Now I needed a sound card and CD-ROM controller for the full capability of the system. That's where this sound card and CD-ROM drive were supposed to come in:


But, neither of them worked! It was pretty easy to identify the CD-ROM drive wasn't reading discs properly in another computer, but the sound card involved a lot more head-scratching. At first, I was wondering if I'd installed the CD-ROM drivers wrongly. But eventually, I decided to plug them into my PC running Windows 98, and it just refused to work as a SoundBlaster or WSS-compatible sound card, so it was clear there was something wrong there. There just happened to be an identical Mitsumi 4X CD-ROM for sale, which I picked up. I also managed to get a SoundBlaster 16 model CT 2940. I understand that these aren't as good as the non-PnP models, but it was a nice cheap price and had the IDE controller on there, as well as having the real OPL3 FM synth chip installed. So, I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, as it were.


With these, I finally managed to get CD-ROM functionality and sound for the system. I used a 4-GB card for a Windows 95 installation. It was a bit of a pain in the old bumhole trying to get Windows 95 installed on this old system, trying a combination of emulators and real-hardware solutions, before eventually figuring out what I needed to do. With the system only able to boot from FAT16 partitions, I separated the SD card out into two 2-GB partitions, and now have the choice between DOS/Win 3.1 and Windows 95 installations. I had also prepared the case by using some rust remover paint on the chassis, sanding down the bumps on the cover, and getting some nice woodgrain wrap on there.

Note that, with me being a bit of an idiot and all, I managed to blow the original power LED. The new one is much too bright, so I'll have to put a resistor in there to get it a bit dimmer to match the other LEDs. At this point, I had set out what I had wanted to achieve originally with a 486-based system, which was to get around 30fps performance in Doom. But then I decided to go on the lookout for one of those nice DX4-100 OverDrive processors for a bit more oomph. The ones I saw were in foreign countries and more than I was willing to pay for an upgraded CPU all in (over £100). Luckily for me, an auction for a 486 ISA SBC with the coveted CPU came up, and I managed to get it for the starting bid of £45 plus delivery!

I swapped around the two CPUs. I'm not sure what's next for the SBC, but that's a different matter. I was very glad to have the manual for the motherboard here, otherwise I'd have had no idea what to do with the jumpers! With the Overdrive installed in the 486, I did some benchmarking:



So yeah, now I've got a really nice mid-1990s 486 setup going. But, perhaps most importantly: woodgrain!

The only things left to do now really are that aforementioned LED, and get a case badge. But, other than that, this story is just about wrapped up. I hope you enjoyed reading my little build diary.

That Yamaha OPL3 sounds terrible.
You really need the “Dreamblaster X2 GS” for better sound.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-08-22, 16:38:

That Yamaha OPL3 sounds terrible.
You really need the “Dreamblaster X2 GS” for better sound.

Objectively, General MIDI does sound better than OPL3 most of the time. But some people that grew up listening to FM synth music in their games still prefer that version for purely nostalgic reasons. And that's perfectly fine.

That said, not all composers were equally good at utilizing the capabilities of the OPL3 chip. Quite often, they just did a basic conversion from General MIDI to FM synth, and that usually resulted in a subpar listening experience. However, in some instances, where developers put in more effort, FM synth music can sound pretty good. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Tyrian - Final level
• Stonekeep - main menu theme

On topic, that's a very nice rig. Kudos on all the effort that you put into building that system.

Out of curiosity, is it based on a computer that you had in your youth? I'm asking because a lot of us here tend to re-create systems that we had during our childhood.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-08-22, 16:38:

That Yamaha OPL3 sounds terrible.
You really need the “Dreamblaster X2 GS” for better sound.

Why are you comparing wave-table synth to FM synth? I might get a wave-table board at some point, but I still want that FM synthesis option for older games. Yes, it might not sound as "good," but if I wanted the best possible sound, I'd hook up the MIDI port to my main PC and use my 300-GB soft synth library. But that would rather defeat the point of the whole thing, in my view.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-08-22, 17:12:

On topic, that's a very nice rig. Kudos on all the effort that you put into building that system.

Out of curiosity, is it based on a computer that you had in your youth? I'm asking because a lot of us here tend to re-create systems that we had during our childhood.

Thank you :3. Funnily enough, it's not. Our first "proper" PC we had when I was a kid was a Compaq Deskpro EP 6333 with a Celeron 333 MHz. If you look at the picture of this PC running Windows 95, you can see that I have taken steps to recreate the system somewhat. This is in fact what happened with part of the Pentium II system I mentioned earlier, although parts of it also made themselves into another system as well.

258 is a really high score for a 486-dx4-100.
I only get about 200 points.
I saw on LGR wood grain PC video that he was able to get about 220 points.
Maybe Topbench benefits from using 32mb of RAM.

