blast from the past: almost entirely era parts top end all SCSI 386DX 40MHz!

[jaqiefox]

I just realized I never posted my 386 pictures here, so here goes!

 

BTW partial build log available here: (out of date, doesnt show newest changes, but good to get the idea of all I have done)

http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?t=98915

 

 

 

 

 

AMD 386 DX-40 on baby AT motherboard, with iit 387 40MHz mathco

20MB 30 pin simms (4x1mb, 4x4mb)

SB16 ISA sound card

Trident 1MB VGA card (want a tseng et4000 but those are rare and expensive)

adaptec ISA SCSI2 card (1825b? forgot model number)

serial/parallel port card

still looking for a d-link 10Mbps ethernet isa jumper style card, this system has no PnP and I want to keep it that way.

IBM 3.5" half height (the height of CD drives et al) 1GB SCSI drive.  Yes, they had these back in this day, but were for top end servers.  The drive even has something of an NDA printed on it!

3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive

5.25 1.2MB floppy drive

apple SCSI 2x CDROM, model 300i (I want a 1x cartridge one, but till then this will do)

iomega gen1 internal scsi zip100 drive

128KB L2 cache (nearly unheard of on a 386 to have any at all, this makes it way zippy compared to other 386s and cheap 486s!)

DOS 6.22 and a bunch of DOS games.

[terrytek]

Dat cable management tho.

[jaqiefox]

Dat cable management tho.

especially considering there is a 4+ feet 6 device 50 pin SCSI cable in there.... that was a PITA to get out of the way.

 

http://discountechnology.com/SCSI-Cable-Internal-50pin-Ribbon-5-Device-6-connector-Brand-New

[terrytek]

especially considering there is a 4+ feet 6 device 50 pin SCSI cable in there.... that was a PITA to get out of the way.

 

http://discountechnology.com/SCSI-Cable-Internal-50pin-Ribbon-5-Device-6-connector-Brand-New

OH. HOT. DAMN. That cable length tho.

[ericlee30]

I love seeing old retro PC's on this forum brings back so many memories.

[flibberdipper]

Sexy. Well done.

[Tr3vor]

Nice computer. Personally I'd want a 16mhz 386 (that's just me, I have a 486, so a 386DX 40 would be in a bad spot). I'd also ditch the canister battery if there is an external battery header, so you can avoid complications with leaks in the future. Yeah, you really need to find an AT case for that thing, it looks funky in that ATX case  

 

SCSI in older computers is sweet, too bad it wasn't more common. Most older PCs I see are IDE and slow MFM (although, I would really like a ST-255 or 251 ). Do you have to use a DDO on SCSI drives? I'm guessing the BIOS limit is around 512MB or lower.

[jaqiefox]

Nice computer. Personally I'd want a 16mhz 386 (that's just me, I have a 486, so a 386DX 40 would be in a bad spot). I'd also ditch the canister battery if there is an external battery header, so you can avoid complications with leaks in the future. Yeah, you really need to find an AT case for that thing, it looks funky in that ATX case

 

SCSI in older computers is sweet, too bad it wasn't more common. Most older PCs I see are IDE and slow MFM (although, I would really like a ST-255 or 251 ). Do you have to use a DDO on SCSI drives? I'm guessing the BIOS limit is around 512MB or lower.

 

486 went all the way to 133MHz so I don't see how this is a bad spot.

 

I also have a VLB 486/66 but it is incomplete.

 

The NiCd can is spotless and running great, the second it causes trouble I have a desoldering gun to use on it.

I kinda like how it looks in this case, but I still want to find an AT case for it.

MFM was pre IDE, and I want one of the old seagate ST-2XX as well.

The BIOS has absolutely nothing to do with SCSI drive limitations, its all per controller. There is no such thing as DDO for SCSI drives, either it works with the controller or it doesn't.  The IDE limitation of CHS (540MB) is applicable to this mobo's BIOS, but that's IDE.  This controller handles up to 10GB drives, IIRC, I looked it up once.  SCSI is an entirely different beast than IDE, you cannot apply any IDE limitations to it nor does any IDE logic apply.

[Tr3vor]

486 went all the way to 133MHz so I don't see how this is a bad spot.

 

I also have a VLB 486/66 but it is incomplete.

 

The BIOS has absolutely nothing to do with SCSI drive limitations, its all per controller. There is no such thing as DDO for SCSI drives, either it works with the controller or it doesn't.  The IDE limitation of CHS (540MB) is applicable to this mobo's BIOS, but that's IDE.  This controller handles up to 10GB drives, IIRC, I looked it up once.  SCSI is an entirely different beast than IDE, you cannot apply any IDE limitations to it nor does any IDE logic apply.

 

My problem with a 386dx-40 is that I could throw my 33mhz 486DX CPU in and pretty much get similar performance, but a bit more, not a big enough difference to warrant another computer in my room. From what I hear the 486SX 25 has almost the same performance as a 386dx-40. Who am I kidding anyway, if given the chance to buy a DX-40, I'd probably still get it lol.

 

That's pretty cool that SCSI doesn't really care about BIOS limitations.

