Building a Better 386/486 Hybrid DOS PC!

[@SUCRA]

Great build! Thanks for sharing your latest 486 test bench with us. That motherboard and it's history are fascinating. The video card and sound cards are top notch choices, and hey, a toast to your GUS, those things are hard to find now. Great choice of games, made me feel like getting the Rust Bucket 486 and giving it something to do. Furthermore, congratulations on 600 subscribers, my friend. You're definitely a passionate guy when it comes to retro and tech and it goes to show on the work you do on your videos. Thanks for another great video!

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thank you so much for the kind words and support Bruno! It really is a neat board, isn’t it? I found it so strange in that it’s pretty old by 486 motherboard standards, and yet it’s fast and so compatible! And hey, thank you! The Chips VGA was something I’ve wanted to try for a long time. Apparently those WinGine chips were in laptops and are kinda like pre-Matrox Matrox cards in terms of 2D speed! The sound cards were my favorite part of this-I’ve had that GUS max for a long while and really enjoyed it on and off and felt it had to go into this build! It’s a bit of a pain to get GUSes configured, but they are great cards nonetheless! Something about that red PCB hahaha! And hey, thank you! I would love to see the Rust Bucket again! It’s quite the build and always a fun one whenever you whip it out haha! And hey, thank you again, my friend, for all your constant guidance and support and for sharing this enthusiasm with me! You’ve always motivated me and I could not have gotten here without your support and guidance. I can’t put into words just how much it means! And hey, thank you! I think sharing our passions is something that’s more fun than all else, and it shows just how much you and everyone else enjoys this too, and that’s just the best feeling! This community truly is fantastic! Thank you again for watching, and thank you for all of your support and guidance along the way, good friend!

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Dang what a neat build! So versatile and such cool parts. I learned a lot watching this and I have to give huge props to your presentation skills. Easy to follow, natural and just great. Awesome build and video!

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thank you so much for the support and kind words Rik! I really do appreciate the support more than you know and, quite frankly, I have to say that I took some inspiration from your presentation style and have learned a lot about video-making from you! Thank you, though, and I’m so glad that you were able to get some useful information out of this video and enjoyed it! This build definitely will be returning and I’ve found it to be quite enjoyable for what it is! It’s not too often that these 3/486 boards have a great portion on both halves haha! Thank you again for all the support and for the kind words!

[@modernandretrogaming]

That's great machine, you can use there few soundcards like having Gravis with Sound Blaster AWE32/AWE64 and even use with all that MT-32. That motherboard looks so beautiful, I miss a lot of green colored motherboards.

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thank you so much for watching and for your support, my friend! I definitely would like to mess with soundcards on this! I think you're right on about trying some others--I'd be keen to see how an AWE sounds alongside a GUS! As far as an MT-32 goes, I wish I had one, but they are so hard to find for a good sum! Sweet machines, no less! And hey, agreed! Green boards are awesome! I think that newer black PCBs are kind of boring, wouldn't you say? Anyway, thanks again for watching and for all of the support, my friend! Always a pleasure!

[@nicwilson89]

10:45 Man, that is a beautifully designed board :) I love seeing some love for the old 66MHz, had two systems as a kid that an Uncle and I built(as my own systems, otherwise it was the 'family' PC and we always had a decent one for the time as the guy that my mum married was an engineer at Virtuality) as he taught 6-7year old me how to build a system. I also love hearing some appreciation for Duke 3D. It's been one of my favourite games ever since it was released and that same then 8year old(I think) kid mentioned earlier experienced it. It made quite an impression! That's the first time I've ever heard that version of the Doom soundtrack and I've been playing Doom (and later Doom II) since it came out and it kept me quiet as a child that was probably too young to be playing Doom, not that I was any good at it at that age, of course. In general I just love the appreciation for this hardware and the quite apparent and obvious passion you have for these wonderful examples of computing history :)

[@nicwilson89]

Edited for accuracy

[@RetroTechBytes]

Hey, thanks for checking out the new video! I'm so glad to see that you liked it! Nothing beats the DX2-66, that's for sure! Hey, that sounds awesome and builds with family are always a blast! That's too cool that you learned so young! It's funny to me--I picked it up about the same age too! I think when you're around PCs in those early years, it really lends a lot later on in life, especially today! Technical literacy is practically a requirement for life now! And hey, yeah I hear you there, something about Duke3D really just works! It's so simple and yet so much fun and so rich! I played it around the same age too and just found it to be such a blast. Now that I'm older, I am sitting here laughing thinking that I wouldn't (but probably would) show that game to my future kids haha! But nah, I agree wholeheartedly! Doom is one of those classics too and that GUS PPL version of the soundtrack is something else for me! Definitely not an appropriate game, but a fun one at that! And hey, again, thank you so much for the kind words and all of the support! It means far more than you know! I just absolutely love sharing my interests and these passions, but mostly because I find myself learning so much from kind folks like yourself! Everyone's so helpful in this hobby--it's really the best!

