My x86 Retro-Computers
JSTML

Introduction

The x86 platform is one of the most widespread hardware platforms nowadays. Because of this most of old x86 hardware is dumped unreviewed. Usually it is assumed that due to upward compatibility most of the software from the early days still runs today. That is in part true for modest applications since emulators as DosBox appeared. On the other hand there is hardware that isn't emulated and software that does not run on modern systems. Reasons may be the compareable high speed, missing required hardware or a missing required software platform.


My IBM PC System/2

386-System


CPU: AMD 386DX-40 with 387-33
Mainboard: ETEQ386-8
RAM: 32 MB (8 x 4 MB SIMM)
Graphics card: TSENG ET4000 with 1 MB and Truecolor DAC (image similar)
Network card: 3Com 3C509b / 10 MBit/s (image similar)
Soundcards: SB 16 ASP (DSP 4.05) with WaveBlaster (CT1900) and Gravis Ultrasound PnP with 8 MB
HDD: Quantum Fireball 1280A, Samsung SHD-30560A
CD: Sony CDU-33A double speed drive on proprietary controller
Disk: 3.5" and 5.25" drive

This is one of these rock solid running 386 systems.
The system features a common SB16 / GUS combination. The GUS-PnP gives full hardware acceleration for sound playback and the SB16 Sound Blaster compatibility.
The Waveblaster wavetable board uses 4 MB ROM and the Proteus Soundengine and has beside the GM sound set also a MT-32 compatible sound set.
Since the BIOS got the 504 MB CHS limit I was thinking of replacing the IDE drive with a SCSI drive. On the other hand all the DOS stuff doesn't require large HDDs, so I left it with the two drives and used Stacker 4.1 disk compression on the secondary.
The chipset has 64 kB L2-Cache that caches up to 16 MB. Though this does not hurt DOS games as there are not much DOS games that run on a 386DX-40 and require more than 16 MB. In case of doubt, there is a XMS Ramdrive with the size of 16 MB loaded in the top area of the memory that covers the uncached area.
MS-DOS 6 and Win95a runs fine, XTC-Player with GUS PnP support, several oldschool DOS demos.
Ofcourse the Win95 has the cacheable size problem too, but 32 MB for Win95 is still better than 16 MB (and its rather unhurried anyway)

486-System

I got a Compaq Presario CDS-520 recently. This computer looks like a big version of a mac-classic.
It has an integrated 14 inch CRT and speakers.

CPU: AMD 486SX2-66
Mainboard: Compaq
RAM: 52 MB
Graphics card: local bus Cirrus Logic GD5424 with 512 kB
Network card: 3Com Etherlink III 3C509b / 10 MBit/s
Soundcards: ESS 688 (onboard) and Gravis Utrasound ACE
Modem: as ISA card
HDD: ~2 GB
CD: IDE 8x speed?
Disk: 3.5"

MS-DOS 6 Compaq edition / Window for Workgroups 3.11
The 486SX2-66 runs Descent very well and appears to be in integer benchmarks just 10% slower as a 486DX2-66 (Norton Utilities 7 Sysinfo)

Socket 7-System

CPU: AMD K6 233 MHz
Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-586HX (image similar)
RAM: 192 MB EDO PS/2 SIMMs
Graphics card: Voodoo 3 3000 PCI, 3Dfx Voodoo 1  (V3 image shows AGP version)
Network card: Realtek 8139C / 100 MBit/s
Soundcards: EWS64XL with Roland Sound Canvas SCB-55, Gravis Ultrasound Classic Rev. 3.4, Roland MT-32 1st gen.
HDD:  4 GB Sandisk Compactflash on CF to IDE adapter
CD: Plextor UltraPlex 40x  SCSI drive on a Adaptec PCI SCSI controller
Disk: 3.5" drive

Rather silent PC for old DOS games and scene demos. It features all important sound card standards of this time. The Voodoo3 is one of the fastest 2D-cards (in VESA modes) around.
The Pentium systems with the HX chipset are quite matured. It has the fast PCI local bus, 2 channel IDE onboard and usually 3 or more ISA-Slots and some even have USB.
So the hardware is from software view between the old DOS era and the Windows era.
MS-DOS 6 and Win98SE runs fine.

another Pentium-System

CPU: Intel Pentium 166 MMX
Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-586HX (image similar)
RAM: 384 MB EDO PS/2 SIMMs
Graphics card: Elsa Victory Erazor (Riva 128 with 4 MB SGRAM and TV In/Out) (image shows AGP version)
Accelerator card: Creative Encore PC-DVD Dxr2
Network card: Realtek 8139C / 100 MBit/s
Soundcards: Guillemot Maxi Sound 64 Home Studio with Yamaha DB60XG wavetable, Primax Altrasound (this is a 100% rebuild of a Gravis Ultrasound with additional Mixer IC)
Controller: Highpoint HPT370/372 UDMA controller
HDD: IBM-DJNA-351520, IBM-DTLA-305040
CD: Pioneer DVD-A04SZ Slot-In drive
Disk: 3.5" and 5.25" drive

This is basically a second PC for old DOS games and scene demos and resembles overall my PC-system I bought in 1996. It features a bit different sound card setup as the other Pentium system.
Running MS-DOS 7.10 and NT4 Pro. With the amount of memory even a slightly tuned Firefox 2.0.23 runs fine (flash disabled).
The DVD-Accelerator enables playback of DVDs and MPeg2 Videos on this system.
The P166MMX is just slow enough that the Day of the Tentacle iMuse soundengine doesn't bug out.

Commodore PC-I

This is a Commodore PC-I
CPU: Siemens 8088 (4.77 MHz)
Mainboard: Commodore Custom Made Mainboard
RAM: 512 kB
Graphics: Motorola 6845 CRT controller for text mode and Paradise PVC2 for CGA / Plantronics? with 32 kB
Sound: incredible Speaker
HDD: None
Disk: 5.25" DD drive internally (160 kB)
3.5" DD Amiga drive externally (720 kB)

As commodore was always going for cheap hardware it's a rather limited system. MS-DOS 3.3+ runs fine, Textadventures, Space Quest 1 and 2, Lemmings in CGA rather slow, Rogue ofcourse.
The external drive connector allows to use Amiga disk drives. Requires an XT capable/switchable keyboard, when using AT-keyboard.

old computer transfer system

CPU: Athlon 650 MHz (Slot-A)
Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-7IXE
RAM: 512 MB SDRAM (due to Win98SE)
Graphics: Voodoo 3 3500TV with Video In/Out
Video: Hauppauge WinTV PCI
Sound: Terratec EWS64XL
HDD:  2 GB Sandisk Compactflash on CF to IDE adapter

This system runs Win98SE. The main purpose is to give a video/audio frontend for my C64 (and other homecomputer systems) and a transfer PC to and from old systems (C64 / Amiga).
Since the Voodoo3 3500TV is not able to handle the C64 video signal I had to add another TV card. The BT878 based Hauppauge card is quite compatible in processing more exotic video signals.
The trick does the DScaler  TV-application that decodes 50 Hz progressive signal correctly to the screen. In addition the CRT monitor is set to 50 Hz refresh using a Voodoo related tool (alternativly PowerStrip) when C64-Video is used.
The EWS64XL is good enough to record quality C64 SID-sound and can render some after effects like Reverb/Chorus/Echo on the signal. A nice side effect of the overall system is that Unreal, Unreal Tournament and other older 3D-games run fine.


* A very useful tool is a external multichannel mixer to mix the sound sources from the different cards. Also IBM M-series keyboards, Trinitron CRTs and parallel port ZIP-drives are versatile.
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