Tomb Raider (1996) on the fastest 486 CPU (Part 4)

This AMD CPU will be a tough nut to crack! No, this CPU is not from the scrapyard - I bought this poor thing on eBay. It is one of the fastest 486 CPUs that is available for the socket 3 platform. In todays video, I will try to restore this CPU to complete the final tests of Tomb Raider in software mode, provided the CPU works.
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▬▬▬▬ Timestamps ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Intro
00:57 Heating the pins?
01:45 Pins look bad
03:20 Reinforcement & Information
06:02 We have casualties
06:43 Making things better
08:14 A trick for success
08:51 Drop-in-socket test
09:14 First power on
09:56 Benchmarks 133 MHz
11:03 Tomb Raider 133 MHz
12:51 Overclocking
13:31 Benchmarks 160 MHz
14:11 Tomb Raider 160 MHz
15:58 Outlook

[@ricargoncalves]

Great job straightening those pins! They were really in bad shape. So much effort to bring this CPU back to life.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you! I am happy that I could save this CPU, even if it took a lot of time.

[@aivazi]

@@bitsundbolts Would have been way easier if u used the tip of a mechanical pencil to straighten those pins

[@looks-suspicious]

The thumbnails for this video series are S tier.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@DragonOfTheMortalKombat]

Was about to say the same thing lol

[@tomasz89g]

So satisfying, hearing the click/snap in to place!

[@soundspark]

And the single beep afer throwing the switch.

[@Constantin314]

awesome BuB, the level of perfection in repairing stuff you try to achieve is mesmerizing to me. it's therapy to my brain

[@bitsundbolts]

Glad to hear that! Always happy to restore old hardware that brings back memories - or provides therapeutic sessions for the brain :)

[@philscomputerlab]

Let's go!

[@Airbag888]

Phiiiiiil!

[@Choralone422]

Excellent work! Back in those days I ended up having to run my AM5x86 CPU at 120MHz (40MHz x3) as I could not force a 2x or 4x multiplier in the 486 mainboard I had at the time. I remember trying to play Tomb Raider on that machine and it was not very enjoyable and downright unplayable in places. However, any game that used the Doom engine or similar 2.5D FPS game engine all were a great time! To get decent performance in SVGA software mode in Tomb Raider you needed a Pentium 166MHz or even a 200MHz. Examples like that are one big reason why 3D accelerators like the original 3dfx Voodoo cards were such a huge deal. It made games like Tomb Raider that were mostly playable in VGA mode on a Pentium PC and allow you to run them in SVGA 640x480 resolution at a smooth (for the time) 30 FPS or higher and allowed for 16bit (65K) color modes instead of 8bit (256) in DOS as well!

[@SaraMorgan-ym6ue]

this is the kind of work to make you go crazy making bent pins straight if you are not carful to take precautions.

[@lucasrem]

Choralone422 The MMX 120 was released just after the Voodoo driver for Tomb Raider, needed that faster MMX 120 Pentium for it. Was on pentium 60, needing better build.

[@Baneslayer]

Love the content, it's nice to meet other people with the same passion in life for old technology

[@thecrazy8888]

I used to fix those using empty 0.5 and 0.7 mechanical pencils. You insert the pin in the metallic tube at the tip, which gives you excellent control on where you apply the bend force along the pin.

[@RockstarRunner7]

Great job on the pins! Really been enjoying this series

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you and thanks for watching my videos!

[@hayleyxyz]

Good job :) these cpu repair videos are very satisfying to me

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you! Glad to hear that you like those videos!

[@RetroTinkerer]

Oh, nice tip about the finishing touches using the socket lid, I have seen something similar by an extreme overclocker that purchase old CPUs in bulk to search for very good ones. I really like your method.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@jedrula77]

Hi. One of the better thumbnails I've seen on KZbin recently. I laughed up to my armpits Lara straightening CPU pins with a stick ha ha ha ha

[@bitsundbolts]

Haha, great! Glad you like it and that it made you laugh!

[@lukep4714]

Excellent documentation, great work soldering and bending the pins! 😁👍

[@bitsundbolts]

Thanks 👍

[@devonandersson300]

I admire your precision and patience to rescue a CPU in this condition. How much time did it take you to fix all pins? Thanks for your videos. Always a wonderful throwback to the past.

[@bitsundbolts]

I fixed this CPU back in December :) but I remember spending a whole afternoon on the pins, soldering, and refinement. I must have spent three to four hour on this CPU.

