thing, though from reading other peoples comments on vintage hardware boards it doesn't matter as much as I had thought, is this:
Does your 486 board have TIN or GOLD simm sockets?
If the little contacts look silver-ish then they are tin. If they look gold colored (veeery uncommon in clonemaker simm boards) then it's (obviously) gold.

Mixing the 2 metals might cause corrosion of the slots causing memory errors in the long run.

My experience is that most motherboards have tin plated simm sockets and gold plated dimm sockets.

Edit2:Forgot to mention. Since you're working with a 486 (Socket 3) you don't need to install your memory in pairs. This is quite basic info but maybe you forgot 😉

Ok, thanks for the info on the OS. 😀
Now I'm a little confused on the ram. The board only supports FPM but now I'm not sure if that's what I have for sticks. What's the easiest way to tell if it's FPM?
Btw, the sockets are tin and I have a mix of gold and tin fingered sticks. None of them are the 32-36 chip versions so I guess that's good news so far.
The 64MB versions (all 72 pin of course) have 6 chips on one side and 2 chips on the other side... really weird sticks. 😖 They're dated December 15th, 2003.

(I'm so glad I came to this site)

Ok now some bad news. I pieced together what I have and the machine starts up but displays no signal (also no beeps). I'm assuming that it's either incompatible ram or possibly I blew the mobo.
Any thoughts? 😢

First check the JP5 jumper, which is close to the battery connector. It should have pins 1-2 shorted.

edit : Sorry, I didn't notice earlier that you mentioned amd 486/100 and 133cpus. I'm afraid you can't install those two on that motherboard. It's made for older 5v 486s, and your cpus(which need 3.3v) in order to work on that, need a voltage regulator. I think it's a bit hard to find such a thing, so you have two choices. Either change the board, or use an older 486, like a DX2/66.

edit 2 : sorry, I was reading the wrong manual.... It can support your cpus. So you have to check some more settings. Try downloading it from here : http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/archive/Soyo/ma … /4sw/index.html

Just make sure before you try anything further to properly configure the voltage settings so you don't risk messing the cpu chips. From there, if you're running the 5x86, you'll want to set the motherboard to 2x multiplier (the 5x86 uses that since there's no 4x setting on most mobos), 33mhz bus speed. If using the DX4, 33mhz bus speed, 3x multiplier. Also, try botting with just one stick of ram installed.

EDIT: I just flipped through the manual myself. In memory bank 3 (the simm slot closest to the top outside edge) is listed as being able to accept single sided SIMMs only; modules with chips on both sides (all 32mb chips) will have to be confined to the first three slots. Also, unless it's just one 32mb SIMM, the mobos I have seem to have issues dealing with 32mb chips in odd numbers. I'm not sure if that same issue would affect your motherboard but I figure it wouldn't hurt to mention that. Also, for the video card, use any PCI slot except for the one closest to the ISA slots.

Thanks for the info and the link guys.
Right now I'm trying the 100MHz CPU with variations of every RAM stick I have. No luck so far.
Also, I checked the jumpers and for some reason my board doesn't have all the ones listed in the manual. Whoever messed with the jumpers prior to me really had a lot of fun.. they were all over the place without matching any configuration, I should have checked that first.

(I think this machine hates me)

Do you have another board to test your simms in? It may help figuring out what parts are indeed working without spending who knows how many hours trying to get a system to work that's broken.

Having some spare parts wouldn't hurt anyway.

No, you're just learning what it was like to work on a computer back in the 90s. I say nice things about my retro systems on this forum but they really helped me to relive some of the worst headaches of my life.