Slight yellowing, but otherwise looks great. Lacks a cool case badge still. Oh, and the display is 3-segment!
The only issue I have is that it doesn't have more full-length cards. That's the trademark of 486 PCs for me.
| Specs | |
|---|---|
| Mobo | Shuttle HOT-433 V4.0 (Socket 3, AT) |
| Chipset | UMC UM8881 PCI |
| CPU | AMD 5x86 P75 (133MHz) |
| RAM | 16MB 60ns EDO (4x4MB) |
| GPU | Sierra Falcon 64 2MB VRAM |
| Sound | Creative Sound Blaster 32 CT3600 Also known as "AWE32 0KB RAM" |
| Storage | WD Caviar 21600 1624MB |
| Extras | Sick hard drive caddy |
| Operating System | DOS 6.22 + Win 3.1 (soon) |
What's up with it?:They say building a 486 is a rite of passage in the retro world. I had been lusting after a 486 for a looooong time, and after LGR's Woodgrain 486 video dropped back in 2016 or so the desire to own a piece of such a memorable era of computing was turned up to 11. Thing is, it ain't cheap if you ain't lucky - and I ain't got access to computer recycling centres, haven't found anything in dumpsters, and in general wasn't successful in getting a complete PC or 486 parts. My first Socket 3 board was a battery-corroded basket case, for instance.
Some time later, I finally got all the parts as my plan for the PC had crystallized into concrete requirements, and got to building. And I seem to have found a cheat of sorts for this rite because I didn’t encounter that many issues, just some fiddling apart from the obvious 486 fun.
That's not a real 486!: Admittedly, it's not. And after the journey I've made, I'm fine with it. Having built this PC i started to get the feeling to also build a more true 486 that's equal or less than 100MHz, does not have wimpy cop-out PCI slots (which make the whole experience markedly usual, basic even), and is stacked with expansion cards. Which makes more sense, really - performance-wise the 5x86 it's similar to an early Pentium PC, of which I have two and use them instead to play games from that era (perhaps because I haven't finished this build). What the Pentium nor the "standard" 486 have is the charm, and charm it will have, I'll make sure of it!. The 5x86-133, the UM8881 chipset and the board itself are the best stuff possible on the platform, the perfect late-model Socket 3 combination and I want this PC to represent that charm in its every aspect.
Blood, sweat and tears: As mentioned before, it took me a long time to find parts and build them up into a PC. Lots of fixes were needed with the stuff I had (damaged traces, cold solder and broken CPU sockets to name a few). The Shuttle board was in amazing shape and the only thing I had to fix was the Dallas RTC, which made the board non-bootable. I installed a socketed Alt12887 instead (an open-source replacement RTC clock with a replaceable CR1220 battery. Highly recommend).
Then, once I had everything ready I did a bunch of tests over a month with different configs of the boards I had, then of all the PCI graphics cards, then of boards with the best PCI graphics card I found, then cache, and so on. This parts combination is the winner performance-wise in most cases, and it's also visually appealing due to the tiny size of the board.
Oddities: What's this weird graphics card?: I got it online for cheap before learning of what it is. It's a 64-bit 2D accelerator which seems to be rather uncommon, but from my tests it beats the hell out of all the other PCI 2D/early 3D graphics cards I have. It delivers a very respectable 41.8 FPS on max-settings Doom, and while folks at Vogons warn of the Falcon 64's stability and compatibility, I'm looking towards trying the card out in the long run.
Why no CD?: Back in the day, when 486 was king, CD drives were a newfangled novelty, which due to their steep prices were not by any means a standard (less so for a 5x86 and early Pentiums which were often marketed as "multimedia" PCs and had CD drives installed by default). Most of the stuff available on CDs was stuff like Encarta, and there were few games which used the advantages of CDs. So, a CD drive was not necessary for a PC like this in the past, and neither it is in modern times - I'm not going to chuck data into it by burning discs. If the games I end up playing will require a CD, I'll install one.
Why the Soundblaster is "0KB RAM"?: It's a quirky model of a Soundblaster that has the AWE32 chip but no wavetable RAM installed from the factory. Without it, it's just like the earlier AWE32s without expandable memory - just you and the EMU8000 wavetable ;) It is, however, a fine Soundblaster card that can benefit from up to 28MBs of extra sample RAM like its fully-fledged brothers. Getting those 28MBs is another thing, and that's why the memory stick slots are empty for now - I had no luck getting 30-pin 16MB SIMMs at a price that didn't feel like a complete rip-off, so a solution I'm thinking of is getting those chips and building my own from open-sourced memory stick schematics - it will be much cheaper and more fun.
Work in progress: While the PC itself is built, I haven't had enough time to dedicate to it. I need to set up DOS, and the biggest, most infuriating obstacle I've encountered is... transferring files. It's not my first rodeo, as I've dealt with vintage ThinkPads before and my skills in swapping a hard drive between two computers are similar to the skills of a master of PS1 swap trick, but Jesus, is this tiresome! I decided to put it away for now as I have a couple of projects going on, and in the meantime, I want to try imaging the hard drive and setting up a VM using 86 box with roughly the same specs. Maybe that will make things easier somewhat? Either way, before I figure out a better, more comforable way of sharing files between PCs, it's gonna have to wait.
Future plans: Apart from the obvious missing 3,5" bezel, there's a couple of things that need adressing in order for me to love it (and use it) even more.
First, quality-of-life upgrades - a CF card on a bracket to transfer stuff and a PS/2 port which is going to require some work (I need to mod the motherboard, solder in a chip or two, really I forgot the details). The current Soundblaster is not the best fit, and ideally I would like this PC to have two sound cards; one would be a Soundblaster-compatible card with a nice wavetable (AWE or not), and the other a PicoGUS so I can absorb all the sonic goodness those old games can offer.
As for the longer-term of this build, I would like it to be this "super 486" with incredible performance pertinent to a 486 - so, for instance, 2D-only accelerator, some rad sound card, and enjoy the heck out of it all. Maybe try running the 5x86 at 160MHz, or see if it can reach the legendary ~200MHz mark. If I had the chance, I'd also get the Cyrix 5x86-120MHz and enable all the extra bits - I would love to have one... Total dream spec would be to get a Tseng 6000/61000 or ARK Logic 1000/2000 or Matrox Millenium II graphics cards, max out the RAM (or MDRAM in Tseng's case), compare them and put the fastest one in. You know, since everybody's saying that these three are indeed the fastest and coolest (the Tseng with its MDRAM is just... chef's kiss) 2D graphics around, I'd love to see it myself.
| Specs | |
|---|---|
| Mobo | Shuttle HOT-433 V4.0 (Socket 3, AT) |
| Chipset | UMC UM8881 PCI |
| CPU | AMD 5x86 P75 (133MHz) or Cyrix 5x86-120 |
| RAM | 16MB 60ns EDO (4x4MB) |
| GPU | Sierra Falcon 64 or Tseng 6000/6100 or ARK 1000/2000 or Matrox Millenium II |
| Sound | Creative Sound Blaster 32 CT3600 + 28MB RAM or similar SB-compatible with wavetable + PicoGUS |
| Storage | WD Caviar 21600 1624MB CF adapter + 512MB CF card |
| Extras | Sick hard drive caddy |
| Operating System | DOS 6.22 + Win 3.1 |
Other than above, I wouldn't change anything. I love the overall build and I'm very, very happy with it. My other, future 486 should have a pizzabox or tall case ;)
