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Gateway 2000 4DX2-66

EverStaR said:
I understand, however, sound is a BIG deal for me! It's one of the big deals of that era, no? Yeah, I could have gone several different directions, but this was the one in my mind worth investing in. MIDI was a huge deal during that era if my humble memory serves me correctly! When you start looking at all the high end sound options and cost, you get to a point where the extra options a new modern ISA sound solution looks more appealing!
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Okay, I see your point. But, back in the day. audio was a little more advanced than video when it came to games, but I never really listened that close or commented on the sound while playing. I do remember my first CDROM and playing some CD's, but I don't think it was on an ISA system. Kind of a novelty at that as I had a pretty good home audio setup.
 
Some links to entice you!





For a 486, It was the mini age of sound before video began to take center stage!

These are fun to watch!
 
MIDI was the high end in DOS gaming, and waveblaster add-on devices are expensive these days along with external modules like MT-32.
 
If you haven't already, check out the PicoGUS. I picked up one and it is amazing if you don't mind emulators, which many of the cards use to a degree. For my Gateway 4DX2-66 it initially came with the Ensoniq Soundscape but the card died thanks to leaky caps destroying the board and some of the components. I replaced it with a Sound Blaster 16 as that was what I put in my original Gateway 486. But then I swapped it out with a Sound Blaster Pro 2 as I thought it would be a better choice for the games I play on it.

I am right with you, sound to me (Specifically Sound Blaster 16), as well as 256 color VGA graphics is what got me into DOS gaming coming from an Amiga which was all about sound and graphics.
 
Zippy Zapp said:
If you haven't already, check out the PicoGUS. I picked up one and it is amazing if you don't mind emulators, which many of the cards use to a degree. For my Gateway 4DX2-66 it initially came with the Ensoniq Soundscape but the card died thanks to leaky caps destroying the board and some of the components. I replaced it with a Sound Blaster 16 as that was what I put in my original Gateway 486. But then I swapped it out with a Sound Blaster Pro 2 as I thought it would be a better choice for the games I play on it.

I am right with you, sound to me (Specifically Sound Blaster 16), as well as 256 color VGA graphics is what got me into DOS gaming coming from an Amiga which was all about sound and graphics.
Click to expand...
I am on the picogus wait list. But what I am learning is a lot of these cool offerings are one and done runs. You either g3t 9ne or sometimes never get the chance. While the AdlIb was super cool, it's not likely ever to be available again. So the Orpheus will likely see a 3rd addition, it will also be hard to get and thus a 2 will hold value. You will likely see 3 buyers sell their Two. These boutique cards are really collector items. I have over 200K midi files to explore and there are a number I am already partial to.

A lot of people are buying these for a far smaller use case or to market their YouTube videos. My use case is enjoyment!
 
How about a Joystick, that is a weak area in my memory because I think most games i played during that period were mouse point and click adventures? Should I get one to round out this build? I have thought a lot about where I will locate this system and I think it will be in my main PC area verses the retro station behind that area. I think the XP and this one will be near my mega machines

Joystick or not?

Thanks!
E
 
I think the new audio cards being made are just not worth it economically, so you don't get second runs. Too much money is tied into them, and they probably sell slow.

I find the newer waveblaster modules more interesting. I purchased a Yamaha DB50XG when they were new for a SB16 I had and it later went onto a MX300 Aureal card. A few years back somebody in Asia cloned the board and I purchased one for something like $30 on ebay, don't see many originals or clones there anymore.
 
Unknown_K said:
I think the new audio cards being made are just not worth it economically, so you don't get second runs. Too much money is tied into them, and they probably sell slow.

I find the newer waveblaster modules more interesting. I purchased a Yamaha DB50XG when they were new for a SB16 I had and it later went onto a MX300 Aureal card. A few years back somebody in Asia cloned the board and I purchased one for something like $30 on ebay, don't see many originals or clones there anymore.
Click to expand...

I do really think I am going to enjoy the finished result, I am really looking forward to spending some time on it!
 
EverStaR said:
I am on the picogus wait list. But what I am learning is a lot of these cool offerings are one and done runs. You either g3t 9ne or sometimes never get the chance. While the AdlIb was super cool, it's not likely ever to be available again. So the Orpheus will likely see a 3rd addition, it will also be hard to get and thus a 2 will hold value. You will likely see 3 buyers sell their Two. These boutique cards are really collector items. I have over 200K midi files to explore and there are a number I am already partial to.

