Building a 486 DOS PC with an ISA Single Board Computer & Backplane

Assembling a 100MHz Intel 486 DX4 system inside a neat little Baby AT computer case from the mid-90s! I've been wanting to build an MS-DOS PC around an ISA SBC for a long time now, so let's get to it and play some DOS games.
● LGR links:
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
/ lazygamereviews
● Specs of the finished machine:
100 megahertz Intel 486-DX4 CPU
HS-5x86HVGA ISA SBC Card
IEI PICMG PCI-8S 8-slot Backplane
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM
512MB HyperDisk IDE Disk On Module (replaced with CF adapter)
Cirrus Logic CL-GD54M30 graphics chipset
Creative Sound Blaster 16 MCD ASP sound card
1.44MB Sony 3.5" diskette drive
360K Toshiba 5.25" floppy drive
48x Lite-On IDE CD-ROM drive
Generic beige Baby AT tower case
230W AT power supply
● Music courtesy of:
www.epidemicsound.com
#LGR #Computer #Build

[@dabeamer42]

Ah, the nostalgia...especially the IDE conflicts

[@m8528]

Ahh, setting the sound blaster was a pain in the a...

[@m8528]

And using game/midi port on the sound card...

[@alejandroalzatesanchez]

I only have 16 years old and i'm right too xd messing around with this men yeah. The ide and his ( *BEEP* ) 40 pins don't forget the startup beep of the most machines windows errors the bsod and so one

[@SW0000A]

I would have just hooked the cd through the sound card.

[@pmgodfrey]

@@m8528 -- I'd spend so much time going through DMA and IRQ conflicts because "just one more card". lol

[@xanshark]

I like the how the black buttons and drives against the beige case look

[@Loopy1330]

"Will this run on my 486?" -That one guy from Half-Life 2's E3 2003 demo

[@parishna4882]

Will crysis run it?

[@OnionChoppingNinja]

but his spreadsheet ran so well.

[@Dan-TechAndMusic]

@Apple Yes, there's a video of that E3 demo on KZbin.

[@dewdop]

I’m guessing the answer is probably no

[@parishna4882]

I feeel bad for that comment, and I should feeel bad... :(

[@101wut2]

My wife caught me watching this video and said, "oh god, you're starting a new project aren't you?" Damn right, I am.

[@brandonstevens6886]

sounds about right XD

[@SolidSonicTH]

The only person I have to answer that question to is myself but it's still a poignant one.

[@ominous-omnipresent-they]

More the reason to never get married.

[@francoisnel5253]

Why do all wives have to make such derrogatry comments, instead of being uplifting & supportive.

[@francoisnel5253]

@@ominous-omnipresent-they women enjoy breaking down mens dreams somehow. It's sick that narcissim is so accepted by men.

[@catriona_drummond]

Clever move with the black drives. Spares you matching 50 shades of yellowed beige.

[@vamwolf]

He does like his cables......

[@kcgeil]

I remember the DX4-100 chips were being described as the "poor mans pentium". Impressive chips but they suffered heat problems that made a cpu cooling fan necessary, which made a lot of techies nervous at the time.

[@joefish6091]

DX4-120 133 were slightly;y faster than the P60 and P70 and a lot cheaper, Pentiums did 1.5 instructions per clock cycle, DX 486 1.5 clocks to an instruction. so P90- and 100 were faster. also the first P60 70 pentiums were not upgradable,

[@phyrr2]

In relation to the other person who answered, those of us who went to the DX4 120's didn't have any problems that I know of. With mine I was able to skip the 1st generation Pentium 60/66 to a Pentium II 233mhz without any headaches in between.

[@bakuganfox]

and we have tower just to cool cpu

[@noelsherron]

8:05 I think its just fine leaving it yellowed. I prefer retro-bright with iconic hardware that is to be kept more as a show piece; to give us a sense of 'this is what it was like when it was new'. But for projects like this, the yellow gives it a sense of seniority, a look earned from years of service.

[@joefish6091]

A gentle clean with warm water and soap is a good thing, gets the nicotine and bio-grime off.

[@snarkasticdouche3863]

​@@joefish6091*FOOD*

[@djhaloeight]

DMA and IDE conflicts...brings me right back!

