486 Pentium Overdrive build \ VOGONS

486 Pentium Overdrive build

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First post, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-08-28, 00:17

jasa1063 Offline

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I just put together a 486 system with Pentium Overdrive CPU. I have been wanting do this for awhile now. I had one these systems years ago. The specs:

Mustek/Mecer 486 Socket 2 PCI Motherboard with 256K cache
POPD5V83 CPU @83MHz
32MB FPM RAM
S3 Trio64V2/DX 2MB PCI video card
Sound Blaster 16 ISA sound card
3Com 3C509B 10Mbit ISA network card
2GB Compact Flash drive
32X CD IDE CD-ROM
1.44MB floppy
AT desktop case

It was interesting to find out this particular motherboard came out of an arcade system from Lazer-Tron. Does having a 486 Pentium Overdrive make sense as a DOS gaming system? I would have to say no. Running titles like Quake or Duke Nuke 3D are only just playable at 320x200 resolution. A straight up Pentium would be a better choice. From a nostalgic perspective this is just a whole lot of fun to mess around with, which is the whole reason I put it together in the first place. About the only upgrade I have planned is maxing out the RAM with 128MB.

Reply 1 of 7, by jakethompson1

Posted on 2020-08-28, 01:44

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Careful with the RAM, have you looked into the cacheable limit?

Reply 2 of 7, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 2020-08-28, 01:49

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Running titles like Quake or Duke Nuke 3D are only just playable at 320x200 resolution.

Duke Nukem 3D can be playable at 640x480 with overclocking. Or at least at 320x400.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 7, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-08-28, 02:27

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jakethompson1 wrote on 2020-08-28, 01:44:

Careful with the RAM, have you looked into the cacheable limit?

The motherboard has a SIS-496 chipset and can be upgraded to 512K L2 cache which will enable 128MB cacheable memory area.

Reply 4 of 7, by chinny22

Posted on 2020-08-28, 08:56

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Nice list of hardware but no pics? 🙁
Indeed the fact it came form an arcade machine is a nice little sidenote

I own a DX2/66 5x85/133 POD83
Real world scenario in relation to gaming the faster CPU's aren't going in increase the number of games you can play. Anything that struggles on the 66 also struggles on the other 2
But games only struggle occasionally on the 66, say like bigger maps of Doom 2 benefit from the faster CPU's thats good enough justification for me 😀

Benchmarks and more FPU heavy software may benefit, but I'm not interested in those

Reply 5 of 7, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-08-28, 13:14

jasa1063 Offline

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chinny22 wrote on 2020-08-28, 08:56:

Nice list of hardware but no pics? 🙁
Indeed the fact it came form an arcade machine is a nice little sidenote

Here are some pictures of the board from a previous post where I was trying to identify it:

Re: Mustek 486 motherboard settings help

Reply 6 of 7, by Intel486dx33

Posted on 2020-08-28, 14:27

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Yes, for good DOS game play a Pentium works best. Better than a 486 or 5x86.
But going with a real pentium and socket 5 motherboard works best.

Using a pentium over drive still leaves bottle necks and bios limitations. Memory drawbacks and video out put bottle necks
Basically, if you want to get the most out of a pentium you want a good motherboard. Intel Neptune chipset or newer.

Reply 7 of 7, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-08-28, 15:58

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Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-08-28, 14:27:
Yes, for good DOS game play a Pentium works best. Better than a 486 or 5x86. But going with a real pentium and socket 5 motherbo […]
Show full quote

Yes, for good DOS game play a Pentium works best. Better than a 486 or 5x86.
But going with a real pentium and socket 5 motherboard works best.

Using a pentium over drive still leaves bottle necks and bios limitations. Memory drawbacks and video out put bottle necks
Basically, if you want to get the most out of a pentium you want a good motherboard. Intel Neptune chipset or newer.

Agreed, I have an Intel Advanced/ML (MARL) motherboard with 128MB of RAM, Pentium 233 MMX CPU, ET6000 4MB video card and a Voodoo2 8MB 3D card. This is my primary system for running my higher end DOS games and it also works great as a Windows 98 SE box.

Last edited by Stiletto on 2020-08-28, 22:21. Edited 1 time in total.

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