Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-07-19, 12:43:
Cirrus Logic CL GD5434 is currently considered the best all around choice for systems with only ISA slots. What it comes down to is if you care about running Windows at something better than 640x480x256. 386s won't really need anything better than that, unless you just want to play around (I like to). The CL GD5434 is pretty much the fastest option for DOS, and provides pretty decent accelerated graphics for Windows if you have 2MB installed. Currently these are a little pricey, but somebody is working on a homebrew card. Other cards like the ET4000, Trident 8900D and WD90C31 offer similarly fast DOS graphics but fall short in Windows. I believe they are all fairly decent choices compatibility wise. You might be able to get these a lot cheaper too. I think the other CL GD542x cards are supposed to be good in DOS as well, but I've never owned one so I can't comment.
386 CPUs can indeed work with VLB, but I don't think you get much of a performance boost until you pair it with a 486DLC type CPU.
Thats good to know, i need to go through my box of cards and take note of the models. Im bound to have something with those chipsets you quote.
Homebrew cards sound exciting, I guess alot is possible with FGPA's these days!
I guess I probably only care about maxing the system out with the tech of its era, more for fun and curosity's sake to build an expensive machine for its day and push the limits 🤣
386SX wrote on 2020-07-19, 15:07:
Indeed a great looking mainboard. But I was thinking it to be manufactured a bit later and instead I see like most ISA only 386 late mainboards are mostly built around 1992. Anyway, clean layout, great that it has the Socket only option instead of the QFPA plastic package I don't like at all.. my mainboard got both and I suspect I'll never known if I'll be able to ever use the PGA-132 socket at all. Ceramic larger package vs plastic cheap ones.. no comparison.
Anyway as other said there's no much thing to do for an Utilmate 386 if not passing the "486 line" with the upgrade module/alternative solutions like the Cyrix and overclocking in my opinion would be out of discussion on such old rare cards.
Find the fastest genuine ram and cache module you can, a time correct late 520MB disk as I did, and for the vga, considering the GD5434 is not easy to find (but also this mainboard I suspect was not), I'd vote for the GD5429 card, still rare in the ISA version, I got one dated 12/1995, 1MB DRAM 60ns, and it has higher core clock and I/O memory Mapped BitBLT engine. In Windows its acceleration is good for a 386, tested with Windows 95 it's using by default the same driver package of the GD543x line and the windows are drawn quite immediately when moving around thanks to the internal acceleration. In Win 3.x I had a bit more problems with the drivers so it may be or not easy to use the right drivers for this specific chip and I ended up using the GD5428 drivers, working ok a bit slower than the original GD5429 you'd find online.
Doing a quick google search, i dont think i have the ISA version of that card looking at the photos, but very possible I have the VL bus version.
I will see what RAM I can find, I think 50ns is the fastest you typically find FP memory, and is very rare, I can probably get a bunch of 60ns RAM for it easily enough.
I have a few 520MB Seagate drives I can choose from, and have a creative soundblaster for it too.
jesolo wrote on 2020-07-19, 20:38:If you just want to stick with a 386 CPU, then I would say you have the best all round 386 system (yes, there were upgrades and […]
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If you just want to stick with a 386 CPU, then I would say you have the best all round 386 system (yes, there were upgrades and alternatives, but I'm referring to a just "real" 386).
Personally, I think that 16 MB might already be overkill for a 386 (most people back in the day had to do with only 4 MB). I think that having 8 MB should be a good balance (especially for a DOS/Win 3.1x setup).
However, if you intend on installing Windows 95 on there, then 16 MB will definitely help.
An ET4000 was definitely one of the fastest ISA cards available during that time period, but as already stated, a Cirrus Logic based card is also a good and fast choice. Even a CL-GD5426 or CL-GD5428 should also perform quite well on this motherboard.
Having said that, if you want to squeeze a bit more performance out of this motherboard and not totally go overboard, then you could try the Cyrix (or Texas Instruments) 486DLC-40 (or the later 486SXL variant). The additional 1KB of L1 cache makes a bit of difference performance wise, provided that your BIOS properly supports the Cyrix based CPU's. Otherwise, you will have to use the relevant software utility to enable the onboard L1 cache.
Yes 16MB is probably an overkill, let alone 32MB.
Ive read posts here where people are installing stacks of RAM and then loading everything onto a ramdrive on bootup, could be interesting to play around with, as I bet games load real fast off the ramdrive.
I doubt I will install windows 95 on it, it runs terrible on a 386 🤣
Good to know the cirrus logic cards are good, ill take a look and see what the best model I have is.
