liqmat wrote on 2021-07-24, 15:04:

Some of you might remember that beautiful Microway black obelisk I picked up a few years back. Finally getting around to shootin […]
Show full quote

Some of you might remember that beautiful Microway black obelisk I picked up a few years back. Finally getting around to shooting a video about it. Weighs in @ 52lbs and just over 2ft tall. It's a monster 486 workstation. Hopefully I will have the video edited in the next week or two. In the meantime, I am providing a link to the best high res photos I could muster of the very chip heavy motherboard. It's an early 486 EISA motherboard loaded up with 64MB RAM, a Weitek FPU and at its core, a Kingston TurboChip 133. You will notice I replaced the Dallas 1287 with a button cell RTC replacement produced by The Glitch Works.

High resolution photos >> https://mega.nz/file/m74jlCxL#yvUlTgWTT_03KFa … TDRuwDWw-e-7Hxs

Micronics 09-00090-64 Rev 1B - Top lowres.jpg
I was surprised to find out Microway is still very much in business >> https://www.microway.com/

That's a nice cpu upgrade - how fast is the board?

Rearanged/tidied up the power strips and power cords on my computers.

It now looks more like lasagna than spaghetti.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-27, 17:35:

Rearanged/tidied up the power strips and power cords on my computers.

It now looks more like lasagna than spaghetti.

I need to do that myself my behind my desk, my AV equipment cabinet, and my network closet they all look like rats nest of wires and what not.

Apart from some sound card stuff documented elsewhere, I got around to upgrading my i840 system to 2GB of RDRAM (4x 512MB). RDRAM keeps surprising me. Normally on a dual-channel setup I'd try to ensure that both channels have the exact same loadout, so in this case one RIMM from the old set and one from the new set (both PC800-40 ECC). Nope. No boot. Only when I installed both new ones in the first channel and both old ones in the second channel would it work. Weird...

Finished PT2 of my laptop restoration for anyone who wanted to see the follow up 😀

https://youtu.be/eBTCAPeViL4

Do need to get myself a proper mic and pop filter 😁

A lot....

Almost ready to start chopping down things... But I need to start archiving some of the big box software, and to do that, I need a 5.25" Floppy - which I don't have one that fits the Versa Dock, so my old go-to computer is back out - the 486 DX4-100 desktop, now rigged up with a 128GB mSATA HDD in a 44pin IDE adapter. Got that FINALLY Fixed up last night and it's been an uphill battle as 2 of the 3 mSATA drives I had were bad. Now it's together and I've put about 6-10GB of Data on that thing already using FTPSRV and FileZilla through linux and it SCREAMS. Constructor - about 31MB in Size, FLEW onto that machine. So I have to say the upgrade to FreeDOS 1.3 RC4 was worth it. Xferring Quake as I write this...

For those curious, the specs on that computer are: AMD Am486 DX4-100 SV8, 64MB RAM, 512K L2 Cache, 1.44MB 3.5", 1.2MB 5.25", Lian-Li "Franken-Mobile-Rack", 48x DVD-RW, S3 805 2MB SVGA VLB, SoundBlaster AWE64, LinkSys EtherFast PnP, I have a 128GB SSD for FreeDOS, 80GB HDD for Win95 (SATA), ATA HDD for Windows 3.11 (8GB), and at least one or two other caddies for more stuff. Not sure what to use those for yet. I have the 17" Dell Monitor hooked up to it.

While setting up the 486 Desktop the wife got on the M/75 last night and started learning how to use DOS on her own a bit, seems like she had some fun finding games on her own on there. BUT I have some work to do on her laptop. She played Monkey Island 2 to start with and got into it a bit.

As for the bigbox games I'm looking at, some I'm keeping, some I'm selling.....

The ones that mean the most to me are The Secret of Monkey Island (My sister bought this new in 91', it's the game responsible for me getting into PC's int he first place), X-Wing and Tie Fighter, and turns out when my Wife looked at Wing Commander 2 she recognized the game from the box and said she used to play this on her uncle's computer. Might be some others.