 

You should make build logs of your other old computers, they are always interesting to see.

[jaqiefox]

My problem with a 386dx-40 is that I could throw my 33mhz 486DX CPU in and pretty much get similar performance, but a bit more, not a big enough difference to warrant another computer in my room. From what I hear the 486SX 25 has almost the same performance as a 386dx-40. Who am I kidding anyway, if given the chance to buy a DX-40, I'd probably still get it lol.

 

That's pretty cool that SCSI doesn't really care about BIOS limitations.

 

You should make build logs of your other old computers, they are always interesting to see.

 

Uh no, the first CPU/mobo that could best the performance of the 386DX40 was the DX2/66.

http://redhill.net.au/c/c-4.html

 

SCSI has nothing to do with the BIOS, it has its' own.

 

I would make build logs if I had pictures of the process.

[Tr3vor]

Uh no, the first CPU/mobo that could best the performance of the 386DX40 was the DX2/66.

http://redhill.net.au/c/c-4.html

 

SCSI has nothing to do with the BIOS, it has its' own.

 

I would make build logs if I had pictures of the process.

 

Either way, I'd still have a computer with comparable performance, even if it is faster than a 33mhz 486, it probably isn't by much. If anything its probably because the bus speed.

 

Well this build log isn't a build log, its a picture to a link of a build log . You can make other not-build logs of other computers, just without the link.

 

edit: actually it doesn't really appear to be much faster than a DX-25, at least according to this video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TN0KlooPN0

 

I guess if the 386-40 is faster in a certain application, its bottlenecked by the bus on the 486dx 25

[AlwaysFSX]

That's pretty cool

[alpenwasser]

Ah yes, the olden days.

If I recall correctly, the first PC I ever got to play around with

as a kid was either a 286 or a 386, not sure anymore TBH. Although

I didn't get to buy and build my first one until the golden Athlon

days of ~2000/2001 or so. I did get myself a SCSI drive though for

that one (first a 10k Quantum 17 GB server drive, then a 15k Seagate

Cheetah), hooked up to an Adaptec 29160N card. Was pretty epic for

that time.

[Recon-UK]

Best PC on LTT, hell i am jealous of all dat grey, i have orange mixed in mine

[jaqiefox]

Ah yes, the olden days.

If I recall correctly, the first PC I ever got to play around with

as a kid was either a 286 or a 386, not sure anymore TBH. Although

I didn't get to buy and build my first one until the golden Athlon

days of ~2000/2001 or so. I did get myself a SCSI drive though for

that one (first a 10k Quantum 17 GB server drive, then a 15k Seagate

Cheetah), hooked up to an Adaptec 29160N card. Was pretty epic for

that time.

 

Awesome! When I went to college (after getting some real life experience) in 2000, I bought an adaptec 19160N card and a cheetah 18GB 10K RPM to go in my Tbird AXIA 1GHz @1.333 mmm those were the days before fast ATA drives, and it was nice having that cheetah!  Sorta like having one of those nice fast SSDs now, the equivalent of the time anyways.  I still fondly remember the sound of that cheetah 10K spinning up.

[alpenwasser]

Awesome! When I went to college (after getting some real life experience) in 2000, I bought an adaptec 19160N card and a cheetah 18GB 10K RPM to go in my Tbird AXIA 1GHz @1.333 mmm those were the days before fast ATA drives, and it was nice having that cheetah!  Sorta like having one of those nice fast SSDs now, the equivalent of the time anyways.  I still fondly remember the sound of that cheetah 10K spinning up.

It's quite interesting, the Quantum 10k drive was loud as hell

(not just while spinning up), whereas the Cheetah was actually

pretty modest in that regard.

But yeah, the SSD analogy is not that far-fetched IMO. I remember

I was playing Deus Ex back then quite a lot (still my favourite

game ever), and it had rather big savegames for the time (~50 MB

or so), which made saving and loading rather annoying with normal

HDDs. With the Cheetah though... whoooosh!

It did cost an arm and a leg though, something quite a bit north

of 1000 USD (bought it in 2003 IIRC). Then again, it served me

well for many years, I think it was my main OS disk until 2009

or even 2010.

[terrytek]

It's quite interesting, the Quantum 10k drive was loud as hell

(not just while spinning up), whereas the Cheetah was actually

pretty modest in that regard.

But yeah, the SSD analogy is not that far-fetched IMO. I remember

I was playing Deus Ex back then quite a lot (still my favourite

game ever), and it had rather big savegames for the time (~50 MB

or so), which made saving and loading rather annoying with normal

HDDs. With the Cheetah though... whoooosh!

It did cost an arm and a leg though, something quite a bit north

of 1000 USD (bought it in 2003 IIRC). Then again, it served me

well for many years, I think it was my main OS disk until 2009

or even 2010.

Nah, the Cheetahs were pretty noisy on startup. I still have one. It runs like hell.

[alpenwasser]

Nah, the Cheetahs were pretty noisy on startup. I still have one. It runs like hell.

No, I meant primarily during normal run time, not startup. Also,

I should stress just how loud the Quantum actually was in comparison,

it sounded like a mid-speed fan just when running idly. :blink: