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Mini 486 gaming PC?

John Draugr said:
Here is a question. Would the AWE64 Gold card fit inside the Unisys CWD? I saw one on eBay and it looks kind of long in size. I wonder if it is too long to fit inside the case.

Does anyone know if the CWD 486DX2/66 can be upgraded to a DX4/100 chip? Also, what type of RAM does it take?

Thanks
John
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I didn't feel motivated enough to remove my AWE64 Gold from it's machine, but I did open my CWD and there is only 1 inch of clearance past the end of the ISA connector before the card would hit the case.

As far as the processor, it is in a LIF socket, but cooling would be the problem. Mine has a DX 33 installed w/o HS, and I decided against attempting any upgrade. The processor is directly beneath the hard drive with almost no clearance, perhaps 1/4 inch, if that. So any fan would definately not fit, limiting you to passively cooled CPUs. I don't have any passively cooled DX/2 66s, or I would see if their HS is low profile enough to fit, but I think it might be. I really don't think you would be able to get a Am5x86/133 in there unless you got a special custom HS for it, and I don't know about DX/4s.

The MB has jumpers for up to 50Mhz bus speed and DX/2 settings. No mention of DX/4 processors.
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Trevor
 
John Draugr said:
Here is a question. Would the AWE64 Gold card fit inside the Unisys CWD?
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Depends on the version of the Gold card. The CT4390 will not fit, whereas the CT4540 will, with two caveats:

1. It's a bit tricky to get it in, and...
2. It's a (considerably) snug fit.

Shaving even a millimeter off of the length of the card would help quite a bit.

You might be better off with the AWE64 Value (CT4520), as has already been mentioned. (I have a spare one of these, if you want me to just ship it along with the computer...) To get an idea of what one of these looks like installed, refer to the photograph on the first page of the thread. :)
 
Thanks again to everyone who is replying and posting in this thread. Together you have all offered a wealth of info that I would not have had any clue about before this thread was posted.

Cloudschatze, if you have a spare AWE64 and won't mind shipping it then that would be great. I thought I had a AWE32 but I can't seem to find it. Who knows it may be in one of the old PCs I have in storage.

Thanks Again,
John
 
Cloudschatze said:
Would a Unisys-branded CWD 486 DX2/66 work for what you're after? I'll have to double-check, but I should have an extra one somewhere...

minime.jpg


340MB hard-drive, 12MB RAM (IIRC), 3.5" floppy, built-in video and NIC... not too shabby. Throw a soundcard into the single ISA slot, and you're good-to-go...

unisys.jpg
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Did you find the spare one? I might be interested depending on the cost.

Unknown_K said:
I use 486 Thinkpads, 640x480 TFT screens perfect for DOS gaming, and they have stereo sound that is soundblaster compatible.
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Mind sharing what models of Thinkpad?
 
Raven said:
Mind sharing what models of Thinkpad?
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Try the Compaq LTE series machines too. The 5xxx series aren't 486s, but older pentiums, but do have sound and pcmcia slots (16bit) for ethernet and etc.
They show up on ebay fairly frequently at pretty reasonable prices (~$10-$40 often). I have a spare or two if you are interested.

From what I have seen, laptops didn't commonly have sound until around the pentium era, or very late 486s.
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Trevor
 
Unknown_K said:
http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/thinkpadspecs.html
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Very nice reference - thanks!

Trevor said:
Try the Compaq LTE series machines too. The 5xxx series aren't 486s, but older pentiums, but do have sound and pcmcia slots (16bit) for ethernet and etc.
They show up on ebay fairly frequently at pretty reasonable prices (~$10-$40 often). I have a spare or two if you are interested.

From what I have seen, laptops didn't commonly have sound until around the pentium era, or very late 486s.
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My T6600C came with a Windows Sound Source and it's a middle-aged 486 from when multi-media was "it". Becoming annoyed with it's partial SB compatibility I installed a SB16 and wired it to the internal speakers to solve that problem. T6600C is technically a luggable though - two full length ISA slots... beautiful machine. :D It's HUGE for a "laptop" though - if you've ever seen a T4400 series (I have several broken ones) it's just like that but GIGANTIC. I'd like to get my hands on something smaller some time without sacrificing sound capabilities. I have a Compaq LTE/33c which was quite nice, but it came with a wonderful broken floppy drive and a battery that won't hold a charge. I ordered a replacement floppy drive only to find that it didn't work and likely the mobo floppy controller was dead. I went through lots of adventures trying to find a good portable 486 without a defective motherboard (starting when my T4400C died due to... motherboard... and it's replacements didn't work out) until I ended up with my T6600C. Anywho enough rambling.
 
You would probably have better luck with an early Pentium Thinkpad (more common with stereo sound and more were made). The only issue would be that they tended to go with 800x600 screens that do not stretch so lower rez games would look funny. The link I posted gives you an idea what models you might want.
 
Unknown_K said:
You would probably have better luck with an early Pentium Thinkpad (more common with stereo sound and more were made). The only issue would be that they tended to go with 800x600 screens that do not stretch so lower rez games would look funny. The link I posted gives you an idea what models you might want.
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You can enable LCD stretch on an older ThinkPad by pressing Fn-F8. However, the upscaling of some resolutions (especially 640x480) is not very smooth.

Appearance of LCD at resolutions lower than default - ThinkPad General
 
Seems my reply to this thread disappeared earlier for whatever reason, or never got submitted.

I found a ton of these on eBay (around 100 or more), just thought I'd let you guys know in case anybody wants one. I made an offer one one myself.

Oh and by coincidence I happen to be familiar with MediaGX (quite a bit) now, and can say that the PCs linked to above (The TS/TU stuff) should be SB-compatible, around 98% of games (Monster Bash is the only one I've come across so far, and it has FM just not Digital Sound). I'll likely get one sometime.
 
Cloudschatze said:
340MB hard-drive, 12MB RAM (IIRC), 3.5" floppy, built-in video and NIC... not too shabby. Throw a soundcard into the single ISA slot, and you're good-to-go...

unisys.jpg
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I want one! I like the unusual little machines like this, and I think I could use it for something interesting.
 
My offer of $38 was accepted on one from the batch of 'em that was listed for $75 obo.
 
I found a ton of these on eBay (around 100 or more), just thought I'd let you guys know in case anybody wants one.
Click to expand...

Care to post a link? I've tried every search term I can think of and can't seem to find 'em.
 
Old Thrashbarg said:
Care to post a link? I've tried every search term I can think of and can't seem to find 'em.
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260589578109&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT <-- 486 model @$75obo
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250603646156&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT <-- 486 model @$100obo
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250552596524&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT <-- Later Case Design (I think) 486 model @$100obo

I'd posted these in my original post that disappeared magically before. :p
 
I think I might have to get one of those 4002 models when my paycheck comes in. Looks pretty sweet.

Just out of curiosity, is there any more information floating around about the specifics of the hardware... like what the system, video and NIC chipsets are, how much cache it has, stuff like that?
 
One of the people who owns one in this thread should be able to answer at least some of those questions - I'd like to know about the NIC/Video too. If they don't get to it I'll let you know once I get mine. :)
 
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