Back in November I became inspired by the knowledge that my favorite old school DOS MODplayer had “recently” received an update, and expressed my intention (part 1) to more-or-less recreate the 486-class DOS PC upon which I enjoyed many, many hours of MOD music, scenedemos and games back in 1996 or so.
Well, it was a long road (part 2) getting everything together, but a few weeks ago I finally completed the build. I took a detour or two from the original plan but, for the most part, the PC is the same machine I was using nearly 20 years ago:
- AMD 5×86 133 (overclocked to 160MHz, making for a 40MHz bus)
- ASUS PVI-486SP3 motherboard (VLB, PCI, ISA slots) w/ 256K L2 cache, 32MB RAM
- Cardex Tseng ET4000/W32p-based VLB video card w/ 2MB DRAM
- Adaptec 1542 SCSI controller
- Seagate Hawk 1GB SCSI HD
- Toshiba 32x SCSI CD-ROM drive
- Gravis Ultrasound (“Classic”) w/ 1MB sample DRAM
- 3Com EtherLink III Ethernet adapter
- The same Focus FK-2001 mechanical keyboard and Logitech serial mouse from my original, 1996 PC
- MS-DOS v6.22, Windows 98 OSR2.5, Norton System Commander 7
Some of the more interesting drills were trying to get a SCSI drive to work with my original DPT SCSI card (I ended up jumping over to a more widely supported, if less mighty, Adaptec card), sourcing SRAM chips to upgrade the motherboard cache as well as the oddball 24-pin DRAM chips needed to upgrade the video card to 2MB RAM, getting Ethernet networking running under DOS (with mTCP), and fixing the CMOS battery well after I snapped part of it off…
A number of twitter pals urged me to film the build, so I did, but it’s a pretty rough production, I must confess. Still, those wanting to see this system come together, here it is.
I’ve actually had more fun with the completed system than I imagined I would. I’ve got it loaded with demos and games and MOD/S3M/XMs. It’s been great fun seeing what more or less the highest spec “486” system you can build is capable of. In fact…I’ve had so much fun with scenedemos in particular that I have decided to build a second PC designed to chase down the next era of productions, the ~1997-2001 DOS demos that run in high res, high color VESA framebuffers. Socket A Athlon Thunderbird 1400C, here I come! (And, of course, I’ll bring a full report as that project unfolds.)
All set to play some Kings Quest and Leisure Suit Larry :$
Blake, what about running NextStep/Intel on it?
I ran NEXTSTEP for Intel v3.2 on the original 1996 machine. In fact, the 1996 5×86 was an upgrade to the 486 66 that it started out as, which I got in 1994 specifically to run NEXTSTEP for Intel. It had a pretty interesting gfx architecture, that first motherboard, I must say. (Search this site for “Wingine.”)
Maybe I’ll install it at some point…
Such a cool project, glad you managed to get it all done. I’m already rummaging in my spares parts box to see what I might be able to put together.
Very nice!
A couple of yeas ago I got myselft a 486 desktop machine too! They are really great machines to play with.
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?29800-So-I-got-a-486-PC-to-stay-by-my-side-in-the-city
Very nice setup!
That is one awesome project. You got me inspired to set up such a computer myself! I was an Amiga user back in the middle of the 90’s, but some demoscene people I knew had PC’s. Often watched demos with them and we always argued which had the better demos.. Amiga or PC.. :D Things got quiet when The Black Lotus won The Gathering 1996 demo party with their Amiga demo Tint.. hehe.. ;) Anyway, enough rambling from my side.. great job on this project dude!!!
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What demos do you recommend to watch?
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Hi
Have you started second (1997-2001) PC project?
Tane
I purchased a Thunderbird CPU but halted there for a while. I need to get it done, but the lack of space and $$ has me waiting a bit. That Thunderbird might be faster than I want, as well. Maybe a P3 would be better…
Stay tuned…
where can i buy a Asus PVI-486SP3
motherboard
looked everywhere even ebay
I got mine from Rocco at WiredForService eBay store. Contact them directly through eBay asking about the board — they may have one that is not listed online right now.
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This is a fascinating deep dive into the 5×86 system build! It’s incredible to see the dedication and meticulousness involved in such a project, especially back in 2014. I’m always impressed by the passion of hardware enthusiasts who bring these older systems back to life. It reminds me of how much innovation has happened since then. Speaking of innovation, if you’re ever looking to create engaging video content quickly, you might find Omni AI Video to be a game-changer. It’s amazing how far technology has come in making complex tasks accessible. Keep up the great work on the blog!
This is a fascinating deep dive into the 5×86 system build! It’s incredible to see the dedication and effort that goes into such projects, especially back in 2014. I can only imagine the satisfaction of finally getting it all up and running. It reminds me a bit of how I approach creative projects; sometimes you just need the right tools to bring your vision to life. Speaking of creative tools, I’ve recently been exploring Try seedance 2.0 on artta for generating cinematic AI videos and photorealistic images. It’s quite powerful for quickly creating high-quality assets. Keep up the great work on the blog!