I remember working on an ESCOM Pentium 60 PC that was very picky about memory modules and the order they were in - eg put 2x 1MB modules in you would get 2MB, put 4 of them in and you would get 1MB! Worked for Thorn (Rumbelows / Radio Rentals) at that time and it was a demo machine ESCOM had sent us to evaluate - had an Intel manufactured mainboard inside it and was a full tower case
Good to see another TTD/OpenTTD fan. I've probably poured over 1000 hours into OpenTTD myself. First game I install on every new PC! 😉 Not sure about the woodgrain wrap. It could be hit or miss if you don't get a good quality pattern. That machine looks a little more industrial. With that purple and grey colour scheme, it almost looks like they were going for a Sun Microsystems knock-off. I'd be tempted to make a "Son Microsystems" fake badge, just bending around the top left corner of the U in the SUN logo to make it look more like a weird O.
This machine just looks better and better for every video. Great choice on the ESS card. My first self-bought PC also had an ESS (but a 688 I think it was) and I really liked that one and now I also have a 1868F. Really nice. You know when you mentioned wrapping I also immediately thought of woodgrain. I have a 486 board and case but not the case cover and I always thought that if I get that board in a new case, I'd wrap it in some type of woodgrain as an LGR tribute. I'm not too keen on painting personally, LGR did that with the Lazy Green Giant but it might depend on what type of paint you use. But yeah, I'm rambling now, nice to see the cache issue was taken care of. And I think seeing a performance face off between this 486 and your PC Chips 486 would indeed be an interesting video.
Thanks. I've always enjoyed the sound from the ESS cards. I've been looking for their wave table card but it rarely comes up for sale. I'm leaning towards a grey type woodgrain wrap so to keep with the original colours. Think I'll just go for it and post a few pictures once done.
Oh wow. Many, many moons ago I used to provide application support/write code for a pair of Team Servers running DRS-NX7 (UNIX variant). I remember when it turned up - you could lower/raise the front panels with key-fob. I also remember 3 or 4 ICL engineers staring intently at the flashing lights on the front - no idea what they were looking at or looking for (I can't remember if we had a problem at the time with them). But I also remember there being a flat cable running between the two of them. Not sure why that was.
The VLB graphics card helped more then I expected. Always figured for this generation of machine and games that the ISA bus would be fine. but looks like I need to revisit that thinking.
Well we all know how to make those AMD 586 compatible with 486 boards, don't we boys and girls! 😉 Would the Pentium CPU card be available at less than astronomical prices?
Think I'll order the bits and build a 486SocketBlaster. That'll let me use the 3.3v CPUs. As for a pentium board and other than keeping an eye on eBay I don't see me getting one. I'm sure they are rare enough.
@CRG If the eBay search turns up fruitless, there's always the reverse engineering method of creating a new CPU card loosely based on the one you have now.
AMD 5x86, with a Voltage Adaptor, should work in this system. The Cyrix 5x86 not so much. At least that was the case on my 486 VLB Board that supports 3,3V CPUs. The AMD Chip worked, the Cyrix didn't seem to be supported.
@@CRG Yes, those would be a great addition to the System. Just be aware that the Cyrix 5x86 might not work in your system and the AMD 5x86 might... PS: I regret selling my 486 PCI board on which the Cyrix chip worked...
16mb is perfect for a 486 anyway. It's tempting to max things out but in my experience you tend to get compatibility issues above that, with some games like Pinball Fantasies refusing to run at all.
I suppose I just see empty slots and want to fill them with something. If I can find another 16mb simm going cheap I'll grab it but for now I'll just stick with what's in it.
@@CRG Isn't the size of those kind of RAM stick detected with resistor values (or using some as jumpers, you get the idea)? Maybe you could turn those 8MB sticks into 4MB sticks and have it fully populated hehehe
Only reason for having more than 16MB in a DOS box is so you can use Extended mem (XMS) to emulate Expanded mem (EMS) at max amount. I seem to remember Frontier Elite II and Frontier II requiring at least 8MB of EMS on the PC..., I always preferred playing Frontier on the Amiga, and I is still not happy about not getting Frontier II so was forced to buy a stupid PC...,. Then again, the PC kept many games away from the Amiga and I still use the Amiga for more serious stuff, the PC is the game system.....
