So some updates on this PC:

As mentioned I got the memory upgraded to 128mb of RAM
The HDD i upgraded from a 250 some mb to a 2gb that I bought as new old stock/never used for a local seller here where I live in exchange for the 250mb drive I only had to spend 10 bucks on it!
I got Dos 6.22 with Windows 3.11 for workgroups installed now
I've got the actual drivers for the onboard graphics installed and auto loading in dos/windows thanks David!
Ive got the y2k bios update for said pc dont too Again thanks David!
I upgraded the ISA sound blaster (seems to be a clone of maybe the soundblaster vibra16 series that had the built in telephone options too), to an official sound blaster awe64 gold it has currently the 4mb memory but I could up that in time to 28mb if i can get said chips for now it more then suits my needs
For now I got a knock off brand isa ethernet card from realtek or something in the computer that had driver support that I got from the above local seller for the hdd I got (only a 1.50! 🤣) I plan to upgrade this later with likely a 3com or something once I settle on a price and such.
Ive also done some dos/win 3.11 tweaks for config.sys and autoexec.bat to get more performance out of things on loading, i also ran memmaker too to get more free memory just for kicks.

Still on my list to do is find what L2 cache chip i need, I know its a write-back cache chip but i cant find any parts matching the parts numbers from ibm, does it HAVE to be from ibm? or could someone suggest another search term to try that would still let me upgrade to 256kb?

Also on my to do list is get another 1mb of video dram (I think it comes out to be 2x512kb chips) again part numbers I got but am not finding anything specific for ibm, again do they got to be from ibm or can I use an equilvant and if so what types do I need to look for?

Sadly for both of these my knowledge of PCs in hardware didn't really kick off in full until the late 90s-early 2ks by which point such things were mostly a thing of the past. So any insight or suggestions to fill in my knowledge would be appreciated.

Also on my radar is upgrading the cpu to an AMD 5x86 133MHz cpu like from here https://www.ebay.com/itm/333700483164 though ideally i'd like to get it from a US seller if I can. The board supports the 3.3v out of the gate so i just need to get the jumpers set once i get said cpu, also need to get an appropriate heatsink/fan any suggestions on that?

So a quick update on my vintage adventure! Sadly the upgraded AWE64 Gold SB I put in took a crap over the weekend 🙁 not 100% sure on it but seems something gave up the ghost on the board to the output of audio as a result the card is not only not picked up by the computer but i cant get audio output, so since I cant find the source and likely dont have the full know how to fix it by soldering and that it was still within my 30 day return warranty by the seller on ebay I got to return it for a full refund (was a bit surprised there but i'm not complaining, I bought it for $85+$9 shipping while it was on a 'flash' 40% sale from ebay). So for now the original ISA card which I did identify to be a Vibra 16 SB (exact model eludes me atm), is back in the PC and working dutifully, for now given all I want is simple audio for configuring and testing this is fine.

Equally sad though when this issue happened with my AWE it seems it had a similar effect on my knock off realtek ethernet card, again not sure exactly what happened but the lights didnt work on the card and though the PC locally picked it up in dos/windows 3.11 sending/receiving anything was a dud, so that got pulled too and for now at least I have had a set back on getting networking fully working to my liking here.

However, more to my joy I WAS able in the past week, to secure the 1mb upgrade from a seller in the UK who was a friend of another friend of mine over there, who dabbles in collecting and refurbishing old parts and what he cant fix or sell gets stripped and recycled. I netted 2x 512kb chips for the IBM which arrived earlier today and so far with testing works fully in being detected. Going to do some benchmarks tonight but so far I dont see any issues going ahead. All it cost me was $20 + $17.50 something in shipping from the UK, again from seeing some other stuff on ebay and elsewhere I thought this was a good price so I jumped on it!

Equally on saturday over the weekend. My ordered GOTEK floppy emulator arrived, and I got it installed and working. However, while I can easily drop in downloaded img files from the net to my USB and then to the IBM and get them to read fine and do whats needed, I'm running into roadblocks making original 1.44mb floppy images of my own make. For now the GOTEK will remain in the PC replacing the working 1.44mb floppy, but I may look into getting a 5.25 bay adaptor to 3.5 bay to put the GOTEK in that to put the original floppy back in there for originalities sake.

