For the first time 486 build I suggest that you go with a late socket 3 pci build as it is easier to source cards for compared to VLB.

I agree. PCI is a lot more flexible.

VLB is often overclockable and is more unique but PCI is generally less fuss, and lots more options for cards.

What's the clock on the AM5x86? That should be a good CPU for a high end 486 build. a DX2-66 is more midrange.
a 486DX4-100 might be more "period correct" though

The biggest concern would be to start hunting down a decent motherboard

In my opinion if you are going to go with PCI then you might as well go with a low-end pentium system rather than a 486. "Good" pentium boards are much easier to obtain.

In this time i would recommend to go for PCI instead.. Because good VLB graphic cards are comming rare these days.. And its much easier to find an PCI S3 graphics card or such.
Also the PCI boards are more advanced on the bios.. There are a lot of VLB boards that dont support 3.3volt processor native on the board because lack of an VRM. PCI board dont have this problem...
A lot of PCI boards would support the AMD X5 P75 133 native. Also PCI controller boards for beyond the 540MB barrier are easier to find then looking for an VLB or ISA controller.

The downside on a PCI board would be.. that is has less ISA slots.. Mostly these boards have 4 PCI slots and 3 ISA slots, or 3 PCI slots and 4 ISA slots.. You really need to plan how much soundcards you want to install. And which cards to take for graphics and maybe floppy / harddisk controller if there isnt one on the board.

A VLB board is easier to expand with more sound cards.. Because the slots would still be ISA.

Well, I do have a PC-Chip M919 v3.4 b/f VIP motherboard however I lost the cache COAST chip somewhere a few years ago when I was tinkering with it and relocated to a different state [I had no idea that it was a cache chip just thought it was maybe video RAM like how some older Apple Macintosh Performa's had]. Maybe i'll find it somewhere in my vast amount of boxes i've never unpacked. However aren't those PC-Chip boards all fake cache even the ones with the COAST cache? I refuse to pay the ridiculous current eBay price of $150 USD from a notoriously high-dollar eBay user, for that chip.

Maybe i'll get a Shuttle HOT-433 as I think i've read that those are pretty good, although they have the UMC chipset [not sure how that compares to chipsets such as SiS, etc].

As far as I can tell though the ASUS PCI/I-486SV2 was a cadillac of 486 mobos in the mid 90's - PCI, ISA, Socket 3, Intel 420ZX chipset, 72-pin SIMM support, on-board SCSI, etc. Can't seem to find one though.

I've actually build up 2 high end 486 machines and, believe or not, am still tweaking it (memory, sound card, graphics card and CPU) to find the optimal solution.
However, to due to the lesser availibility of some "brand names", it did take me some time to find those components.

There are quite a number of good brand names out there but, most of the motherboards I have are ASUS and Gigabyte.
You will also have to decide whether you want to go with Vesa Local Bus or PCI.
Some later 486 motherboards had both PCI slots & a Vesa Local Bus slot (with your standard ISA slots as well) but, in this case the Vesa Local Bus slot could sometimes only be used with a graphics card.
A nice feature on some later 486 motherboards was that some of them also came with a PS/2 connector, which then enables you to connect a PS/2 mouse to it (useful in my case as I'm using a KVM switch)

I've read some good reviews about the Biostar MB-8433UUD and, to a lesser extent, the PC Chips M919 (there are quite a number of topics on these different boards).
I have the Lucky Star LS-486E (PCI based) rev D, an Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 (VLB based) and an ASUS PVI-486SP3 (VLB & PCI based) motherboard.
I've read some posts (just can't track it down now) about "combo" VLB/PCI boards and that, depending on the configuration, PCI performance can suffer (be throttled) due to the Vesal Local Bus.