Got a Casino Game, old DOS Typing Tutor, and some other weird oddware, edutainment, and productivity stuff I might want to put on the Internet Archive since I've never seen it there before, including a Windows 2.x or 3.0 compatible copy of Font Monger in the original box.

I'm also selling the Pentium Desktop because my NEC Versa P/75 eats it for dinner performance wise (how it does that with 25 less MHZ is a bit surprising), and my Pentium 4, as I'll be using the other Linux box for that stuff. Linux Mint is far less cantankerous than Windows XP, plus I'd like to get away from commercial software platforms anyway.

Finally built my MT32-Pi-MIDI-Hat.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-24, 18:28:

Been doing a bit of welding to extend the the psu input wires as well as repairing the cpu fan for my AMDK6-2 400 Linux build.

Fairly basic kit, but after a while you get the knack of using a cheap nz$25 soldering iron to get these wee jobs done. I subscribe to the L. Rossman technique of flux use-drown the suckers.

I do wonder what were you debugging there....

DIY PC Bench prototyping....

Something I have always thought handy, buy never got/built because I' ve never been swapping so much stuff at once as to make it almost mandatory 😜

AngryByDefault wrote on 2021-07-28, 15:11:

DIY PC Bench prototyping....
IMG_20210727_182520.jpg
Something I have always thought handy, buy never got/built because I' ve never been swapping so much stuff at once as to make it almost mandatory 😜

Very nice! Made it yourself from scratch?

Joakim wrote on 2021-07-28, 15:12:

AngryByDefault wrote on 2021-07-28, 15:11:

DIY PC Bench prototyping....
IMG_20210727_182520.jpg
Something I have always thought handy, buy never got/built because I' ve never been swapping so much stuff at once as to make it almost mandatory 😜

Very nice! Made it yourself from scratch?

Thanks, I took some cues from other Benches, of course. And I did send the plates to be cut at a (mediocre) woodshop since my whole workshop is a 2 m2 space, a hand saw and a driller 😜

So a mayor "design choice" was to be achievable with bare minimum resources, so at some level it is ridiculously simple.

Buy it is shaping up well enough I think. If it worth it I will re build it having the parts being laser cut and improving some "techniques" I have come up with for this.

amadeus777999 wrote on 2021-07-27, 09:28:

liqmat wrote on 2021-07-24, 15:04:

Some of you might remember that beautiful Microway black obelisk I picked up a few years back. Finally getting around to shootin […]
Show full quote

Some of you might remember that beautiful Microway black obelisk I picked up a few years back. Finally getting around to shooting a video about it. Weighs in @ 52lbs and just over 2ft tall. It's a monster 486 workstation. Hopefully I will have the video edited in the next week or two. In the meantime, I am providing a link to the best high res photos I could muster of the very chip heavy motherboard. It's an early 486 EISA motherboard loaded up with 64MB RAM, a Weitek FPU and at its core, a Kingston TurboChip 133. You will notice I replaced the Dallas 1287 with a button cell RTC replacement produced by The Glitch Works.

High resolution photos >> https://mega.nz/file/m74jlCxL#yvUlTgWTT_03KFa … TDRuwDWw-e-7Hxs

Micronics 09-00090-64 Rev 1B - Top lowres.jpg
I was surprised to find out Microway is still very much in business >> https://www.microway.com/

That's a nice cpu upgrade - how fast is the board?

