As Display i use a Sony 21" CRT Trinitron E530 with a Audioengine 2+ active speaker setup:

Jackhead wrote on 2023-03-21, 17:18:

As Display i use a Sony 21" CRT Trinitron E530 with a Audioengine 2+ active speaker setup:

That monitor looks fantastic! Not sure if those speakers are shielded or not, but I would move them a bit further away from the screen, just in case.

Anyway, great build!

It is, i mod the firmware with the sony factory software to adjust some things.
But the Sonys have this color adjustment feature in OSD what did most of the job, pretty good!
Some more Nichicon Muse OPL3 love that caps:

What a spectacular build! Recapping isn't much fun but what a great result - I've done the same with my sound card and am note sure if I can hear any difference, but it sure makes me feel good.

Thanks for sharing 👍

Fantastic! You're just missing a nice case badge then it's perfect 😉
Somehow I want to continue on my build as well now

I see you're also of the rare breed that preemptively re-caps all his old hardware, even if nothing's wrong with it... One thing you missed though are the tantalums on the motherboard... Tantalums have a finite lifetime, and tend explode after several decades. But Asus used good ones, and you can still get the exact replacements (I think they're Kemet, I don't recall precisely).

Some updates on the unit.
I upgraded the system to 64MB RAM with 1MB L2 Cache. Also add a hdd clicker and the CT1600 got a Ultrasound ACE as partner.
The Ace is upgraded to 1MB and installed with pro patches 1.61 lite.

A very nice system compilation. I would bet anybody here would be jealous of it. The SV2GX4 (Rev 2.x) is a dream for a Socket 3 VLB 486. Also your soundcard combination leaves nothing to be desired.

For my taste an Am5x86 is rather a low-cost Pentium alternative from the year 1995/96 and does not trigger a high-end want to have with me. I would rather put an iDX4 100 (1994) in it. It’s easy to overclock to 120MHz if necessary.

The ET4000W32 from 1993 doesn't quite fit into the high-end feeling for me either. What do you think of a S3 Vision? The 864/868 cards offer almost the same performance as the ET4000W32 under DOS with even better compatibility, but have the more modern functionality in Windows and offer better refresh rates there. If the focus is even more on Windows, then the Vision 964/968 is also worth a look, they are even available (but very rare) with 4MB VRAM and excellent DACs, which would make your 21" CRT very happy. The 864/964 are chips from 1994 and would be a nice fit for a high end 486 in it’s best year.

Awesome build! I'm very jealous! 😁

PC-Engineer wrote on 2023-04-30, 06:30:

The ET4000W32 from 1993 doesn't quite fit into the high-end feeling for me either. What do you think of a S3 Vision? The 864/868 cards offer almost the same performance as the ET4000W32 under DOS with even better compatibility, but have the more modern functionality in Windows and offer better refresh rates there. If the focus is even more on Windows, then the Vision 964/968 is also worth a look, they are even available (but very rare) with 4MB VRAM and excellent DACs, which would make your 21" CRT very happy. The 864/964 are chips from 1994 and would be a nice fit for a high end 486 in it’s best year.

Interesting point. I will have a look and give it a try if i can find something. Thanks! Has the 964/968 also vesa 2.0 support? Or is vesa 2.0 not a thing with vlb?
I mean i know that i cant run high resolutions, i also dont really want it. But you notice the problems with games support ves 2.0. For example Shadowwarrior.

None of these cards has a VESA 2.0 BIOS. But there is a little tool S3VBE, which ads VBE 2.0 support to S3 Vision cards.
S3VBEFIX - PC\MS-DOS TSR fix for S3 VESA 2.0 video BIOS
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=440

And an interesting german site
http://stephan.win31.de/elsa1k2k.htm

What about a S3 924? I dont find much info about it. It has also up to 4MB with 24/32bit true color mode.

NO! It’s a Chip from 1992 for ISA. The successor S3 928 is much better and with VLB/PCI/EISA Support, but even slower than the Vision Chips.
If you are searching for cards with S3 Vision, you should look for their names from the vendor like: Miro Crystal 20SD, ELSA Winner 1000 Pro, Spea Mirage P64, Diamond Stealth 64, Genoa Phantom 64, Orchid Fahrenheit 64, Number Nine GXE64, …

https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/VESA_Local_Bus

There are very few cards with 4MB. I have in mind the Diamond Stealth 64 (Video) VRAM, ELSA Winner 2000 Pro and the Miro Crystal 40SV

The user Madao developed a S3 968 VLB card with 4MB VRAM. Maybe he has an additional card for you available.

I checked it, but i see not really a benefit for me. I just run dos 320x200 with this setup. When the cards able me playing also games with 640x480 than i would say its worth. But i rare use windows. And i think with higher resolutions my cpu is than the problem too(with games).Correct me when im wrong.

For DOS @320x240 your ET4000W32 is fine. Maybe UNIVBE can support VBE2.0 BIOS for your card and you are lucky with it, even in SVGA DOS modes.

I update my ide controller to a promise eide2300 plus. Really nice one it can handle 32gb. I run a m-sata mlc with it dma @ 12MB/s