Based on some benchmarks I've performed, my Vesa Local Bus graphics performance has always been faster than on an equivalent PCI based system.
Most Vesa Local Bus motherboards don't have onboard controllers (Hard drive, Floppy, communication ports, etc.) whereas practically all PCI motherboards do have onboard controllers.
Based on some other posts, most people seem to value the Tseng Labs ET4000 W32/p as a very good Vesa Local bus graphics card but, for PCI cards you have quite an array of cards to choose from (S3 Trio 64 or Virge cards, ATI Rage II, etc.). However, I've had problems getting some of my later PCI based graphics cards to work properly on my 486 PCI motherboards.

If you're going to use PCI cards might as well just save your money and buy a Pentium motherboard.

You can build high end systems around either VLB or PCI. The key is getting a solid motherboard. I have both types, but when it comes to 486s I will always be a VLB kind of guy. PCI 486 systems are easier to build but lacking in character.

There's no point building a 486 that isn't VLB based, IMO. A 486 isn't a particularly 'useful' system, in that it's too fast for speed sensitive games and a Pentium will generally do it better. So you might as well build an interesting system. VLB cards aren't hard to find, and they're not particularly expensive.

My favourite 486 board is the ASUS 486sv2gx4. A bog standard Cirrus VGA card is generally all you need pre-SVGA. They're fast-ish, compatible, and cheap.

badmojo wrote:

There's no point building a 486 that isn't VLB based, IMO. A 486 isn't a particularly 'useful' system, in that it's too fast for speed sensitive games and a Pentium will generally do it better. So you might as well build an interesting system. VLB cards aren't hard to find, and they're not particularly expensive.

My favourite 486 board is the ASUS 486sv2gx4. A bog standard Cirrus VGA card is generally all you need pre-SVGA. They're fast-ish, compatible, and cheap.

I disagree. There is something about a 486 that a pentium simply doesn't have.
Even if you do find VLB cards, they will give you a lot less flexibility.

I like the idea of VLB--gives it a unique nostalgic feel. If you can find a nice socket 3 board, you could use a PODP5V83 processor for added uniqueness. Otherwise, I'd go with a 486DX2-50 or 486DX2-66 processor. Not a fan of the DX4's. Stay away from the 486DX-50 to avoid bus speed compatibility issues.

smeezekitty wrote:

I disagree. There is something about a 486 that a pentium simply doesn't have.

I agree, besides that the only thing I wanna build a 486 for is DOS games and Windows 3.x games [and just because I can], i'd like SVGA modes too for some games if at all possible. The Dos Time Machine is nice and all but it just don't "feel" the same, just like how emulation definately IMHO don't feel the same whatsoever and so I avoid emulation like the plague.

The 486 can be built in a number of architectures like pure ISA, ISA+ VLB, MCA, EISA + ISA, EISA+VLB+ISA (kinda rare) and PCI + ISA. For gaming you should stick to ISA, ISA+ VLB, or EISA + ISA. IF you are going to the trouble of PCI you are better off with an early Pentium.

A high end 486 system to me would be EISA or MCA just because of quality parts and the RAM you can stuff into them.

Unknown_K wrote:

The 486 can be built in a number of architectures like pure ISA, ISA+ VLB, MCA, EISA + ISA, EISA+VLB+ISA (kinda rare) and PCI + ISA. For gaming you should stick to ISA, ISA+ VLB, or EISA + ISA. IF you are going to the trouble of PCI you are better off with an early Pentium.

What exactly is wrong with PCI and gaming? You still will have several ISA slots of sound cards.

A high end 486 system to me would be EISA or MCA just because of quality parts and the RAM you can stuff into them.

MCA? Good luck getting cards

smeezekitty wrote:

MCA? Good luck getting cards

Challenge accepted.

i'm currently getting an IBM 9595 up and going. ^.^

Got sound and video, just working on ironing out some bugs. And a MPU-IMC. and a pentium 90 cpu card...

Honestly, using ANY IBM mca machine for a retro build is like choosing hard difficulty, where your average clone is... average.