I am still working on the video so if there are any requests for certain DOS benchmarks let me know and I will try to include them. I am only installing DOS on this old black stallion and running a handful of early 90s games. I loathe video editing, but I'll drudge through it.

liqmat wrote on 2021-07-28, 16:23:

amadeus777999 wrote on 2021-07-27, 09:28:

liqmat wrote on 2021-07-24, 15:04:

Some of you might remember that beautiful Microway black obelisk I picked up a few years back. Finally getting around to shootin […]
Show full quote

Some of you might remember that beautiful Microway black obelisk I picked up a few years back. Finally getting around to shooting a video about it. Weighs in @ 52lbs and just over 2ft tall. It's a monster 486 workstation. Hopefully I will have the video edited in the next week or two. In the meantime, I am providing a link to the best high res photos I could muster of the very chip heavy motherboard. It's an early 486 EISA motherboard loaded up with 64MB RAM, a Weitek FPU and at its core, a Kingston TurboChip 133. You will notice I replaced the Dallas 1287 with a button cell RTC replacement produced by The Glitch Works.

High resolution photos >> https://mega.nz/file/m74jlCxL#yvUlTgWTT_03KFa … TDRuwDWw-e-7Hxs

Micronics 09-00090-64 Rev 1B - Top lowres.jpg
I was surprised to find out Microway is still very much in business >> https://www.microway.com/

That's a nice cpu upgrade - how fast is the board?

I am still working on the video so if there are any requests for certain DOS benchmarks let me know and I will try to include them. I am only installing DOS on this old black stallion and running a handful of early 90s games. I loathe video editing, but I'll drudge through it.

Hey, beautiful case and board really!

Why did the industry insist on beige when they knew how to make nice black onces from day one?...

Perhaps FastDoom would be worth including in your benchmarks?

Regards.

AngryByDefault wrote on 2021-07-28, 16:59:

Why did the industry insist on beige when they knew how to make nice black onces from day one?...

Regards.

That is a very good question and a subject that I would be glad to learn more about .

Nostalgia Nerd has a good video about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_GeGkdfns0

I showered some fully functional but dusty Slot 1 boards and discovered some sketchy traces on the SE440BX-2. What are these ones responsible for? Floppy?

AngryByDefault wrote on 2021-07-28, 16:59:

Perhaps FastDoom would be worth including in your benchmarks?

You got it! It will go in the video.

Resoldered the fan power leads back on a Hypertec MxPro 200 socket 7 upgrade chip. The cpu is a idt C6-200MHz WinChip from 1997.

A001 wrote on 2021-07-28, 17:53:

I showered some fully functional but dusty Slot 1 boards and discovered some sketchy traces on the SE440BX-2. What are these ones responsible for? Floppy?

Those tracks are fine, the solder mask is just missing at that point. Put some nail polish over the exposed copper traces if it bothers you.

liqmat wrote on 2021-07-28, 16:23:

amadeus777999 wrote on 2021-07-27, 09:28:

liqmat wrote on 2021-07-24, 15:04:

Some of you might remember that beautiful Microway black obelisk I picked up a few years back. Finally getting around to shootin […]
Show full quote

Some of you might remember that beautiful Microway black obelisk I picked up a few years back. Finally getting around to shooting a video about it. Weighs in @ 52lbs and just over 2ft tall. It's a monster 486 workstation. Hopefully I will have the video edited in the next week or two. In the meantime, I am providing a link to the best high res photos I could muster of the very chip heavy motherboard. It's an early 486 EISA motherboard loaded up with 64MB RAM, a Weitek FPU and at its core, a Kingston TurboChip 133. You will notice I replaced the Dallas 1287 with a button cell RTC replacement produced by The Glitch Works.

High resolution photos >> https://mega.nz/file/m74jlCxL#yvUlTgWTT_03KFa … TDRuwDWw-e-7Hxs

Micronics 09-00090-64 Rev 1B - Top lowres.jpg
I was surprised to find out Microway is still very much in business >> https://www.microway.com/

That's a nice cpu upgrade - how fast is the board?

I am still working on the video so if there are any requests for certain DOS benchmarks let me know and I will try to include them. I am only installing DOS on this old black stallion and running a handful of early 90s games. I loathe video editing, but I'll drudge through it.

Looking forward to it!