First post, by simon_e_hall
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Today while wandering around the internet I saw a 286 board for sale which caught my attention, so in a wave of nostalgia remembering my first PC I bought it. Despite what seems to be a lot of hate of 286 retro builds, I want to go against the flow.
I have so far added 4mb of RAM, 287XL co-processor, changed the 20Mhz CPU to a 25Mhz one, but I plan to keep this a rather simple build(ish), but the future plan for the motherboard is to install a Mr. Bios chip and change out the crystal (due to the 25Mhz CPU) and install socket for it, might even push the RAM to the full 16mb.
The parts I have collected from my spare parts room at the moment are a odd collection for the purposes of testing until I find some better parts, but so far:
VGA: Compuadd ET4000AX with 1mb of RAM, might test a Diamond Stealth 64 in the future, but want to keep a ET4000 type card in there.
Sound: Sound Blaster Pro 2.
I/O: Promise IDE Pro (so I can use large hard drives) and generic MODEM for COM2 just because I saw it and thought why not.
I usually go for SCSI on these old builds but thought I want to keep this one simple.
Network: Etherlink III, as got lots of these.
Drives: CF Card, CD Drive and both floppy types.
Depending on what the chipset is capable of Headland HT18/C (one of the reasons that peaked my intrest in the board) might install a LoTech EMS board if not possible through the chipset (the HT12 could not sure about the HT18).
Looking foward to this build.