[@Aggs_TV]

I think the "FOOD" label was trying to tell you where to feed the PC. ...I think the computer is a Mimic.

[@cryptc]

I walked into a tavern with a sword and the bartender asked 'why do you carry a sword in here?' 'Mimics' I said... the bartender laughed, I laughed, the table laughed, we killed the table... good times

[@DeadPollo]

if it was Google Chrome it would scream "feed me your RAM!"

[@whoshotdk]

Wouldn't be surprised if it was an old school computer - in the school I used to work at, teachers tended to label everything with their department name (i.e Food Technology) in order to see when another teacher nicked their stuff.

[@WolfePaws]

@Captain Falcon Filthy metagaming!

[@CoreDreamStudios]

anemic you mean?

[@calvinrempel]

Top Bay is an ESSS (Emergency Sandwich Storage System)

[@highpath4776]

nope, under bay for the sarnies, top flip out drive for the coffee cup

[@KITPUNK]

Seeing the size of that board makes me want to see the smallest possible 486 build. Would be cool to have a micro 486 / Win95 machine.

[@JerkfaceMcGee]

Idk if you'll see this - but LGR gotcha -> kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4Srp6mJl76ggKM

[@weepingscorpion8739]

I know there are backplanes as small as just 3 or 4 ISA slots. But maybe you could run the SBC alone? That'd be interesting to see.

[@faillepatte]

@@weepingscorpion8739 Actually I have a 2 slot ISA SBC build with a socket 370 mobo. If there's enough interest I'll make a video

[@uiopuiop3472]

i was just doing the deed with my gsd female

[@cdwilliams1]

Lookup the video for the WeeCee DOS PC :-)

[@Quickened1]

Remember the day when you played those games and you didn't know what was around the next corner!? Good times...

[@zaclaramay]

The black front... looks so good.

[@zarkeh3013]

yea! maybe simply retro-bright it and be done

[@dnsoulx]

you know, everytime i watch these i feel like my pc knowledge is on par and i'm like "ah yes the bibbledoo plugs into the diplorp" and then i open up a pc and take 20 minute to remove a hard drive

[@sadmac356]

Honestly same. Sometimes the hard drive takes me less than 5 minutes to remove, but that really depends on how the case is designed

[@vivanecrosis]

The worst part is something those cases can be sharp inside. I really hate that!

[@TheTurnipKing]

Messing about inside a PC always takes longer that you think. Just remember that you're watching an edited video :)

[@dnsoulx]

@@vivanecrosis i was messing with this 2006 compaq and the case was full of sharp angles and this dumb protective case for the drive chambers, my hands... my POOR HANDS

[@gz3zbz]

The bibbledoo doesn't plug into the diplorp, what planet are you from? Kids these days...

[@MrValz0]

PC Case: "Do you bleed?" "You will."

[@trevorpomroy550]

I heard that 'you will' in Yodas Empire voice.

[@HangmanOfficialUploads]

We'll never forgive you for wiping away FOOD, Clint.

[@NielsPaul]

"Oh man!. I wiped away food for no good reason" Quarantine in a nutshell

[@PlastiGomi]

what a funny joke good sir take this bullet gold

[@BrainSlugs83]

"but it made him feel good."

[@BigboiiTone]

A deadly virus is a good enough reason you can't go out to the bar. Drink at home

[@BigboiiTone]

@@joetheman74 that's not the issue. Its never been an issue of muh freedoms. It's you guys imagining more stuff and ruining life for everyone else

[@WintrBorn]

@@joetheman74 my right to health surpasses your right to be a douche. We'd be done with this foolishness if you toddlers had thought about others for just one second.

[@BillyBuerger]

We have a pair of very old servers at work that use these kind of SBCs with a big backplane that fills the whole back side of the rack mount server chassis. Don't recall the exact specs of what's on them. I'm guessing Pentium something. But these SBCs have both the ISA and PCI connectors on them. We will never be using these again so I could pull one if you are interested. I can get the full specs next week when I stop by the office next. Let me know if you are interested.

[@blueviper1099]

You should email him, he'll probaby see it there.

[@dozern]

Very nice of you :) And if you have several, I'd be up for buying one from you, given that the price isn't too extravagant.

