What's your problem, man? I love the Pentiums. They bring balance to the DOS.

\_/ bro, may the Force be with you!

It's the exact right CPU speed to run Test Drive III.

Stick an XT-IDE bios in an option ROM slot (got a NIC in there?), and it will autodetect your hard drive. It will also break any bios size limits, so you can stick as large of an IDE device in there as you want. CF cards are a great choice.

For software, you have the right idea. 386SX chips are slightly slower than similarly clocked 286 chips, so stick with 286 era games.

Hatta wrote:

Stick an XT-IDE bios in an option ROM slot (got a NIC in there?), and it will autodetect your hard drive. It will also break any bios size limits, so you can stick as large of an IDE device in there as you want. CF cards are a great choice.

For software, you have the right idea. 386SX chips are slightly slower than similarly clocked 286 chips, so stick with 286 era games.

I'll need to pick up an ISA network card to do that since I don't own any (just PCI ones 😜), but that sounds like a great idea. Btw, is there any specific model of NIC you would recommend?

fillosaurus wrote:

What's your problem, man? I love the Pentiums. They bring balance to the DOS.

\_/ bro, may the Force be with you!

Actually, I was saying that the 486 boxes I had were kinda like wannabe Pentiums. You know, almost there but not quite. Anything that can run on a 486 usually runs much better on a Pentium, especially Quake and Build engine games. 😁

3com 3c509s work great and are easily available. I've also used an intel etherexpress 8/16.

I agree with you about 486s. A pentium is usually a better choice.

The funny thing is, even though 486s don't exactly fit a specific niche as well as a Pentium or a 386 would, I still have a special appreciation for them because one of the very first "old" computers I ever played around with was a 486 one of my friends gave to me after he got a Pentium 4 box. It eventually became my main box for a short period of time around 2004-2005 when I completely wrecked the Windows install on my Pentium 3 box. 😜 I was only 10 or 11 at the time and I didn't have access to any Windows install discs. 🤣 I did also have a Knoppix live CD my uncle burnt for me, but I could only do so much with it on my P3.

I actually have a 386SX-16 motherboard that is new in box. As slow as it is, and with the limited amount of memory that you can use with them, you probably won't be running many 386 era programs very well. My biggest problem is now that I have a motherboard to use with my 25mhz 286, I don't have much reason to build this system anymore as I already have a 386DX-25 that runs everything from the 386 era a lot better.

I agree, 486s are nostalgic and fun to play with. I love mine. But I use the pentium more often.

sliderider wrote:

I actually have a 386SX-16 motherboard that is new in box. As slow as it is, and with the limited amount of memory that you can use with them, you probably won't be running many 386 era programs very well. My biggest problem is now that I have a motherboard to use with my 25mhz 286, I don't have much reason to build this system anymore as I already have a 386DX-25 that runs everything from the 386 era a lot better.

I wasn't planning on using my 386sx box for actual 386-era stuff. 486s and Pentiums are much better suited for that. 😁

One advantage I can think of using this 386SX16 is the ability to make use of the 386's protected mode enhancements and paging (EMM386 & UMB, etc.), over the XT and 286.

If the chip is not sodered and if the motherboard supports it, it's worth upgrading the CPU to a DX, to extend it's functionaility.

If you're a DOS adventure game fan, that system will be wonderful.