AMD 386DX-40 - When AMD had the fastest processor

[@MrHeem94]

"Remember when AMD had the fastest processor?" Yeah i do. Several times.

[@alexc8992]

Isn't that rn?

[@Mdudeman13]

Alex C Yep m.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

[@mememaster147]

I 'member when DEC had the fastest processor...

[@Microwave414]

@@alexc8992 They pretty much are. The only one caveat that intel BARELY edges out is gaming and I do mean barely and honestly the only way I think it would 'help' is making loading screens go faster which well I'm on a ryzen 2700x and I already don't notice loading screens already so I can't imagine the newer chipset's loading times.

[@TuskForce]

@@Microwave414 they (Intel) do but the power draw is huuge

[@atecep]

Yes, I remember when AMD launched the R9 3900X... What a time...

[@konstantinliebich9427]

Even the Zen2 R7s are faster...

[@MyBestBuddiesForever]

@Brad Viviviyal ahh yess i also remember when intel making promises to go to 10nm and it never happens what a good time

[@matilija]

Ah, the good old days, when 1 MB of ram cost about $95 USD...………….takes me back.

[@UltimateAlgorithm]

Is that 95 old dollar or adjusted for inflation?

[@matilija]

@@UltimateAlgorithm Old dollars, adjusted for inflation it would be closer to 130-140 dollars today.

[@UltimateAlgorithm]

@@matilija wow that is very expensive. Most PC builders including me complained last year when RAM price is high. Knowing this makes you realize how expensive computers back then.

[@matilija]

@@UltimateAlgorithm Indeed, computers have actually become very cheap considering how far they have advanced over the years. Basically a computer that would have cost about 2k back in 1994 is outperformed by a $120 raspberry pi today...……...

[@UltimateAlgorithm]

@@matilija raspberry pi is below 100 usd. They are around 35 usd for the base model of 1 GB of RAM if I'm correct.

[@cyancoyote7366]

"When AMD had the fastest processor" You mean now?

[@gremfive4246]

I dont think any of them hit 5+ GHz without LN2

[@JesusMeza3]

@@gremfive4246 I guess the FX-9590 is a beast then

[@sonic344ify]

Again idiot amd fanboys lol.Their new 3000 series which is already maxed out out of the box at 4.3 ghz is still slower than a mildly overclocked 4790k 4th gen proccesor lol.Gluing chiplets together with the infinity fabric allows you to add more cores but those cores are slow.An 8 core 3700x at its max 4.3 is still slower in most games compared to a 4 core 4790k at 4.7 ghz.Amd hasn't even caught up yet.The only rhing that ryzen has many cores.

[@sonic344ify]

@@JesusMeza3 The fx is an 8 core that scores 800 in cinebench r15 multicore at 5ghz while an i5 2500k with 4cores when overclocked scores 700.Lol.

[@sonic344ify]

@@jdgshsjchdjejkd545 Intel's 14nm++++($+#+ is still faster in gaming clock for clock compared to tsmc's 7nm.But the chip amd maxes out at 4.3 while intel goes up to 5.1 on air.

[@Felix-ve9hs]

AMD Athlon 64 - When AMD had the fastest processor *again*

[@rallyscoot]

Sure before that the AMD Thunderbird processors where also the fastest.. They where much faster then the Pentium III`s.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

I think the original K6-200 may have been the fastest for a few weeks, if you ignored the Pentium Pro, which was a workstation/server platform. The Pro was also arguably slower at 16-bit tasks than the regular Pentium. The Pentium II came out a month or so after the K6 and ended the performance comparison issue for two years until the original Athlon came along.

[@Reloaded2111]

Ryzen Zen 2 series processors - AMD *AGAIN* surpasses Intel in terms of both speed and core count.

[@wishusknight3009]

@@dycedargselderbrother5353 K6 didn't beat the MMX. Its FPU was just too slow.

[@wishusknight3009]

The AMD DX 40 came out after the intel 486 33, which blows it out of the water. AMD had the fastest 386, but by no means the fastest at the time.

[@alexpadillayt]

It's funny that AMD is now beating Intel today 🙌

[@woodiemarv]

@Bob Dole only in games everything else in gets a beat down.

[@Dr.WhetFarts]

@@woodiemarv nope, tons of applications run better on 9900k. stop looking at synthetics, like cinebench, please.

[@konstantinliebich9427]

@Bob Dole How come even the R7 3700X is beating the i9 9900k as soon as you start streaming the games.,..? Well the i9 can boost up to 4,9Ghz... which makes it the better Dual-Core. Once you use it as the 8Core 16Thread prozessor it is sold as both have an base clock of 3,6 Ghz and Zen 2 has the higher IPC.