[@rogiervanlierop]

Chapeau! 👏 Great job and very satisfying.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you

[@ChadDoebelin]

skillful hands straightened those pins. good job! liked and subscribed.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you very much!

[@vonhapen1]

That CPU does have some personality and patina now - great and awesome work 👌🏼

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you

[@George_Bland]

Such a pretty CPU, glad you could restore it :)

[@blakecasimir]

9:20 thumbs up if you clapped in RL. Amazing work sir. Loving this series.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you :D

[@LegoPiers]

This is incredible. The care and attention. WOW.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@botqueijogodetona5063]

Good job dude, really impressive

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@AG-jj3lx]

Man does Magic! Love the classic hardware.

[@PixelPipes]

Masterful work!

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@LubraTv]

Great job buddy. Impressive job of patience and delicacy. 🍟

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@deepseasqueeze9081]

Gonna be honest, I thought the thumbnail was clickbait until you turned it over. Then I was sitting there in absolute horror. lmao Not disappointed, great work! I would have gone crazy trying to straighten all of those and I've revived an EPROM or two with broken pins.

[@amnesiac-original]

It was a pleasure to watch

[@lucanhenrique7457]

This is amazing, the Bob Ross of hardwares

[@bitsundbolts]

Wow! Haha, im honoured!

[@haramaschabrasir8662]

This is the absolute best thumbnail of the year already!

[@bitsundbolts]

It's only January 😂 Thanks though!

[@tkbettas1890]

Algumas pessoas nascem com uma quantidade insana de paciência.... Trabalho incrível de recuperação da CPU. 😊

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@pazsion]

i am absolutly amazed this even loads and runs

[@GadgetUK164]

Wonderful save of that CPU!!! Great job!

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@GadgetUK164]

@@bitsundbolts Incredible patience and skill required to do as good a job as you did! #impressed

[@PROSTO4Tabal]

Absolutely great job on cpu repair. Please note you can overclock 486 cpu

[@GodzillaTeenageRiot]

Just awesome! The bending adventure is real. I'd really liked the detailed review of this CPU incl. overclocking. Socket 3 is not my cup of tea (I started with socket 5) so I have a question: why are there less pins on the CPU and more possible contacts/holes on the CPU socket? Looking forward for the next VooDoo Repair; it looks really bad! Wonder what people do with their hardware? Use it as a door stopper!? Thank you for saving all this hardware!

[@bitsundbolts]

To my knowledge, Intel designed socket 3 with future CPUs in mind. The only CPU I know of that uses the outer rows, is the Pentium OverDrive. I'll have a second video about this CPU soon once I get the fan. The outer row is mainly ground and power pins.

[@GodzillaTeenageRiot]

@@bitsundbolts Thank you very much for your answer! Looking forward now to the VooDoo AND the Pentium Overdrive! .D

[@soylentgreenb]

The extra pins are mostly ground and power. The pentium overdrive used those. There may possibly have been some other niché stuff that used them but I'm not sure (e.g. one of those evergreen upgrade things).

[@cybcarr]

when around 1999 went into a shop to buy a 3dfx voodoo1, the seller only had one brown card with "ELEPHANT" on it. I didn't had another choice but take it. Went home, booted up, and it said 6mb of VRAM installed.... started using it, and sold it went for a voodoo2 but i regret selling it. was a ultimate sleeper back then. lol :D (for me at least) waiting for the next vid mate!

[@trex70]

Realy nice repair

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@gaborszucs8935]

Finally the video i was waiting for!!! Super ultra excellent job on the pins too, many would have just tossed this cpu in the bin... If your mobo allows and you have time, try 3x50 (perhaps insert a snippet of footage into your next video about these socket3 adventures). My ADZ runs that even on 3.3V and it gives further increase in performance compared to 4x40...

[@bitsundbolts]

I'll add 3x50 in the benchmark video when I add the Voodoo card (after I fix it). My CPU does 150 at stock voltage as well. I'll also attempt 200 MHz, but I have to increase the voltage.

[@gaborszucs8935]

@@bitsundbolts thats cool! Cant wait to see that. Mine unfortunately tops out at these settings, lets hope yours do better. :) Tried 4x50 and 3x60 but neither of those work, wont even show any vga signal or any beeps.... :(

[@bitsundbolts]

Yeah, totally depends on the quality of the chip. I don't know what mine will be able to do, but it would be amazing if it can do 4*50. I need to change the motherboard for 3*60. I don't know if I have one that supports such bus speeds. I just started working on the Voodoo card. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to test it.

