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Hi! Look what I found.

barros

New Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2013
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5
Hi all, first of all forgive me for my "english" :) I'm portuguese and I'm not used to write about vintage computers, but after finding this forum and read a few threads I remembered I had some old (like vintage old) stuff boxed, and well here they are... unboxed. :)

The older one is really my first computer, it's an Intel 486DX 33 MHz with 16 MB of RAM (I bought it with 8 MB), plus some kind of sound blaster clone (I remember buying a big Creative Labs box with the CD drive in the photos, a real sound blaster 16(???) and two sound blaster speakers (I later that card to a cousin because the one that it had at the time wasn't working and got the one in the pictures). After that I don't really understand what I have here, and that's why I need your help. :)
What's that ISA(???) card where the drives are connected, and what about that v7 vega video card, do you know what that is?
I was thinking about upgrading to a DX2 66 MHz Intel processor, is it possible with this motherboard? And what about a new sound card? Which one should I get?

The other one is my first portable computer, from what I remember it is a Pentium 3 @900 MHz and some kind of GeForce Nvidia video card, right now it's running Windows 2000, when I bought it it came with Windows Me! :p

I still have an old PC, some kind of AMD Athlon XP, with an ATI 9000(???) card that runs XP just fine, but that's for another post.

Here's the dropbox folder with more photos.


Thanks
Barros
 

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I am sure that board would take a 66/DX2. Considering that the vertical form factor came later
and essentially all the newer boards will take one.

I don't know much about the other cards, but if one has drives connecting to it, it is no doubt either an IDE or SCSI controller.
The Aztech sound cards are sound blaster clones (I think SB16) but they often have more features that can be activated with the appropriate driver.
I have a reveal sound card which is actually an aztech rebrand.
 
Thanks for replying :)

It should be an IDE controller.
I will try to find an DX2 66 and I already bought a CREATIVE AWE 64 Gold to replace the Aztech Sound Card. I also need to replace the battery of the MB.
 
Thanks for replying :)

It should be an IDE controller.
I will try to find an DX2 66 and I already bought a CREATIVE AWE 64 Gold to replace the Aztech Sound Card. I also need to replace the battery of the MB.

You may need to scrounge a motherboard manual or atleast jumper sheet to set the jumpers when changing CPUs
 
Yep! I'm still trying to figure out what is the brand\model of this motherboard... Not easy :)
 
You need to look if theres is an VRM installed on the motherboard, so theres an option to set it to 3.3 volt.. There are differences which voltage which type of processor need to use.. Some boards have automatic voltage setting (mostly they have instead one VRM, two VRMs installed on the motherboard. But on most board you have to set the voltage settings and other processor setting by hand.
Processors from 486 DX till 486 DX 2 50mhz will use 5 volts for the processor, later model needs to have 3.3volt for their processors.. If you put an 3.3 volt processor in an 5 volt only board then theres a big chance you damage the processor by overvolting it.
But there is only one type of processor on 66mhz speed thats is designed to run on 5V, thats the cyrix processor. It was more designed for board who did had the 3.3 voltage option on the motherboard so still could use a faster processor.
If the board can be set to 3.3 volt it would accept the newer processors to from 66mhz till 120mhz, and AMD 5x86 p75 -133 mhz would work also on 3.3 (but really where designed for 3.45 volt)

The soundblaster clone is just an generic Aztech sound card, not for special at al. Aztech was more a cheaper brand, but did made really bad soundcards.

The graphics card is one of the better Vesa local bus (VLB) graphics card.. If you dont know what VLB is please search on the internet.

But i guess to system board will also have VLB .. Mostly there are two or three vlb slots on the boards, but can use only two installed with VLB card, this had to do with system stabillity.

The controller card is just a normal I/O controller, cant see it on the motherboard, but maybe its VLB as well.. In these days it was normal to have an I/O as plug in adapter, because there wasnt no IDE interfaces on the motherboard it self, they came with the first PCI 486 motherboards, but where better intergrated on the first pentium class computers.
 
