Skalabala wrote:creepingnet wrote:Still checking on the parts I have coming in for the 486. Have the 128MB of RAM in there already... […]
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Still checking on the parts I have coming in for the 486. Have the 128MB of RAM in there already...
- Diagnostic card is coming in today, don't need it here anymore, but I could definitely use it at work when it's not chasing problems on old x86 hardware at home.
- 486 DX4-100 with Write-Back is on it's way in today as well, toying with waiting for the heatsink to come in, or fabricating a better one using the Cyrix heatsink I have since the black heatsink won't be in until sometime next week at earliest.
- My 512KB Cache RAM finally made it to America, is in San Francisco the last time I looked, predicted to be here by Friday - which is a PERFECT day because if I choose to make my own CPU cooler (which I've done in the past) I can just get it done and won't have anything more to do regarding opening one of the vintage boxes until I order the Tandy's parts, and when I get a free moment to slip that RAMpAT card back in the 286.
Either way, I got all the ordering and budgeting done just in time to focus on the finishing touches for the Wife's birthday next week - if only I was so good at that as planning hardware upgrades.
Bud do you have pictures on the forum of your 486?
I have a 486 motherboard with 4x72pin ram slots. Wonder how much ram it could take. Also have a 133mhz AMD cpu for it.
Oh yeah, pictures, and update as I got home tonight and the DX4-100 CPU to replace the blown one came in, and much to my surprise, it came with a heatsink. I swapped the fan out on it though with the motherboard powered one (yes, my 486 board has a FAN power connector, which is the first time I've ever seen such a thing).
Installing the CPU was a bit of a PITA as it turns out there were REVISED jumper settings for the DX4-100 AMD CPU chips for the FIC 486-PVT system boards, and the second one was the correct one to \get this one working, had to use my Diagnostic card to figure out it was starting up to the point that POST takes over and then stopping, turned out I needed a SECOND 0 Ohm jumper shunt (in my case, some tight fitting staples bent into a U shape) and populate RN19 and RN17 - as soon as I did that, it fired right up, and it's been running ever since - about 2-3 hours now. I used Arctic Silver as thermal compound, seems to be doing it's job well, I had a big old syringe of that stuff and it's just sitting around doing nothing so might as well put it to use.
Checking Tracking, looks like the L2 Cache should be in tomorrow. All five 128Kx8 modules - making for a whooping 512K L2 Cache. That's a much simpler process, in this XT case, I just remove the thumbscrews from teh back (5), then take out a screw for the CD-RW and the IDE HDD tray, and remove those, and then I can press the chips in, pull 2 jumpers, and put them in the right spots for 512K L2 Cache, and I wont' be opening this thing for probably a very long time.
To answer the question on RAM, most 486 system boards top out at 64MB, but some of the later ones like mine (mine is a 1995 model board) goes up to 128MB, I also had an old Socket 3 IBM PC-330 100DX4 (6571-W5K) system years ago that could also do 128MB of RAM, though the most that ever had was 64MB of EDO ECC RAM. That IBM was the benchmark upon which all my 486 builds since were based because that thing ran darn near everything, Postal, Diablo, Quake, I used it as my main computer off/on from 2001-2005 and it never let me down till the system board went weird.