[@konstantinliebich9427]

​@Bob Dole You don't seem to understand. The 350€ R7 3700X is more powerful than the i9 9900k. Doesn't have to be productivity or streaming... How about a modern game that utilises an 8 core properly? The i9 is the faster Dual-Core... maybe even Quad-Core ;)

[@botagasss]

@Bob Dole I would choose Ryzen any day. I may be a gamer, but I use my PC to produce stuff like videos, music and designs. I am not buying a CPU to overclock it. Neither is 9900k efficient. You know how much electricity costs? Get real dude, talk about the more important things

[@fullmetaljacket7]

Retro stuff, finally! yay!

[@CristiBucerzan]

About fuckin time :p

[@MrSamadolfo]

😍👍

[@MrSamadolfo]

@@CristiBucerzan 😏 yup

[@deeloc5500]

oh yeee baby ! retro luv

[@GuybrushThriftweed]

Retro luv baby! My daily retro driver is the AMD 386DX-40 :) Back in the days, I had a 386dx-33 and had so much fun with it. Can't remember what sound card,gpu,....was in. Only the brand In remember. I have a soft spot for 386, that's why I have built this dx-40 with gotek, sd card,tseng et4000ax and a sb pro2. Nice review Phil,u tested almost every game I played!

[@RandomlyDrumming]

I do remember - for example, my Ryzen 9 3900x kicks the sh*t out of pretty much anything Intel has to offer in the same or similar price range... :D In all seriousness, back in a day (90's), I had mostly AMD CPUs (K5, K6, K6-2, K7). I briefly switched to Intel during the Core2 era, but I'm back, supporting the Red Team. :)

[@RandomlyDrumming]

@@timothybilotta8090 And the best part of that story is - I still have most of the hardware I ever used in a working condition (Amstrad CPC 464, C64 and Amiga 500 are all well and running fine). Currently on my desk, right next to the machine I'm typing this on, is a 486DX4 @ 100Mhz and 16MB RAM (yeah, Intel, I know :D). In the next room, sitting by my wife's PC, is a Pentium II 266Mhz, 64MB RAM and Voodoo2 SLI) :) So yeah, I am retro :D

[@MrSamadolfo]

😊 i still mostly pu Core2 laptops & desktops to gift them to my family in latin america

[@TheLionAndTheLamb777]

I like them better when they were team Green. Now that's Nvidia I suppose.

[@howaboutsomesoyfood]

3 years later, I'm still team red. have always had AMD cpus except in a couple laptops

[@edm3184]

Thanks for making me feel old.. haha had one of those at work..!

[@jeremygeorgia4943]

Overclocking was so easy, during the Socket 7 days. You just flipped a DIP switch & asked your 500Mhz K6III, if it could give you 50 more MHZ, and it complied. You didn't even need a cooling fan, but you could use one if you wanted to.

[@travisbeamon5356]

a 386 build is my ultimate nostalgia build. Thank you for the video!

[@obsoletegeek]

Hey, stranger!

[@mattyclad9185]

A processor that didn't need cooling? What kind of witchcraft is this? 😱😵

[@carsonGoodwin16]

A lot of processors don’t need active cooling

[@bdhale34]

@@carsonGoodwin16 I can run my Athlon II x4 635 overclocked to 3.85GHz passively not even anything exotic heatsink wise Zalman CNPS5X Performa tower cooler runs at about 60c max with the fan unplugged (56 with the fan and shroud removed) and around 45 with the fan running.

[@warrax111]

passive cooler is already cooling.

[@warrax111]

raspberry pi also don't need cooling, and it outperform 386 :)

[@mbe102]

Lower Framerate Doom makes it feel like Doom 3, where as high frame rate makes it feel like Doom 2016

[@MrTomas7777]

Ironically, Doom 3 is older (graphically less demanding) so it runs at an higher framerate than Doom 2016

[@ThePsychoticWombat]

@@MrTomas7777 Doom 3 does have a 60FPS cap though

[@fungo6631]

@Shrug More like an ATI tech demo. When it wa first unveiled it ran on a Radeon 9700.

[@TrevorLentz]

Love your channel Phil. I have been watching your videos regularly for a while. Even though I subscribe to way too many tech channels, I have to press that sub button. :)

[@pc-sound-legacy]

Hey Phill, i'm happy you still offer real old retro-stuff from time to time. You offer a good mix from previous-gen multicore budget builts to real old stuff like this. Thank you!

[@philscomputerlab]

Thanks, that means a lot!

[@szpynda]

Ach, greate video! It was beautiful time. My first comp AMD486DX4/100MHz/4MB RAM and 40MB HDD. Wonderfull time.

[@Felix-ve9hs]

Today the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X has 8MB of L2 and 64MB of L3 Cache 😂 Imagine running DOS just off your L3 Cache ...