A lot of people are buying these for a far smaller use case or to market their YouTube videos. My use case is enjoyment!
Click to expand...
Sorry for popping in, I was searching for PicoGUS... 😅 I'm restocking in a few days, but there are way more on the waitlist than what I've produced in this last batch. Keeping up with demand is tough, but I intend to keep them available to buy as long as people want them.
 
EverStaR said:
Joystick or not?
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I still have a few gamepads and Joysticks that I have kept throughout the years. While I rarely use them with modern games, I do occasionally use them for old combat fighters and some Star Wars and Wing Commander games. They are pretty cheap these days to find usable models. I see the full Sidewinder joystick with hat switch and thrust controls at thrift stores pretty often. I am sure there are some expensive thrust master sticks but I don't really need that.

polpo said:
Sorry for popping in, I was searching for PicoGUS... 😅 I'm restocking in a few days, but there are way more on the waitlist than what I've produced in this last batch. Keeping up with demand is tough, but I intend to keep them available to buy as long as people want them.
Click to expand...
No, thanks very much for popping in! Glad to hear you will be keeping these around because it is a fantastic option for sound cards. Keep up the good work!
 
new question, I am getting close on wrapping this machine up. I have a Gotek installed and working. I was kind of hoping to have both the Gotek and the original 3 1/2 floppy drive working. However, the GotTek shows as both A: and B: and I guess because it is at the end of the floppy cable that's how does works. So in order for both to work independently (not simultaneously as I know that's not possible) is there anything a person can do? I was reading that maybe if you use the flat board like connector it might see it, but is that because it will think its a 5 1/4 and thus not work anyways?

If I add a controller card can it see both then if they are each hooked to a different controller? Or will the controller take over and make the motherboard controller not work?

Thanks!
E
 
Makefile said:
It makes more sense to put your hard drives on the PCI connector and the ATAPI CD-ROM on the ISA. The ISA bus can sustain about 16X CD or so before it's saturated, and any faster is probably louder than you are willing to tolerate anyway. Also if you run Windows 3.x, the 32-bit disk access doesn't play nicely with MSCDEX accessing a CD-ROM on the same interface.
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No CD-Drive could ever saturate the ISA bus. That's 16 MB/s. You'd need a 107x Speed CD-ROM drive to hit that bandwidth.
A DVD drive on the other hand would saturate the ISA bus at 12x Speed.
 
Xenophage said:
No CD-Drive could ever saturate the ISA bus. That's 16 MB/s. You'd need a 107x Speed CD-ROM drive to hit that bandwidth.
A DVD drive on the other hand would saturate the ISA bus at 12x Speed.
Click to expand...
The fastest theoretical ISA transfer still takes two bus cycles. ~8MB/s is the theoretical limit (at 8MHz)
 
Afternoon, well, nearing the wrap up for the first Gateways DX2/66. It totally didn't end up the way I expected, but that really isn't surprising either, lol. I ended up saving the Orpheus and other special Sound Cards for a larger 486 Build that I am slowly gathering parts up to build. So for this one I have built out some nice Flash Drives, the first with DOS 6.22 and WFW 3.11. The next I am building right now with Win95.

For the hardware, I ended up with a PICOGUS and SB ISA VIBRA. They play nicely together and give the future user a lot of flexibility. I really only added the SB to accommodate the CD Sound Cable due to the PICGUS not having one. Video is Diamond Stealth 64 S3 PCI and then there is a LinkSys ISA Network Card. The 52X CD was a late add as I could see the 8X I had in there was wonky and having occasional read errors. The New CD Drive fixed all that!

I did try to get a load of OS/2 Warp 4.X on the Machine, however, it just doesn't seem to want to play well yet, so I will save that for a future 486 or maybe even a Pentium class. Back in the day I was a desktop Tech and the Telco I worked for was all OS/2 with Windows 3.1 under it. I really liked OS/2 and have some fun stories from those days.

So my second go of W95 is running now, we will see how it does. I would have liked a little more memory on this machine, however, I haven't gotten it to recognize more than 8MB. Not much documentation on it so I will keep digging and see what I can find.

I think after I get done with the two machines I will definitely sell them off. We'll see! Lot of work and relearning when into getting to this point. lol

I should add as well that the original HD and Floppy are inside (you can see Floppy) and disconnected so that everything else works.

E

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