Intel486dx33 wrote:

Hello, I have purchased some NEW old stock 486 motherboards. 2 of them support 50mhz 486 CPU 2 of them support 100mhz DX4 CPU's […]
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Hello,
I have purchased some NEW old stock 486 motherboards.
2 of them support 50mhz 486 CPU
2 of them support 100mhz DX4 CPU's and have PCI slots and onboard IDE controllers.

What CPU's do you think I should use?
Intel, IBM, AMD ?
What Speed ? 33mhz - 100mhz ?
What Case so you recommend. I was thinking about a Antec 4000e because they are inexpensive.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antec-Value-Sulotion … 7sAAOSwPpZaEFnl

I have some expensive Lian Li Aluminum cases but I want to save these for Nvidia builds.

What OS do you recommend?
What Graphics card ?
What sound card? I was considering a Sound blaster 16 or AWE 64.
CD or DVD ?
Time period correct or Modern parts ?
What power supply ? I can use a NEW ATX power supply with adapter.

For the 50mhz system I would go with DOS 6.2 and maybe windows 3.1 / WFW, for a straight ISA video card I prefer Cirrus Logic chipset cards (for things that are reasonably priced) though opinions will vary greatly there. Sound card top choice would be Sound Blaster Pro 2 CT1600 or anything SB pro compatible. The rest of the system is up to you, though be wary of new power supplies and certain old cards that need -5V, which I believe no longer exists after ATX 1.2. Check with other users who are familiar with these adapters if you happen to require -5 volts.

The PCI board obviously opens you up to a ton of options.. You can do windows 95 or 98 or just plain DOS 6.2 and WFW and choose from tons of PCI. I'll just suggest the S3 trio 64 as something cool to use, but there are tons of options and opinions there as well. If you go with Win9x then an Awe64 (or awe32) are my favorite choices.

As for CD or DVD, up to you.. I don't bother with DVD drives since no games need it, a CF to IDE card in the back of the PC is much easier for large transfers IMO, or just toss in an ethernet card and get it on your home network.

I think the most well rounded system will be the DX4, especially if you want buttery smooth performance in doom engine games. That really depends on what you want to do with the machine.

I'm not sure which case or PSU to recommend for these, as my old systems are in AT cases with AT power supplies. I know it's hard to find them though 🙁

New, good quality (80+ with Active PFCU is generally an ok indicator of quality), ATX power supplies. Seasonic is my brand of choice. If you need -5v for specific ISA cards, make sure to get adapters that add -5v.

What games/software do you want to run?

What case do you recommend ?

Beige or Black ?

Period correct hardware build or use Modern parts ?

You are asking far too many questions at once to take seriously.

The top board was purchased from me. Please be aware as listed in the auction that board only officially supports 5V CPUs meaning only put in an Intel 486DX4 overdrive CPU. That has an onboard voltage regulator to convert the 5V to the 3V the CPU needs.

A REGULAR DX4 (3V) or AMD DX4 will POST BUT LIKELY BURN UP EVENTUALLY.

It might be possible to solder a voltage regulator for 3V support, I don't know yet, waiting for parts to arrive to test.

Info reads it has a jumper to select voltage.

PM486PU-S3 PCI Motherboard

- BIOS ID string UMC-881/886A - 2A4X5P6CC-00
- 2-72 pin SIMM slots (1-64meg FPM DRAM)
- 3-32bit PCI Bus slots
- 4-16bit ISA slots
- 128k-512k CACHE support in 4-28pin sockets + 1 TAG RAM socket
- Award BIOS
- Supports LBA Mode Control & Large Disk DOS Compatibility.
- Green PC Connector
- external 3.6 battery not included
- UMC UM8881K & UM8886BF // UMC-881/886A chipset
- Supports 3.3/3.45/4.0/5.0 volt CPU's.
- 237pin ZIF CPU socket 2 which supports these processors:
INTEL 80486SX/SX2,80486DX/DX2/DX4,P24T,P24D
CYRIX CX486S(M6),CX486DX/DX2(M7),CX486DX4,CXM1
AMD AM486DX/DX2/DX4
UMC GREEN CPU U5S-SUPER
- Supports speeds of 20/25/33/40/50/66/75/80/100 MHz.
- 32bit Bus master for 2 IDE interfaces supporting 4 IDE devices.
- Multi-I/O chip supports 2 - 16550 Fast UART serial ports
1 - parallel port with EPP & ECP, 1 - floppy disk interface.
- Manufactured by: PROTECH

