486DX2-66 worth keeping?

[Uranium-235]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

as someone who worked at goodwill computer works, seeing THOUSANDS of those from the inside out getting scrapped, I would be ok with never seeing another one my entire life

[acstech]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

My buddy from high school had one just like that! Awesome. I'd keep it and play Doom on it.

I had (and still have in a box in the basement) a Tandy with a very similar layout. It has the 486SX33 soldered on the board though. My friends computer was faster, so I got the Evergreen Overdrive processor for it. That plugged into the empty "upgrade socket". That took it up to 133MHz. Then it would play Quake, and actually handled Windows 95 fairly well.

If you want to keep yours around for MP3's or such, I'd suggest looking up one of the Overdrive processors.

Either that, or see if there are any jumpers for bumping up the bus speed. Overclock that sucker! You might want to put a fan on that heatsink though.

[Scenic]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

The last time I've seen a functional 486 or Pentium (1) was more than 10 years ago.
Heck.. even stuff like Pentium II's are pretty rare to see in the wild for me.

The only one I know of that's still in use is my brother's homeserver+router. It's a semi-passive cooled (via the PSU fan and a shroud) PII 450

[Topcat]

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

I love inline images....it annoys me when people whine about it....so keep doing it!!

As for the computer, I still see no practical use for it other than a conversation piece... I have a Commodore64 here too....just as useless...but I guess its fun keeping that kind of crap around.

[Ami Sapphire]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

Lol, that's something I would keep around... but that's me. I love messing with old computers. Found that PC more interesting than my "Cyrix Computer", which uses the PC Chips M571 v3.2A motherboard. That was my first computer from January 1999, and I revived it in January 2011. Fun times, even when it was unstable.

Although, if Mom saw that Packard Bell computer, she'll be confused for a bit, ask what it was, and go back to what she was doing.

[Topcat]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

^
I think the oldest working system I have on hand besides the Commodore is a Pentium classic 233mmx. I've long since junked things older than that. That 233mmx was overclocked to 266/75fsb, and was the absolute cats ass back in its day...

[ncovert]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

Jeez, that is YELLOW! I say keep it for playing old games or using old software. If you do neither, then you could salvage it for parts (power supply, hdd, etc.)

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

^
I think the oldest working system I have on hand besides the Commodore is a Pentium classic 233mmx. I've long since junked things older than that. That 233mmx was overclocked to 266/75fsb, and was the absolute cats ass back in its day...

I think i beat you... i used to run a 200MMX at 292 (83 FSB). A few years after its heyday tho.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

Prepare yourselves for 56K DEATH.

The box:

.
That's very close to the first [and only] factory made system I ever bought new.
Same case anyway. - Little over $1100 in 1995.
Came with Win 3.11 and a mail-in coupon to get Win95 free.
My mobo was a PB-450, came with a 486-DX33, 8Mb RAM and a 540Mb HDD.
Later upgraded CPU to the P24T-83MHz Overdrive, the modem, maxed the Video, Cache and system RAM and put in a 1GB Seagate. [Huge at the time.]
I had a couple 'Para-Discs' for it. Parallel port add-on Hard Drive 'boxes'.
The only things I have left from it are a Para-Disc 'boxes' and the 540Mb Maxtor it came with.
The Maxtor still works! I keep DOS on it for when that comes up.
.
They had a proprietary modem that fits on those unused white plastic stand-offs.
Plugs into a socket/header back there.
The proprietary modems did come in 56k versions later on and they worked fine to upgrade older PB systems once you got the drivers figured out.
.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I think i beat you... i used to run a 200MMX at 292 (83 FSB). A few years after its heyday tho.

I had an associate who's brother worked in RnD at IBM.
.
He showed me a working RnD 486DX2-200 system. [100Mhz FSB, doubled in the CPU.]
They might have made it to market were they not obsessed with getting their on-board video chip to run at 100MHz too.
Add-in video wasn't an option because at the time no one made one for 100MHz.
They kept burning out the video.
.
Project got scrapped when Intel's Pentium-1 came out with MMX.
.
[When he showed it to me he wouldn't run it more than 10 minutes at a time because he didn't want to fry the video....]
.

[bluto]

Your old PB still has a friend

Here is mine, which is much like yours. PB Legend 204CD according to the front. What number is on your front? The mobo looks the same but does not have the 'M' logo. I feel ripped off. The sound card, cd, hd, and nic are not the stock originals. I dealt with the dead battery by eliminating it and soldering onto the stubs. Couldn't have the old one leaking on the board anyway. And I have TEAPO caps on the riser card!! I don't have the suave original keyboard and mouse either. I think I gave those away at some point.

I have mine setup with a bunch of old games although I haven't turned it on in ages. I also used it in college to link with my TI-85. The homemade serial link cable did not work with faster computers for some reason. One detail that I remember about these was the gray trim pieces are removable and could be replaced with different colors (blue, neon green, pink, etc.). Although I doubt that many people forked over extra $ for that privilege.

Any idea if these support EDO ram? I think I have a pair of 16meg EDO SIMMS. Just no more FPM SIMMS.