Yeah you'd have thought so wouldn't you but its the first time I've come across a system that supports 4 or 16mb but not 8mb modules. Oh well, I'm sure I can use them in something.
It's great that you've got it going, but I really think you should go back to being as original as possible, including putting the original ICL video card back in. There are thousands of generic 486s out there for gaming on, but not many of these.
i think youll need a pentium 3 500~800MHZ to play Duke nukem 3d @ 640x480 in Dos..... i used to dream of playing that game at 800x600 or even at 640x480. it pisses me off there were no direct hardware drivers for video cards (like windows), or accelerators(accelerating drivers) for dos video cards. i realize its the bud clock on the vga/svga cards, and the chip timings, etc; however, if there were a good hardware driver for video cards for dos, i bet on that system youd get around 30fps @ 1MB 16bit ISA.
I bumped my 486's L2 cache down to 2-1-1-1 as you've done and all seemed well for months before I noticed I had developed a stability problem, specifically I could get Future Crew's Second Reality to consistently crash (though at different points in the demo, it could never survive a full run). 2-2-2-2 was just as unstable, but walking back to 3-1-1-1 got me working again. Just FYI, especially if you're not running this machine every day, and even if things appear reliable. I was playing lots of games just fine, I suppose because they were older titles that weren't stressing things out too much.
So as usual awesome content So I have seen some v l b bus overclocks Vswitchzero has some interesting content I don’t know if the 32 bit version of v l b can be overclocked Any crystals near the slots
I remember working on an ESCOM Pentium 60 PC that was very picky about memory modules and the order they were in - eg put 2x 1MB modules in you would get 2MB, put 4 of them in and you would get 1MB! Worked for Thorn (Rumbelows / Radio Rentals) at that time and it was a demo machine ESCOM had sent us to evaluate - had an Intel manufactured mainboard inside it and was a full tower case
Yes thats right a friend of mine had an Escom P75 that I upgraded, the board was an Intel OEM i430FX. It was a very sluggish board!
Good to see another TTD/OpenTTD fan. I've probably poured over 1000 hours into OpenTTD myself. First game I install on every new PC! 😉
Not sure about the woodgrain wrap. It could be hit or miss if you don't get a good quality pattern. That machine looks a little more industrial. With that purple and grey colour scheme, it almost looks like they were going for a Sun Microsystems knock-off. I'd be tempted to make a "Son Microsystems" fake badge, just bending around the top left corner of the U in the SUN logo to make it look more like a weird O.
This mad lad throwing Ali Express chips straight into a board without testing first.
The printing on all five of them looked very fresh indeed😋
This machine just looks better and better for every video. Great choice on the ESS card. My first self-bought PC also had an ESS (but a 688 I think it was) and I really liked that one and now I also have a 1868F. Really nice. You know when you mentioned wrapping I also immediately thought of woodgrain. I have a 486 board and case but not the case cover and I always thought that if I get that board in a new case, I'd wrap it in some type of woodgrain as an LGR tribute. I'm not too keen on painting personally, LGR did that with the Lazy Green Giant but it might depend on what type of paint you use. But yeah, I'm rambling now, nice to see the cache issue was taken care of. And I think seeing a performance face off between this 486 and your PC Chips 486 would indeed be an interesting video.
Thanks. I've always enjoyed the sound from the ESS cards. I've been looking for their wave table card but it rarely comes up for sale. I'm leaning towards a grey type woodgrain wrap so to keep with the original colours. Think I'll just go for it and post a few pictures once done.
Happy days! CRG Team Server, and the case needs painting not wrapping (IMHO). 😁
Oh wow. Many, many moons ago I used to provide application support/write code for a pair of Team Servers running DRS-NX7 (UNIX variant). I remember when it turned up - you could lower/raise the front panels with key-fob. I also remember 3 or 4 ICL engineers staring intently at the flashing lights on the front - no idea what they were looking at or looking for (I can't remember if we had a problem at the time with them). But I also remember there being a flat cable running between the two of them. Not sure why that was.
I am glad to see that cache running! Lovely PC to play old games and test hardware. Nice Video :D
The VLB graphics card helped more then I expected.
Always figured for this generation of machine and games that the ISA bus would be fine.
but looks like I need to revisit that thinking.
Just found this video on twitter, reckon I like me them server towers.