[@AndreiNeacsu]

@@Felix-ve9hs The Ryzen L3 cache is an exclusion cache, also called victim cache. Thus, it can never work as RAM. You could, in principle, do this with an FX 8xxx CPU that had an L2+L3 config. of 8+8 MB; however, the motherbord and BIOS need to feature 8 MB of RAM too and be especially configured for this purpose. While this second option is possible in principle, it is unrealistic.

[@fullmetaljacket7]

@@Felix-ve9hs dos? I was running windows 95 with 8 megs of ram back in the day lol

[@jerrywatson1958]

I was 33 years old back then. My personal computer at the time was the Commodore Amiga 500+ with 40MB scis HD. That year I bought a Amiga 2000 with a PC card (386). I upgraded that to a Motorola 68020 for the main cpu, I ran Apple, and MS DOS, all in windows on the Amiga workbench desktop. I swore at the time it was the future of home computing. No matter which environment you worked in you could do it on an Amiga. I loved Deluxe Paint and that NewTek capture card from back in the day. I did a lot of work on that baby back then. Love your work Phil, stay passionate about what you do. I for one will continue to support your choices in topics to cover. To me it's all good! Thanks again for all you do.

[@ytfanlingeric]

It is amazing that those components have been kept in such perfect conditions.

[@flecom5309]

used a 386DX-33 for many years, remember adding a creative labs multimedia kit, came with a sound blaster pro and a 1x caddy loading cd-rom drive, many great memories on that thing (still have most of it)... enjoy all your videos, even the newer xeon stuff (I am still rocking a 1366 xeon setup at home, and a dual 1366 workstation at work)

[@hansoak3664]

The AMD 386DX-40... My absolute favorite board and CPU of all time. I miss mine. Thank you for the wonderful memories.

[@CiroAMD]

You have one of the best hardware channels! I love you retro videos, I can't wait to see a Season 3 of AMD vs intel! Greetings from Brazil!

[@devblognet]

I love such retro videos! I finally built a 486 after searching months for working parts and an authentic case.

[@futurepastnow]

Retro content videos are how I found your channel so they're what I visit to see. I find reviews of new stuff interesting, too, but everyone does those.

[@envoycdx]

Loved it. My first PC was a AMD 386 DX40 with 8meg of ram and a 120mb HDD back in 1995. Broke it, replaced the board with a SX25 and didn't half notice the difference. Spent months saving to afford a 486 DX33 setup after that and progressed from there. Always enjoy playing with older hardware even now.

[@realRichHunting]

Wow... this brings back memories from when I was a kid. My first PC was a Tandy 386sx with 4MB of RAM, 85MB HDD, 4bit color video, and a 14.4k modem. I built it when I was 12 years old so I could get on AOL 2.0. lol Crazy how much has changed in 25 years.

[@michaeleriksson644]

Really nice to see. Mine was fully kitted with 8MB RAM and additional CO-processor.

[@robervaldo4633]

My first x86 was an AMD 386DX40, I remember paying about U$40 per megabyte of RAM for adding 4Mb extra (8Mb total), and also about U$40 for a 487DLC, my motherboard wasn't as good as this one, though. At the time it was fun, but I don't miss a lot of those times. So much time figuring things out and configuring and working around problems... the HDs of the time didn't even come with readahead enabled, after enabling that you'd get a big performance boost from the HD, but such information was nowhere, you had to fiddle endlessly to learn it... configuring IRQs and IO addresses, resolving hardware conflicts, freeing high/extended memory, failing floppy disks, etc., etc. everything set up by hand and case by case... a lot of time spent fiddling just to run a piece of software... Up until last year I actually even had the board, a Soundblaster Pro 2, a few videoboards, some modems, collecting dust, but finally took them to an electronics recycling/disposal center. 🙂 Anyway, I'm glad there are people like you who got the space and will to store all this parts in good condition, put it together and record such a nice video and publish computer history for everyone. Great work! Thanks!

[@LutzHeidbrink]

The 386/40 was my first PC and of course I had all the games shown in the video. Stunts aka 4D Sports Driving was one of my favorite, same with 4D Sports Tennis. Coming from a C64 before that were insane real 3d graphics. ahh the good times.

[@barbunicolae2711]

Amazing retro video! Thank you very much! Keep doing what you love!

[@saintuk70]

Great video, right at the cusp I was moving from Amiga to PC back in the day.

