Thraka wrote:

Is there a real case to have a Pentium 1 over the 486?

Quake and........ Maxis' early 3d games? 😀

Quake is easily playing on the 2nd box, the windows machine. And you get the fancy GLQuake too.

DOS version of Raptor and the original version of Tyrian... but yea both games can be played in Windows.

Seems like a plan to me. The 486 not only takes care of the early low-spec stuff but will handle pesky cpu-cycle games - ones that run fine in a dos box in Windows but run too quickly. The W9x box is then free to target whatever sweet spot you're looking for - P2/P3, and will run later high-spec dos games in a box well enough.

Skyscraper wrote:

DOS version of Raptor and the original version of Tyrian... but yea both games can be played in Windows.

No need to Pentium for those really, or even use a high end 486 for the former

Pentium 3 with ISA slots will happily cover just about anything that breaks in XP down to Dos games that aren't speed sensitive.
Dos games that are speed sensitive will depend on what the games actually expecting MMX Pentiums seem to cover a fair range by disabling cache, etc.

486 isn't really that flexible for wide range of older games, but they are lots of fun to tamper with 😀

Pentium, especially Super Socket 7 platform always gets my preference. It's simply more flexible than a 486. Also easier to work with, faster at the top end, better suited for Windows, BIOS updates, good documentation, AGP graphics cards...

Can you tweak the MMX to work fine with the old speed sensitive 486?

I have a ali5 mobo with agp, PCI, Isa, and 266 MMX. Should I just use that as my 486?

Another vote for pentium I over 486 here. In my opinion most of the pentium boards were of better quality. Most still had jumpers for the multiplier so you an still downlock it if you really wanted to.

For a VERY long time I looked at 486 boards on ebay before deciding it just wasn't worth it.

2 machines is perfect. The 486 is ideal for speed sensitive games - no need to fuss with disabling cache or underclocking the CPU. The 496 stands as it is, and the P2/P3 picks up the load of mid-late 1990s games, and high-spec dos. If anything,the main issue becomes one of which video card or which audio card....

If the OP has parts to assemble two machines he's in great shape. The tricky part is stopping at two... 🙄

Thraka wrote:

Can you tweak the MMX to work fine with the old speed sensitive 486?

I have a ali5 mobo with agp, PCI, Isa, and 266 MMX. Should I just use that as my 486?

If the BIOS has options to disable L1 and L2 cache you are set!

L1 AND L2 off = 386 DX
L1 off but L2 on = 486DX - DX2 depending on chip (MMX is fastest, Pentium average, AMD slowest)

Is there any benefit from using a powerful MMX chip over a P1 166 for example? What games would benefit from it that I wouldn't be able to play on the alternative P2/P3 machine?

Why all this discussion? The OP can do two boxes - 486 *AND* Pentium. He's got it covered. No need to talk about cache and under clocking. What's going on here?

Because this is a discussion forum? 😉

Nah I just want to explore all my options. 😀 For example, I don't have a socket 3 PCI board, but I have a few P1 PCI/ISA boards. I may start looking for a socket 3 PCI based on this discussion but I don't know yet...

haha! yes of course.

Of course it doesn't necessarily mean that it will work for you, too, just because it is working for me but what I have is:

- Main: Core2 Quad 9550 - GTX 560 1GB - 4GB - Onboard Sound - Windows 7.1
- Secondary: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ - Radeon 3600 512MB - 3GB - Audigy2 ZX - Windows XP and Fedora
- Retro Modern: Pentium III 1000 (cop.) - Geforce2 MX400 64 MB and Voodoo2 SLI - 512MB - SB AWE64 Gold and SIMMCONN/32MB - Windows 95 and Windows 98
- Retro Old: Pentium MMX 233 - Voodoo3 PCI 16MB - 256MB - SB16 and NEC MIDI board - Windows 95 and MS-DOS 622/Windows 3.11

These four give me all the flexibility I required, though I should admit I don't need to run very ancient (pre 1990) DOS games or applications, as well as the very modern ones (after 2011-12).