I sent you a PM

Okay, I guess I will have to use an
Intel i486-DX2-66mhz SX911 5V

I grabbed one of the PM486PU-S3 too. Great find! I went with a 486DX/33. 33Mhz is all you'll ever need 😀
I had an issue with it not wanting to POST if my CD Rom was connected (even if it wasn't powered). Not sure what is going on there but I'd be interested to know if you have a similar issue.
I have another drive i want to try but have to dig it out of a 6x86 machine.

Beige all the way for retro build BTW. I had an old AT case lying around to stick it in with a new AT PSU from NewEgg (Athena 300AT i think is the model). I've bought a few and they are not the highest quality PSUs but they are new and I've not had any issues. You'll have to do some rigging if you want to use an AT PSU in an ATX case though as the power switch is direct to the PSU and doesn't go through the board like ATX.

For graphics I like the S3 Virge 4MB if you can find one cheap but PCI graphics in DOS is all pretty similar if you are using a 486. There may be some compatibility issues with odd cards but anything S3 is pretty solid. I am using a Trident 2MB card with no issues (not a great card for "high-end" dos games but fine for 2D).

For sound you'll get 20 different recommendations from 20 different people. Just look for a Yamaha YMF262 and you'll be pretty well off for the most part. Some of the OEM cards can take a lot of tweaking to get to work right (Aztech and Crystal chips are common on OEM boards). There are a few SB16s I like, the CT2230 and CT2290. They are easy to setup (if you don't mind jumpers), work with pretty much anything, have real OPL3 chips and are not too noisy. They have some minor quirks like hanging notes but unless you plan on running a MIDI device you should be ok. If you want to splurge I'd recommend a Pro Audio Spectrum 16.

For the PCI system the DX2/66 is pretty good as its THE 486
Another option is a Pentium overdrive as gbeirn mentioned which I think is a good match for a PCI based system.
RAM: 16MB or more
Video: I'd also go with a S3 Virge, What I did was play around with S3D in a Pentium class PC but one that novelty wears off it makes a really good dos card in a slower system.
Sound: AWE64, most games will support SB16 or even the AWE natively, Adlib/OPL isn't a priority for this build.
OS: Win95, but setup so you can drop back to pure dos.

This PC will be good for later dos games and some of the earlier SVGA games, around Duke3d era things will start to struggle but are playable.

For the ISA system
Slow CPU like a 25 or 33Mhz. Intel or AMD, doesn't matter
RAM: 4-8MB is enough
Video: Something with good VGA compatibility, too many to list but once you find something ask here and we'll list its pro's and cons
Sound: SB Pro or clone such as the Yamaha YMF, OPL/Adlib IS important for this PC and most games will only support SB Pro anyway
OS: Dos, and if you want Win3x

This PC is your early 90's PC, it wont play all your speed sensitive games, but fair few broke around the 66 mark.

For both systems storage wise I would go with a Gotek Floppy emulator, and SD or CF to IDE converter for the HDD makes moving files around easy.
DVD or CD drive doesn't really matter, just whatever you already have or suits your case better. Really it'll just be used as a CD drive in either case.
Case whatever you can get. AT cases are hard to get. some people prefer traditional beige, other prefer newer cases with better airflow which are usually black. Comes down to what's available and personal preference.
I would just go with modern PSU, Sound Blaster 2.0 and even more rare Roland cards require the -5v so doubt you'll have any trouble using a nice new power supply with an adaptor.