[@sebretrocave4588]

Hi Phil, your retro videos are the best, i think also you have a perfect voice even for singing :)

[@Jwalker76]

This brings back memories. My grand father had a 286 back in the day and we eventually got a 386 sx 16mhz computer from my uncle who had just upgraded to a 486. My brother started working as a computer tech in the 90s and got hold of a cheap amd 586. I had alot of the games you showed in this video and it makes me want to play them again. Hmm may have to look into a retro gaming system. :)

[@philscomputerlab]

It's a fun hobby, but gets addictive :D

[@briangleeson1528]

What a great video! My first PC was a 386sx-40 with 4MB of RAM. I remember playing Doom shareware and Wolfenstein. We upgraded that machine with a sound card and 4x CD-ROM. I am currently working on building a 386dx-40. I am jealous of your motherboard, good affordable ones are hard to find. I would be interested in seeing a math co-processor video or a 486 comparison would be cool. Keep up the good work, Phil.

[@UpLateGeek]

We had an Intel 386DX-33 clone when I was growing up. Definitely played a lot of Wolfenstein and that stunt game back in the day, not to mention Monkey Island 2. We got a "multimedia" upgrade package that included an AdLib card and a CD-ROM drive that used a proprietary interface with two ribbon cables to the sound card. The AdLib card was relatively easy to use, since a lot of games supported it without drivers, but the CD drive took ages to figure out how to get it working! Now I've got a collection of vintage machines, I'm really missing that old 386. It's a massive gap in my collection, so I'm really sad we didn't keep it around. On the other hand, my parents are packing up to move house, so you never know what they might find in the loft. Great video as always, always love the retro stuff!

[@2007tantrum]

Happy to see retro video on this channel. Watched it all. Like

[@LordAlacorn]

Good to see real Phil is back, I hope you took care of that imposter. ;)

[@CMOS4081]

I miss my AMD K6-2 and K6-3. I remember the AMD i386 being used in different networking gear we had at work.

[@keenhauberk]

No, i had an AMD K6-II 400 MHz, that was crap. After that i had an AMD Thunderbird C 1000 MHz, that was really amazing at this time. This was the fastest processor on market. Intel had as fastest model a 866 MHz Pentium III in the same time.

[@kami4542]

Nice 386 video !! Even though prices are out of control now it's really cool to see you talking about it again :D (especially for those who can't afford this stuff like me xD)

[@joannaatkins822]

I have no idea if it was intel or AMD, but I used to have a 386 desktop when I was eight (23 years ago or perhaps slightly later, maybe two years). Indiana jones, lemmings, and monkey island were the best games! I just had a full on flashback from the sequence you filmed!

[@dervsoh2468]

OMG, just this was my first self built PC in 1995 :) 386DX-40 from AMD, 4 MB RAM, no math copro, 120 MB HDD, and even a 2x CD-ROM drive. No idea what video card, but i had a beast of sound card: a gravis ultrasound max. Playing DOS-Games was pure fun.

[@emperorSbraz]

you can properly do the corkscrew in stunt.exe you have my respect. :D

[@jasejj]

My first PC clone was built around a DX40... I used it because it gave 486-like performance at a much lower price. I never felt short-changed by it as a Computer Science student in the early 1990s, eventually replacing it with an SGS 486DX2-80 when the price of those processors fell through the floor and it made sense to upgrade as a poor student :)

[@ugzz]

YES! Another Phils on old hardware, and a gem at that! Man i could watch this stuff all day, i started on a B&W mac, moved to a 16mhz Apple (i think IIc or something), then switched to PC with a 33mhz Pentium, stuck with pentium for a dx66, but then switch to AMD around the 100mhz barrier and rocked that up until a cyrix 300, but i had to get back on the AMD train in the ~500mhz range for that 3DNOW Tech! lol

[@frshunter]

I had one of these upgrading from a 286 and really brought back the memories. Those games especially Lemmings and Stunt Driver I forgot all about!

[@TheBigupz]

watchin almost 30 year old machines, in 4k 60fps, what a time to be a live, i was still to young to understand machines like this, so i love watching this videos

[@erazorCTF]

I had an AMD 368-DX 40, exactly the model you showed here, the ceramic one. And I even also had a Tseng ET4000 running with it. The soundcard was an Adlib-Card though, so only music. Effects came from the internal speaker of the PC.

[@playswithblades]

I felt young again, I was fresh learning hardware system implementation when these systems were brand new tech, we used to say, how can they make this better... and now look at the modern systems. It's a stupid question and a stupid guessing game, computer designers can do just about anthing. Alien tech anyone?

[@ceejay2k2]

Great video! My first PC was powered by the 386-DX40 which I got back in late 93. I remember it wasn't great for gaming, about 1½ year later it got upgraded with a new motherboard and a 486-DX4-100, that thing was a beast compared to the 386 lol and gaming actually turned into a good experience.

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

I loved this processor. I rant a Linux machine for email and web service for years. A AMD 386 DX 40 and a Weitek match co-pro and 8 meg ram make this a Sun class work station. I even ran Openlook as the window manager. It ran like a Sun Sparc 5. This processor and the AMD 5x86 DX 133 (overclocked to 140) were my favorite PC processors of the era. Fun days.

