Some of the boards you posted are Baby AT and some are ATX.
Do you have an AT / BabyAT(BAT) case you want to use?
ATX cases and power supplies are much more readily available.

Older ATX cases can hold a BAT board, so this isn't a dealbreaker on using a BAT motherboard, but you still have to adapt the differences between the PSU types and how the power switch works. Last I was aware, eBay sellers had kits for doing this kind of conversion. Still, an ATX board in an ATX case is the simplest way to go.

I think I've read some newer ATX cases don't have mounting points for BAT boards anymore, but I haven't had much experience with modern ATX cases and haven't run into that myself.

shamino wrote on 2023-09-15, 22:30:

Some of the boards you posted are Baby AT and some are ATX. Do you have an AT / BabyAT(BAT) case you want to use? ATX cases and […]
Show full quote

Some of the boards you posted are Baby AT and some are ATX.
Do you have an AT / BabyAT(BAT) case you want to use?
ATX cases and power supplies are much more readily available.

Older ATX cases can hold a BAT board, so this isn't a dealbreaker on using a BAT motherboard, but you still have to adapt the differences between the PSU types and how the power switch works. Last I was aware, eBay sellers had kits for doing this kind of conversion. Still, an ATX board in an ATX case is the simplest way to go.

I think I've read some newer ATX cases don't have mounting points for BAT boards anymore, but I haven't had much experience with modern ATX cases and haven't run into that myself.

Right! I hadn't thought about the case! Thanks!!
I'd use an old AT case, actually this:

1 dont touch via or sis
2 MSI is the only one with pipelined burst cache
3 MSI is using TX chipset, best for socket7
4 MSI is ATX, some might not like socket7 in ATX as its more of a Slot1 era
5 FX boards arent exactly name brands, DTK and TMC dont scream take me

shamino wrote on 2023-09-15, 22:30:

I think I've read some newer ATX cases don't have mounting points for BAT boards anymore, but I haven't had much experience with modern ATX cases and haven't run into that myself.

Beyond no drive bays the bigger issue for me is some of the newer cases can't take a board as wide as a typical Baby AT board, like having a ledge in the way

My immediate view (and I am not an expert like others here) would be in favour of the second board - i) it's ATX, ii) it uses a standard CR2032-type clock battery, iii) it's full of Intel-branded things, iv) SDRAM support.

I was going to say that I assumed MSI still had drivers/BIOSes/etc for it, too, but they don't seem to. I guess it's mostly Asus/Gigabyte that are good that way...

VivienM wrote on 2023-09-16, 00:42:

My immediate view (and I am not an expert like others here) would be in favour of the second board - i) it's ATX, ii) it uses a standard CR2032-type clock battery, iii) it's full of Intel-branded things, iv) SDRAM support.

I was going to say that I assumed MSI still had drivers/BIOSes/etc for it, too, but they don't seem to. I guess it's mostly Asus/Gigabyte that are good that way...

Yeah, as a consolation prize, the AT case would be great for a 486, especially if there is a MHz display lurking under the large dark area

Hmm, the MSI does look most promising. You do not need drivers except the Intel INF for the chipset, which depends on the OS to be installed. the MSI 5158 does have some info thru archive org and elhvb.com
manual: https://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/archive/Achme/ … 5158/index.html
for bios: http://web.archive.org/web/20030220195332/htt … 16&NAME=MS-5158
the file links work but you need to watch the board revision...looks like w5158v14.exe is newest for that rev 1 board, and the DL links do work....
added: I do not know who/what board is the bottom picture but I steer clear of any board with both AT and ATX psu connections (too much trouble for me, seems they all have glitches...)

Since pipelined burst cache is what makes a Pentium fly, I don't recommend to use any boards with asynchronous L2 cache.

I want to mention, the third motherboard has an unusual kind of slot near the processor that the others don't have. Not sure if it's a slot for cache, cpu card, EISA, or something else. These sorts of things are not uncommon, but worth noting.