[@gaborszucs8935]

@@bitsundbolts with the voodoo, tomb raider will fly as it will take the load for most of the calculations off of the cpu. But if your cpu will do anything more than mine clock wise, i will secretly accept the defeat. Im still crossing my fingers for you regardless because one 486 doing 200mhz is better than none lol (plus maybe an extra opportunity for you for one more video) :D

[@charonunderground8596]

Amazing job. You are Master !

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you 😊

[@pavelfara9333]

Salvaging this CPU is a true necromancing! Congrats! Using the socket from a dead board as a stencil is cool! I am still missing one for 486. But have done the same with socket 7. One guy sold me CPUs sticked to the destroyed sockets. Good to have it. It is astonishing how much the enhanced core of the cyrix helped! I have got Cyrix 5x86 120 so gonna try this beast.

[@bitsundbolts]

Nice! A Cyrix 120 is not that common. If they could clock higher, they wouldn't leave AMD any chance. But as it is, AMD has the clock advantage

[@pavelfara9333]

@@bitsundbolts There is a 133 version as well, but it is basically an "unobtanium". A very very rare CPU. Even the 120 is rare. You couldn ´t imagine my surprise when I have came to a scrapyard and one relatively not much mangled was laying on top. I hope it works. Trying to choose some good board now. I do really like your videos! Thinking about making some too, but it is not as easy as it looks. 🙈

[@bitsundbolts]

I have seen people mentioning the 133 MHz version 15 years ago on some forum. As you said, it seems to be unobtainable these days. I never thought that I was going to make videos one day. But here we are, with almost 100 videos on my channel 😄 And yes, it's by no means easy - it takes a lot of effort and discipline, but the reward of creating and connecting to a community is indescribable.

[@Stratotank3r]

Erst liken, dann ansehen. Absolut erstaunlich wie viel Zeit und Sorgfalt in deine Arbeit reingeht und man danach mit einer funktionierenden CPU belohnt wird. Ich kann auch bestätigen, dass der ADZ bei FSB33 vom Speichersubsystem gebremst wird. Ein ADZ mit 3*40 ist ähnlich schnell wie ein ADZ mit 4*33. Du könntest mal prüfen wie ein Ur Pentium reagiert wenn man mit 2*50MHz oder 1,5*66MHz arbeitet.

[@bitsundbolts]

Ich werde 3*50 und 4*50 (mit höherer Spannung) versuchen. Mal sehen ob's klappt. Leider kann das Soyo Board nur mit FPM Speicher. Mal sehen ob ich ein anderes Board mit EDO Support habe. Ich habe einen Ur Pentium 75 für Sockel 5. Vielleicht mal was für ein zukünftiges Video! Vielen Dank für's Video schauen!

[@DDuMas]

It's actually incredible Tomb Raider runs on those CPUs alone. It's kind of asking a lot... VERY impressive. And I think this was before 3D Now or any of the other instruction sets that would have helped. Very impressive indeed. It's been so long I'd underestimated what those CPUs could do.

[@retroanderson]

At this point I think you should build a tiny hollow pin straightening tube/pen. Great effort, I had a box of CPU's in similar condition and it was not fun, the old socket thing is a good trick though!

[@bitsundbolts]

That would be a good idea to build something like this. Although I am done for now, there is a box with socket 7 CPUs waiting :) Such a tool could reduce the time immensely because many pins would probably take a fraction of the time when using such a tube with perfect properties for a specific socket. The more difficult pins can still be fixed manually. I'll think of something.

[@mladenp84]

​@@bitsundbolts Maybe something like soldering needles? I'm using them to straighten legs of TH components when desoldering. Pack of 8 different sizes is ~2€ on AliExpress.

[@Stefan_Kawalec]

@@bitsundbolts I saw pictures of someone using Pentel Graphgear 1000 automatic pencil for AMD pins. That straightening tool should be made as pliers with inner diameter slightly smaller than the pin diameter, so you could also straighten the twisted pins. By simply closing the pliers, you'd squeeze and straighten the twist. Probably buying some bend or straight smooth jaw long nose pliers and then machining them to specs would be the best idea. You could easily punch the channel for pins on the surface of those smooth jaws.

