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Brostenen

Posted 2017-04-18 8:38 AM (#504 - in reply to #503)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

I kind of like it better than say, a dx2-66, as it provides just that little something wich makes doom butter smooth. I have noticed that a dx4-120 or 5x86-133 is a bit too much for older 1990/93 games. It is the standard WT chip. As for dx4's goes, I have another machine that will be set up with my dx4-120. And I have a complete 5x85-133 build as well. Thats why my Unisys will be running a dx2-66 once it is finished.

This might sound excessive to somebody, yet, as my collection is about the history of PC's. I think 4 rigs like that, will cover the 486 era pretty good. Also... The 486 era are one of the broadest technoligically wise. If not the era with most technology. There is MCA, EISA, VLB, ISA, PCI and a lot of other busses. There is like 6, 8 or maby more CPU makers. Yeah... Its really broard. Hence 4 x 486 machines in my collection. And I am only covering the most basic used stuff from that era.

Edited by Brostenen 2017-04-18 8:48 AM

DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-19 12:05 AM (#505 - in reply to #71)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

Meanwhile, I have been working with the Athlon XP;

I have no idea if these results are good or not to be honest. I don't actually care all that much because I haven't noticed any problems with performance when I'm running games or applications, so the numbers that come out are of little concern in the real world.

waybacktech

Posted 2017-04-19 3:06 AM (#506 - in reply to #505)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

IDT WinChip

Posts: 237
100

Location: USA

Probably could stand a bit more video card, but the numbers are good for a ti 4600

Robman

Posted 2017-04-20 1:05 AM (#507 - in reply to #506)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

Chips 386

Posts: 38

Location: Canada

You haven't setup your MSN Internet yet??

DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-20 2:35 AM (#508 - in reply to #507)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

Haha, I hate that thing, I've had installations before where no matter what you do, it tries to run that wizard when you open Internet Explorer.

I'm using the 4 Ti for two specific reasons. Firstly, the system is basically the machine I wanted in the Athlon days but could never afford. Secondly, it's only an AGP 4X motherboard on a 133MHz bus so I'm not sure it would go much further without contention.

Brostenen

Posted 2017-04-20 10:35 AM (#509 - in reply to #508)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 671
500

As I have finished my dx2-80/VLB system, I had the FIC 486 VIP IO machine without GFX and CPU.
So I installed my AMD 486dx4-120 (genuine, not overclocked) and a Cirrus Logic CL-5446-2mb-PCI.
Did a couple of benchmarks, and it is working without issues.

(AMD-DX4-120-01.jpg)

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(AMD-DX4-120-04.jpg)

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waybacktech

Posted 2017-04-20 4:03 PM (#510 - in reply to #509)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

IDT WinChip

Posts: 237
100

Location: USA

Good Warcraft 2 machine there. CL-GD5446 is a good chip for this.

The dual PIII Xeon is now up and running with the new processors, all 4 lbs worth. They actually did come with heat sinks already installed, which wasn't visible in the ebay pictures, and a pair of VR's, which are special to IBM servers ( i am guessing ) so those are not anything I could use. I have an idea for a mounting bracket, using some threaded rod shoved through the back side of the motherboard ( ya sounds bad but it's the truth! ) and strapping down the processors to that. I installed Windows 2000 last night and tried a couple video cards. 8400gs does not run on this board, no surprise there as it doesn't work on a lot of these older boards, but the 6200 does, and I tried my MX4000 as well. Right now I have 1GB of Registered ECC PC133 ram installed, and even though this is an Intel motherboard, with limited bios, it is running the ram at CL2 @100Mhz so that's cool. I am going to try benchmarks with standard PC133 as well to see if there is a difference or not in performance. Top 2 PCI slots are 66Mhz capable as well though I don't know what 66Mhz PCI cards were made that would be of use to me. Both types or VR's that i ordered work on these as well.

One hitch I ran into was that I forgot, or didn't realize, whatever, that W2K does not allow for creating an msdos boot disk. So I wasn't able to get the bios updated last night, that will be tonight's task, we shall see if that is what gets the 700's working or not, I am kind of thinking not actually, but worth a shot, and I want to be pleasantly wrong about that.

