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My Collection (Pictures/Videos)

I figured as much... I am considering Dual-Booting as I don't have an NT4 system running.

In the meantime, having rummaged in my box of CPUs, one of my 386's got an upgrade;

Before (Am386DX-40)
AM40FPU.jpgAM40CPU.jpg

After (Cyrix 486DLC-33GP)
CX33FPU.jpgCX33CPU.jpg

Oddly, the FPU also gets a performance increase (almost doubled) despite being clocked around 20% lower with this CPU... Presumably because the CPU has L1 Cache or removes some other bottleneck as I have not changed anything else. As far as I know, the IIT 4C87DLC is a hybrid for 386- and 486-class CPUs, presumably 386-class mode is slower or something.
 
Ordered some new parts to play with today. I was planning on getting an Am5x86 to go towards completing the CPU collection, but that's effectively a 486 inside, I therefore decided I don't want one (unless I find one dirt cheap or in the trash somewhere - yeah, I rummage in bins) as they are nothing special really... I want a real 586, so I bought this;
586-DOM-8100.jpg
This is a DOS on Mac card apparently, I just want the CPU though it comes with no guarantee of working... If anyone wants the card when I'm done I'll drop an Am486DX4-100 in and send it for the cost if shipping, as I have a few of those chips spare and don't need the card. Essentially, this gets me a Cyrix 586 - a real 586 - eat that, Am586 users (losers :p)!

MB-8433UUD-A.jpg
Biostar MB-8433UUD-A Ver 2 Motherboard with cards and headers, tested working apparently. Supposedly supports the 586 chips, I'll be mad at the internets if it doesn't. Though I've got a nasty feeling my JK-042A is in it's winter years and I love 486's anyway. That Cirrus card will go on the spares pile and I'll throw an S3 in, I always get artefacts with Currus cards for some reason, scaler doesn't like them (Or ATI Magnums for that matter) which is weird.

PAS-16.JPG
Sound cards were always a favorite of mine, Pro Audio Spectrum 16 is something I had never owned before pretty much the only thing I'm missing (aside from SSI-2001, and I know I won't find one of those as well as a SoundScape) that I care about, loads of games I have support it so I'm wondering what kind of sounds it produces, though I'd hazzard a guess the music is typical YM262 sounds unless they did something I am not aware of.

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Edit: Oh, and that 386 got a video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw1pEda21hI
 
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Not a computer as such, but given the talk of making music through the use of a computer system I figured I'd post what I've been doing with my Casio CZ-1000, this made use of a Windows 98 PC for sequencing and loading / saving patches.

 
Made a video documenting how the 286 and K5 have been altered since their last appearence. 5x86 makes an appearence too - though a small one and it isn't started up, plus my UM486 runs a 5x86 chip (This was done before I tweaked memory timings, improving performance even further).

I have my IBM out, so I'll post that tomorrow. In the meantime, here's something I just grabbed on eBay, I used one years ago, always wanted to play with one.
mistumicd.jpg
 
Less than two hours? Gotta be a record.

Anyway, here's my IBM;
PHTO0005.jpg

ValuePoint 325T/S (6382) That was taken with my old camera a long time ago, found it and figured I needn't take another. Have the mouse an manual somewhere but somebody stole the missiny keycaps years back, doesn't bother me as I never use that keyboard anyway, it's not fun to type or game with for long periods of time. The specifications are;
IBM 386SLC-25 (Presumably Cyrix designed?)
8MB 72-Pin RAM (Probably FPD, doesn't take any other module so I hope that one doesn't stop working)
Cirrus Logic video chip with 1MB RAM
512MB IDE Hard Drives
Does not work with CD Drives
Has issues with several expansion cards
Used to belong to Comet Stores

This was the first PC I owned myself, it's not a bad system and it got me started but the lack of upgradeability and limited performance really do let it down.
 
If it wasn't special for being my first PC I'd have gotten rid years ago, as a point of interest I pretty much moved from that to a Duron 750 in 2001 if you don't count the short time I used the family's first PC (Pentium, played a lot of Touhou 6) between my friend busting the power switch and getting the Duron up.

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I have made a video about the 5x86 I was working on, it was living in a random case at the time and has since been taken apart and boxed up, leaves me an AT case free I guess. The orange box I made might house the PC Partner board I showed in the video, possibly it'll get a K6 or Cyrix (6x86MX probably) as I have neither in operation right now and that box cost me a few quid to make, not to mention I have pieces for building the power supply around that I probably won't use otherwise.

 
Been some time since I posted in here, this is one that's probably not hanging around as the motherboard and CPU are highly likely to be headed back to Germany shortly.

batman.jpg

CPU: Pentium 60MHz - Doesn't have FDIV Bug.
RAM: 32MB FPD (It doesn't like EDO, doesn't like most FPD either actually) - the 16MB it came with is faulty I think.
BIOS: Horrible, mostly not functioning, random checksum errors and failures to pass POST.
VGA: S3 Trio 32, I was going to get a better one if it was a good machine, as it is, it blacks out after reboots and makes the CRT scream - card is fine.
IDE: Both controllers faulty, first one freezes/checksum errors on POST if LBA is enabled, second one cannot read from any drive despite detecting it.
HDD: 6GB Quantum Fireball, overkill.
CARDS: Left-to-right - 3C905-TX Ethernet, S3 Trio 32, Pro AudioSpectrum Plus, Serial Card as onboard ports are inoperable.