Great video✌
Great vídeo👍
Thanks
@@CRG thanks
Well we all know how to make those AMD 586 compatible with 486 boards, don't we boys and girls! 😉 Would the Pentium CPU card be available at less than astronomical prices?
Think I'll order the bits and build a 486SocketBlaster. That'll let me use the 3.3v CPUs. As for a pentium board and other than keeping an eye on eBay I don't see me getting one. I'm sure they are rare enough.
@CRG If the eBay search turns up fruitless, there's always the reverse engineering method of creating a new CPU card loosely based on the one you have now.
nice !
AMD 5x86, with a Voltage Adaptor, should work in this system.
The Cyrix 5x86 not so much.
At least that was the case on my 486 VLB Board that supports 3,3V CPUs. The AMD Chip worked, the Cyrix didn't seem to be supported.
I've been looking at the 486SocketBlaster this morning. Its an open source voltage adapter and should let me run the 3.3v CPUs.
@@CRG Yes, those would be a great addition to the System.
Just be aware that the Cyrix 5x86 might not work in your system and the AMD 5x86 might...
PS: I regret selling my 486 PCI board on which the Cyrix chip worked...
I played Quake on my first PC that was an Intel Pentium MMX 166 mhz and a Matrox Millennium 4MB graphic card.
16mb is perfect for a 486 anyway. It's tempting to max things out but in my experience you tend to get compatibility issues above that, with some games like Pinball Fantasies refusing to run at all.
I suppose I just see empty slots and want to fill them with something. If I can find another 16mb simm going cheap I'll grab it but for now I'll just stick with what's in it.
@@CRG Isn't the size of those kind of RAM stick detected with resistor values (or using some as jumpers, you get the idea)? Maybe you could turn those 8MB sticks into 4MB sticks and have it fully populated hehehe
Only reason for having more than 16MB in a DOS box is so you can use Extended mem (XMS) to emulate Expanded mem (EMS) at max amount.
I seem to remember Frontier Elite II and Frontier II requiring at least 8MB of EMS on the PC..., I always preferred playing Frontier on the Amiga, and I is still not happy about not getting Frontier II so was forced to buy a stupid PC...,. Then again, the PC kept many games away from the Amiga and I still use the Amiga for more serious stuff, the PC is the game system.....
I think you should have checked the memory compatibitly before purchaseing the memory LOL
Yeah you'd have thought so wouldn't you but its the first time I've come across a system that supports 4 or 16mb but not 8mb modules. Oh well, I'm sure I can use them in something.
What about DID Video's EUROFIGHTER Typhoon TACTCOM.
i was thinking that 486 66 and voodoo 3d graphics? maybe i test that combo.
No PCI slots or I could.
It's great that you've got it going, but I really think you should go back to being as original as possible, including putting the original ICL video card back in. There are thousands of generic 486s out there for gaming on, but not many of these.
I have 2x DDR3 RAM modules which are 16GB.
i think youll need a pentium 3 500~800MHZ to play Duke nukem 3d @ 640x480 in Dos..... i used to dream of playing that game at 800x600 or even at 640x480. it pisses me off there were no direct hardware drivers for video cards (like windows), or accelerators(accelerating drivers) for dos video cards. i realize its the bud clock on the vga/svga cards, and the chip timings, etc; however, if there were a good hardware driver for video cards for dos, i bet on that system youd get around 30fps @ 1MB 16bit ISA.
Can the TL886II test Amiga memory type 500 500plus ?
Thanks again for the new video saves my day ;) have a nice day
Unfortunately no, it can't test those 256x4 chips.
@@CRG oh thats to bad then i need to buy a retro chip tester PRO ;)
I bumped my 486's L2 cache down to 2-1-1-1 as you've done and all seemed well for months before I noticed I had developed a stability problem, specifically I could get Future Crew's Second Reality to consistently crash (though at different points in the demo, it could never survive a full run). 2-2-2-2 was just as unstable, but walking back to 3-1-1-1 got me working again. Just FYI, especially if you're not running this machine every day, and even if things appear reliable. I was playing lots of games just fine, I suppose because they were older titles that weren't stressing things out too much.
So as usual awesome content
So I have seen some v l b bus overclocks
Vswitchzero has some interesting content
I don’t know if the 32 bit version of
v l b can be overclocked
Any crystals near the slots
Upgrades 🫲
Upgrading upgrades 🙂