[@barowt]

Makes me happy they're back on top with the new Ryzen stuff, proud to be a shareholder!

[@blazer666del]

Athlons were faster than Intel many times over the years....

[@lemontangs]

Loving your testing board Phil. Gold!

[@michaelturpen5159]

The Am386DX-40/Cx387DX-40 combo holds so much nostalgia for me. That 286-to-386 leap was amazing; it seems like it is the most important development in x86 computing to date.

[@rhyzon]

I was there, 3000 years ago...

[@xDownSetx]

And now we're there and back again

[@classic_jam]

Yes! Retro! Love the new content as well, but so many other channels have similar stuff so it's nice to see the retro again!

[@GodOfGamingBG]

You might be forgetting something, its true that Intel 386 was not going up to 40mhz, but when the AMD 386DX-40 came out, Intel already had 486DX-33 and maybe even 486DX-50 out, so the AMD may have been the fastest 386, but it certainly wasnt the fastest processor available, I think that didn't happen till Athlon 1000

[@munxcorp]

It was the fastest x86 that people could actually afford tho :)

[@dadgamer6717]

Wow just like my amiga!

[@MarkHyde]

Really love this return to the retro format. Great video.

[@MrSnapy1]

Amd has had the fastest cpu a couple of times. Like currently the 3900x is not only faster but much cheaper.

[@magburner]

Faster than what?? My 9900K runs at 5ghz.

[@Dr.WhetFarts]

3900x cheap? lol, no and it's barely in stock anywhere. also, the 9900k beats 3900x in tons of stuff. games and emulation for example. tons of real world applications too.

[@MrSnapy1]

The AMD Flagship is yet to be released...

[@bdhale34]

@@Dr.WhetFarts Games and emulating game consoles, PC and other types of Emulations not so much.. tons of real world apps.. like photoshop... and any workload that doesn't exceed a 30-45 second load on the CPU. Anything at all that has a sustained load on the chip the 9900k gets roflstomped hard. It's not even close even the 3700x is beating it at everything except the gaming and the short workloads and photo editing..

[@dougjohnson4266]

I had a ZEOS 386SX and it worked well. Thanks for your web site and this video.

[@ivanlinka8779]

Hi Phil, is seems this board has EISA slot on it. Have you ever thought of benchmark / comparison with EISA graphics? I have Compaq AVGA and Elsa Winner 1000, but never seen 386 board with EISA slots. How about some video on that neglected topic?

[@alexanderwingeskog758]

Great set of test games! As an avid Amiga user at that time, most of the games (although some of them had more colors, did not look as good as the Amiga at the time). But the first game I was really amazed at was Comanche (the helicopter simulator game) and I really tried my best to research a method for the Amiga to make that possible (The standard Amiga 1200 at that time) but without a FPU and chunky pixel setup (well anything but bitmap really) it was pretty much impossible... Anyway, if you ever do another 386 (or 486) try Comanche! :-) with a poor FPU (Cyrix?) I bet it would not perform as good... and it would also be fun to see if the AMD FPU at this time (386DX) was Comanche worthy :-) ...edit Oh the 386DX did not include a FPU (just read the Wiki)... I guess the setup played had the FPU co-pro installed on the motherboard... Maybe Comanche does not even run without a FPU... aaaah... ...edit again Wrong again it seems... Voxels are perfectly doable on the Amiga 1200 it seems (yes has no game logic, but rendering of it seems pretty fast). kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJSyiHaLnZt_aLs

[@raulrrodriguez7552]

I first learned computing on a 386, it was a lot of fun back then. So many software and hardware options to try out. Kind of like the wild, wild west : )

[@cookieboy5300]

I remember these and the history, thanks as always for the walk down memory lane :)

[@3800S1]

I have fond memories of this era AMD CPUs. I just started high school and got into building PCs. I used to scrounge for old hardware from the local computer stores and my school. The AMD stuff was really rare in my area and one store chucked a whole skip bin full of boards with CPUs still in them. It was like gold finding the only AMD cpu out of the 100s of intel stuff which all were 386 and 486s. I found an AMD 586 133 that worked in 486 boards.

[@dangoldbach6570]

Digging the turbo 3800 logo

[@3800S1]

@@dangoldbach6570 Thanks! I love a good buick 6.

[@Nine-Signs]

My secondary school (1993 to 1998) had a computer repair store across the street from it, they kept a skip out front. I was a very happy child. My mother not so much given the boxes of "junk" I would come home with :) So much of it I should have kept but you never think to do so at the time.

