I've been thinking about building a 286 , and this one popped up on a local listing, do you think this can be a good start? It's quite compact and has a Harris 16Mhz soldered on it.
It appears to have quite a bit of battery leak damage. The solder joint for the battery's negative side is very greenish-blue, and the SIMM sockets and ISA slots also look like they've got some gunk on them.
Daniël Oosterhuis wrote on 2020-04-17, 21:11:It appears to have quite a bit of battery leak damage. The solder joint for the battery's negative point is very greenish-blue, and the SIMM sockets and ISA slots also look like they've got some gunk on them.
Yes, but apparently it still boots DOS, and all ISA slots have been tested with a video card. The question is, whether is this small board with simm slots etc. or a "classic" 286 board a better choice for a build?
stalk3r wrote on 2020-04-17, 21:27:Daniël Oosterhuis wrote on 2020-04-17, 21:11:It appears to have quite a bit of battery leak damage. The solder joint for the battery's negative point is very greenish-blue, and the SIMM sockets and ISA slots also look like they've got some gunk on them.
Yes, but apparently it still boots DOS, and all ISA slots have been tested with a video card. The question is, whether is this small board with simm slots etc. or a "classic" 286 board a better choice for a build?
Well, what are you looking for in a 286 build?
This is one of the fastest and likely one of the easiest 286 boards out there, with tiny babyAT form factor, standard 30p SIMMs and no doubt a late, user-friendly BIOS. 16MHz is also slow enough to be 'mainstream' 286 (25MHz is too fast for a lot of 286 software, and 6-10MHz is very vintage, but too slow for a lot of stufff) If you just want a system with "286" in it with the least hassle, this would be perfect.
However if you want a 'real' 286 experience, complete with huge motherboards with a mix of DIP (possibly piggybacked) and SIPP memory multiple BIOS chips etc, this one might be a tad too 386-like for your tastes. I must say I have a slight case of that with my Hedaka 286. It's twice the size of this board and has 'proper' DIP memory, but it still looks more 1990s than 5170AT-like, so it's currently resting unemployed in an antistatic bag.
dionb wrote on 2020-04-17, 21:51:Well, what are you looking for in a 286 build? […]
stalk3r wrote on 2020-04-17, 21:27:Daniël Oosterhuis wrote on 2020-04-17, 21:11:It appears to have quite a bit of battery leak damage. The solder joint for the battery's negative point is very greenish-blue, and the SIMM sockets and ISA slots also look like they've got some gunk on them.
Yes, but apparently it still boots DOS, and all ISA slots have been tested with a video card. The question is, whether is this small board with simm slots etc. or a "classic" 286 board a better choice for a build?
Well, what are you looking for in a 286 build?
This is one of the fastest and likely one of the easiest 286 boards out there, with tiny babyAT form factor, standard 30p SIMMs and no doubt a late, user-friendly BIOS. 16MHz is also slow enough to be 'mainstream' 286 (25MHz is too fast for a lot of 286 software, and 6-10MHz is very vintage, but too slow for a lot of stufff) If you just want a system with "286" in it with the least hassle, this would be perfect.
However if you want a 'real' 286 experience, complete with huge motherboards with a mix of DIP (possibly piggybacked) and SIPP memory multiple BIOS chips etc, this one might be a tad too 386-like for your tastes. I must say I have a slight case of that with my Hedaka 286. It's twice the size of this board and has 'proper' DIP memory, but it still looks more 1990s than 5170AT-like, so it's currently resting unemployed in an antistatic bag.
You summed it up perfectly, thanks. I don't think I need another 386-like board of which I already have a few (big 386 fan here), so I might go the hard way and get a classic board instead.