I've also thought about looking into getting a custom case paint job done and/or getting a custom front panel faceplate 3d printed to make the whole setup a display art piece in some way. Still considering options but I'd love to do some sort of falloutesque inspired terminal like setup. So still considering all options here and likely none of that will happen till I get all my upgrades I want done.

So I know its been a long while on my 486 crisis. But figured since I had time I would update everyone if you care 😀

1) I upgraded the cpu to a AMD 5x86 133 with a cpu cooling fan with no issue.

2) As last mentioned I got the 1mb chip for the onboard video upgraded to 2 mb

3) I eventually got a NE2000 ethernet card and got that installed without issues to my network file server (I even got it through to the internet and surfing with dos/win3.11 lynx text browser and mtcp!)

4) The 2gb HDD sadly died on me, so I went and got an adaptor for compact flash card, then with a little careful dremmling on the 5.25 inch bay which i also got converted for the GOTEK I got a small slot put in to easily swap out the CF card if I needed, my dad being a CNC machinist and having his own well equipped shop worked wonders here!

5) The 1.44mb floppy drive sadly ALSO died, but I was able to find a new old stock LS-120/1.44mb combo drive never used for 30ish bucks and that has replaced it. The pack of 10x 120 disks which were also new old stock and never used, also got my hands on a 10-pack of new old stock 1.44mb floppies didnt open either of those though from the same seller. Testing using a 1.44mb i had already and a 120mb from way back from a gateway 2k pentium 2 450 pc i had surprisingly DID still work after sitting in our basement in my dads desk all these years!

6) As mentioned the GOTEK works wonderfully for usb needs (set as the A drive, ls-120 is the B drive), I also got a new old stock 2x-8x variable speed CDROM drive in it. All this new old stock BTW came from the same guy mostly in the UK that my friend knows and he gave me a good deal on it all.

So next part is a bit of a sadder but also happier part of this build

7) The old Vibra 16 sound card got replaced by an Orpheus 2LT remake card, usually they got like 150 Euros but I happened to connect with a lady north of me who had a son who passed away when I met him during his return home from military service two years ago almost now. I'm part of a local community group that meets returning service men/women to have someone there to greet them and offer a lift if they need it. Its sad how many families disown their own kids for their aversion of military service and they got no one to meet them, etc. Since due to my own mental health issues I couldn't service back when I tried when I was 18, this community program felt like a good way to still help out since I was 21. Anyhow, he left on deployment and I guess had an accident with equipment on his base from what I heard, and before he could get stabilized or treated died from blood loss. When I went to see her she mentioned she didn't know what to do with his old computer stuff and I respectively asked if I could look through to see if anything was useful for her to sell on ebay (through me) she agreed I ended up getting her about 1800 some bucks from assorted sales, but in his one old P2 computer he had a orpheus 2LT at that point I asked if she minded if I could buy it off her for say 100 bucks, she declined saying with everything else I had done for her here, and for her son and others I could just have it. For the person who bought that P2 machine I put in the vibra16 before listing it. Either way the Orpheus has a good new home now and works wonderfully, and I'm hoping the son would understand and appreciate its new home.

😎 Lastly I came upon a S3 Vision 964 diamond stealth64 with the 4mb setup at a local farmer's market stall. The guy had a pentium rig setup for testing different old parts he had on display (he also sold local fruit/vegetables! 🤣 got some good potatoes, onions, turnips and red beets at the same time!) and showed it working without issue, so even though i got the 2mb on board I put that in too and with jumpers halted the onboard use. Correct me if i'm wrong but this is a better gfx card to use for gaming then the onboard one right?

9) And finally my dad helped me carefully straighten out the crookedness of the case and reinforce and clean up a few spots that had rust or chipped paint. I got the whole thing gutted then blasted and powder coated, before repainting it with a crisp off white color. Oh and I got a 20 inch flatscreen LCD with the VGA hook up. In windows 3.11 I can operate nicely in a comfortable 1024x768 with 16mil colors

All in all its a fun build and for scratching my dos and win 3.x era of games made me a very happy person!

Take care all!

rarcher wrote on 2024-02-12, 23:20:

So I know its been a long while on my 486 crisis. But figured since I had time I would update everyone if you care :) […]
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So I know its been a long while on my 486 crisis. But figured since I had time I would update everyone if you care 😀

1) I upgraded the cpu to a AMD 5x86 133 with a cpu cooling fan with no issue.