Some more inline pics for the haters:

[bluto]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

Hold the presses! A new development! Since I had this one open and a handy link to the jumper settings, I decided to experiment. I pulled out that creaky old DX2/66 and popped in a shockingly fast DX4/100 overdrive chip. And what do you know, it worked with out changing any jumpers! OVERDRIVEN!!

Now on to the RAM, I had thought all I had was some 16 meg EDO SIMMs. Turns out they were FPM! So no longer am I stuck with a 4meg + 8meg + 4 meg onboard (16meg total). I now have 16meg + 16meg + 4meg onboard for a whopping 36 MEGABYTES OF RAM. It fired right up with the new RAM without so much as a whimper. Unusual for Packard Bell.

TAKE THAT WEIRDLOOKINGGUY





Oh and I might have several ISA NICs if you still need one.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I don't think they supported EDO, just FPM.
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherbo...-CD-486SX.html
- Hard to say though.
They used a lot of different motherboards in the Legend series.
Their 'run' went at least from 386 to 586.
Even the PB450 I had came in two versions: PCI capable and 'not'.
Only the later ones had a Flashable PnP BIOS.
There were some early Pentium boards that fit the chassis BTW.

Unfortunately the model number is on the bottom side of the board.
- At least it was on mine.
Have to take them ~all~ the way out to see it...
.
I still like the looks of those PB desktop cases with the grey plastics add-on.
If they weren't so proprietary I'd probably have one still.
.
I think mine actually started out as a DX2-66 and not a 33 like I said earlier.
I actually have a complete PB Legend 386 but it just came with some misc junk and I haven't tossed it yet - except for the monitor.
.

[Agent24]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I love these old machines for nostalgia, and playing games that can't be emulated properly. Or any other old software for that matter. Sometimes it's just nice to use one when you want to take a break from the bloated crapware we run nowadays.

It's also quite funny just to have something that slow...

But the best thing about these is they will probably STILL be working after the current stuff is dead.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

Heads up! I ran a 486 DX4 (in 2000, before getting a K6-2) without a heatsink and it booted fine, but was at least 160 F at idle!

So, I used a heatsink from RadioShack and no signs of it being a blazer anymore. lol
Need at least a little heatsink.

[bluto]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I can't seem to say away. I have a pair of DX4 chips sitting on my desk right now (see the gold scrap thread). I was thinking that wierdlookingguy could use one of them. But remember that the DX4 needs 3.3v. And that my overdrive DX4 provided a built in voltage regulator. So all is well there.

But then in looking at the jumper settings, I see that this board has jumpers to select 5v or 3.3v. However upon closer inspection I see that both my board and WLG's are missing the voltage regulator and a couple SMD resistors near it and the CPU. So I am guessing that this board will not run a DX4 without either a voltage adapter socket, an overdrive DX4, or some major surgery.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

This starting to sound like the fashion industry where things come back into style.
2012 must be the year hopping up a 486 for the dusty corner is in vogue.
.
I collected an Am5x86-P75 about a week before this thread started to put my old FIC PIO3 back together.
.

[Krankshaft]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

Haha this was my first computer my father picked it up at a local refurbished computer store for my ninth birthday.

That CPU should have a heatsink bonded onto it from the factory with white thermal epoxy at least mine did.

It was preloaded with Windows 3.1 and had blazing fast 2x CD-Rom drive . I think that internal modem isn't even 14.4 maybe 9600 baud? Or that may have been the speed of the internal modem on the tower models with the internal tape backup drives? Serviced a bunch of those too with my father. Can't remember them modem specs. My last PB PC was a 233 Mhz in probably the late 90s. I believe Packard Bells run ended in the US with the Slot 1 CPUs.

They weren't the top of the line PCs but I never really had any complaints about them to be honest. I never gamed on them (with the exception of Doom) or ran hardware intensive applications either so that's probably why.

I sold my 486 a few years ago got 55 bucks shipped for it was sick of stubbing my toes on it. Apparently someone wanted one bad and I lucked out. Didn't make a fortune but saved it from the landfill.

Man the fact that I actually used Windows 3.1 makes me feel old.

[acstech]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I think i beat you... i used to run a 200MMX at 292 (83 FSB). A few years after its heyday tho.

Wouldn't that be 250MHz? The 200MMX had a 3x multiplier. 83.3*3 = ~250.

Did you actually have a 233MMX?

Anyway, I once had a Pentium 200MMX that I also ran on an 83MHz FSB for quite some time. One day, I replaced it with a Super Socket 7 board and AMD K6-2 350. Just for kicks I popped the old Pentium 200MMX into the SS7 board. With a peltier on it cooling it down, along with a giant heatsink, it would run at 300MHz on a 100MHz bus! The real surprising thing was that, at that speed, it was faster than the K6-2 that replaced it!

I still have the Pentium 200MMX and peltier here somewhere, but the SS7 board and K6-2 got sold years ago.

[Hemingray]

Re: 486DX2-66 worth keeping?

I have a short stack of older Pentium processors, and some gutted out systems wielding TI 486/40 procs. Have a Pentium Pro chip around here somewhere as well.