There are some pretty solid configurations here. You can see my current Am5x86 setup there as well. Nice systems those 486... A vast variety of CPUs, chip sets, busses. Unlike more boring fith generation and more simple third generation, I see 486 the sweetest spot for a building up some retro gear.

5x86 is the last and the greatest classic 486 (when I say classic, I exclude Cyrix 5x86 and POD). It is rock stable, easily overclocks up to 4x40MHz or 3x50MHz, whichever your system tolerates better (3x50MHz is faster btw). If you would prefer DX4, you can run 5x86 as one and clock it down to DX4-120, DX4-100 or DX4-75.

Chaniyth wrote:

I agree, besides that the only thing I wanna build a 486 for is DOS games and Windows 3.x games [and just because I can], i'd like SVGA modes too for some games if at all possible. The Dos Time Machine is nice and all but it just don't "feel" the same, just like how emulation definately IMHO don't feel the same whatsoever and so I avoid emulation like the plague.

SVGA modes (640x400 or higher) places much more strain on a 486's graphics system as it has to draw almost 5x more pixels onto the screen than standard VGA (320x200).
As such, performance is generally poor (at least on my AMD 486DX4-100 WT CPU).
Examples I can think of are Duke Nukem 3D and the Need for Speed 1. However, these games do allow you play at a lower resolution as well.
Generally, any DOS/Windows 3.1 game that is standard VGA will run fine on a high end 486 system (I recommend at least a 486DX4-100). If your CPU is too fast, then you can use the turbo button to slow it down to 486DX-33 speeds.
Rather opt for a Pentium I if you're planning on playing later DOS games that also supports higher resolutions.

I'm also not a fan of emulation (although, the emulation is very good these days). I just prefer the real hardware as I like to play around with the components as well and try out different configurations.

smeezekitty wrote:

What exactly is wrong with PCI and gaming? You still will have several ISA slots of sound cards. […]
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Unknown_K wrote:

The 486 can be built in a number of architectures like pure ISA, ISA+ VLB, MCA, EISA + ISA, EISA+VLB+ISA (kinda rare) and PCI + ISA. For gaming you should stick to ISA, ISA+ VLB, or EISA + ISA. IF you are going to the trouble of PCI you are better off with an early Pentium.

What exactly is wrong with PCI and gaming? You still will have several ISA slots of sound cards.

A high end 486 system to me would be EISA or MCA just because of quality parts and the RAM you can stuff into them.

MCA? Good luck getting cards

For gaming an MCA machine is not going to work well, but some people do built 486 system for things other then gaming and I would consider any 486 MCA system high end for its time.

By the time you need a PCI video card for DOS gaming you are into the Pentium era and Quake which sucks on a 486. Plus they are kind of boring unless you are messing with a Cyrix 5x86 or something like that. Its just a personal preference having lived through the era, and my last 486 was PCI based back then.

Does it have to be a real 486, or just a 486-motherboard with whatever CPU?
Because the Pentium 83 overdrive is by far your fastest option for a 486-board. Also your only chance of playing Quake properly.

Scali wrote:

Does it have to be a real 486, or just a 486-motherboard with whatever CPU?
Because the Pentium 83 overdrive is by far your fastest option for a 486-board. Also your only chance of playing Quake properly.

I've seen on some posts that your Pentium Overdrive CPU's can be a bit troublesome (in terms of compatibility, hardware and software wise).
Also, you will never get full Pentium performance due to bottlenecks in the 486 architecture (there are also some topics on this).
As I see it, the intention of the Pentium Overdrive CPU was to provide an upgrade path for existing 486 motherboard owners.
Since you are now "planning ahead", if you want Pentium performance, then rather build a true Pentium machine.
However, if you're seeking Pentium equivalent performance on a 486 motherboard, also look at your AMD 5x86 P-75 & your Cyrix 5x86 CPU's (the former is very stable and rock solid).