[@melvinrobinson4700]

I went from an Intel 386SX-20 MHz no cache my 1st motherboard. Next one was AMD Am486DX-120MHz clock tripled 40MHz bus. I loved how AMD kept extending CPU performance when Intel would jump to another architecture altogether. Nowadays, I am building a PC from scratch using the fastest 80286 known to exist: A 25MHz Harris Semiconductor 80286.

[@danielberrett2179]

Great Video again. Thank you. I enjoy both retro and modern (all) of your videos!

[@freefalcon23]

Oh hey, glad to see some more retro videos after the modern ones. Keep up the great work!

[@bleachwolf6936]

We need more vids like these. These parts are iconic

[@spearPYN]

386 is one of the best CPUs ever, wildly popular in the early 90s. I keep one alongside Pentium 133 and K6 166 for more mid-90s games. Linux was first born on 386!

[@dallesamllhals9161]

BUT INTEL™ or AMD™?

[@EternalxFrost]

I miss my old 386... the same exact CPU (DXL-40) and a pretty similar motherboard, came in with 4 MB of RAM, that I upgraded later to 32 MB, for fun.. Been given to me back then by a computer teacher, back in high school. It had everything to it: keyboard, mouse, joystick, printer, CRT monitor, a fuckton of 5.25 and 3.5 inches disks filled of games and progs. Had a Seagate 130.7 MB in it, with a 2 MB video card and an Adlib sound card, with the knob in the I/O panel of the card. Had DOS 6.0 and Windows 3.10 (single-user) installed, with already loads of stuff installed, like Automenu, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, Reflex, etc. Good ole' times

[@RCjesus.David.2581]

You get me with Retro stuff like this. 10year old or newer just doesn't get me when i'm not in computer mood, like it is in Summer. You do it right if you say you do what you want to do!

[@slashtiger1]

I LOVE the memory test sound on this BIOS. Back in the 80386 era, I had a computer with a strikingly similar BIOS which also had the same sound during the memory test. And when I maxed the memory out, I remember it going on forever and thinking: oh wow, now I do have an absolute tonne of memory...! And this type of BIOS must have been popular, because at a certain point in time I had to have the mainboard replaced. The computer's supplier went ahead and upgraded me to a 80486DX(!) at no additional charge (i.e. just the factored cost of repair, but the plan was to just replace the mainboard like-for-like). And that mainboard _also_ had this kind of BIOS, just with a feature set tailored to the 80486. I can remember being totally blown away by the MASSIVE speed difference from an 80386SX to an 80486DX. The former also ran at 33MHz, whereas the latter ran at 66MHz (I believe), which I did eventually upgrade to 100MHz.

[@BoomBox02]

Good to see some retro content. I was surprised to see that the way you overclock the cpu on this board is the same as you would overclock many Amiga CPU expansion boards. My Apollo 040 card that is in my Amiga 1200 came standard at 25Mhz. I replaced the 50Mhz crystal and put in an 80Mhz one and have ran the cpu at 40Mhz since the late 90's.

[@billthecat2410]

This sure brings back memories. I was seeing the end of my Atari 520ST and the AMD 40 was my first X86 build. I also got a TSENG video card. Those where a really kick ass video card of the time. I paired it up with a 3DFX daughter card so I got pretty good game speeds. For the games that used it that is. I guess I preferred AMD cpus because I stuck with them for a long long time. Heck, they were cheaper and faster in some builds. Back then you really had to have a hands on approach setting computers up. Finding IRQ's for all the add on cards and it could get pretty tricky if you added a lot and then there are the jumpers... Oh boy the jumpers... Fun days.. These days windows does it all for you, takes some of the fun out of it.

[@Viking8888]

What a walk down memory lane! Nice video Phil.

[@DKJones96]

First PC was a 386SX-25 with 2MB of ram. Simpler times then. I have an AMD 386SX-33 and an AMD DX-40 motherboard sitting at home waiting for me to find a case or something to use them. Even have a 486DLC upgrade for the DX!

[@johnspeaks7841]

love the retro computing, more of them please!!

[@boomwithpeter623]

Incorect AMD has the fastest desktop processor right now !!! The R7 3900X, there is also the Threadripper 2990WX

[@matilija]

Actually, it doesn't, there are faster HEDT processors....well, I take it back, the 2990 WX might be the most powerful CPU right now, but fastest is still an intel chip atm, while AMD has a ~5% ipc lead right now, but fIntel still has about a 10% clock speed advantage.

[@matilija]

@TheThunderGuy S It's the other way around, the specs are in AMD's favor, the performance is still in Intel's favor, most games still perform better on the 9900k than they do the 3700x-3900x, that said, it's close enough to call it a draw in most circumstances, and AMD price to performance is WAY better, and they also do it while drawing less power, so yeah, I think AMD 3000 series chips are the best chips on the market from now when looking at the bigger picture, yes, they are ~5-10% slower in most games, but they perform way better at just about everything else, and the difference between 100 FPS and 110 FPS won't be noticed by most people.