[@vswitchzero]

Great build Will! Very nice board. I haven’t seen much from Symphony before. I have a Compaq branded wavetable sound card with the same ESS chip. It sounds amazing.

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thank you so much man! I really can’t thank you enough for the kind words and support. It means more than you know! Symphony chipsets were not widely adopted, and it’s honestly a shame. The later Symphony Wagner chipset actually supports all of the Cyrix 5x86 oddities, and the Haydn II on this board is really fast for what it is! It’s honestly a bit better than the more common OPTi495SLC/SX/XLC, at least in terms of memory throughput and raw speed. And oh, yeah, those ESS chips are so underrated! Interesting to see that Compaq used them! They were high quality, and every card I’ve seen with them has great filtering and low noise and, best of all, they’re one chip! Thanks again man, really! I am so glad that you enjoyed the video!

[@UncleMikeRetro]

Nice one! I have a very similar board with a Cyrix 486DLC-40 in the 386 socket and no VLB. Super presentation and great luck for you to have these parts in such good condition. Keep up the great work 😎

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thank you so much for the kind words and all of the support! I really do appreciate it far more than you know! I love hybrid 386/486 boards; it's a shame they're so rare, but even without VLB they are a blast to get going. The Cyrix 486DLC-40 is an awesome CPU; I've always had a soft spot for 486 upgrades, and they're pretty fast CPUs in their own right--for the money, they were value monsters! Thank you again for all of the kind words! I promise to keep doing my best! :)

[@UncleMikeRetro]

@@RetroTechBytes It is obvious by your channel's growth that you are doing all the right things. I look forward to having more contact between our channels!

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thank you!! I definitely look forward to it as well! I have been loving your KZbin shorts. They are a blast!

[@UncleMikeRetro]

@@RetroTechBytes Ahhh, just doing what KZbin wants me to do lately! Stay well, pal!

[@RetroTechBytes]

You too!

[@viti95]

I wish I had one of those hybrid motherboards!

[@RetroTechBytes]

Hey, thanks for watching! Yeah, they're pretty wild! If you're on the hunt for one, there's few with this chipset, but plenty with the OPTi495SX, 495SLC, and 495XLC that support both! They pop up on eBay from time to time for a reasonable sum, and they're solid as can be! The OPTi chipsets are decently fast, but there's also MR-BIOSes out there that can up the performance and give you a nice BIOS layout!

[@ctiborkoza8944]

You have the same PC setup build like my, only different graphics and motherboard. Nice video

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thank you! What graphics and motherboard did you use, if you don’t mind me asking?

[@ctiborkoza8944]

@@RetroTechBytes My PC build MB : Chicony CH-498B Ver1.0 + Intel 486DX2-66, GPU : Cirrus Logic CL-GD5424 1MB, Edo Ram 32MB 50ns, ESS 1868F + DreamBlaster X2GS, Gravis Ultrasound MAX rev1.8. - 1 MB, HDD Samsung 426MB SHD-3212A . But I have a project and I will modify the motherboard because it only supports 5V and it is possible to install a voltage regulator and insert the CPU with 3V power supply

[@BadManiac]

I'm not really sure what I would do with that blue lightning build. To me the only reason to have a 386, 286 or older is for the speed sensitive games and software that won't run on a 486 or faster machine. And your blue lightning, as cool as it is, is simply to fast for that purpos. So why not just have a fast 486 DX4 or 5x86 and build a "normal" 386 for speed sensitive stuff? I mean apart from "you CAN" and "It's AWESOME" which, don't get me wrong, it absolutely is. Maybe just not... practical :P

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thanks for the kind words and for the support! I think you're absolutely right on the money, and that's why I chose this board, so that I can drop in a 386 or 486DLC, change a few jumpers, and call it a day! I do think the BL3 was limiting in the sense that it was just too fast for scaling purposes, and too slow FPU-wise for later games. I think you're right, though, and this board gives me both! It can take a 5x86 in WT mode just fine, and it can run a Cyrix 5x86 in WB! It's fast enough, and it can scale up or down!

[@drzeissler]

I got a P75 it was nice.