Things of note; aside from it being a scrapyard in the guise of a motherboard, the CMOS battery mod is rubbish, because no diode was added and the battery gets extremely hot whilst the machine is operating. As it is, I've never run it more than an hour as it crashes or screws up in some way that encourages me to turn it off, if I ran it longer it could blow I expect. I tried cable management this time, ususally just position them for airflow and not looks, this time I tried. The serial headers are pinned beneath the serial card, bad design. The L2 Cache is the area above the CPU, it cannot be altered but the 256K that it has is enough for me and that amount of RAM as far as I know. I cannot get a CD-ROM drive to work with this and given that it was built to play old adventure games (i,e; ones relying on the CD-ROM drive) as one of it's main tasks, this renders it almost useless on top of the other problems. It also gets very hot, CPU I'm not worried about, but even the expansion cards seem to run warmer in here and I'm not sure if it's that I imagine it because I am worried about it breaking something or it is actually happening.

Thinking of retiring from building early, maybe focus on the last couple of CPUs I want and write the 5x86/Slow Pentium off as a bad job as it probably isn't meant to be given the luck I have had so far. Was going to spend my afternoon working with it but I think I'll spend it getting my "Hooker" (486-SX) back on the network as I never set the card up again... Can't remember how to network DOS, this will be fun.
 
I am working on getting a IPX based NetWare Lite LAN configured. Windows 7 Pro (64) does not come with IPX/SPX and NETBIOS anymore though. I tried to see whether I could hook up my contemporary machines to the same 10MBIT network. Anyway: only 1 NE1000 so far. Once I get the NE2000s in I can setup the LAN. :D Good luck!
 
DOS can connect to the network?
net0.jpg
Check.

Went one better and connected an unstable operating system before using it to play music?
net1.jpg
Check.
 
A good day!

Got this lot for £70, can probably make some amount back as I don't want all of them, apparently a bloke who lost the auction wants some of them... Might end up selling some off to him. Hopefully he's the type that'll put them to good use and not lock them in a glass box.
CPUS1.JPG

Apparently contains;
7 off Cyrix 586
7 off ST 486-66
4 off Via C3 733Mhz
3 off AMD 486 DX-2 66
3 off IBM Blue Lightning 486 DX
3 off IBM 486 DX2
2 off Intel 486 DX
1 off Intel 486 SX
1 off AMD 586
8 off K5 or equivalent.
Though I don't know what the seller knows as I spot at least one that seems to be listed as K5/Equiv and is 486-class, still, I know what's there and what I wanted so if they work - worth it.



Lastly, can we have a drum-roll? Y'all know I don't like OEMs right? Propriatery and stuff? Awkward case layouts? Hmm...
leo1.jpg
Couldn't resist this thing, Leo Databook, it's tiny. Plus it reminds me of stuff you'd see in 90's cyberpunk movies or something, I don't have a DX2-66 in operation, never needed one really as things either wanted a SX/DX-33 or a Pentium but as I think you're supposed to have one when you're playing with this stuff (I do have a few chips, just never ran a machine on one outside of testing, performance seems to come in lumps on that chip) and... well, that's my excuse. I liked it, it wasn't too costly, I bougt it. Here's hoping it can restore my love for 4th-gen machines. No CD, potentially broken ethernet (given one is installed in the slot implying the on-board wasn't in use for some reason, fingers crossed it was because of a different wire type and not component failure) and one ISA slot? Ought to be a fun project. Something tells me that LapLink is going to be coming out of the archive for this one. Technically, if one were adventurous it might be possible to wire more than one device to the ISA bus I suppose or make an infra-red device for the serial port. Also prepared for busted RTC or battery given the age.

Curious as the what CPU it has as the listing only stated "486 DX2-66" - my money is on AMD, it'd be nice if it were a Cyrix or Intel part though. My money is also on it being an embedded (QFP) solution.

Come on, what did you think? Like I'd buy an IBM or something? You know me by now, I'm a rebel, even when I am buying OEMs.

Here's hoping my streak of bad luck has come to an end. I've got a really good feeling about the Leo at least.
 
That Leo is really interesting. CPUs: there are so many that I believe collectors who like them in glass are fine. It beats those people who just melt them down for miniscule gold and other metal recovery. :D
 
Everything got here, the CPU trays contained a UMC U5S-Super40 so that's upgraded my Super33 box, thus far they all appear functional. I still want to track down a U5D / U486DX though.

In the meantime, Leo;

This thing is surprisingly easy to work on.
 
Time for an update, good month so far. Brace yourself, it's a big one! Going to go after diodenmann's 486 motherboard and give my 5x86 another go seeing how my Batman was defective but my bad luck seems to be over for now, on the subject of that, I never did return the Batman, but the seller got onto me to ask if it was OK and said that I could so he certainly seems genuine and I believe it was a mistake - so AmoRetro is a good guy. Also looking at some SIMM RAM, a TSeng ET4000 and ET6000 before the year is out. The ET6000's are overpriced though so I might not bother with those, Virge's and Trio's are fast enough.

