SkydivinGirl
Veteran Member
After my PC10-III Build, I really wanted to get an 8088 system with more slots than the three that are available in the PC10-III. Since I also wanted to get an IBM PC, the 5160 was the perfect choice. I was extremely fortunate to find one locally for a good price. It had a full height floppy drive, a Seagate MFM hard drive (working 100%), and most every slot was fitted with a card.
Here are the components I used to upgrade the system (From Slot 1 to Slot 7):
Octek EVGA-16 REV 2.1 VGA Card
Roland MIF-IPC-A Clone Card by Bryce - http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?57231-Cloning-an-MIF-ISA-Card
Generic SoundBlaster Clone
Lo-tech 2MB EMS Board - http://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/2MB-EMS-Board
Lo-tech 1MB RAM Board - http://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/1MB-RAM-Board
XT-IDE Rev 2 IDE Controller - http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?29202-XTIDE-Rev2
Sergey’s ISA Floppy Disk and Serial Controller - www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/isa-fdc-and-uart
I had originally planned on using Sergey’s ISA Super VGA card but I simply could not get it to work in the 5160. It’s a shame because I really like that card. I’m also having trouble with the EVGA-16 card randomly blanking the screen. It happens very often so I need to track down the issue.
The MIF-IPC-A card will allow me to play games that use MIDI sound but I may remove the card from this system. I’m preparing to do a 486 build that should play every game that uses MIDI sound. The SoundBlaster clone works perfectly and gives me a game port.
The 2MB EMS board is nice and I’ll most likely setup a boot menu selection to either use the 2MB EMS to load DOS high or not. It’s a simple configuration that will let me get the extra conventional memory if needed. Since my main board only has 512K installed, I’m using this board to provide the extra 128k and it’s also providing two 64K blocks of upper memory.
The XT-IDE Rev 2 is an excellent controller and it provides a high speed serial port, which is great to use with the SerDrive function in the XTIDE BIOS. Sergey’s floppy and serial controller is great for adding high capacity floppy drives. It also provides another serial port that I’ll be using as a mouse connection.
I’ve filled both full height bays with an IDE CF Adapter to use as the hard drive, a storage drawer below, a Gotek 1.44MB Floppy Emulator, and a 1.2MB 5.25” Floppy Drive. I only had beige 5.25” drives so I used a vinyl dye/paint to change from beige to black. I’m very happy with the results. It seems that the 5160 was never designed to use half height drives so mounting them was tricky. Does anyone have suggestions on mounting half height devices in the 5160?
Next steps:
I’d like to add a parallel port or network controller to the system. Given the Slot 8 restrictions, I’ll most likely need to sacrifice one of the other cards. I’m not in a hurry to decide.
Fixing the blanking of the video card is a high priority. I’m not sure if it’s simply because I’m using it on an LCD, which may not like the signal, or if there’s a problem with the card. I’ll pull out a CRT to test it.
I need to mount a hard drive activity light to the CF drive bezel. Luckily, that’s as easy as drilling a hole in the bezel then mounting the LED. And, as you may be able to tell from the pictures, the keyboard needs to be stripped down and cleaned.
All-in-all, I’m very happy with this build. I still need to do most of the OS and software configuration but that’s pretty easy.
I hope you enjoyed the post! Feel free to offer any suggestions about things I may have overlooked.
Heather
Here are the components I used to upgrade the system (From Slot 1 to Slot 7):
Octek EVGA-16 REV 2.1 VGA Card
Roland MIF-IPC-A Clone Card by Bryce - http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?57231-Cloning-an-MIF-ISA-Card
Generic SoundBlaster Clone
Lo-tech 2MB EMS Board - http://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/2MB-EMS-Board
Lo-tech 1MB RAM Board - http://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/1MB-RAM-Board
XT-IDE Rev 2 IDE Controller - http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?29202-XTIDE-Rev2
Sergey’s ISA Floppy Disk and Serial Controller - www.malinov.com/Home/sergeys-projects/isa-fdc-and-uart
I had originally planned on using Sergey’s ISA Super VGA card but I simply could not get it to work in the 5160. It’s a shame because I really like that card. I’m also having trouble with the EVGA-16 card randomly blanking the screen. It happens very often so I need to track down the issue.
The MIF-IPC-A card will allow me to play games that use MIDI sound but I may remove the card from this system. I’m preparing to do a 486 build that should play every game that uses MIDI sound. The SoundBlaster clone works perfectly and gives me a game port.
The 2MB EMS board is nice and I’ll most likely setup a boot menu selection to either use the 2MB EMS to load DOS high or not. It’s a simple configuration that will let me get the extra conventional memory if needed. Since my main board only has 512K installed, I’m using this board to provide the extra 128k and it’s also providing two 64K blocks of upper memory.
The XT-IDE Rev 2 is an excellent controller and it provides a high speed serial port, which is great to use with the SerDrive function in the XTIDE BIOS. Sergey’s floppy and serial controller is great for adding high capacity floppy drives. It also provides another serial port that I’ll be using as a mouse connection.
I’ve filled both full height bays with an IDE CF Adapter to use as the hard drive, a storage drawer below, a Gotek 1.44MB Floppy Emulator, and a 1.2MB 5.25” Floppy Drive. I only had beige 5.25” drives so I used a vinyl dye/paint to change from beige to black. I’m very happy with the results. It seems that the 5160 was never designed to use half height drives so mounting them was tricky. Does anyone have suggestions on mounting half height devices in the 5160?
Next steps:
I’d like to add a parallel port or network controller to the system. Given the Slot 8 restrictions, I’ll most likely need to sacrifice one of the other cards. I’m not in a hurry to decide.
Fixing the blanking of the video card is a high priority. I’m not sure if it’s simply because I’m using it on an LCD, which may not like the signal, or if there’s a problem with the card. I’ll pull out a CRT to test it.
I need to mount a hard drive activity light to the CF drive bezel. Luckily, that’s as easy as drilling a hole in the bezel then mounting the LED. And, as you may be able to tell from the pictures, the keyboard needs to be stripped down and cleaned.
All-in-all, I’m very happy with this build. I still need to do most of the OS and software configuration but that’s pretty easy.
I hope you enjoyed the post! Feel free to offer any suggestions about things I may have overlooked.
Heather