OEM MOBOs sometimes have VLB and IDE / VGA integrated with 80486 CPUs. IBM ValuePoints are the perfect example.
 
OEM MOBOs sometimes have VLB and IDE / VGA integrated with 80486 CPUs. IBM ValuePoints are the perfect example.
As well as the 486 PS/1s and Aptivas. As do the Compaq and Dec slimlines. Don't quite understand Robin4 about DX2 50s being the max cpu at 5v. I suspect that should read DX 50 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80486 DX33s usually don't need any jumper alteration to use a DX2/66 cpu from the few I've swapped.
 
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You need to look if theres is an VRM installed on the motherboard, so theres an option to set it to 3.3 volt.. There are differences which voltage which type of processor need to use.. Some boards have automatic voltage setting (mostly they have instead one VRM, two VRMs installed on the motherboard. But on most board you have to set the voltage settings and other processor setting by hand.
Processors from 486 DX till 486 DX 2 50mhz will use 5 volts for the processor, later model needs to have 3.3volt for their processors.. If you put an 3.3 volt processor in an 5 volt only board then theres a big chance you damage the processor by overvolting it.
But there is only one type of processor on 66mhz speed thats is designed to run on 5V, thats the cyrix processor. It was more designed for board who did had the 3.3 voltage option on the motherboard so still could use a faster processor.
If the board can be set to 3.3 volt it would accept the newer processors to from 66mhz till 120mhz, and AMD 5x86 p75 -133 mhz would work also on 3.3 (but really where designed for 3.45 volt)

What would a Socket 3 board's VRM look like? I just bought a 3.3v 486 DX2 66mhz on ebay to upgrade my 486 DX 33mhz and now I'm curious if I made a mistake.
 
Check if your motherboard provides a jumper option for 3.3V.

Edit: Intel 486DX/2 66 should be a 5V part
 
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Well, I'm not seeing anything.

There goes $5 down the drain :(

If it makes you feel any better, I spent $100 on a hard drive which arrived seized.

If you order an Intel, as caluser mentioned, it should drop in with no other changes (5V and uses a 33Mhz bus, just like the DX-33). But if there is some way to configure you rmotherboard, it'd be worth it, 3 volt parts run a fair bit cooler.
 
If it makes you feel any better, I spent $100 on a hard drive which arrived seized.

If you order an Intel, as caluser mentioned, it should drop in with no other changes (5V and uses a 33Mhz bus, just like the DX-33). But if there is some way to configure you rmotherboard, it'd be worth it, 3 volt parts run a fair bit cooler.

Ouch. That sucks. That's why I'm afraid to order HDDs on ebay.

Oh well, it was just around $5 anyway. Its an AMD 3 volt chip so I guess that isn't happening any time soon. Well I got another CPU to sit around with my burnt out 486SX 33mhz that I stuck in the socket the wrong way.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-486-DX-...6JVlJmPUJ22DUyZk0SBkU%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Might have to keep an eye out for an Intel chip for cheap in the future.
 
Ouch. That sucks. That's why I'm afraid to order HDDs on ebay.

Oh well, it was just around $5 anyway. Its an AMD 3 volt chip so I guess that isn't happening any time soon. Well I got another CPU to sit around with my burnt out 486SX 33mhz that I stuck in the socket the wrong way.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-486-DX-...6JVlJmPUJ22DUyZk0SBkU%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Might have to keep an eye out for an Intel chip for cheap in the future.

Get yourself Voltage socket adapter and you can use that chip you bought in a 5V board.

Not cheap when compared to what you paid for that CPU, but opens the door to pretty much any 486 or 5x86 CPU upgrade you could ever want to install in that thing. I used one of those same adapters to install a Cyrix 5x86 100 in an old 5V Compaq 486.
 
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