I just got a 33mHz computer!!!!!

[qacwac]

Honestly. My dad gave it to me. I don't have it in front of me right now so I'll have to post again with the other details but I saw 486 with some other stuff on the mobo or processor(I only looked for a minute and can't remember). This will be the first computer that I'll be able to mess around with and try to overclock or whatever else I can mess with. Well I'll be posting again asking you guys some specifics (I don't know anything about overclocking) but not until the weekend.

Well just wanted to share the good news.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

I think you need to get a cristal or something and modify the mobo. I dont think you can get any of the stuf necesary to o/c those anymore.

 

[abracadabra1]

nice.

 

[Fardringle]

I still have an IBM AT computer (4.4 Mhz processor) in a box in the basement. Maybe I'll have to dig it out and see if I can't squeeze and extra .1 or .2 Mhz out of it..

 

[qacwac]

What's a cristal Dark4ng3l?

 

[Compellor]

Is it one of those "Packard Hell" doorstops? I got a DX2 66 MHz chip I can sell to you if you're looking for an upgrade.

 

[Dan]

You can often bump a 33MHz up to 50 or 66MHz. Just scrutinize the board and try to determine which jumper settings you need to change. (And even at those blistering speeds you still don't need to worry about a heatsink or fan.)

 

[StickHead]

Have you benchmarked it yet?

 

[FakeMake]

myn blazes past all of your's

AMD 486DX4? 100mhz!!!!!!!!!!

 

[merlocka]

I recall having one of those AMD 133MHz 486's. Ohhhhhhh the joy when I got it to run at 160MHz. I though I was the cat's ass.

 

[Fuzzmuncher]

Cat's ass??? That's funny sh!t. Tried to mess around with my 486...... & broke it. =( Had to wait almost a year for another computer. Man that was rough.

 

[Elbryn]

i got a 386 sx downstairs that features one of those nifty turbo buttons. Badboy runs 10 mhz wihtout turbo, 20 with (i think havent checked in a long long time)

 

[RoadRuner]

hmm the 486's make great freesco or coyote linux routers i used a 486-dx-4-100 until i replaced it with a p-pro 200. didnt realize how slow the 486 was!! However it did manage to route 200k/sec of downloads from at&T broadband.

 

[qacwac]

I apologize for my ignorance. You have to understand that I didn't get into computers until processor speeds were up in the 4 or 500's. With my present computer (Athlon 700, 128 ram, 27 hd, ati rage pro vivo, 10x dvd, and slow cdrw) I've only had to put in the cd-rw (actually a friend did) and put in the video card, modem, and network card (which I actually did these) So I truly know nothing.

to roadrunner: what's a router?

to Elbryn: cool, mine has the turbo button.

to StickHead: how can I benchmark it?

to Dan: what does "scrutinize the board and try to determine which jumper settings you need to change" mean?

Well that gives you an idea of my ignorance.

 

[Vpham97]

I remember being all happy that I bought a 486 33mhz Compaq for $1200. It was such a bargain then.
But then there were those of us who pay $1200 for a 2400 baud modem back in the 80's.
Up until college, I was using a 386 sx 16mhz. Notice the sx, it's not even dx.
I figure that they have gotton away w/ dx & sx when the pentium came out. The time table has been turn back however. Now we have Pentium vs. celeron. Athlon vs. Duron.
I remember the dot matrix printer. I usually have to print about 5 times for it to print correctly w/ out messing up.

 

[Dan]

qacwac: a lack of knowledge is only a problem when you do nothing to change your status. All of us here started out at the same place and took the time to learn from others and grow.

To answer your question: Look over the motherboard and you should see a small silkscreened table that tells you which jumpers to close or leave open in order to set the clock speed. It's set at 33MHz right now; you want to see if there is a setting for 50MHz or 66MHz.

If you really want to get into this you can write down the BIOS ID string, which will be located at the bottom-left corner during startup. Then go here and try to determine who made your motherboard. Then go to that manufacturer's site and see if you can download a manual for the board. If you got that you're good to go.

Don't be afraid to have some fun with the old system. I have a Duron 600 (at 900MHz) and 128MB RAM in my home office and a K6-III 450 with 64MB RAM in the wife's. I also have a 486DX-33 (at 66MHz) with 24MB RAM that I recently revived. I installed DOS 6.22 and WFW 3.11 on it. (For you youngsters, that's Windows For Workgroups, not a Wrestling Federation.)

I revived it so that I can give my 12-year-old grandson a working knowledge of DOS. (I already taught him how to build a computer.) Who knows, we might even install Wolfenstein and Blake Stone on there so he can see what games were like in the "Dark Ages."

 

[GD695372]

I got my AMD 486-133 to hit 150. And yes it was originally a Packard Hell.

 

[urbantechie]

33 hitting 66? Super cooling baby. Thats crazy! Maybe 40MHz...

 

[zogg]

Hey qacwac,
I found 12 486's and two pentiums in a savings bank garbage dumpster once. All of them worked and were loaded with dos 5.0-6.22 and windows 3.11 for workkgroups and some of them had windows95 on them. They all had the banks software loaded too with the programs for accessing accounts and paswords etc. Need less to say I brought them home and had a lot of fun with them. I am able to overclock the pentium 75 to 120-133 mhz. The I bought two pentium 200 mmx chips and installed them in each have them running at 233MHz. Nice machines for free, well I did have to pay 30 dollars for the 2 200mmx's.

Maybe you can do a little rummageing on garbage night or when ever you are near dumpster take a look....you never know...sometimes people upgrade and throw out perfectly good equipment.. My buddy found a beautifull 15 inch monitor at his neighbers house's garbage once. I got a perfectly good IBM 8086 ps2 system with a cga monitor and dos 3.x installed with norton utilities and lotus on it from neighber who was going to throw it out. I never knew norton utilities was around when 8086's were the hot items in the market. I still use the ps2 keyboard that came with that systme for my main system, the keyboard weighs about ten pounds but it is the best keyboard I ever had.
Just stay on the forums and read up on everything. Go to some of the hardware sites and read, read, read. You will eventually be like all of the other geeks on this board

 

[jinsonxu]

zogg, you're darn lucky!

Sad though, having the computer's value drop to garbage after a few years is becoming more of a reality.

A 33Mhz 486 would give you 10 Work units per day in RC5. Try it!

 

[Chuffmaster2k]

I remember when I bought my first computer...

It was a 486 DX2/50. That thing was smoking. I paid $1500 for that damn thing. My first 28.8 modem was $300.

Times have changed. God bless innovation and price drops.

 

[hans007]

wow i remember when my family had the speed king. 486dx-50. Intel sample chip, oh yes it was beautiful. 50mhz BUS!! not the dx2. Boy was it sweet, had 8mb of ram and 120 mb hard drive , even got a 2x scsi cdrom my dad borrowed from work's sample pile. Wow we had to buy a media vision pro audio spectrum 16 with scsi for $150 just to run it.


BTW: if anyone is wondering, mediavision went bankrupt, their employees went on to start aureal and 3dfx , which will both be bankrupt (well aureal already is).

 

[StickHead]

qacwac:

I use two benchmarking tools. Quake3 and 3DMark 2000.

They both measure your gaming (video card) capabilities. Download them and try them out.

 

[qacwac]

Thanks guys. I can't wait to be like all of the other geeks on this board

Where can I download Q3 and the 3dMark2000?

Thanks guys.

 

[zogg]

get your game demos and benchmarking schtuff here