[@wishusknight3009]

@Bob Ross SBC's like this are generally very conservative in their performance. They will fall behind a typical consumer level mainboard by about %20 or so. I have a system with a few different SBC's I can plug in from 386 all the way to Core 2. And its neat to play with and doesn't need much space but don't expect the usual performance from them. Things are timed very slack.

[@MrDuncl]

@@wishusknight3009 Designed to run in something like a Cashpoint machine where reliability is far more important than speed, and there is no need for a "Turbo" button.

[@jaredvv86]

I was really surprised how well I like that black-on-beige look. I thought that would look weird, but I really like it. I don't know if maybe its because the yellowing of the plastic or what.

[@eaglemaster7]

because it's remind us the beauty of IBM PC/XT but in vertical case. all Floppy is black not beige back then, I even feel a bit strange to see beige floppy on IBM PC, like something didn't right

[@patrick6350]

12:24 - Dear -5v indicator LED who illuminated briefly when first connected, I see you, you are wanted, you are loved

[@aaronblair9583]

I've had a horrible, stressful...soul crushing!day... I have never been Soo happy to see a notification pop up. Seriously, began crying and had a huge weight lifted off my chest. Thank you

[@teroe2322]

Me too

[@Shotblur]

You wanna talk about it

[@vivanecrosis]

That is some strong moments right there. I hope all works out well for you :D

[@aaronblair9583]

@@Shotblur naw, I appreciate it tho. I'm a caregiver, work in end of life care. Just had my hours cut, losing my heath insurance. And a global pandemic has killed 12 people I know. And it was thanksgiving

[@nicksalvatore5717]

@@aaronblair9583 you have my condolences. people out there care! I really hope things improve

[@davidcain3752]

I recommend not connecting the LED directly to that power connector. Depending on what that is for, it may not limit the current which will cause your LED to fail quickly. If you put a simple 220 or 470 ohm resistor in series that should work fine Edit: lol just made it to the edit 🤣

[@bobblum5973]

The problem is that there are some cases that used a basic LED, while others had a discrete resistor soldered to the LED then covered with heatshrink tubing or an LED with integrated resistor. Like the differences in power switches he pointed out, plenty of variations to keep things "interesting". 😉

[@bobblum5973]

Thanks, Clint, seeing you work on older hardware always brings back memories for me. Many years ago, roughly late '80s/early '90s, at work I supported VAX minicomputers running the VMS OS. We had lots of people on VT-220 terminals able to access them, as well as VMS graphic workstations. But PCs weren't common. We ended up getting what looked like a desktop XT/AT case, inside of which was a passive backplane and up to eight single board ISA PCs, 386s I think but could have even been 286s. By running a program on the VAX you could connect across the LAN to one of the virtual PCs and run DOS applications. No graphics supported unfortunately, all DOS 3.1. I spent quite a while writing some custom help files for the VMS side, and had to work out licensing tricks for the DOS applications: ChartMaster, SignMaster, DiagramMaster. I think we had IBM DisplayWrite 3 or 4 for word processing, and Lotus 123 for spreadsheets. Lots of fun with mapping PC drive letters to files and directories on the VAX. Of course, after all that effort, it barely got used, as more PCs started showing up!

[@xDJxGNOMx]

honestly, it's just so satisfying to see your channelname and below it just says 1.44M it just absolutely fits

[@buttguy]

hey perfect. I can avoid working for another 37 minutes.

[@PlastiGomi]

god can these comments die already? so sick of seeing the same spam 30 times on every video we get it video long long video video long

[@mikethedigitaldoctorjarvis]

@@PlastiGomiYep,along with the *First* comments too !

[@gavinthesniper4465]

I agree happy thanksgiving

[@robinbrowne5419]

Me too. He he he.

[@buttguy]

@@PlastiGomi huh? I probably would have left the same comment if the video was 4 minutes. Main point was this content is more important to me than whatever I’m supposed to actually be doing.

[@Pub2k4]

The “Food” cover reminds me of seeing people use their CD-ROM drives as cup holders

[@BilisNegra]

Hey, it ain't nice to poke fun at the mentally impaired, dude :P

[@Outofthedust]

These are literally just before my time and I love seeing how they worked. I know of them and have seen them but was too young to know what I was looking at. I love learning about them. My first PC build when I was a kid was a Pentium MMX back in the mid 90s and I was just learning about PCs then.