Even on a LS-486 PCI motherboard I have only seen scores of about 220 for a 486-dx4-100.

The cache SRAM is 15 ns and the main system memory is 32 MB of 60-ns FPM DRAM. Also, the L1 cache appears to be running in WT mode according to System Check. I'm not sure whether the Overdrive CPUs had WB cache or not. I was certainly very happy with the performance. I think somewhere in the 200 to 220 range was what I was getting with the turbo mode disabled.

I think its possible you purchased the (working) controller card from me 😀

Love the build! Its performing like a beast!

Nice... got a 486 to have a go at myself, looks like the MB didn't get significantly eaten by the Varta, as the case had been fortuitously left on its side.

If you put Win3 on as well, try out http://midiox.com/html/fmsynth.htm - OPL3 never sounded so good, well at least playing midi files authored to GM standard

LewisRaz wrote on 2021-08-22, 22:16:

I think its possible you purchased the (working) controller card from me 😀

Love the build! Its performing like a beast!

Yes, I think I did. The weird thing was, I got an email from the delivery company the morning after I ordered it to say that they'd failed to pick it up from you? IDK why they sent that to me, but all's well that ends well, as they say.

EddieHimself wrote on 2021-08-22, 13:59:

At this point, I had set out what I had wanted to achieve originally with a 486-based system, which was to get around 30fps performance in Doom. But then I decided to go on the lookout for one of those nice DX4-100 OverDrive processors for a bit more oomph. The ones I saw were in foreign countries and more than I was willing to pay for an upgraded CPU all in (over £100). Luckily for me, an auction for a 486 ISA SBC with the coveted CPU came up, and I managed to get it for the starting bid of £45 plus delivery!

I would expect that that board, already running a DX4 3Volt processor would manage to run a "normal" DX4/100, and wouldn't need an Overdrive to go there ..?

I see what you did there. Yup. It can probably run a AMD 586 133 too.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2021-08-23, 06:03:

EddieHimself wrote on 2021-08-22, 13:59:

At this point, I had set out what I had wanted to achieve originally with a 486-based system, which was to get around 30fps performance in Doom. But then I decided to go on the lookout for one of those nice DX4-100 OverDrive processors for a bit more oomph. The ones I saw were in foreign countries and more than I was willing to pay for an upgraded CPU all in (over £100). Luckily for me, an auction for a 486 ISA SBC with the coveted CPU came up, and I managed to get it for the starting bid of £45 plus delivery!

I would expect that that board, already running a DX4 3Volt processor would manage to run a "normal" DX4/100, and wouldn't need an Overdrive to go there ..?

Probably could, but I couldn't find any regular DX4-100s for some reason. Plus, I do think the heatsink on the Overdrive CPUs looks way cool.

Warlord wrote on 2021-08-23, 07:16:

I see what you did there. Yup. It can probably run a AMD 586 133 too.

I actually got the same CPU score as an AMD 5x86 133 in Speedsys.

486 is a funny era. Too fast for old games but not fast enough for late dos.
IMHO their true value is the build itself, and the tinkering as it's never straight forward.
It's why I have 3!

Like the build but if it was me I'd be on the lookout for a VLB I/O card for the extra cool points as much as anything.
but as its up and running I'd take my time and wait for a good price or that "perfect" card

I've heard it depends on the turbo implementation of each boards. You can have one that doesn't do much or one that down clocks too much. Lucky for you if you find one that downclocks a lot. You can use a faster CPU and disable a cache and get to a good spot. Thats all part of the optimization. It's still a rabbit hole. for me I have to ask myself at some point what is the point.

I suppose a VLB hard disk controller would allow me to use FAT32 for Windows 95 with it being a 32-bit bus. But I can't really imagine needing more than 4GB of space on this PC to be fair 🤣.

EddieHimself wrote on 2021-08-23, 10:03:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2021-08-23, 06:03:

EddieHimself wrote on 2021-08-22, 13:59:

At this point, I had set out what I had wanted to achieve originally with a 486-based system, which was to get around 30fps performance in Doom. But then I decided to go on the lookout for one of those nice DX4-100 OverDrive processors for a bit more oomph. The ones I saw were in foreign countries and more than I was willing to pay for an upgraded CPU all in (over £100). Luckily for me, an auction for a 486 ISA SBC with the coveted CPU came up, and I managed to get it for the starting bid of £45 plus delivery!

I would expect that that board, already running a DX4 3Volt processor would manage to run a "normal" DX4/100, and wouldn't need an Overdrive to go there ..?

Probably could, but I couldn't find any regular DX4-100s for some reason. Plus, I do think the heatsink on the Overdrive CPUs looks way cool.

Agreed, the heatsink looks great! But weird that you had a hard time finding regular DX4s, they used to be common as gravel ..

Nice system and I enjoyed your write up!

But... does Doom run with 30fps now?