[@tezcanaslan2877]

@@Stefan_Kawalec why would someone use such a expensive pencil? Wouldn’t any fixed-sleeve pen would do?

[@Stefan_Kawalec]

@tezcanaslan2877 Try it. It's the most amazing automatic pencil I've ever used. And I've used many - from costing 1 Euro to even more expensive. But this Pentel is amazing.

[@tony359]

usual stellar job in fixing those pins and nice CPU running at 160MHz! About the heat, my understanding is that it would allow you to bend the pins while keeping the structure of the metal intact. Doing it at room temperature won't be more difficult but the metal might weaken more. in other words: you won't see a difference but heat should make the process more reliable. That said: using the broken socket to finish the CPU off is definitely a cheat ;) Thanks for the video!

[@bitsundbolts]

Thanks for watching Tony!

[@Airbag888]

I vividly remember running Tombraider back in the day on a 486-SX at similar frame rates and resolution..

[@ruthlessadmin]

Weird. I was thinking for sure 160Mhz would do the trick - just pure brute force - but alas that FPU is even weaker than I thought. I wonder why no one iterated on it over the relatively long lifespan of socket 3. Nice work on those pins too, wow! Looking forward to your POD video...that was the last socket 3 I used, which I bought from a yard sale for $1 back in the late 90s. It was the first time I had seen Quake playable.

[@DefenderOfBoston-yo2tl]

Called it! Deliberately broken off ones don't count. 😄 Joke aside, awesome job once again! Performance is right where I expected it to be. You should be able to overclock the Cyrix CPU by 20% as well. Which one is faster probably comes down to which one overclocks higher, as they are so evenly matched at their default frequencies. May still end up being a draw! Going from software rendering to Glide was/is such a milestone, thanks for including the teaser at the end. After almost 30 freaking years, it STILL makes the difference between something I would and would not enjoy playing. For some reason, I particularly like the output early 3dfx cards produce. It took me years to get used to the "crisper" look of later cards.

[@bitsundbolts]

I'm also looking forward to getting rendered in glide mode. I'll include overclocking for the Cyrix and AMD CPUs in the 3dfx video. I already started to work on the card.

[@r4z4m4t4z]

awesome efforts

[@bitsundbolts]

Thanks!

[@rodhester2166]

Tomb Raider.. one of my favorite games. still have the original first 5 big box tomb raider games and the playstation versions.

[@pierrekuchmann3944]

Nice video!

[@bitsundbolts]

Thanks!

[@BigReady]

Very impressive. Mr. pin pro straightener. 👌👌👌

[@GigAHerZ64]

It is just so beautiful to see your work on straightening the pins... And woah!? ADZ with write back L1? I thought only ADW (of those 3-letter variants) can do that... NB! 3x50 might give better results than 4x40, as with higher FSB the memory access and L2 cache access becomes faster, too. When using VLB videocard, it helps that too. Maybe worth to try?

[@bitsundbolts]

You are absolutely right. I tested 150 MHz as well, however, in SpeedSys, 160 gave better results. I will test this once we get the Voodoo in there. I also want to try 200 MHz. At 3.45V, the CPU doesn't boot. Maybe I can try my luck at 4V.

[@GigAHerZ64]

@@bitsundbolts yeah, speedsys and other such small benchmarks usually do some small loop test or something similar. And when that test code can (mostly) fit in L1 cache, then the bus speed doesn't matter. But with "bigger" tests (for ex. Doom run) the bus will be heavily used and difference may start to appear. ;)

[@bitsundbolts]

I want to change the motherboard later in a "tuning" video because the Soyo only works with FPM memory. I did see a big improvement in memory bandwidth when running at 50 and even 40 MHz bus speed. I agree that a proper test using some games will be much better than those synthetic benchmarks. More videos to make :)

[@xrror]

@@bitsundboltsI was about to ask if you were going to try 50x4, so heck yea. Actually had a few 5x86's back in the day and we ran them all at 160 - and assumed they all would. Based on what I've read nowadays we just got stupid lucky with the ones we had apparently! That said we never got 200mhz to work, but we also didn't have any boards that would officially do 4v, and I imagine we'd have been too chicken to try it even if they did!

[@bitsundbolts]

Hehe, what's the worst that can happen at 4V - the CPU dies. Oh well, content is made and the videos are online. I really hope that the CPU can do 200, that would be nice!