[@KhadKjunn]

That is actually the exact same case of my first PC ! Where I have played Doom II , Duke Nukem 3D , Tomb Raider and many more. If I remember correctly the CPU was Pentium 100 and people were losing their shit after 486 CPUs. Oh man thanks for this unexpected Nostalgia hit Clint.

[@gormless-idiot]

Did you also write "food" on one of the front drive bay covers?

[@hikariyouk]

I wouldn't be surprised if that case was originally being used for a POS in a cafe or something.

[@DutchmanDavid]

POS = Point of Sale, not "piece of !@#$", methinks. Seeing the context of hardware and all that.

[@ImpetuouslyInsane]

@@DutchmanDavid Meh, most POS's are POS's, so there's still a general consensus on that one.

[@TheRealColBosch]

I could see that, but I also suspect that "FOOD" was a password of some kind. These two suspicions are not mutually incompatible, of course.

[@WackyWRZ]

Maybe a cash register at Food Lion?

[@hikariyouk]

@@ImpetuouslyInsane Yeah, when I worked in retail in my younger years, at ESCOM in the UK before they went under, we just used one of our own systems to run the POS.

[@bryanfitzgerald95]

Love it, the ambiance in your videos are somewhat so relaxing and homey

[@firenicey7319]

Yep the chill music and him talking. Almost makes you want to get some soft clothes on and relax with a whiskey or coffee

[@HontasFarmer80]

@@firenicey7319 His voice is part of it.

[@vivanecrosis]

I so read that as honey. Relaxing and Honey, could totally be a thing, not sure what kind of thing, but hey :D

[@rick-deckard]

Agreed, its so comforting

[@scottdotjazzman]

Did you know that m can sometimes look like rn when read quickly?

[@lifeonlowbatteries8153]

Watching in the middle of the night so Clint’s smooth voice can lull me back to sleep.

[@DarshanSTUDIOS]

Ah yay! Another 486 Dos pc build. Thank you! Have been waiting for a retro build like this!!

[@vwestlife]

FOOD

[@carltonleboss]

Wasn't expecting you here

[@cowgoesmoo3850]

ᴀʜʜ ᎽᎬՏՏՏՏ 𝔽𝕆𝕆𝔻

[@tubetype9958]

VWestlife! Love your channel

[@ViperKillerWannabe]

FOOD

[@sinfulldreamer]

@@ViperKillerWannabe FOOD

[@wraithcadmus]

Get a couple more and some way to network them together "in the box" and have a portable Duke-Match in a box.

[@TheTurnipKing]

Was considering doing that with Quake and a bunch of Pi 4's... Though Duke is an option these days.

[@KenjiUmino]

pretty much like the "7 gamers, 1 system" thing that linus built a couple years ago but without the need for virtual machines - all 7 gamers could play duke 3d "on the metal"

[@TheTurnipKing]

@@KenjiUmino the pi's using eDuke, so it's still running natively on the hardware. I'm not sure how practical having multiple SBCs with this backplane is, because you have multiple CPUs sharing a single ISA bus, though creating a custom backplane that has several separated ISA buses that just share power rails should be feasible. You could also simplify the setup somewhat by finding SBCs that also have integrated audio, video and network, which would allow you to bypass the need for an ISA bus at all. Finding all that with vintage hardware though... I presume you can see why I thought to use the Pi instead :D

[@TheTurnipKing]

@@KenjiUmino the trick to the 7 gamers system is that it was one CPU with more cores and GPUs, divided into individual machines using virtualization.

[@master74200]

@@TheTurnipKing Even though they'd be sharing that backplane, that appears to mostly be for expansion and power, not so much for any data transmission, so that at least should lend itself to being possibly to run several "bare-metal" systems on their own, all sharing nothing but power.

[@raphaelventura8465]

Thank you for your video. You have no idea how it brought me some great memories and how relaxing it is to watch you building and configuring it.