2) As last mentioned I got the 1mb chip for the onboard video upgraded to 2 mb

3) I eventually got a NE2000 ethernet card and got that installed without issues to my network file server (I even got it through to the internet and surfing with dos/win3.11 lynx text browser and mtcp!)

4) The 2gb HDD sadly died on me, so I went and got an adaptor for compact flash card, then with a little careful dremmling on the 5.25 inch bay which i also got converted for the GOTEK I got a small slot put in to easily swap out the CF card if I needed, my dad being a CNC machinist and having his own well equipped shop worked wonders here!

5) The 1.44mb floppy drive sadly ALSO died, but I was able to find a new old stock LS-120/1.44mb combo drive never used for 30ish bucks and that has replaced it. The pack of 10x 120 disks which were also new old stock and never used, also got my hands on a 10-pack of new old stock 1.44mb floppies didnt open either of those though from the same seller. Testing using a 1.44mb i had already and a 120mb from way back from a gateway 2k pentium 2 450 pc i had surprisingly DID still work after sitting in our basement in my dads desk all these years!

6) As mentioned the GOTEK works wonderfully for usb needs (set as the A drive, ls-120 is the B drive), I also got a new old stock 2x-8x variable speed CDROM drive in it. All this new old stock BTW came from the same guy mostly in the UK that my friend knows and he gave me a good deal on it all.

So next part is a bit of a sadder but also happier part of this build

7) The old Vibra 16 sound card got replaced by an Orpheus 2LT remake card, usually they got like 150 Euros but I happened to connect with a lady north of me who had a son who passed away when I met him during his return home from military service two years ago almost now. I'm part of a local community group that meets returning service men/women to have someone there to greet them and offer a lift if they need it. Its sad how many families disown their own kids for their aversion of military service and they got no one to meet them, etc. Since due to my own mental health issues I couldn't service back when I tried when I was 18, this community program felt like a good way to still help out since I was 21. Anyhow, he left on deployment and I guess had an accident with equipment on his base from what I heard, and before he could get stabilized or treated died from blood loss. When I went to see her she mentioned she didn't know what to do with his old computer stuff and I respectively asked if I could look through to see if anything was useful for her to sell on ebay (through me) she agreed I ended up getting her about 1800 some bucks from assorted sales, but in his one old P2 computer he had a orpheus 2LT at that point I asked if she minded if I could buy it off her for say 100 bucks, she declined saying with everything else I had done for her here, and for her son and others I could just have it. For the person who bought that P2 machine I put in the vibra16 before listing it. Either way the Orpheus has a good new home now and works wonderfully, and I'm hoping the son would understand and appreciate its new home.

😎 Lastly I came upon a S3 Vision 964 diamond stealth64 with the 4mb setup at a local farmer's market stall. The guy had a pentium rig setup for testing different old parts he had on display (he also sold local fruit/vegetables! 🤣 got some good potatoes, onions, turnips and red beets at the same time!) and showed it working without issue, so even though i got the 2mb on board I put that in too and with jumpers halted the onboard use. Correct me if i'm wrong but this is a better gfx card to use for gaming then the onboard one right?

9) And finally my dad helped me carefully straighten out the crookedness of the case and reinforce and clean up a few spots that had rust or chipped paint. I got the whole thing gutted then blasted and powder coated, before repainting it with a crisp off white color. Oh and I got a 20 inch flatscreen LCD with the VGA hook up. In windows 3.11 I can operate nicely in a comfortable 1024x768 with 16mil colors

All in all its a fun build and for scratching my dos and win 3.x era of games made me a very happy person!

Take care all!

It was already mentioned, that 128MB is beyond the cachable area of the board. So it is somehow in contradiction to upgrade everything to the max. So yes, you upgraded the memory to the max but you made the computer slower.
Consider downgrading the RAM to 64MB or 32MB (I don't know how large the maximum cachable area of the board is) to get more speed.

EDIT: What is the problem in upgrading the cache to 256kb?
I guess you have now a 8kx8 TAG RAM and 4 times 32kx8 data RAMs.
So when you have 4 empty 28pin sockets, you will need 5 more 32kx8 SRAM chips: Replace the tag ram and fill the empy sockets.
But you could post a picture of the mainboard showing the area where the SRAM chips are located, then we will see exactly.