[@alexc3504]

Even if it's not always faster it's usually within like 10% or less. Most of the time less. The R9 3900X is 5% slower on average compared to the Core i9-9900K and it's much better in workloads that can actually use the extra 4 cores and 8 threads which makes its value proposition much higher than the 9900K... Oh... and it doesn't run at 100 degrees celsius with it's box cooler.

[@matilija]

@@alexc3504 I agree. (though I wouldn't recommend running the 3900x on the stock cooler, personally run it with a Dark Rock Pro 4 and it stays at 70C and lower under load where as with the stock cooler, it was getting pretty toasty up in the 85C+ range).

[@matilija]

@Sam Ross What mitigation are you referring to?

[@retropcscotland4645]

Do a pentium 90mhz. That was some cpu. I also like the newer tech you have been covering. Good video mate.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

I bought one very soon after it came out. It was also my first overclock: I discovered that it ran at 100 MHz when switching a motherboard jumper. For a few months at least, that was the fastest on the market.

[@blendded6248]

Funny you mention that, I myself have put together a Pentium 90MHz PC a couple months ago. Reason I went for this processor is because I found a really cheap Motherboard-CPU-RAM combo for about 18 dollars ( it contained the CPU, an Intel motherboard with ISA and PCI slots and last but not least, no soldered CMOS batteries or Dallas abominations, just a normal coin battery and finally 16MB of RAM), I went further from there buying a sound card, graphics card, PC case, power supply, IDE controller and of course, a functional set of DOS 6.22 diskettes. I'm only really missing an SD to IDE (or CF to IDE) converter to really take advantage of this beast. I don't have any physical media to use it on and it can be a pain the ass to track down diskettes and CDs of DOS games in a post-eastern block country but I WILL return to it one day. And yeah, I would love to see Phil's take on the Socket 5 Pentiums even if there were only like two of them before Socket 7 replaced it full time.

[@Wushu-viking]

Its great that you do retro and modern hardware. One of the best tech channels

[@soylentgreenb]

I find ~100 MHz a tricky speed grade. Too fast for many games made for DX2-66 and too slow for them many games made for P166.

[@retropcscotland4645]

@@blendded6248 That's awesomee man let me know how you get on with it.

[@billthecat2410]

In a way it's sad that The Sound Blaster folks didn't see the writing on the wall and sell their chips to the motherboard folks. They could have and we would have sound blaster still instead of Realtet chips. It kind of did a number on Creative Labs. Back then Sound Blaster was great because all the games used their drivers. Use MS Dos huh? I used another called DR Dos. We always called it Doctor Dos.. hehe ....

[@BaumInventions]

I have some 90s notebooks with real Creative soundchips inside... So they actually tried ... I guess the clones were just cheaper to get.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

Legendary processor that put AMD on the map as something other than a secondary source for IBM. And an EISA motherboard to boot. As shown, this was the perfect Wolfenstein processor but couldn't make the transition to Doom; even the lower end 486s weren't right for it. It'd be interesting to see the power consumption when running something like Linux. DOS pegged the CPU at 100% at all times while Linux would send sleep requests. OS/2 might have as well, but I don't remember. Now a challenge: compose a song by changing the RAM tick pitch with different oscillator chips.

[@MrSamadolfo]

😱 omgawd! now thats a real throwback on the outback 😍 my first desktop that my parents gifted me was a 286 😇 i dont remember how it looked inside but i imagine it looks like a 386, but im not sure 🍭😊

[@johnmijo]

"It just works!" -Phil I wonder what Jensen thinks ;)

[@DigitalViscosity]

Great accent, I hear german mixed with Aussie very interesting to listen to and great subject matter well explained

[@philscomputerlab]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@mauricevde]

Love your working machine phill , awesome !, I have a partly working am386dx40 + math co proc but the bord needs resolder on the memory slots, some pins and plastic broke off.

[@kennyj4366]

So this seems to be the third rise of AMD. I had forgotten about that 386 cpu. Great video thank you. 🙂👍👍

[@LiveFreeOrDieDH]

My first computer was very similar to this build, with an AMD 386DX-40 and 4MB RAM. I later installed a Sound Blaster card, CD-ROM drive, and modem myself when I was maybe 12 or 13. Also upgraded the CPU to a Cyrix 486DLC for a marginal speed improvement. Learned a lot back in those days.

[@SudosFTW]

how interesting timing this is, I just bought a TI 486-50 386 CPU for 7 bucks off eBay. gonna solder it into a Fedex Powership 2 machine made by NEC for FedEx in 92.

[@lucaspam]

The 386 was the platform that really made people consider the IBM PC as a gaming platform, after many years of subpar pc gaming software.