[@chrism7541]

Glad you enjoy Clint! Happy to see a full computer built from one of these. Mine has a cpu fan as they can get hot without air movement in a case and cause an occasional lockup. I have an Aztech card in mine, set on DMA 0 of course. Something on the board uses channel 1. I have a manual for these as well.

[@MrDbrennen]

Watching LGR is good for you vicariously, so you don't have to hoard old computers yourself

[@SpicyBloodBean]

its not working for me

[@friendlywizard6462]

28:22 ah what a bummer I saw a full length VLB styled 486/Pentium SBC like this one at car boot earlier this year! Did'nt buy it as I was not sure what it connected too but now I know! Great video!

[@SolidSonicTH]

That kind of setup is called "PICMG" (I've found out about this because I'm starting an SBC build myself and may have another one down the line as well). On older systems like this it's just a stacked ISA/PCI combo slot but on newer, PCIe-based systems the slot is something unique (I thought it was like a double-stacked PCIe x16 slot but it's more different than that). Also long SBCs like this are a BITCH to fit into a case. I'm actually going to need to mod the case this SBC project is going into (need to cut out a section of the HDD rails) and it's a friggin' full tower EATX-compatible case (which I went with because I have an 8-slot backplane, which is one too many for a conventional mid-tower)!

[@MrStato355]

Nice work Clint, always love watching your videos tinkering with the old stuff. After every view I end up firing up one of my several retro rigs.

[@yukondave8389]

That black in the front looks AMAZING on that case! It doesn't need anything else, it is perfect.

[@jimgallagher6310]

Loved your video. I miss working on computers like this in days gone by. Really I think the mid to late 90's were the heyday of the PC. I still have some old ISA cards and such laying around. I remember buying components at Best Buy and having them escorted to the cash registers so nobody could steal them.

[@Rabbit_AF]

Thanks for making this video. I never knew how SBCs connected to anything. I see now, that a backplane is needed, and it makes a lot more sense.

[@MIKESALLSURE]

Nice, that's the 1st time I heard PhilsComputerLab show up on your channel. Both your channels insight on resurrecting PC's always keep me filled with joy, and of course help with troubleshooting my own retro projects. Thanks Clint!

[@LGR]

We’ve collaborated before, too! kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3TKmqZ7e7SVoKM

[@menhirmike]

Man, that Tower case brought back memories, back before someone had the genius idea of detachable side panels. The breakouts for extra COM/LPT ports also reminded me of the good ol' days when it was a rite of passage to get a bloody scratch any time you worked inside the PC.

[@chillhour6155]

The black on beige looks really good to be honest, reminds of those old tandys

[@quazznorm1777]

Thanks. I knew it reminded me of some sort of old computer, but I couldn't exactly figure out what it specifically reminded me off till I saw your comment.

[@battra92]

Never underestimate the lengths businesses will go to keep old software running.

[@nslouka90]

battra92 see the IRS

[@handlesarefeckinstupid]

Except apple. You got that, you screwed.

[@sameash3153]

All the power to them! Fuck modern pcs

[@yaroslavkizyma2370]

If it works - don’t touch it.

[@rcmero]

Case in point, French airport terminals are still running Windows 3.1 to this day.

[@mustangmandal]

My hometown is right next to marlborough! Never heard of the company but a little googling revealed that they are some sort of software company that appears to still be in business but in a different town. Still I love any references to my state and Its cool that something that simple made it all the way to you! Thanks for making my day!

[@fapostoli]

Love this channel. Dripping with nostalgia and Clint is so very easy on the eye.

[@jgilbertoribeiro]

I was a teen when at that computer´s time. It was so hard to make everything works. When windows 95 came with plug and play feature was a revolution.

[@weswes10]

You mean Plug and PRAY...

[@sewerraccoon]

I was literally digging through some of my old boxes today and found a Sound Blaster 16. Started googling/eBaying for cheap mobos with ISA so I could play with it. Lot of results for these old SCBs. LGR has powers...

[@asherael]

Man i really saw that issue with the DOM coming, it didn't look designed to share. glad you had something else to use, fascinating project, great content

[@Demosthenas]

I love watching your videos especially before bed. They are really relaxing I love to immerse myself in the nostalgia of these great old machines.

[@cheesythegamer9771]

I haven’t been on this channel in months, so glad I found it again.