The second is probably overall the best, it is 133mhz so keep that in mind. I love that speed personally, but it depends on the era of software you're going for.

However, I do want to recommend the 4th. It's passively cooled (which is more likely to be working than a fan after all this time), it uses switches instead of jumpers, it uses the common type of power supply connector, and it looks like it might have usb ports. But having said that, the second is kinda clearly the nicest of this bunch.

Get them all! 🤣

What are you planning to do with it? A fast Socket 7 platform? Slowing it down to play old games? Both? Which CPU do you want to use and do they all support it? Is the AT-case already set in stone or can that still be changed to an ATX one?

The last one, FIC PA-2010+, does have 512K pipline-burst L2 cache and it can run a K6-2 or K6-III @ 500 MHz (6x83.33)
But here I´d probably also prefer the MSI with 3 x SD-RAM slots.

Get one with the “Intel Chipset”
Intel VX, HT, TX….

I have the Intel TX with Pentium MMX 233
But you can use an Intel Pentium 90 thru 233mhz.
32mb ram or up to 64mb ram

This is a Windows 95 era computer.

For Win-98 get an Intel BX 440 chipset motherboard with Intel Pentium ll 350 or Higher.
128mb ram or 256mb ram.

Wow, thank you so much everyone for your many and useful inputs!!!

Mmmm.... well I do have a P133 PC, and an even more modern one.

What I wanted to do is to create a 1st or 2nd (at the latest) generation of P1 machine. Ideally, a P60 (which also adds memories from my childhood, as my 3rd PC was a P60), but I see the insane prices of Socket 3 motherboards. And you guys here on Vogons instructed me on their unreliability and many problems of stability and of other things.

My 4th PC was a P90 actually. Actually, not literally "PC", but I upgraded my 3rd PC (the P60) by replacing the mobo. So, I guess a P90 also adds that pinch of memories to the project, although I owned the P90 for a shorter time. I remember after going to an Intel BX 440 with a PII 350 MHz (yep, exactly that brother) and with a Riva TNT2 Ultra graphics card, it had 2 games with it too, retail box (I can't remember the brand): Forsaken and another game which I don't remember... mmmm....

Difficult decision. The only TWO things that I know for sure are:

• that I want to use this case. Which is an AT case. So, that should be the first requirement: the mobo must be able to fit in it...
• that I don't want to deal with de-soldering batteries issues. I want a replaceable button battery

Intel 430TX ATX or SIS ATX board. Ditch AT completely.

If considering keeping the AT case, you could find a Gigabyte GA-586ATV Rev. 4B (Intel 430VX chipset) motherboard which has the pins for the Turbo switch used to toggle 50 MHz FSB. Note that some of these uses the CR-2032 coin battery instead of a (fortunately socketed) Dallas DS12887 compatible RTC.

Otherwise, get the MSI ATX motherboard based on the Intel 430TX chipset that comes with UDMA/33 support for HDD. The components are more readily available than any AT motherboard.

Here's some more info about our collective favorite: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-ms-5158-tx5

Looking at that info, it really is an awesome motherboard. Goes from 90mhz to 233, supports up to 256mb of ram, has USB 1.1, this thing is really nice and covers a wide variety of that era with nice little conveniences like USB.

The 430TX chipset will only cache 64MB out of that 256MB, though.

It doesn't really matter anyway since you want an AT board for an early Pentium. There are only two boards in your pictures that will fit in that case (the first and third), and they both have slower cache (maybe not a huge problem with a Pentium 90). The first board doesn't have cache installed, so you would need to find cache chips for it.

The second mobo looks most upgradeable - 3 SDRAM slots, 4 PCI and 4 ISA slots, intel chipset, ATX power connector... But if you're on a budget and you don't intend to upgrade the system in future, get the cheapest one, that fits your case, PSU and RAM needs. For P54C it doesn't really matter. For P55C - the one that supports split CPU core-I/O voltages.

okay, since the post moved immediately to page 2, and this was the key post, I'm edit-deleting it here and re-replying in page 2, thanks.