Edited by waybacktech 2017-04-20 4:31 PM

waybacktech

Posted 2017-04-21 2:03 AM (#511 - in reply to #510)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

IDT WinChip

Posts: 237
100

Location: USA

No luck with the Xeon 700's after bios update. I figured the small changes to the slot wouldn't be solved by a bios update, but just had to try.

(xeon550.jpg)

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DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-21 5:49 AM (#512 - in reply to #511)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

Nonetheless, a running Xeon is better than no Xeon I am sure. It never did seem likely that Intel would make it that easy, after all, they want that upgrade money.

DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-21 5:37 PM (#513 - in reply to #512)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

About 50% editing done for the Athlon video.

I also managed to test out the SCSI CD burner a little, only as far as reading discs though. It works but it won't read audio discs for some reason - it does report the disc length but not the number of tracks. I shall try it in another machine because I can't help think it may be an inter-operability problem with the PAS16. It wouldn't entirely surprise me if that turned out to be the case as Media Vision only stated certain drives, namely models sold with the cards, were compatible and whilst the driver will work with other drives, it is reasonable to assume that there are no guarantees. If that's the case I will either use the drive elsewhere (as the included SCSI card likely works, so it could end up in the K5) or else I may be able to use an adaptor to run the drive from the same card as the hard drive if I really want to run it in the Pentium. Otherwise I'm using a NEC reader which is proving to be very fast so far and offers front panel controls for audio CDs, I'll be happy to keep using this one if the Matsushita burner won't work in here and I can always try a different burner in the future if I want to attempt this again.

Amusingly these drives were an unknown quantity, but a Yamaha model I bought as working and practically like new does not work at all and I don't think it is anything to do with the PAS here because it makes simply horrible noises. The first thing I noted when opening the package was a rather strong smell of magic smoke, so I may well be returning that one.

waybacktech

Posted 2017-04-21 9:01 PM (#515 - in reply to #513)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

IDT WinChip

Posts: 237
100

Location: USA

Maybe there is a firmware update for your matsushita burner that will fix your problems.

DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-22 3:56 AM (#517 - in reply to #515)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

Not a bad idea, I have managed to find several versions and it seems this model was a popular burner for quite some time. I'll try it with the included SCSI card in the K5 first though and hopefully figure out where the problem is because it's a really nice drive otherwise, about as quick as an 8x drive could be and reads burned discs fine where other drives of this age struggle.

There are also other drivers which are known to work with the PAS16, so I might try those first. It is supposedly possible to pass the handling of CD-ROM drives to an alternate ASPI manager via MAMV1.SYS, but I have not been able to track down this file.

Edit: Found it.

Edited by DXZeff 2017-04-22 4:45 AM

486u

Posted 2017-04-22 6:44 AM (#518 - in reply to #71)
Subject: RE: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

UMC U5S

Posts: 54

Recently restored a IMI 5012H 10MB MFM HDD with the help of another forum. Turns out all it needed was a good strong thwack with the butt of a screwdriver to loosen the lubricant inhibiting up the motor. The fuckin' thing spun right up and it reminded me of why I love working on these ancient machines.

Also bought and installed a Number Nine GXiTC TIGA XGA/2D accelerator. For 1992, 4MB VRAM and 16-bit true color in SVGA resolution must've been quite a sight. Put that beast in my HP Vectra 486U w/ 486DX2.

DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-22 7:07 AM (#519 - in reply to #518)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

I've witnessed drives which have jammed like that before, I guess sometimes the Clarkson method of repairing things is the correct method. Yes, there's something good about hearing a drive spin up and it is a "feature" missing from modern systems.

Sounds about right, I remember reading an article in one of the old magazines which practically said anything beyond 8-Bit was a waste around that time because you'd probably never use it. Of course by now, that's all the more reason to install such a device.

I have good news regarding the Panasonic burner.

A combination of MAMV1.SYS and SR_ASPI.SYS (the driver which would have been included in the box) gets everything to work brilliantly so far as reading goes. I also remembered that the Adaptec card I use for the hard drive has a narrow bus too, so I could always configure that card and hook it up to there if the PAS has problems with it later. As these are generic Trantor SCSI drivers and the ASPI manager Panasonic shipped with the drive I doubt there will be problems in that regard now. So, I guess I have a drive ghosting to do at some stage so I can install Nero - the drive imaging is done in case that breaks anything, it's a bitch to set this machine up.

DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-24 4:55 PM (#522 - in reply to #519)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

Athlon video is as done as it will ever be and should be up in the next few days unless anything else gets in the way of it.

Oh, also, this has manifested itself;

Indeed, SX processor and as expected it doesn't work with the Cyrix upgrade. I am still going to install it in place of my U5S simply for the fact that this version of the chip is almost never seen. I'm still glad to have one. It may just be coincidence or a lack of feeling in my fingers, but it seems to run marginally colder. I really should edit that page, hopefully I can remember how to use MediaWiki.

Sorry for being quiet everywhere as of late.

waybacktech

Posted 2017-04-24 5:20 PM (#524 - in reply to #522)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

IDT WinChip

Posts: 237
100

Location: USA

Cool. Was that the one I sent you a link to that was bundled with the motherboard? I noticed the one that I have, the numbers match exactly with the one shown on Wikipedia, which I thought was kind of cool. Not sure what that means, I'd have a hard time believing it is indeed the same chip, but I suppose it's possible unless UMC reused numbers stamped onto the processors.

waybacktech

Posted 2017-04-24 5:31 PM (#525 - in reply to #524)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

IDT WinChip

Posts: 237
100

Location: USA

One of the items I am still waiting to arrive from Bolgaria.. these seem to be as rare as a U5SD.. should make for a good comparison to PIII and Athlon since this is the only C3 processor that was produced with full-speed FPU.

(C3-1.2.jpg)

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DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-24 5:39 PM (#526 - in reply to #524)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

It was, though the seller had beat you to it already. I waited him out, the price dropped, I made back money from something else and the exchange rate fluctuated heavily in my favor on the day, so I threw a bid on. The board may end up in one of the systems I plan to sell when I've finished rehousing things that are in rather sorry cases.

You said yours was from Russia, the Wikipedia user VanHelsing.16 is from Russia so I suppose it's not impossible, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything as the chip seems to show up there most. They could also be more like batch numbers than serial numbers I suppose and they may have only incremented for every production run, but I would find it hard to believe that so many were produced unless the numbers weren't sequential. I like mine anyway, N41441G1, I can remember that. Ha, the MS-4144 is a really good 486 motherboard.

I've seen almost nothing of those C3s, tends to be older 600 and 733 models mostly. I think I still have half a tray full of the 733MHz ones somewhere that I've slowly been offloading onto other people.

Edited by DXZeff 2017-04-24 5:41 PM

waybacktech

Posted 2017-04-24 6:25 PM (#527 - in reply to #526)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

IDT WinChip

Posts: 237
100

Location: USA

I did see a while ago he lowered the price significantly from what it was. Hopefully you can recoup some of the cost selling it in a system. I have been looking quite often for more U5 processors just to see what shows up and I have yet to see another U5SD other than the one you ended up with. Glad you got that, I know you've been wanting one for a long time. It does suck though it does not have an FPU, but the FPU end's up going largely unused with so much of the old windows and dos software anyway, with a few exceptions of course.

Mine did come from Russia. Tray/Batch code is what I thought is probably stamped on the processors. As rare as the U5SD is, it's amazing to see 2 of them from the same tray. The little mark across the top of the processor pictures on wikipedia is not present on mine, which makes me think it is not the same.

Edited by waybacktech 2017-04-24 6:26 PM

RobW0lf

Posted 2017-04-25 11:06 AM (#532 - in reply to #505)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

Chips 386

Posts: 28

Location: Wigan, UK

DXZeff - 2017-04-19 12:05 AM
I have no idea if these results are good or not to be honest. I don't actually care all that much because I haven't noticed any problems with performance when I'm running games or applications, so the numbers that come out are of little concern in the real world.

I'd say so, considering my dual MP2000+/HD3650 system barely reaches 8.5k points in 3DMark2001SE. Just made a thread about it in the hardware section.

(photo_2017-03-29_21-58-24.jpg)

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DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-26 7:01 PM (#539 - in reply to #532)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

Fingers crossed...

