Finished doing the testbench setup of my next 486 project. It is a low spec 486 system, based on a dx33 CPU. It has no local busses or PCI, just an old pure ISA setup. As of now it has the following hardware in it.
- ISA-Only Socket3 motherboard with 256kb 15ns Cache.
- 16mb 72-Pin 60ns Ram, in one single stick.
- ET4000ax ISA card.
- Mediavision Jazz soundcard (Don't really know the name)
- Standard IDE ISA Controller.
- 512mb CF Card in an adaptor.
- 1.44mb Floppy.
- Goldstar 8x IDE CD-Rom.
- Microsoft serial mouse (the "ergonomic" version).
- Genuine 200watt Unisys AT-Psu (it says 200watt true output).
When I recieved the board, it had no cache chip, and the barrel battery was removed (yay). So I seated 4 chips of 64kx8 cache and 1 chip of 32kx8 as the tag. All 15ns. Then I ordered a coincell rechargeable 3.6 volt battery from eBay, wich has two solderpins on it. Swett.... So far so good.
I have this cached ISA controller, that has no COM or LPT ports on it. However it actually degrades the performance and has some issues when running a CF cards, plus the CD-Rom drive will not work with it. So I picked the standard controller. Much better solution.
Ran the system through the standard package of benchmark tools, as a kind of burnin test. Everything went fine and nothing is broken. Installed MS-Dos 6.22, all the drivers, norton commander and a handfull of games. Run everything without issues.
So far so good.... Only thing that worries me, is the heat from the CPU. It runs pretty hot. Now I know it is supposed to be able to run without heatsink. I just do not like that it is getting that hot. Better cool it down. So that will be the next part to look for.
The PSU... Well... Despite that being from 1994/95'ish, and some other parts being from mid-90's, I find it astonishing, that it has nearly no dust in it or on the fan.
I think this setup is more or less what people with money, and what early adopters of the 486 platform, would have aimed for in 1991 or possibly 1992. I mean... Spec/number-wise... It shure runs the early 90's games between 1990 and 1992 without any issues, and at full hardware speed.
Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....
My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen
001100 010010 011110 100001 101101 110011