Hey Maulwurf, you know of the XT-IDE project on vintage-computer.com?
(Btw, seems I misplaced both the passowrds of my vintage-computer login AND the login of the email I used to register there :woops!!: )

Just checked it out...

Cute, but not for me. I got IDE already, just want a neat cable job.

I did see some 3.5" CF readers, but not soooo cheap. At the moment I just need something so I can put the box together and have it functioning without my Retro corner looking so messy 🤣

I've had good results from using Ontrack Disk Manager, to install a Dynamic Drive overlay.

There are several variants here for different brand drives:

http://members.shaw.ca/rinocanada/hdutils.htm

I've succsssfully used the Quantum one on CF cards.

Thanks!

The other idea I have is use this:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/40-Pin-IDE-CF-Compact- … =item20b7b3749c

And somehow mount it behind a 5.25 drive cover. But I'm very clumsy, so nut sure how I would do this.

Another (pricey) option:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/3-5in-Drive-Bay-IDE-Si … =item53e65f2455

and

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/3-5in-Hard-Drive-5-25i … =item53e65f811c

But all up around 50 bucks shipped...

Now weren't you just going to stay in P3 land and not bother wit hall that hard stuff before then 😜

Your 486 looks just like my Acer Power Pentium MMX 166 box, I have a question what is the 3rd LED for, I always thought that was for network but that can't be right here or on my P166.

I gave up on the P3 very soon, way to limited options. The Supper Socket 7 system was awesome. 99% compatibility, but I ran into 2 hardware compatibility issues with Sound Blaster 2.0 and Pro Audio Spectrum 16.

I wouldn't have built a 486 from components, way to expensive and time consuming, especially here in Australia. So when I saw the Acer, I went for it 🤣

Not sure about the LED. I think I figured out most jumpers, but if you have any documentation that would always be interesting...

Nah don't have any documentation for it. Think we got it second hand at the time and it came with a 1 year warranty which is huge for second hand hardware considering now i can goto the computer fair and buy motherboards with 7 day warranties.

I don't think building a 486 would be that expensive I could build one for not much I just need a socket 5 mobo some RAM and a case and I should have everything else I need.

The problem is if you don't have the old hardware lying around, or know someone that's got any, it can be very expensive to buy it off ebay... not only are the prices there usually exhorbitant but you can end up spending more than the cost of the item on shipping. Very rarely do 486 or earlier systems show up on ebay in Australia and its prohibitively expensive to import the parts.

I'd hate to think how much I spent building my old boxes 😜

Yea Australia sucks for retro parts...

Just getting a decent board from europe would have cost me just as much as that PC. And not to mention getting all the other parts and then you might have one that's faulty.

Buying a complete PC saves you a lot of time and money...

Hmm true you are right, there aren't many boards here and shipping is expensive from elsewhere. I tend to mostly try to find free stuff rather then buying it.

Yeah that's the way to go but its very much a case of 'right place, right time' or you gotta know someone with some old stuff.
I've had a bit of luck checking the local tip, or on the kerb during council clean ups but you have to be persistent, 9 times out of 10 you'll find nothing.

And I've never found anything especially old, its usually socket 5/7 type stuff, no 486 or older.

Even when I was dumpsterdiving almost daily back in 2002-2003, most computers I found were some variety of Socket 7 with only the occasional Socket 5 and 486.
My guess is that there were simply many more Socket 7 systems sold, so many more to toss out also.

Pentium 1 boards are so plentyfull compared to 486 and easily bested by Super 7.

DonutKing wrote:

its very much a case of 'right place, right time' or you gotta know someone with some old stuff.

Exactly!

that 486 was pickup only, and it was local. But it was the only 486 I have seen locally since like... ever.

But I admit I don't look all the time, and you could always ask people on OCAU or run ads in papers...

I've actually had much better luck asking on Atomic than OCAU. On OCAU I got a few people saying 'oh yeah let me have a look I got something like that' and they never got back to me or responded to their PM's.

On Atomic I've picked up quite a few good bargains for retro gear 😀

The signal to noise ratio on atomic is a bit worse though - seems to be a few more clowns running around there. But I guess you get that wherever you go on the internet 😀

Hmm true the oldest stuff I've found is socket 7 stuff except that IBM PS/2 Model 30-286 which I can't decide if I want. The Power switch felt a bit dodgy to. I just don't know if I quite want it just can't quite decide if the effort carting it home on the bus is worth it for something I don't know whether works or not.

You could always put it on ebay, hell I'd bid on a PS/2 if it was less than say $50 and it was in the country.

Hmm maybe I should, I'm definitely sure its been abandoned since its just sitting just inside a building with a dell p4 which has only a motherboard which apparently doesn't have a working IDE controller.

I guess the problems I for see with the PS/2 is the HDD not working and the battery being dead and not being able to boot because of the dead battery.

It probably is worth grabbing though, I think I just need to convince myself that its justified or something.

awergh wrote:

Hmm maybe I should, I'm definitely sure its been abandoned since its just sitting just inside a building with a dell p4 which has only a motherboard which apparently doesn't have a working IDE controller.

I guess the problems I for see with the PS/2 is the HDD not working and the battery being dead and not being able to boot because of the dead battery.

It probably is worth grabbing though, I think I just need to convince myself that its justified or something.

If the board is toast, you can pull the SRAM chips ;D
And maybe it's also got a Roland soundcard, ATI ISA Mach 64 4MB and some veeery rare oem special edition CPU in it ;D

Unfortunately no soundcard is in it only has some ISA modem.
I think you're succeeding at what I secretly wanted which was an excuse to bring it home.

Whats special about SRAM?

SRAM = Cache memory chips, can reuse them on another motherboard.

Bring it hope, rip its guts open and post some photos on here 😀