[@SatansLtlBaby]

impressive work

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you

[@pc-sound-legacy]

Awesome cpu rescue 👏

[@phatcowboy76]

My first computer was a Packard Bell from Sears. It had a 400 MHz Pentium ii. I actually did play Tomb Raider on it. it had windows 95 which I upgraded to Win 98 SE. I only had that PC for 3 or 4 years. Got it in 1999.

[@denisuya]

AM5 🤯 Anyway, it's so refreshing to see that Award BIOS interface. So nostalgic.

[@masterkamen371]

Very good job with the pins. I've got some kind of 100MHz AMD 486 from a poker machine board. I find it pretty boring these days, it's neither a limited 486 nor a fast Pentium.

[@GodSaveTheUnitedStates]

Had one of these ADZ CPUs when I was a teenager piecing together computers and had no idea what I had. I wish I had kept it now.

[@phorsyon]

From this day on though shalt be referred to as: The Pinmaster! 😆

[@bitsundbolts]

Haha, great and what an honor! Thank you!

[@TheDimsml]

1:10 I think that there is a fatal flaw with the idea. What I guess happens is that the pins are not only being damaged but also partially work-hardened by being bent. In theory, heating them up to crystallization temperature will anneal them, that is undo the effects of work hardening making them less hard and brittle. But the problem is that you will have to heat it up to copper melting temperature (Uh, 400C I guess?), or whatever the alloy they use in the pins, and I am not sure if the processor as a whole will survive it.

[@bitsundbolts]

I am with you on that one. I would worry more about killing the core due to high temperature than breaking a few of those pins.

[@Ale.K7]

Amazing!

[@ausnorman8050]

I grew up on my dads old hardware. My first PC was 386, then I got a 486 DX66, then his 100mhz when he upgraded to a Pentium 166mhz. Then I got that when hey got a Cyrix 233mhz with a Monster Voodoo 4Mb card. Again I got that when he bought a Celeron 466mhz.. anyway loved the video and brought back many memories building pcs with my dad in the 90's-2000's.

[@bitsundbolts]

I'm always happy when a video brings back memories! You went through many systems back then - for the most part, doubling your compute power with each change. That must have been awesome! Thanks for watching!

[@ausnorman8050]

Serial and co-axil LAN from Doom right up to Quake 2 DM. However my system being the older dad always usually had the advantage. Till I bought my own Duron 700mhz + Riva TNT2 32mb card. Fun times late 30's now :D @@bitsundbolts

[@ugzz]

Very awesome video! What is the tool used at 6:43 and what is it doing? It looks like maybe an abrasive the way it's making debris around it?

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you! The tool is an engraving pen. I use it for all kinds of small work such as removing solder mask from traces and drilling into 3Dfx chips when one of the legs has broken off. I'll use it in the next video too because the Diamond Monster 3D misses one of its TMU pins.

[@ugzz]

Oh I actually wouldn't have guessed that! I had guessed an abrasive pen or scratch brush or something. Engraving would give you more precision and has alternate heads.. very interesting! Thanks for the reply, and Love the videos!@@bitsundbolts

[@sandmanxo]

Inpressive job straighening those pins! I wonder if cracked ceremic on the corner is common on those 5x86 cpus, as that happened to mine too. Only other software mode I would have liked to see is 50x3, as this is what I settled on back in the day. It consistently pumped out more fps than 40x4 in Doom and Quake on my setup. I know it's difficult to find tolerant video cards for this fsb speed though.

[@bitsundbolts]

I tested 50x3, and it worked. The BIOS reported an AMD CPU with a P75+ rating. I'll cover 150 and hopefully 200 MHz in a later video.

[@sandmanxo]

@bitsundbolts Nice, I'm always curious to see fsb vs clock on the 486 platform, since that's where I first experienced overclocking.

[@5Breaker]

That thumbnail made me laugh hard x‘D

[@bitsundbolts]

Haha, great to hear that!

[@user-le5ug4lw7l]

Comments great job straightening the pins call my man

[@TheDemocrab]

I found a Am5x86 in a box of old parts at a local PC shop that was doing a closing down sale among other chips, funnily enough the date code puts it as 3 weeks younger than yours and thankfully only one pin has a very minor bend, although I need the rest of the system to go with it. Also found a 256k Pentium Pro there too, very keen to try that out.

