i should go with that 486 motherboard.. Ill see you have some VLB boards there.. An pentium system is just useless with that turbo LCD display. The first older pentium systems did used them in limited quantities..
But on later boards this display and or turbo button didnt used anymore..

Building an 486 computer is more nice with this case.. Socket 7 is just to fast if you want to play 486 games on it.. That motherboard also have a usable processor in it.. DX2 66Mhz was almost the best price / performances, and most games just running fine on that system.

I'd say build a 486. Dunno if you already have an AT Pentium build (or a 486 build for that matter 🤣 ) but if you have the right parts for them, then I would pick to build a 486. If you want a Pentium you can always use an ATX board in a cheap spare ATX case 😜

I vote Octek Rhino motherboard. It's the nicest one of the whole lot.

What kind of PSU does this case come with? Can we get a look at its innards?

build the 486 😀

I would choose an ESS Audio Drive as a soundcard. They use to be solid and hassle free.
Perhaps with a nice wavetable daughterboard if you can find a cheap one.

Or perhaps the Yammaha card but I have too little experience with those to recommend them.
I would save the AWE64 cards for faster builds where SB 16 support is more important than SB PRO support.

Tetrium wrote:

I'd say build a 486. Dunno if you already have an AT Pentium build (or a 486 build for that matter 🤣 ) but if you have the right parts for them, then I would pick to build a 486. If you want a Pentium you can always use an ATX board in a cheap spare ATX case 😜

Well, I do have a 133MHz Pentium build already, and a 100MHz 486 build already. Neither system have a turbo switch either. 😉

mockingbird wrote:

I vote Octek Rhino motherboard. It's the nicest one of the whole lot.

What kind of PSU does this case come with? Can we get a look at its innards?

It came with a 230 watt Linkworld PSU. Also, sure, I'll take some pictures of the innards! 😀

Skyscraper wrote:

build the 486 :) […]
Show full quote

build the 486 😀

I would choose an ESS Audio Drive as a soundcard. They use to be solid and hassle free.
Perhaps with a nice wavetable daughterboard if you can find a cheap one.

Or perhaps the Yammaha card but I have too little experience with those to recommend them.
I would save the AWE64 cards for faster builds where SB 16 support is more important than SB PRO support.

So what does the wavetable daughterboard do for these?

ReeseRiverson wrote:

So what does the wavetable daughterboard do for these?

You need some kind of MIDI support and during mid to late 486 era General Midi was common.
So a Wavetable daughterboard with good General Midi support would be nice.
An external Sound Canvas is another choice.

Skyscraper wrote:

You need some kind of MIDI support and during late to mid to late 486 era General Midi was common.
So a Wavetable daughterboard with good General Midi support would be nice.
An external Sound Canvas is another choice.

Well, the good news is... I have a Roland MT-32 and a Roland SC-88 for General Midi. 😎

So at this point, we could focus on what will give the best results for OPL needs. 😀

ReeseRiverson wrote:

Well, the good news is... I have a Roland MT-32 and a Roland SC-88 for General Midi. 😎

So at this point, we could focus on what will give the best results for OPL needs. 😀

The Yammaha card then I guess. It should have good SB PRO2 support and an integrated OPL3.
But you could try an Audio Drive aswell to see what you prefer 😀

Here are the pics of the innards of the case! 😀

Skyscraper wrote:

The Yammaha card then I guess. It should have good SB PRO2 support and an integrated OPL3.
But you could try an Audio Drive aswell to see what you prefer 😀

Here's the audio card choices, most of them being the ESS cards:

Three ESS cards have the ES1868 chip, and one has the ES1688F chip (One with the volume control).

The Audio Drive with ES1688F looks intresting. There are a few empty spots on it though.

Let's see the innards of the power supply. I recommend this because of the age. PSUs can become defective with time even without use.

Hi ReeseRiverson,

Very neat computer case! My cousin used to have this exact chassis on his first Pentium 586.
I was looking for this nice case for a retro project as it has both turbo switch and Mhz display. I know it's an old model that is no longer manufactured but just wondered, where did you find it? Does it has a brand/vendor name somewhere that could help me in my search?

Thanks!

That's a lovely case! It's more of a Pentium era case in my mind though - I have a P166MMX in something simular and love it. So I'd go P1 and use that ES1688 card with the volume control, which is an excellent card. You'll need to slap something on the wave table header too of course - those should never be left empty 😀

FIC PA-2002 - (COAST already installed)
Pentium 166MHz processor with 16MB RAM (No choppy in Doom)

The big ES1688 (and forget about Roland MPU401-AT! Really. Your future daughtercard will shine even brighter than the sun. Badmojo is so right!)

Trio64V+ or Trio64V2/DX - Here you have to do some benchmarks. So much fun when you take notes like a scientist!

Congrats!
All your dreams are on their way. 😈