[@soylentgreenb]

Yea; and the games. A fast 286; maybe a 16 - 25 MHz harris with a decent cirrus logic card (no PC so slow an driving an OAK stake through the heart of it can’t slow it down further); was graphically capable of being quite impressive; but most games still only supported PC speaker. Around 386DX-40 is when good games like wolfenstein 3D and ultima underworld came out; sound blasters became standard; diskette swapping on Amiga became unbearable and PCs became affordable.

[@matthewplehn4271]

LOL...went for the 386 video!...Wonderful presentation as always. That board looks really interesting, being able to run a 486 AND a 386..was that also the era for EDO RAM?...you always tempt me to build such a computer when i see these videos..if i did id want a board like that! On another note...when did Boards start integrating the VLB?...what was VLB for?

[@philscomputerlab]

VLB is really for the 486, although exotic 386 implementations exist.

[@白正賢]

That was my second CPU!

[@deeloc5500]

It was my first cpu :D

[@JT-ko2ib]

Great upgrade from the aging Nehalem.

[@osgrov]

Yeaah, this is my jam! That's almost my old system! I have a simpler motherboard but the same 386DX-40 by AMD which I've had since back in the old days.. I vividly remember spending most of 1994 not studying and glued to my big 21" CRT and playing Master of Orion, lol. That game is so addictive, damn. This CPU is a milestone in my opinion, a real Hall of Fame thing. Sure, the 486 is faster, but cost quite a bit more back then. As a cheap student at the time, it wasn't too hard finding second-hand 386 motherboards, and the AMD 386's were easy to find and fairly priced as I remember it. Particularly the 386SX was very cheap and often in bargain bins around the late 486-early Pentium era. I wish I'd more stuff saved from that time, I'd be rich now.. :) Very fun to see this running again, thanks Phil. Great job, great channel.

[@pentiummmx2294]

I have a CRT, unfortunately it doesn't work, it's a '15 no name VGA CRT. it shows nothing when hooked up to my Pentium 133 MHz PC, the PC works fine when my Dell LCD is hooked to it though.

[@jasongooden917]

That's some real old school overclocking. Swapping the crystal on the motherboard...wow.

[@rallyscoot]

Thats no overclocking, thats setting the cpu speed right.

[@Jossandoval]

?? AMD has the world record now, august 5 of 2019, with the AMD FX-8370 overclocked at 8722.8MHz.

[@kaylaandjimbryant8258]

and it still sucks ;) get a ryzen instead.

[@dylon4906]

thats the overclocking world record, not performance

[@Jossandoval]

@@dylon4906 yeah, but this video talks about clocking speed, not performance. Personally, I try to do a bit of research before purchasing, ignoring the fancy marketing numbers in colorful logos.

[@craigkarsten6719]

I had a Intel 386 DX33 setup back around '92 which was the first computer I put to together. I went out and bought a Tseng Labs ET4000 a bit later not just for the speed but for the extra graphical features the drivers enabled for Microsoft Flight Simulator 4. You got a higher resolution and a 747 glass cockpit.

[@datasoftinc]

Great vid, man!

[@conyo985]

This is like an LGR episode! It's so retro!

[@lucasesilva3294]

I from Brazil and My fist Computer in 1994 was Intel 486 dx 2 - 66Mhz with 4MB of RAM, GPu was Trident with 1MB, I was 13 years old. Later 1996 I did my fist upgrade to AMD 586 133Mhz with 8MB of RAm and Sound Creative labs 16bits. I remember old games ... Prince of Persia, Stunts, The Dig, Day of tentacles, Fulltrottle, Wolfstein 3D and Doom.

[@deano023]

Back in the day I had an Amstrad 386 with an AMD sx25 processor and 4mb of RAM. It was a tiny little thing with a 40mb HDD. I have many fond memories of that which was my first PC compatible. I remember the old amstrad VGA monitor which handled resolutions up to 800 by 600 and had a very sharp picture for the time. Of course the computer at that resolution could only display 16 colours but it was still pretty impressive. My friend had an old 486 motherboard which we desoldered 4 of the 30 pin SIMM slots and soldered them onto the amstrad motherboard, which only had 4 slots populated and this was obviously done as a cost-cutting measure. Once the extra slots were installed I installed an additional 4mb old memory. You can imagine the look on my parents face when they came home to find the computer that they had bought 8 months before and was still paying off on finance in pieces on my bedroom floor with me and my friend taking a soldering iron to it! At the same time was when I installed an original Sound Blaster. Prior to that I was just using the PC beeper and a parallel port DAC to play some of the old MOD files which I got from my friend who owned an Amiga. I still remember how amazed I was and how good it sounded. Much great nostalgia from those days..

[@SolidSonicTH]

Nice demonstration of your knowledge of history at the start.