[@bitsundbolts]

Very nice! I'm still amazed how Pentium Pros make other CPUs look really small 😁

[@enilenis]

For unbending pins it helps to have a small metal tube that can fit tightly over them, for straightening. You can make one out of a ball pen with with a metal ink container. I use an AMD DX5 in my main 486 rig. Overlocks to 160 effortlessly, though I'm on a pure ISA bus, and with a fast processor, expansion cards become a bottleneck. Additionally, things like ISA frequency is tied to the bus. Overclocking it beyond specs may lead to instability of expansion boards. Mine holds fine (Matsonic M601), even though it doesn't support DX4 processors. DX5 functions. Only quirk was that I had to reduce motherboard cache from 512KB to 256KB. System wouldn't post otherwise. Something that only happened on a DX5. DX2-66 and all prior ones didn't have issues. I have one PC Chips motherboard with a blue socket supporting 83MHz POD. I wanted to swap it in as an upgrade, but never got around to it. I don't know if I'd gain much of a performance boost.

[@ComputersAndRetro]

Excelente Video.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@user-le5ug4lw7l]

By your views plenty of people want to watch pointless stuff Hats off to you

[@Gummybeer]

Me going to like the video, realizing I already liked it. This comments serves as a double like. Excellent video.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you so much!

[@mitchkramez]

This motherboard is a real winner isn't it?! My 133ADZ is on the way, looking forward to doing some straightening and trying it out 😀

[@bitsundbolts]

I wish you the best of luck! Let me know how it went once you're done!

[@bco1981]

8:56 VERY satisfying :3

[@Slamraptor]

Impressive OC and funny that it even gets a higher P Rating with it. xD

[@saintuk70]

I was already on the Intel 200mmx, iirc, and Matrox graphics.... played TR with the Matrox and a 3dfx... it was super smooth.

[@bravo1111]

Gute Arbeit👌. Once again, the pinarmy stands at attention💂💂💂

[@bitsundbolts]

Haha! YES!

[@criticscooby]

I think this is a great result, how much was this CPU? Because if this was a top model than it was a bad investment even tho I think the performance increase is pretty noticeable to me.

[@tiemanowo]

Only 2 pins was lost? wow!! nice job.

[@bitsundbolts]

Thank you!

[@grayich]

To align the legs, it is most convenient to use a syringe needle with the tip cut off

[@justinbailey6515]

Use the shaft of a ball point pin. Did this all the time in the 90s and that method was by far better than using toothpicks or knife blades.

[@lucasrem]

I got Tomb raider for Christmas that year, bought the MMX Pentium PC for it, better fit for my Voodoo card.

[@jasonknight1085]

If your mobo will provide 50mhz FSB, the 3x multiplier for 150mhz runs faster than the 40x4 setting because it's just able to shove memory around faster. You end up roughly equal in most titles to a P90. It was my understanding the reason they didn't sell them as 150 or 160 is that the majority of 486 motherboards only supported 25 and 33mhz. The 40mhz was common, but true 50mhz boards (and the true 50mhz 486's) were rare. But if your board supports it, 50x3 for 150mhz is the peak performance mark. A LOT of the x4's get choked / throttled by the bus not being able to feed it fast enough.

[@paulollleal]

Have you considered using a mechanical pencil to help position it? I've used a 1.0 / 1.3, / 1.5 mechanical pencil a lot. I used the heat gun on the metal mechanical pencil to heat the pins and bend them more easily

[@RKelleyCook]

Great job! Quick question as someone who voted ZERO: How much time did you spend straightening all of those pins?

[@bitsundbolts]

It took me between 3 to 4 hours for the whole process including soldering and socket cap fine tuning.

[@xBruceLee88x]

Still have one of these laying around somewhere... I can only imagine the pins are probably pretty smashed. It did run 98se well enough, with 56mb 72pin memory, a 512kb opti svga vlb card, pci usb card, opti sound card with a volume wheel. Played starcraft surprisingly well. Even handled MPEG2 avi video playback. Overclocked to 150 mhz. Not sure what happened with the rest of the system but the cpu is around somewhere

[@buffalodebill7986]

After an XT-class Atari PC3 computer, my first "AT" PC had exactly this CPU (the AM5x86), 1MB of RAM and the S3 Trio64V+ graphics card. Sweet memories.. 🙂

[@gctechs]

1MB of RAM? Shouldn't it be, historically speaking, 4 or 8 MB of RAM?

[@buffalodebill7986]

@@gctechs Historically speaking, you could put in as much RAM as you wanted or could afford, into those PCs. Mine was built by a local company and they put in exactly 1MB. Yes, the price of RAM was a factor there, but from what I recall, I could live with it for more than a year quite fine.

