Can you post some pictures of the relevant sockets at least?

Here is a picture of the motherboard: http://pbclub.pwcsite.com/wiki/images/6/6e/PB420MB.jpg

and here is a diagram: http://j12345.users1.50megs.com/menu/pb410/PB410.jpg

I also got the information off this page: http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/pb/mb/410.htm

Note: the PB410 and PB420 are essentially the same board.
Thanks =)

Pretty sure I have a machine with the same board and I asked the same thing Re: need some help finding correct L2 cache RAM I have 128 cache in it now but have yet to find 512 k of cache chips of the correct physical size. This board is bizarre because it can take 128 or 512 k of l2 cache but not 256.

If the pictures are directly representative of what you have, you have no easy way to upgrade your video RAM, as far as I can see. Simply, there is no upgrade socket. For the cache upgrade, I think you need some of these:

What is this cache chip?

tayyare wrote:

If the pictures are directly representative of what you have, you have no easy way to upgrade your video RAM, as far as I can see.

I did some digging and found the model numbers of compatible, but hard to find chips.
The VRAM is a NEC - D424170V-70 (9314EU001) in a ZIP package.

The Cache Chips are:
one ISSI IS61C1024-20M (TAG Chip DIP32), and four MT5C1008 (The SRAM, 128K x8 DIP32).

Maybe you guys know of comparable, but cheaper replacement chips?

As far as the video ram upgrade. I wouldn't bother. There's PCI slots on the riser card. Your far better off getting a separate pci card. The headland chip is nothing special anyways and there's glitches in some games with it or so I'm told. Simcity 2k is one.

Unfortunately my system is ISA only. So Video upgrade would probably be worse (ISA vs onboard VLB).

Would upgrading the cache be worth it though?

MatthewH12 wrote:

Unfortunately my system is ISA only. So Video upgrade would probably be worse (ISA vs onboard VLB).

Would upgrading the cache be worth it though?

Ah, your right. Sorry I was thinking of a different machine. That one does only have 3 ISA slots. If I'm bored tonight I may do some benchmarks with the on board vs My et4000 and the diamond speedster I have in it now. As for cache. Definitely. Mine has 128k of l2 and it's a certain improvement over 0 cache. 128k is easier to find since it uses standard size chips and not those wide ones.

Soviet, where can I get 5 of those cache chips to do the 128kk upgrade inexpensively?

RacoonRider wrote:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99196890/PB420MB.jpg […]
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tayyare wrote:

If the pictures are directly representative of what you have, you have no easy way to upgrade your video RAM, as far as I can see.

Ahh.. sorry for the misinformation and thanks for the correction. I was focusing on the non socketed and empty placeholder just opposite to the existing Video RAM (empty place with barcode label).

tayyare wrote:

RacoonRider wrote:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99196890/PB420MB.jpg […]
Show full quote

tayyare wrote:

If the pictures are directly representative of what you have, you have no easy way to upgrade your video RAM, as far as I can see.

Ahh.. sorry for the misinformation and thanks for the correction. I was focusing on the non socketed and empty placeholder just opposite to the existing Video RAM (empty place with barcode label).

It's OK, I would not notice it either if I did not have a videocard with the same connector 😀

I lucked out for finding l2 cache. A member at the vintage computer forums sold me some cheap. you can try asking over there. i'm using four 32K * 8 chips plus the tag ram. here like this.

as for the video, yhea I think your right I did some benches and got

ISA speedstar pro cl-gd5439
3DBENCH - 20,2
PCPBENCH - 5.1
DOOM 11.54
QUAKE - 3.0

My et4000ax card scored the same in all except slightly lower in DOOM with a 11.45

the headland on board scored
3DBENCH - 26.4
PCPBENCH - 5.6

as I was benching DOOM I got a divide error and then my entire hard drive failed so I didn't get to bench DOOM or Quake but I'm assuming it would of been slightly higher...not to much faster but faster. kkep in mind I was told at some point by a forum member that the Headland chip in the Packard Bell does have a timing error that causes graphical errors such as dot trails and graphics corruption in some games, Sim City 2000 being one of them.

I don't think increasing the video ram will increase speed just available resolutions or maybe make it faster in windows if your going to use that. I don't know for sure though. but I think I'm going to pull the speedster pro and just use the on board since I guess it is slightly faster. I only am going to use this machine for Ultima 7 anyways so I doubt i'll see any graphical errors from the chip. it gives me room now to stick a fan on that 486 anyways.

*EDIT* spoke to soon. getting lots of dot trails as I move the cursur around in U7, back to the speedstar pro.

Maybe you could ask kixs to give/sell you the chips? He's got those weird wide chips that seem to fit your board well. What is this cache chip?

I'm not sure his will work. My system says it can only take 128KB (4 - 32K x 8 + 1 32k x 8 tag chip), or 512KB (4-128k x 8 + 1 128k x 8 TAG).

MatthewH12 wrote:

I'm not sure his will work. My system says it can only take 128KB (4 - 32K x 8 + 1 32k x 8 tag chip), or 512KB (4-128k x 8 + 1 128k x 8 TAG).

128Kb is 4 256 kilobit chips.
512Kb is 4 1024 kilobit chips.

Yes, he's got exactly the size you need.

soviet conscript wrote:

As far as the video ram upgrade. I wouldn't bother. There's PCI slots on the riser card. Your far better off getting a separate pci card. The headland chip is nothing special anyways and there's glitches in some games with it or so I'm told. Simcity 2k is one.

I've been trying to get Sim City 2000 to run on my Packard Bell Legend 125 for a couple of days! I even bought a lot of 10 ZIP cache to upgrade the video memory....AND THEN I READ THIS! I'm upset at the computer but VERY happy to learn about the glitch. I think I'll find a DX4-100 and a 1MB VGA card for it and call it a day....

Thanks for all the good info.