In the meantime, Drum machine;
rz1.jpg
Casio RZ-1, it's broken apparently but seems to be a common issue. I could have had a working RX-11 cheaper but Yamaha's early digital stuff is a bit lacking... Still both better than the analog solutions I guess.

More CPUs;
486s.jpg
486's, couple I don't have, might sell some so let me know if you have your eye on one. For the time being I'll deffinitely be keeping most if not all the UMCs - made it my mission to own all models - the Ti 100MHz and likely the ST 40MHz chips. The 66MHz ones I have a load of, so those will almost certainly be sold at some point... I should get back to that romanian dude.

One more CPU;
tx486.jpg
Beefing up my 386... Can't find a DRx and I could get that performance from a 486 anyway, but I figured that I would drop this 486DLC-40 in to replace my DLC-33, the speed is set by a single jumper in that machine so I'll run it to a switch on the back of the case so I can underclock back to 33MHz if needed as I assume this will run fine at that speed essentially being the same CPU rated for higher speeds. My FPU (IIT 4C87DLC) is rated for 40MHz so no issues there. This machine (seen in detail elsewhere in thread, or YouTube) is what I want the SIMM RAM and ET4000 for. It used the dual ET4000 from Hooker (486) but that would mean buying parts for that machine, which I have never done with money, so I put it back and will buy one for this 386 instead. My goal is to run Doom and Dark Forces at a playable speed. Apparenly Dark runs on a 386DX anyway, but I only have 8MB of RAM right now, planned upgrade is 16MB - can't see anything needing more on this machine, board supports 128MB apparently. Might glue a heatsink to that CPU because the 33 I have at the moment runs very hot.

Lastly, Keen (Just one, I didn't buy all four copies);
ck0.jpg
Never owned a boxed copy of a Keen game, figured it was time I did... Cost more than I'd have liked but if you want one the bloke has two left. Have a feeling I might never open this.

None of this stuff is here yet, so no doubt I'll come back with the resulting... err... results from whatever it ends up doing at a later time.
 
Well, it was inevitable that something would happen... Main workstation is losing water quickly and it's GPU failed (There still appears to be underlying stability problems) - so I have decided that after six years of saying I will, it is finally time to get onto getting a replacement up, this is likely to take a year or so and drain funds horribly meaning collecting has to take a backseat, I have only one thing I'm really bothered about collecting past this point anyway.

Unfortunately Hooker (My favorite trash 486) is also showing signs of motherboard failure, I think the battery leak got inside the layers of the board and is finally catching up with it, I did my best to clean it back in '04 but I can see it's going rotten inside and the green discoloration makes it out onto the solder pads, I clean it off but it comes back. Who knows how long it was leaking and sitting in that skip before I pulled it out. I will track a board down for that first - there are about three of the same model on eBay but they lack volt-regs or cache sockets, I don't need either as I use a 5V CPU and they seem to have 256K of cache installed (Though I get better performance with one bank disabled so I may have to mod jumpers back on to do that). Not looking at much north of £40 tops and as much as I swore to never spend money on it, I think it deserves repairs, it's been a good machine to me over the years, I'm sure you know by now that between mid-2004 to mid-2005 it was the only PC I had access to. Irony being, the workstation that is dying is what I moved to from it and it is currently more stable still.

Whilst scouring for motherboards, I came accross a different one, given my Am486DX4-100 also suffered motherboard failure (Has always been shaky that one) I decided to have fun and buy this untested board cheap;
_UNK_486.jpg

Cheap enough that if it doesn't work, I don't mind that much. But one thing I notice is the UM8886 chipset, this model supported X5 and Cx5x86 chips, theoretically if I can get it working it should be a quick board. I can find only records of one more, it is installed in a 486 some guy is selling, no idea who made it or what it does. Also, CPU, no idea what that is, I think Intel may have used that heatsink on some DX2-66 chips but I am unsure. Of course, if this board can be made to work, it will replace the one in the DX4 system, probably running only a better DX4 (Has NV8T right now, swap it for SV8B as those are quicker and should be supported) though it should make a good benchmarking platform if I can get it to be fully functional. I'd put money on that RTC battery being dead though.
 
A quick post. Drum machine arrived, so here's some music I cobbled together using it with my CZ-1000.

If you aren't liking it, at least give the track starting at 2:47 a chance, I went all out with that one... Although if you really hate 80's sounds it won't be your cup of tea. Keep in mind I'm not a musician.

This isn't strictly off-topic as the equipment is digital and is complex enough that it can be argued to be a "computer" and it is from 1985-1986 so it's vintage. Also, I used a vintage computer to store patches and sequence the music - though multi-track recording relied on a newer machine.
 
I just had to post this.
kmjjakqcci22a2bfg.jpg


I don't think I can submit that result to Trixter though as it was overclocked at the time... Still, for a non-PCI 486 made of budget parts that were found in skips or bought with cigarettes I think that is good going.
 
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