[@Iain_C]

Oozing nostalgia as always. I never owned a 486. I went from a 386 to a Pentium 133. Oh the excitement.

[@FyberOptic]

25 years later it occurs to me that Descent is basically Choplifter in space.

[@davideubank8606]

i played xargon so much as a kid but completely forgot about it. so many years ago, its a crazy feeling when all those memories just flood back into your head!!

[@SandsOfArrakis]

The food thing indicates where you need to slide in CD-ROMs for the PC to munch on.

[@legoman8960]

lol

[@draketungsten74]

5:15 the poor thing is hungry, it's begging for food.

[@Doobie3010]

‘Beige is best!’ Another fantastic watch man.Always watch these all the way through. Interesting card that.

[@kelainefes]

Awesome beige case, perfect for that retro machine lol. You bought me back to my teenage years.

[@jthorpe4droid]

That's a pretty cool board, never ran into any of them in the past.

[@robbirobson7330]

about 20 years ago i always used to go to the recycling center and there were tons of this single board computers like all types from 8088 to 486 and tons of back planes and other stuff but at that time i did not know what to make of it

[@infamousacidrain]

You generally wouldn’t. They’re industrial, so they didn’t usually make their way into the normal waste stream for home computers. Some of them are probably still in active industrial use, running old CNC or other manufacturing hardware that is otherwise very very expensive to replace.

[@shadowtheimpure]

I see these boards all the time on Aliexpress when browsing for 486 stuff.

[@groenekever]

@@shadowtheimpure fot less then aliexpress you cn buy them off me

[@sameash3153]

@@groenekever if you've got an ebay listing I'll throw some bucks your way

[@BaumInventions]

I think the Disk on Modules are hardwired as cable select internally and the older BIOS dont like cable select. I have the same problems with Jumperless CF card adapters and DOMs.

[@highpath4776]

didnt he try a cable select cable as well ?

[@AndrewAMartin]

Back in the day, I was told that putting the HDD and CD-ROM on the same IDE channel was a no-no -- if the CD is master, you're running the hard disk at slower speed than it's capable of, and if the hard disk is master, the CD drive can't keep up. I also never used cable select... That was 25+ years ago, so take that for what it's worth :-)

[@VintageTechFan]

Cable Select is really just Cable Select. The drive looks at a certain pin on the IDE cable if it's grounded or not and decides to be Master or Slave according to that. There is no difference how the drives look to the BIOS. The cable simply replaces the jumpers.

[@VintageTechFan]

@@AndrewAMartin "Master" and "Slave" are misleading words, there isn't any priority at all, except for special cases during initialization (older drives sequenced their spinup to reduce load on the PSU for example). The main reason is that only one device can use the bus at the same time, so for fast (DMA) copy from one device to the other they have to be on different channels.

[@JakeHambyZ80]

I think this is close to the right answer, but the disk module probably just wants to be the only device and doesn't support "master/slave" at all.

[@ccricers]

Pine Technology still exists and owns the corporate division XFX (yes, the manufacturer of graphics cards). My very first dedicated graphics card was a Pine/XFX GeForce 2 MX 400.

[@kbhasi]

I think that the reason why the front of the case had "FOOD" written on it, was that it was likely used in an industrial kitchen of some kind.

[@charlesdorval394]

Ah, the good old 48bits PCSA slots! ;) Thanks for the upload, that was a great one! I thought about those from time to time, never got around to getting one, now they've probably been out of my price range for a couple hours by now :P

[@sandr6769]

This PC deserves its own name, something associated with food.

[@Harey0407]

The breadbox SBC.

[@szyszkienty]

Foodgrain?

[@shockwave3318]

Rasberry Pie

[@Blasterxp]

Slide bytes

[@jmontesi4]

The Packing Peanut

[@JPFM2509]

Xargon.I just love this game. I played it during my childhood on computers like the one you set up. Greetings from Brazil

[@MWrath95]

I work in an Industrial/Embedded hardware distributor as a Sales Develop Engineer. This is a great video, I've always wanted to see these boards used for commercial use. Our SBC's range with temp resistance of -20c - 80c Fanless.

[@StereoBucket]

I'm a simple man. I see quake in thumbnail, I click.

