RichM499
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I am currently building a new sinister 486, and I ran into some difficulties with the BIOS. The BIOS needs an update to recognize the AM5x86 and Cyrix 5x86 chips with 16KB cache, and I have so far been unsuccessful with locating the BIOS I need, and I need to purchase an EEPROM programmer before I can manually edit the BIOS ROM, so I am taking a break from that to go pro.
In case you're wondering; the socket 3 motherboard I am referring to is PCChips M918i/Amptron dx-9300.
I have decided to start with a Tyan Titan Pro AT with two Pentium Pro 200Mhz chips. After all; if I'm going pro, then I'll need Pentium Pro. I've always liked Tyan boards, and I believe this one can offer me functionality and performance. I've chosen the components with professionalism in mind.
Components:
2x Pentium Pro 200Mhz 256KB
Tyan Titan Pro AT BIOS ver. 5.01
Voodoo 5 5500 PCI
Promise Ultra ATA 100 TX2
Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold
Lite-On 52x max CDROM
Belkin 3 1/4" diskette drive
Voodoo TV 200 PCI (Waiting on this to arrive. The guy I bought it from is being really slow shipping it)
8GB Western Digital WD80EB hard drive
Power Win 230w AT switching power supply
USB hub from an old computer professionally modified.
256MB Kingston EDO FPM 70ns 72pin RAM
This is a good image of my motherboard. And, dats my Voodoo 5 5500 PCI. The card you can't see is a Promise Ultra ATA 100 TX2 PCI above the Voodoo. Those are the regular 256k cache Pentium Pro chips. I will likely upgrade to dual Pentium II Overdrives sometime in the future.
An image of my sound card. Gotta love dat AWE64 Gold. It even has gold on it.
An image of the front of the case. As you can see; I professionally modified a 5"->3 1/4" drive bay to accommodate the USB hub I pulled out of an old case. Surprisingly; this thing has USB 1.0.
My Cornerstone p1500. That thing is beautiful. I adore this monitor because it's 85hz 1600x1200 gloriousness. I can even overclock it to 120hz for once in my life.
I'm really excited about this computer because it's the first time I've gone pro. I'm still waiting on my Voodoo TV 200 PCI. I'm currently installing Windows XP on it. This will be my scientific computer. So that way I can do pro science. I really even like pro science.
That's all for now! I will update this thread with some benchmarks as soon as I can get Windows XP installed. Windows NT 4 was difficult because I couldn't find proper drivers, and my Voodoo 5 5500 didn't want to play nicely with Windows 98se. I couldn't get 3DMark 99 MAX to load properly, and that was a deal breaker for me. Also; it doesn't support more than one CPU.
Edit: This is the same case I had my 486 in. I'll get around to updating my socket 3 motherboard BIOS sometime, and then I plan to volt mod the PCI slot to accommodate a 3.3v card. The PCI slots on my 486 board are purportedly PCI 2.0 compliant. However; that does not seem to be the case.
Edit 2: Aside from my Voodoo TV 200; I only need an IBM case sticker to complete this computer. So that way it will be a genuine IBM.
In case you're wondering; the socket 3 motherboard I am referring to is PCChips M918i/Amptron dx-9300.
I have decided to start with a Tyan Titan Pro AT with two Pentium Pro 200Mhz chips. After all; if I'm going pro, then I'll need Pentium Pro. I've always liked Tyan boards, and I believe this one can offer me functionality and performance. I've chosen the components with professionalism in mind.
Components:
2x Pentium Pro 200Mhz 256KB
Tyan Titan Pro AT BIOS ver. 5.01
Voodoo 5 5500 PCI
Promise Ultra ATA 100 TX2
Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold
Lite-On 52x max CDROM
Belkin 3 1/4" diskette drive
Voodoo TV 200 PCI (Waiting on this to arrive. The guy I bought it from is being really slow shipping it)
8GB Western Digital WD80EB hard drive
Power Win 230w AT switching power supply
USB hub from an old computer professionally modified.
256MB Kingston EDO FPM 70ns 72pin RAM
This is a good image of my motherboard. And, dats my Voodoo 5 5500 PCI. The card you can't see is a Promise Ultra ATA 100 TX2 PCI above the Voodoo. Those are the regular 256k cache Pentium Pro chips. I will likely upgrade to dual Pentium II Overdrives sometime in the future.
An image of my sound card. Gotta love dat AWE64 Gold. It even has gold on it.
An image of the front of the case. As you can see; I professionally modified a 5"->3 1/4" drive bay to accommodate the USB hub I pulled out of an old case. Surprisingly; this thing has USB 1.0.
My Cornerstone p1500. That thing is beautiful. I adore this monitor because it's 85hz 1600x1200 gloriousness. I can even overclock it to 120hz for once in my life.
I'm really excited about this computer because it's the first time I've gone pro. I'm still waiting on my Voodoo TV 200 PCI. I'm currently installing Windows XP on it. This will be my scientific computer. So that way I can do pro science. I really even like pro science.
That's all for now! I will update this thread with some benchmarks as soon as I can get Windows XP installed. Windows NT 4 was difficult because I couldn't find proper drivers, and my Voodoo 5 5500 didn't want to play nicely with Windows 98se. I couldn't get 3DMark 99 MAX to load properly, and that was a deal breaker for me. Also; it doesn't support more than one CPU.
Edit: This is the same case I had my 486 in. I'll get around to updating my socket 3 motherboard BIOS sometime, and then I plan to volt mod the PCI slot to accommodate a 3.3v card. The PCI slots on my 486 board are purportedly PCI 2.0 compliant. However; that does not seem to be the case.
Edit 2: Aside from my Voodoo TV 200; I only need an IBM case sticker to complete this computer. So that way it will be a genuine IBM.
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