[@vswitchzero]

Awesome work getting that CPU restored! Those pins were in really bad shape. Using the broken socket 3 socket top as a stencil is an excellent idea, I will have to see if I can find one to use for that purpose. I have quite a few 486 chips that look fine to the eye but have a pin or two off a bit that makes inserting them feel a bit sketchy.

[@bitsundbolts]

Hello Mike! Yes, sometimes it is just one or two pins that make the entire experience of installing a CPU in the socket less enjoyable. The socket cover I use was from a board where the CPU was installed wrongly. One of the pins melted the cover and destroyed the socket. Hope you will find also a cover and get those CPUs back into pristine condition!

[@ninjamaster3453]

I used to do system build during this era. I never imagined these chips would be considered today for a retro build. If I come across any relics should they be saved or recycled?

[@bitsundbolts]

Those chips fetch more money when saved and sold to collectors and retro enthusiasts - provided that it's a working CPU. There are still some to go around, but they will get more scarce over time.

[@derchomat]

A Mechanical Pencil helps a lot if you can lift the pins a little bit first and then slide the pencil over it and bend the rest of the way using the pencil. But anyways, nice work!

[@urbanknish]

Back in the day I had the IBM Blue Lightning 100mhz, whichI thought was equivalent to 486 but I'm reading that it was really a souped up 386. I was able to play games with it and I believe a Hercules card (?) and a Soundblaster 64 Gold ISA (I still have these devices somewhere). Hard to believe any of us are talking about this stuff from almost 30 years ago but I do find it interesting.

[@pbjandahighfive]

My dude, they make plyers with grippy rubber teeth that wouldn't scratch the pins. Get yoself a pair.

[@conjurermast]

I played the Tomb Raider 1 demo on this CPU and it used to run perfectly, something could be wrong here. Is it possible that my slightly better graphics card with 2mbs of vram did a better job at 2d accel or something?

[@ctiborkoza8944]

Nice work with the CPU pins but the best performance I think is with the pentium overdrive PODP5V83 (83MHz) OC to 120MHz or more if the CPU is stable of course

[@bitsundbolts]

I hope you are right! So far, I am not happy with the performance of the 486 CPUs. Two more jokers are waiting: The Pentium OverDrive and the Voodoo 1

[@Marsandrey]

POD isn't interesting. Then better to go to socket 5 or 7 platform

[@SidneyCritic]

The pins look like gold coated steel, ie, you would have to get them glowing before they get in to the plastic stage - lol -. I would try a pointy hobby blade for that Diamond.

[@sergemoskalyuk5368]

to straighten bent pins I had used medical syringe needle with cut off sharp tilted front edge. Make sure the needle is big enough hole to fit the pin.

[@Arnoud-nf6iz]

reminds me of playing tomb raider 2018 on a intewgrated graphics on 7700k

[@lexluthermiester]

@BitsundBolts As usual, well gone on the pins! This is likely the best non-Pentium CPU you can get for Socket3, especially with the easy OC.

[@levondarbinyan3934]

Hi, you could use metal pen refill to fix the pins back. Much easier than to work with toothpicks.

[@MrKillswitch88]

The last time I fixed anything that bad was a K5 that of all places was from off Amazon, didn't lose any pins thankfully.

[@bitsundbolts]

I hope to find a K5 some day as well. Never used one of them. Great job not to lose pins!

[@typedrat]

I've always thought it should be called the DX8, because clearly the multiplier is the log2 of the DX number plus one.

[@Beus38]

No, it isn't :) I have read somewhere that it was basically just a market name thing. It went like this: when Intel originally invented the thing called multiplier, they came up with multiplier of 2. So they marked it DX2. But for future, they wanted more granularity, so they planned to use halves, not only integer numbers, just like they were being used for many years to come in Pentium 1/2/3/n lineup :) So the next multiplier was planned to be 2.5, for which a market name DX3 was planned. But the processors with this multuplier were never released. However, it was already decided, so when multiplier of 3 came out, the processors were marked DX4. Thus, AMD did the next best thing they could when adding a new feature to an already abandoned (by Intel) platform, and marked the multiplier of 4 as X5 :) At least, this is what I heard on how these strange DX numbers arose.

[@especialistqap]

When AMD and intel work like a brother with same socket

[@hugopnabais]

The old trick of increasing the bus to get great overall performance increase!