[@infamousacidrain]

Clint: installs the SBC at the farthest slot, ensuring maximum stretchage of all cables Me: I see you too like to live dangerously.

[@IsaacNewtongue]

Some backplanes required the SBC to be on a particular slot, though that may not apply to the particular one Clint has used

[@E30SIX]

Golden era for computers The era that every new piece of hardware has its own taste Nowadays we are more than used with large ram numbers and extremely fast evolution

[@The90sGamingGuy]

So cool to see a 486 running some classic FPS games in 2020. My dad had a 486 he ran Doom 2, Duke Nukem 3D and the expansion and some other games on it in the 90s. I played those games on it and Golden Axe on an arcade emulator. Seeing this video takes me back. I believe the graphics card he had in that pc was the 3D Voodo FX card.

[@artk2219]

Jill and Xargon both use the same game engine, could be something with that.

[@nomisbate]

Have to say that I like the look of the system as is without the need to wrap it to make a look a different colour.

[@christopherg9806]

I love your trips in the (not-so) Way Back machine. My first computer was a 486-DX33 with 8 MB of RAM and a 250 MB hard drive. It was about $2,300 and I still had to buy a 14.4 modem and a CD-ROM drive. The price DID include a roomy (for the day) 15" monitor. Now, I'm shopping for a laptop with a minimum of 16 GB of RAM, 1 TB drive and QHD display for around $1,500. It's crazy. Keep up the good work.

[@bonky_in_space2025]

Gotta love the ESD protective PCB bags in the beginning of the video

[@Vladimir_Kv]

That dom was too picky to Master a CD-Drive, and too proud to be a Slave ;)

[@philmikehunt7479]

Bruh

[@hereelabs]

OK, wtf

[@automatedinsanity]

cd drive r34

[@grkb]

of course, they will sexualize data

[@Arbiter099]

would have left the mysterious FOOD on there personally, it adds character

[@BEEFTEEF4]

FOOD. As a 39 y/o that grew up with an Apple SE then a Packard Bell 486 DX, then a 300MHz Gateway, then a Compaq Presario 5000, I really appreciate this channel

[@govna47]

I grew up playing all of those games. Talk about a trip back in time

[@ActualCharky]

it needs a vinyl wrap of that cheerios FOOD image texture thing from the 3d fonts video!

[@lenovovo]

Thanks for the delicious video LGR!! Have a great weekend dude!! :-)

[@GearAddict90210]

Seeing these old games brings back childhood memories. One game I loved was Terminal Velocity

[@invghost]

I love this, the concept of a really small board built for compactness put in a massive (relatively) tower with a bunch of different things attached haha

[@shadowtheimpure]

Even in their industrial applications, they would have been connected to a backplane. The board has no way, other than the edge connector, to bring power in after all.

[@jamesburke2759]

I love how your videos are all basically a how well does it run duke 3d :D the reason i tune in often

[@KomradeMikhail]

Could get a PCB backplane printed up with just two ISA slots and power. With a new Pico PSU, and a 3D printed case... Smallest 486 PC ?

[@andreewert6576]

Add a 5" tft, a lipo battery and a few buttons and you have a portable 486 switch-like thing.

[@eDoc2020]

To save more space the power supply could probably be designed into the mini-backplane in the space between the two slots. However, it still won't be the smallest 486 PC. The IBM PC110 is 158x116x36mm and that's a whole laptop with 4.7" screen.

[@KomradeMikhail]

@@eDoc2020 Search what a Pico PSU looks like... it's not much bigger than the connector itself. The size could be cut down further by skipping the backplane entirely, and soldering power directly to the contacts. But then you lose the sound card... I suppose an OPL3LPT adapter connected to the internal parellel pin header could fit inside. The IBM PC 110 is about the same comparable size as two stacked expansion cards anyway... With a slower SX CPU.

[@eDoc2020]

@@KomradeMikhail I know PicoPSU is small but if you want your system to be as small as possible every little bit matters. If you ditch the sound card you can probably eliminate this PSU entirely. I'm guessing the SBC only uses the 5v rail which can be provided from a phone charger. One of the connectors might even be a 5v input for this purpose. I'll certainly consider this as the smallest _desktop_ 486 PC. While the PC110 is a bit smaller, it's a completely different class of device. And side note, I think the PC110's CPU might be upgradeable with the right tools. I know the ThinkPad with the butterfly keyboard can be upgraded to 125MHz just by soldering in a different chip but this might be harder with the variant in the PC110.

[@KomradeMikhail]

@@eDoc2020 If you ditch the connectors off the PicoPSU and solder wires directly, the little board can sandwich in and fit within the given footprint of the single slot expansion card. Same with the OPL3LPT adapter... lose the connectors and solder it in. Could probably even squeeze in a modern LiPo battery pack and an adafruit charging circuit. A keyboard and a screen would fit within the size of a second expansion card. And now this is a homemade PC 110, of exactly the same size, but cheaper. CNC mill a case instead of just 3D printing it... and now suddenly I am turning into Ben Heck.

[@pipschannel1222]

Nice job Clint 👍 I like the two tone beige/black combination on this classic Hong Kong case. The 32-bit Cirrus cl-gd5430 chip on this SBC is actually very capable and not just some marginal integrated graphics solution. It was used a lot on PCI cards and It's newer and faster than the Cirrus cl-gd5428 chip on the Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB in your woodgrain (I own the same card). The 30 is an enhanced version of the 28 and it was the first in their newer "Alpine" series of chips. It supports a higher memory clock speed and has memory-mapped I/O. I also have a cirrus logic cl-gd5434 (also an Alpine series) card with 2 megs running in 64-bit mode and it's definitely the fastest card I own from the era. Always liked those Cirrus graphics chips. Very compatible and pretty darn quick for the era 👍

[@ObscureGamesandConsoles]

I was thinking the food label may be referring to the computer being in a kitchen of a restaurant, food prep area of some kind, or commissary. I wish I had the space to have an old DOS machine. Always like watching these videos.

[@TCPUDPATM]

“cd quake” still gets me excited for some upcoming fun!

[@nuherbleath461]

12:26 anyone else notice the PSU discharge while he plugs in the cable? (Bottom right)

[@netfixx7369]

Man I can’t believe I forgot about those iconic games like duke nukem and quake, even tho it’s a little newer , my all time fav fps was unreal tourn on Dreamcast. Awesome content on your channe!

[@SuperHns]

ah 486 DX2 66 mhz, was my first Windows PC back in 1994, I remember hearing the Lion King game in DOS with SOUND BLASTER PRO, goddamn my ears just melted such crisp sound and music.

[@shadowtheimpure]

The DX2 66 was also my first PC, though mine ran DOS with Windows 3.11 and OS/2 in a multi-boot setup. I loved that computer, and damn near cried when the AT PSU failed and took the board with it.

[@jipillow1]

Thank you Clint for giving us our first Christmas present of the year

[@bk649cc]

Great, a Raspberry Pi 486!

[@johndododoe1411]

Nah, those would be PC-108 boards. ISA bus on 0.1" headers. Standard stackable cards like the Pi Hats etc.

[@gteixeira]

That's actually a great idea!

[@mesterak]

I never seen an SBC in action, so thanks fir this video. It was very cool!

[@ilbeygabrieldinler7529]

Man I really love your channel my first pc was windows 98 You bring back my memories from 24 years ago which I was 6 years old

[@nicwilson89]

20:00 You could put the disk module on the motherboard's IDE channel and possibly add in an expansion card giving you more IDE channels for the drive if you wanted?

[@jensonchoy]

I think the Sound Blaster card have IDE header for CD-ROM

[@bakatoroi]

@@jensonchoy It doesn't seem to have an IDE port. He could if he gets one of those proprietary drives.

[@PeTTs0n88]

Or swap the sound blaster for one with an IDE controller, there are tons of them. :)

[@phodder]

Definitely swap to the ISA only backplane! Gotta love the minimalism/masochism combo wombo!

[@wizdude]

This is the first time I have ever seen someone build a machine by putting the plastic standoffs into the case first and then trying to drop in the motherboard in on top second. Cool video though. Enjoyed watching all the old games I used to play :-)

[@songsan807]

Brings back memories of the good old 486 days. Have a bunch of parts in the garage to build some 486 machines and play some old DOS games.