486DX2-66 worth keeping?

[weirdlookinguy]

I have recently received a 1994 Packard Bell 486DX2-66 computer. It has a Matsushita motherboard which is the biggest reason I like it. I am a huge sucker for stuff that's Made in Japan, and I've never seen a Panasonic motherboard before.

Anyways....

We might be moving into a house soon and I thought it would be badass to load Windows 95 on this thing and throw it in the garage for mp3 duty. However, I have done some research and anything pre-Pentium struggles with mp3s due to floating-point performance (or the lack of it).

It pains me to throw such a sick-ass computer away but there is honestly no use for this thing. DOS games are cool if you grew up with them I guess. I grew up with MacOS 7-era games so there's not much nostalgic appeal in DOS games for me.

Should I keep this thing around just for shits and gigs or should I toss it? It's not often you come across badass 486 machines.

I used to have a badass 90mhz Pentium DEC tower back in middle school that I threw away. I regret getting rid of it, which is why I'm torn about what to do with this 486. These old computers are just too cool. I wouldn't think twice about throwing out a shitty Pentium 4 machine.

[kaboom]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

What sound card does it have? The all-in-one, AKA one having a built in CD-ROM interface?

Seagate ST- something HDD, I'll bet?

On-board video, like most of those, I guess? VLB slots?


Sorry for 'asking so many questions,' I'm strangely interested.

I wouldn't think twice about throwing out a shitty Pentium 4 machine.

Ya- I'd take a fast, stable P3 before that netburst junk...

-Paul

[shovenose]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

Should I keep this thing around just for shits and gigs?

yes

[retiredcaps]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

It's not often you come across badass 486 machines.

If you don't keep it, sell it for $20 to $30. You would be surprised at how many people want these machines for old games that don't properly play on newer computers.

[ratdude747]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

If you don't keep it, sell it for $20 to $30. You would be surprised at how many people want these machines for old games that don't properly play on newer computers.

yeah... surley it is better than those PC Chips 0 cache wonders...

[Topcat]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I have recently received a 1994 Packard Bell...

That's all I needed to know...make landfill out of it. Japanese or not, their config is garbage and so is its functionality (even when it was new). The only good that could ever come from that machine is if you installed DOS6.22 and GWBASIC, so you can practice BASIC programming and compile into EXE's...and those EXE's won't run on anything 64 bit, and are pretty much useless....like the machine. Being nostalgic is fun sometimes, but this is not one of those times.

[ratdude747]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

That's all I needed to know...make landfill out of it. Japanese or not, their config is garbage and so is its functionality (even when it was new). The only good that could ever come from that machine is if you installed DOS6.22 and GWBASIC, so you can practice BASIC programming and compile into EXE's...and those EXE's won't run on anything 64 bit, and are pretty much useless....like the machine. Being nostalgic is fun sometimes, but this is not one of those times.

I'll disagree... packard bell's really bad years weren't until later... why landfill it when you can sell it and make some $ while you are at it?

[Topcat]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I'll disagree... packard bell's really bad years weren't until later... why landfill it when you can sell it and make some $ while you are at it?

because the measly 10 bucks you'll sell that for aren't worth all the aggrivation and marketing effort.

All years of 'putrid hell' sucked, I've had MANY MANY of them brought to me....I was in the computer field during this era, you were learning how to walk.....so yea...don't...

[kc8adu]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

i grab them any time i can.several industrial apps for rh boards.
i still see xt's in use.

[Topcat]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

i grab them any time i can.several industrial apps for rh boards.
i still see xt's in use.

It's been a while since I've seen a 486 in a CNC or other industrial machine. I still see a lot of P-Classics though

[Scenic]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

pre-pentium stuff is actually pretty rare here nowadays..
The CPUs get scrapped by the hundreds (sadly), and working 386 and 486 systems (or just mainboard + CPU + RAM bundles) fetch quite a bit of money..

