Top left looks like cache chip sockets
Bottom right below the VRAM looks like VRAM expansion sockets.

Nice, that was fast. Thank you!

I was only coming back so quick to correct that there is no cache currently (instead of the 8kb I stated, whoops).

What's the deal with the cache banks being 2 different specs?

Checking a few similar boards on theretroweb, it looks like your board uses unusual, 32-pin 32Kx9 SRAM for the tag, rather than using a x8 chip for tag and x1 chip for dirty, or 7+1 tag mode to use a x8 chip for both, or always-dirty.

ralphmaif wrote on 2026-03-24, 02:34:

Picked up a very clean AST Advantage Adventure 343 (i486dx2 50MHz)

Nice. Looks like AST Advantage Adventure 343 is not in theretroweb database. Looking at just 486 AST variants its ~30 entirely different motherboard designs. WTF were they thinking.

ralphmaif wrote on 2026-03-24, 02:34:

My goal is to make this an ultimate 486 platform build

run https://advsys.net/ken/util/vidspeed.exe to check if that Mach32 is on ISA or VLB/System bus. If its ISA the system will not be all that Ultimate.

ralphmaif wrote on 2026-03-24, 02:34:

Whoever bought it (and never used it) added a 16MB EDO stick to the base 8MB config

486 chipsets generally didnt support EDO, if its really edo you might expect randomly crashing system when computer starts using that ram. Its possible its mapped above 8MB now so running just dos works fine, but loading windows or bigger game will show it. Not that you really need that much ram. There werent really any games that would use more than ~12MB of ram and still run acceptably on 486. Win95 will also be a challenge for dx2.

Cache upgrade might be exciting.

pictured p/n looks like 202528, so related to this one possibly... https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ast-br … o-mt-202528-xxx

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2026-03-24, 06:12:

pictured p/n looks like 202528, so related to this one possibly... https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ast-br … o-mt-202528-xxx

Nice find. Cant find E5 E6 E14 and video memory banks are labeled wrong. E14 supposed to be "Factory configured - do not alter", might mean its a slightly later revision of same design.

jakethompson1 wrote on 2026-03-24, 04:33:

Checking a few similar boards on theretroweb, it looks like your board uses unusual, 32-pin 32Kx9 SRAM for the tag, rather than using a x8 chip for tag and x1 chip for dirty, or 7+1 tag mode to use a x8 chip for both, or always-dirty.

Right, I have to admit I've not seen this mix before.

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-03-24, 05:45:

Nice. Looks like AST Advantage Adventure 343 is not in theretroweb database. Looking at just 486 AST variants its ~30 entirely d […]
Show full quote

ralphmaif wrote on 2026-03-24, 02:34:

Picked up a very clean AST Advantage Adventure 343 (i486dx2 50MHz)

Nice. Looks like AST Advantage Adventure 343 is not in theretroweb database. Looking at just 486 AST variants its ~30 entirely different motherboard designs. WTF were they thinking.

ralphmaif wrote on 2026-03-24, 02:34:

My goal is to make this an ultimate 486 platform build

run https://advsys.net/ken/util/vidspeed.exe to check if that Mach32 is on ISA or VLB/System bus. If its ISA the system will not be all that Ultimate.

ralphmaif wrote on 2026-03-24, 02:34:

Whoever bought it (and never used it) added a 16MB EDO stick to the base 8MB config

486 chipsets generally didnt support EDO, if its really edo you might expect randomly crashing system when computer starts using that ram. Its possible its mapped above 8MB now so running just dos works fine, but loading windows or bigger game will show it. Not that you really need that much ram. There werent really any games that would use more than ~12MB of ram and still run acceptably on 486. Win95 will also be a challenge for dx2.

Cache upgrade might be exciting.

Yeah, I noticed it's not in their database, so I'll be submitting it to theretroweb sometime this week. I'd be curious how many of these are still lurking about out there. I had an AST 486 DX33 when I was in high school in the early 90s, and it was one of my favorite PCs as I remember it not only coming pretty well loaded for the time (4MB RAM, ~250MB HD, dual-speed CD, etc.), but was pretty easily upgradable. It was very similar aesthetically to this 343, but I don't remember it having the hard disk mounted on a removable shroud like this one came.

Vidspeed seems to only run on Pentium or higher CPUs. Looks like the author has some other utilities I can try to test it out...

Thanks for the heads up on the memory spec!

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2026-03-24, 06:12:

pictured p/n looks like 202528, so related to this one possibly... https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ast-br … o-mt-202528-xxx

Right, as rasz indicated, looks very similar with some differences. Hopefully the jumper manual in that profile applies at least, as that will help with some configurations. Thanks for posting!

myne wrote on 2026-03-24, 03:04:

Top left looks like cache chip sockets
Bottom right below the VRAM looks like VRAM expansion sockets.

Not quite, despite the Mach32 supporting VRAM too, on this board DRAM is used. See download/file.php?id=179522

dionb wrote on 2026-03-24, 18:15:

myne wrote on 2026-03-24, 03:04:

Top left looks like cache chip sockets
Bottom right below the VRAM looks like VRAM expansion sockets.

Not quite, despite the Mach32 supporting VRAM too, on this board DRAM is used. See download/file.php?id=179522

^that's what I ended up picking up from eBay, only Samsung not Hitachi.

ralphmaif wrote on 2026-03-24, 15:04:

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2026-03-24, 06:12:

pictured p/n looks like 202528, so related to this one possibly... https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ast-br … o-mt-202528-xxx

Right, as rasz indicated, looks very similar with some differences. Hopefully the jumper manual in that profile applies at least, as that will help with some configurations. Thanks for posting!

This is actually bang on -- the part number is on the photo I posted (no trailing characters, though).

dionb wrote on 2026-03-24, 18:15:

myne wrote on 2026-03-24, 03:04:

Top left looks like cache chip sockets
Bottom right below the VRAM looks like VRAM expansion sockets.

Not quite, despite the Mach32 supporting VRAM too, on this board DRAM is used. See download/file.php?id=179522

The v means video.
There's no such thing as vram as a product.

ralphmaif wrote on 2026-03-24, 14:56:

Vidspeed seems to only run on Pentium or higher CPUs. Looks like the author has some other utilities I can try to test it out...

vidspeed should even run on 386. Here few benchmarks showing what to expect on DX50 and dx2/66 with diffeent graphic chips https://brassicgamer.blogspot.com/2023/04/the … 6.html#vidspeed

myne wrote on Yesterday, 00:50:

dionb wrote on 2026-03-24, 18:15:

myne wrote on 2026-03-24, 03:04:

Top left looks like cache chip sockets
Bottom right below the VRAM looks like VRAM expansion sockets.

Not quite, despite the Mach32 supporting VRAM too, on this board DRAM is used. See download/file.php?id=179522

The v means video.
There's no such thing as vram as a product.

There is indeed such a thing as VRAM, and there are Mach32 variants that use it.
VRAM was once a common name for dual-ported DRAM.
Eventually VRAM became a generic term for any type of video RAM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-ported_video_RAM

rasz_pl wrote on Yesterday, 03:16:

ralphmaif wrote on 2026-03-24, 14:56:

Vidspeed seems to only run on Pentium or higher CPUs. Looks like the author has some other utilities I can try to test it out...

vidspeed should even run on 386. Here few benchmarks showing what to expect on DX50 and dx2/66 with diffeent graphic chips https://brassicgamer.blogspot.com/2023/04/the … 6.html#vidspeed

Hmm...is there another version of it out there? It wouldn't even run until I paired it with dos4gw, and then it just quit, demanding I have a pentium. The system came loaded with DOS 6.21 and Windows 3.1.

I do have a POPD5V83 I could pull from a Compaq Prolinea MT 66, but I'd rather avoid that for now...even though the article you posted is absolutely fascinating and has me wanting to try all sorts of hardware combos mixes 'n matches between the two.

ATI MACH 32 on ISA bus here. Not good not bad anyway.

Im sorry, I linked Ken Silverman's page expecting him hosting normal vidspeed, but its his own version
normal one can be downloaded here https://thandor.net/downloadmanager/66 4.0
https://vetusware.com/download/VIDSPEED%203.0 3.0
no dos4gw needed. "vidspeed * L" command

myne wrote on Yesterday, 00:50:

[...]

The v means video.
There's no such thing as vram as a product.

No?

Then why does the ATi Programmer's Guide to the mach32 Registers - the only piece of technical documentation of the mach32 in the public domain - explicitly mention this?

Memory Types: VRAM 256Kx4, 256Kx16; DRAM 256Kx4, 256Kx16

- and also go on to indicate which versions of the ATI68800 support which memory technology. The ATI68800-6 on OP's board supports both VRAM and DRAM - but it can't mix both. So it's very relevant to identify whether the chips on the board are DRAM or VRAM. By saying the sockets were for VRAM when he already has DRAM on the board you were inadvertently giving incorrect advice.

An example of an early VRAM chip is the NEC D42274V-10, a 256Kx4 VRAM chip in ZIP form factor, which was definitely used on ATI's 8514/Ultra, would have been compatible with the Mach32 and may also have actually been used on the Graphics Ultra Pro, ATi's Mach32 ISA card with 2MB of VRAM.

I suggest you read up a bit more on 1990s memory technologies before telling others "There's no such thing" - it was a lot more diverse than today. Now - aside from SRAM caches - basically all RAM you'll find in PCs is DRAM. Back in the day dual porting was a thing (allowing the video controller to write to the framebuffer at the same time as it was being read by the RAMDAC), with VRAM as the expensive high-end option for graphics vs DRAM in the low end, and some other oddball options like WRAM (Matrox) and MDRAM (Tseng) trying to approach VRAM performance at cost closer to DRAM. S3's product lineup exemplified this, with the low-end S3 8xx range using DRAM and the 9xx range offering basically the same features but in VRAM. And with a very small number of oddball exceptions, you couldn't mix types on a single card.