This is bound to end well...

Almost afraid this thing might blow up or something.

I had to wire it to the Adaptec card, but not for the reasons I first thought. It probably would work when connected to the PAS, but this leaves the system with too little memory (as I have to load Adaptec EZSCSI / WINASPI) and I have 32-Bit Disk/File access enabled, so loading both ASPI managers tilts it just over the edge and makes things complain as they're quite heavy on RAM. I'm not really upset, the Adaptec card is faster and does less to impair airflow where the PAS16 is a long, long way from the CD drive, meaning the big SCSI ribbon choked the expansion cards a little. Believe me, those cards run hot, so that really wasn't something I was happy about anyway, so as much as I could have most likely tweaked the memory usage I genuinely think using the PCI Adaptec's narrow second bus is the better choice from all possible angles here.

Oh... hold on a second...

...And yes, it is readable in other drives too. This was a surprise as according to the box, the drive should not be able to burn discs of this capacity and I also used a dirty, slightly scratched disc to trip the drive up - I'd rather know early if the lasers are getting weak - so I think it really is safe to say it works.

"Oh, your retro machine plays old games, huh? Yeah, well, mine burns them!" Muahahahahhahaha! My god this is pointless.
- Socket 4!
- Fully SCSI!
- PAS16 Sound Card with internal speaker system!
- Realtime Hardware MPEG / Video CD Decoding and AVI acceleration!
- Can watch and record Live TV (sort of), consoles, other systems, VCRs & DVD players etc!
- Hardware Wavetable Synthesis installed!
- Has Ethernet that actually works properly!
- Capable of serious MIDI / Audio authoring!
- Capable of video and graphics production!
- Fully able to burn CDs at 600KB/s without issue!

The test burn was of the two drive images taken both before and after installing the burner. It was actually faster than relying on Windows 10's crappy network code. Here's hoping the PSU can stomach the extra strain, though as it isn't really feasible to burn discs, record or render video and play MPEG at the same time there's probably nothing to worry about.

486u

Posted 2017-04-29 3:00 AM (#540 - in reply to #539)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

UMC U5S

Posts: 54

DXZeff - 2017-04-26 7:01 PM
- Realtime Hardware MPEG / Video CD Decoding and AVI acceleration!

I bought one of those ISA Sigma RealMagic MPEG decoders (based on watching your video). The card has its' own VGA port and a feature connector port so how exactly do I interface it with my video card and/or motherboard?

DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-29 9:35 AM (#541 - in reply to #540)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

RealMagic cards usually connect to the video card through a pass-thru cable;

There are at least two types, 8-Pin or 9-Pin, the latter of which is hard to find and I can't find pinouts for it at the moment, though I know they're out there somewhere.

The feature connector may work, but I've not seen a card with one present and I'm generally weary of using those because I've been lead to believe they weren't well standardized.

waybacktech

Posted 2017-04-30 12:50 AM (#542 - in reply to #541)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

IDT WinChip

Posts: 237
100

Location: USA

I should really setup that MiroVideo VLB TV/Video capture card I have just to see how it works.

One interesting item showed up on my door step today. I had to replace 3 leaking caps, but so far it is working like a champ.

(Dual ASUS.jpg)

(Dual ASUS bad caps.jpg)

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DXZeff

Posted 2017-04-30 6:16 PM (#543 - in reply to #71)
Subject: Re: Recently Played/Bought/Messed with

TM Crusoe

Posts: 618
500

Location: Hull, UK

A7M266 I guess?
Lot of people with MP boards as of late. I'm happy to simply observe such boards from afar as I have enough trouble getting one Athlon to work, I can only begin to fathom what might happen if I tried to operate two of them at the same time.

Yeah, that Miro card, oddball thing. Hopefully better than SPEA's attempts at that time.

Feeling rather lethargic the last few days and have done little more than dust off Mapster32

Taking me a while to get the hang of it again. Texture set mostly, used to know where every tile was and which ones worked with each other, though it was tricky when I left this map all those years ago because I'd never really used the alien texture set very much anyway. No idea if this will ever be completed.

Edited by DXZeff 2017-04-30 6:19 PM

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