VOGONS


First post, by TheMobRules

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Hi guys! I'm new to the forum, and look forward to sharing with you some pics and details about my retro rigs. 😀

However, I'll start with a question: I have a FIC PT-2003 motherboard (430FX chipset) that has support for both COAST and DIP cache. Currently I have a COAST module with 256KB of async cache, and I was looking forward to replace it with a Pipeline Burst module.

There are several PB COAST module listings on eBay, mainly pulls from old HP/Compaq computers. Does anyone know if any of these modules will work on the FIC motherboard? I understand that there can be incompatibilities with COAST module support depending on the motherboard, but the "user manual" I got for the PT-2003 is atrocious, it's a zip file with a few pages and it only mentions that it supports "cache modules" up to 512KB. 😒

So, if someone had to deal with COAST modules on the PT-2003 I really appreciate the help!

Reply 1 of 5, by vetz

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I have this board and I've had little problems with COAST modules. My experience is that later produced modules work in all kind of boards, but the first to marked ones only work in their designated boards (ASUS comes to mind).

i've benched this board with both 256 and 512kb modules. The 256 is from a Compaq

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Reply 2 of 5, by TheMobRules

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Thanks! I will go for one of those modules then. The whole COAST module stuff is kind of new to me since back in the day I went from a DX4 to a Socket 7 build based on the reviled PC Chips "VXPro" mainboard which had 512K PB cache onboard (at least it was real cache, quite an achievement for PC Chips 🤣 ).

Reply 3 of 5, by vetz

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I have quite a collection of Socket 5 and 7 boards (see Socket 5 & 7 Motherboard VGA Benchmark comparison) and PT-2003 is a late 430FX board, so it's less picky ( also among the fastest 430FX boards with 512kb PB cache). The only boards I've experienced issues with are the 1995 released ASUS Socket 5/7 boards which should be run with ASUS COAST modules (stated in the manual).

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Reply 4 of 5, by Tetrium

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vetz wrote:

I have quite a collection of Socket 5 and 7 boards (see Socket 5 & 7 Motherboard VGA Benchmark comparison).

Wow, you sure do! 😁

Amazing that you bothered to actually test all of them! 😁

And about those ASUS Coast modules, I do remember some manufacturers liking to create their own proprietary stuff (like media bus was it iirc?) but sometimes a manufacturer would only mention their own products for upgrading their stuff, but it would actually be non-proprietary.
I don't know much about Coast modules though, I removed them from all my boards years ago (whoops) and they are now all sitting in a box somewhere.
They are interesting though, but iirc they sometimes had some issues with stability?

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Reply 5 of 5, by vetz

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Tetrium wrote:
Wow, you sure do! :D […]
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vetz wrote:

I have quite a collection of Socket 5 and 7 boards (see Socket 5 & 7 Motherboard VGA Benchmark comparison).

Wow, you sure do! 😁

Amazing that you bothered to actually test all of them! 😁

And about those ASUS Coast modules, I do remember some manufacturers liking to create their own proprietary stuff (like media bus was it iirc?) but sometimes a manufacturer would only mention their own products for upgrading their stuff, but it would actually be non-proprietary.
I don't know much about Coast modules though, I removed them from all my boards years ago (whoops) and they are now all sitting in a box somewhere.
They are interesting though, but iirc they sometimes had some issues with stability?

Not all of them are mine, RacoonRider helped with some testing. It took some time to test those, but I didn't get all those boards at the same time. I had to inspect them anyway, so might as well bench to test functionality 😀

Have not noticed problems with stability on the COAST modules. It either registers on BOOT or it doesn't. That is my experience. The picky ASUS boards is the P55TP4 series, which was ASUS first board with a COAST module released in 1995 (they also introduced ASUS Media Bus v1.2 with this motherboard, which was the only one with v1.2). They might work with other COAST modules, but luckily I got both a 256 and 512kb ASUS module which this board only accepts. Later boards, the P55T2P4 have no problem accepting all the COAST modules I own.

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