Thank you so much, you were super clear.

Mamba wrote on 2026-06-20, 06:41:

Thank you so much, you were super clear.

You're welcome,
I hope in the future to buy some tools to do such work.

Small update on the next tests that I will do (I hope) soon!
Even if the temperatures of this period do not encourage you to work, I will bring the motherboards to try in a more comfortable environment, so I will not use the usual workstation with its bench.
I think I'll order some things, like IDE CF 40 PIN adapter and ATX-AT adapter, I've bought some in the past, but for convenience buying others, I wouldn't be forced to remove them from other PCs.
Maybe I should also buy a SATA CF adapter, or alternatively a SATA IDE, I had a couple of the latter in the past, but after a certain period they didn't work anymore, however to date I don't have any working ones, so at least for now there is no problem.
Going back to the motherboards, these days I had to deal with a non-PC motherboard, with NEC V25 CPU, from surveys it should be the equivalent of an 80186 at 8 MHz, an equivalent PC would not be common, usually XT motherboards used NEC V20, but more or less I think the performance should be similar (roughly).
But those motherboards that I should try shortly, are a pair of 286, and a 486 VLB, in detail we have a 286-12 Headland chipset, a 286-20 Harris chip, and an i486DX2-66, clearly I start with the 486, later I should try the 286-20, and finally the 286-12, for these two 286 I do not have the relative 287, they are not essential but if the motherboards work, I would try to look for them if possible the correct frequency.

During these days I was thinking of trying some PCs, but unfortunately it's too hot, and no improvement is expected soon.
Occasionally I go looking for motherboards for sale at attractive prices 🧐, usually either there is nothing or the price for a single motherboard is a little higher than what I had in mind, so sometimes I find myself deciding whether or not to buy a lot, and usually the decision helps, the presence of one or more quality motherboards, that is, lots with many ASUS ABIT Gigabyte cards, are for me more interesting than 🫡 to others.
Un altro aspetto sicuramente importante e determinante, è le condizioni visive, spesso le foto sono fatte da lontano, e non ci sono dettagli di zone con possibili danni, e le info sulle condizioni sono assenti (totalmente), per cui a volte l’acquisto è fatto al buio, e c’è la possibilità che arrivi in condizioni ancora peggiori, se si danneggia durante il trasporto, perché non è stato imballato a sufficienza.
Despite this, however, motherboards arrived without packaging, and with some scratches on the back, they were functional, or they only required simple repairs, but this concerns the older motherboards, the more recent ones are very delicate, with really 😨 tiny traces, in addition in the back there are several fragile and tiny SMDs, in short if they work it is a great result, but if it is necessary to do some repairs, it will not be easy at all, even having adequate tools.
I'll see if these days, the weather will be cooler, but since the season here is summer, I think that next month too, the temperatures will be similar, and therefore I won't be able to do any test or test, with the various motherboards that I have accumulated, if it will be possible the first to be tested will be this 486 VLB

In the next few days, it seems that the temperatures may drop by a few degrees, and this would allow me in my free time, to go back to the counter to try some PCs.
I recently bought a mini batch of VGA AGP, one is an "ABIT Siluro T400", basically a GFMX but from the info I saw, it seems that there are two types one with 64-bit RAM and the other 128-bit, this makes a certain difference, of course the fastest is the 128-bit one.
Having to try it, initially I would use Phil's benches, and as a motherboard I would use the Gigabyte GA-7VAXP with Duron 1000 (Morgan), which I had tried months ago at various frequencies, from 500 to 1333 MHz without overvolt, but I don't think I'll try all the frequencies, but at least the 500 and 1000 ones for sure, just to understand how it goes compared to the ATI.
Recently another user is trying various VGAs with a P3 1000, and has published the results, and among these VGAs there are some very common ones (which I also own), so I thought I'd see if I can do other bench, installing Windows 98SE, on a 1 GB CF 🇬🇧.

Currently I have had difficulties, due to the temperatures that have reached high peaks during this period.

However, I have to start again with some work on motherboards, never tried before, like the older ones, like XT 286 and 386.
Regarding these motherboards, I don't think I have everything I need for a complete working system, so I would have to borrow from other PCs, some indispensable boards, surely it wouldn't have been a problem, finding these boards many years ago, today unfortunately it's not easy to find things like that at moderate prices, to the point that it could be perhaps cheaper to replicate the boards of the past.
Only after trying a first start, we will be able to understand if it works, or if some repairs need to be done, then in case of success, we need to do some tests, to make sure that everything works well 😌.
Among the motherboards I prefer there are the S.7, which are compatible with CPUs of different brands, something that nowadays is no longer possible, already from subsequent generations, Intel did not want to share the Sockets (or Slots), so that even the competition has created its own CPUs, in short you can't change CPUs keeping the same motherboard.
Thanks to the compatibility of the S.7, it is possible to create PCs from just under 100 MHz up to over 500 MHz, theoretically it could have gone beyond 600 MHz, if FSB 133 MHz and related CPUs (AMD K6+) had been supported, it is usually possible to exceed 600 MHz with overclock, but at those frequencies there may be stability or reliability problems, as well as problems on the cache on the motherboard, which can sometimes be deactivated.

About S7 motherboards and related benches, here are the images, and some considerations on Intel and non-Intel CPUs.
Consider that some dated systems can be influenced enough by RAM speeds or CLs and so on, so if the PC has been optimized using the fastest settings, in theory it should not be possible to do better, which at the time I would not take for granted, I think that many K6-2 and similar, were sold without optimizing them (most?), it was easier to say: buy Intel!
And yes K6INIT is proving very interesting, to the point that it would be worth trying with the simple K6 (first versions not CXT), who knows if even these CPUs, can have improvements, and show that they can do better even in Windows, of course I'm not talking about word or similar stuff!
Among the CPUs I tried years ago, the K5 showed great efficiency on the integers, unfortunately the FPU is quite poor, unfortunately it is that a hypothetical K5-2 was never developed, which could have improved the weaknesses of the K5.
On the Cyrix 6X86 up to the MII, the initial 6X86-200 which was a 150 MHz, was almost equal to the Pentium top frequency, unfortunately here too the FPU was slower and the FSB 75 MHz, which Intel never used on CPUs left the factory, it was a problem especially on the motherboards that at most went to 66, then I think there were also problems with some software, which could have problems working, in short there was never any progress to make them really competitive.!