I recently saw a 486DX4 100 with 128MB RAM and otherwise not really useful specs (200MB HDD for example) go for 81eur, which translates into a little over 100usd (link)
Even more insane, an Escom 486SX33 with 8MB RAM and a whopping 106MB HDD went for 96eur (roughly 122usd) (link to ebay UK (because ebay.com complains about the item not being available in the US))

Kinda makes me wonder if I should cobble a decent system together with the (few) pre-pentium parts I've got left..

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

What sound card does it have? The all-in-one, AKA one having a built in CD-ROM interface?

Seagate ST- something HDD, I'll bet?

On-board video, like most of those, I guess? VLB slots?


Sorry for 'asking so many questions,' I'm strangely interested.



Ya- I'd take a fast, stable P3 before that netburst junk...

-Paul

Agreed, I have a 700mhz P3 box as an XP Pro fileserver and it is a quick, snappy, cool running little machine. This thing runs faster than a lot of the early P4s. I have had terrible experiences performance-wise with the early-2000s 1.x Ghz P4 Dell black boxes so I didn't expect much out of a 700mhz P3, but it blew me away. Pentium 3 was a great processor.

Yes, it has an all-in-one sound card/CD-ROM interface thing, along with a 500mb Seagate HDD, onboard video, 3 ISA slots. You are a Packard Bell connoisseur sir . I will post pictures soon.

Topcat, I understand why you don't like Packard Bells. They sound like shitty computers for their day, and I've heard them bashed many times before. However while this may not be the best example of a 486 system, it is the only example I have ever encountered so it is still a cool computer to me. I missed the days when computers were a new and cool thing by about a decade sadly.

Given the mixed but mostly positive responses, I have decided to keep the thing for now. I will load DOS 6.22 on it sometime this week and mess around with it, since I've never messed around on a true DOS system before.

I just need to find an ISA ethernet card for it and figure out if I can get it to talk to my fileserver. I'm sure there is a DOS FTP client.

[Topcat]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

^
I have an ISA NIC here somewhere, I saw it not long ago.... It has an RJ45 AND a BNC on it. if I can find it, it's yours.

[Scenic]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I've got quite a bunch of Intel ISA NICs if needed. 10MBit only though (I kinda doubt there were 100MBit ISA NICs.. seems pointless just thinking about it)
If you want it, I might as well throw some RAM into the package.. dunno how much is in your 486 at the moment but I kinda doubt it's more than 16MB

edit: mhh.. I've also got some very rare pieces of hardware.. 2 identical AT&T WaveLAN pre-802.11 ISA wireless LAN cards, including matching boot ROMs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wa...SA_2.4_GHz.jpg

Max. speed is 2MBit/s, and there's no encryption. That isn't much of a problem though as it's incompatible with any 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN / WiFi stuff.

[retiredcaps]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I'm sure there is a DOS FTP client.

Ahh, the good old days with Clarkson packet drivers and TCP/IP stacks.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

Prepare yourselves for 56K DEATH.

The box:


Cover off:


The mobo:


HELL yeah:


ISA riser. CapXon 85C caps:


I see your LGA 1366 socket, and raise you this:


Who needs a core 2 duo when you have a DX processor:


The sound quality on this thing is excellent I'm sure:

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

a view from the helicopter:


lite-on wasn't born yesterday you know...


stupid 3.6v battery that is cramping my style and stopping the system from booting.... i need to find a replacement.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

remember when seagate didn't suck?


here's another blurry shot. my room is not exactly the paragon of proper lighting:

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

And here is a video of it booting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-uraAmizYY

This concludes my photographic documentation of the Packard Bell dinosaur. I hope you enjoyed it, if you'd like to see better pictures of any particular component please ask. If you are the type who gets anal about inline pictures and bandwidth, I trust you have enjoyed this thread greatly and hope you have a marvelous day

[Scenic]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

apart from being badly yellowed (retr0bright?) and having only 2 RAM slots, that doesn't look too bad.

Supports 486 DX4 100MHz and up to 64MB RAM (2x 32)
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherbo...-CD-486SX.html

J30 -> external battery