[@Pickle136]

that is a very flexible machine. My 486 is a SX2 50 mhz and ive been thinking to upgrade it to the DX2 66. I recently updated the video (cirrus logic) and hard drive card to VLB. I had a ESS 1869, but currently switched in an Avance chip in for sb16 and true opl3. Were you running one of the sound card into the line in of the other one?

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thanks for the kind words and for checking out the video! On the sound cards, I was doing just that! I had the GUS handle the mixing, and ran the line out of the ESS into the line in of the GUS! I use ultramix.exe to set the mixer, and call it a day! It's pretty good at reducing noise, and seems to work well enough! I may do a follow-up explaining how to setup a GUS like this, if people are interested! As far as yours, that sounds like a sweet machine! The DX2-66 might be somewhat faster, especially with that 33MHz bus clock! The VLB Cirrus card is sweet--those have the best 2D quality, bar none! And I/O on VLB is a lot better, despite what some may say. I do like those Advance chips! I haven't tried them, but I'm curious--what do you think? That sounds pretty sweet though, OPL3 and SB16 support--you can't go wrong with that!

[@Pickle136]

@@RetroTechBytes This is my first one and I like it so far. The noise is very low and worked well with headphones as well. The signal volume is in fact so low i can max out the mains in unisound. It has the real yamaha chip so opl is great. Although I do like the ESFM. I was actually trying to pair it with an opti card with the QDSP 1000 on it for midi. I had it working one time and then the opti card stop working. Im trying to figure out what is bad on it. My 486 machine was actually a phone recorder in its previous life. I was looking for a slow 386/486 box at a local recycler and it was the chosen one. Its an OPTI chipset with 256 kb cache (can go higher). The board is MV035.

[@henkpasman1195]

You know about the 486.000? You can actually fit a quad core chip in the socket of a 486. It wil run single core but on a speed compatible with a pentium 5000.. next to that there are memory banks of 256mb that fit, those are very special but you could fit something like 768 mb .. the 486.000 pc

[@alexfinns6162]

What…

[@B24Fox]

It would have been REALLY nice if you'd have also shown us how the ESS WaveTable card sounds... not just how it looks. Waited the whole video for that :-/

[@RetroTechBytes]

My apologies! I definitely can cover the card, if that’s something more people would be into. I did include some footage of it being used in ROTT, playing that wonderful soundtrack, but I can showcase the card too, and honestly might at some point! MIDI wavetable boards are fun to mess with and SerdaCo makes some awesome products. Thanks for watching!

[@PROSTO4Tabal]

doom was freaking game changer

[@RetroTechBytes]

Big time! Doom was the highlight of 1993…and 1994…and 1995…and so on haha

[@ccanaves]

Nice video. That motherboard is sweet as honey. What version and configuration did you use for the doom benchmark? Sound or no sound? Window size? Which demo?

[@RetroTechBytes]

Thank you for the kind words and for the support! I'm so very glad you enjoyed the video! As far as the Doom benchmark, I used the one in PhilsComputerLab's benchmark pack, since it's sort of a "standard," I guess? It's full screen, no sound, and timedemo 1 I believe!

[@ccanaves]

@@RetroTechBytes Awesome! Thanx for the info, I will run some benches with my own DX2 and compare. I always wanted to find a motherboard with a Symphony chipset but over here they are quite rare. Here mostly are Ali, UMC and SiS, and 90% of them are pcchips m912, 919 and 921. Not much to choose from (though I scored one with a Unichip U4800-VLX some time ago, nice performer).

[@glittlehoss]

Can you install these old at boards into atx cases?

[@RetroTechBytes]

Great question! That’s a complicated one. AT boards (well, full baby AT) are 330mm and ATX calls for 300mm max. Most modern cases are smaller these days and are a no-go unless you use a half baby AT board like the later Socket 7 boards. Even then, some may not fit just right. I can attest to most being fine, though, and the screw holes do indeed line up. An EATX case would probably be needed for a full baby AT board, and I don’t know what you could do for a full AT board!

[@fra4455]

Great

[@mikespikeey4625]

you didnt put link in for format gotek drive

[@RetroTechBytes]

Hey, apologies about that! Here’s a good link to check out and the one that I used for formatting and prepping the Gotek USB: www.philscomputerlab.com/gotek-floppy-emulator.html

[@mikespikeey4625]

@@RetroTechBytes THANKS

[@ChrisNova777]

my first job thats all i did was build 486 DX2 + DX4's all day, i was the only white person in the computer lab everyone else was asian, it was, 1992 or 1993? i was 16 years old, i worked + saved my money to buy my own 486 eventually

[@cuttingedgeretro9164]

this channel smells like old electronics

[@RetroTechBytes]

Indeed it does…