Thread by @RetroTechChris

It's been a little while since I've had this 486 DX4/100 system on the desk. I wanted to open it up and explore a bit to answer a question I had. Let's explore this system together in a 🧵 here!

On bootup, we see that we have 64MB of memory, which would have been a pretty beefy amount for the time period. I also have a Promise EIDE 4030 Plus VLB caching controller in this system with 4MB of cache! I entered its setup program just for fun!

I also have a 3COM Etherlink III in the system, with a boot ROM. We won't be booting off the network today, but if we were, we'd see a screen similar to this.

Let's open up the case. Yea, my cable management could use some work 😅

Here's all of our cards! A poor man's Creative AWE64, Orchid Kelvin 64-VLB, Adaptec AVA-1502E (for a SCSI Zip drive), 3Com Etherlink III, and the Promise EIDE 4030 Plus VLB.

Here's the motherboard! It's an Asus VL/I-486SV2G (GX4). Great board! I've 16MB 72MB SIMMS installed and 256KB Cache.

And the processor? An Intel 486DX4/100. The CPU cooler/fan is super cool: it twists on! I love it!

Here are the external drives! A Teac 1.2MB FDD, a Sony CDU311 8X CD-ROM, and some sort of 1.44MB FDD. As for internal, we have a Quantum Fireball 3GB drive (not pictured)

As for the case itself, it's a Macase KS-330. These cases were pretty loved back in the day. Someone even made a 3D printable mini version in modern times for your Raspberry Pi or other device:

https://x.com/RetroTechChris/status/1599442109420871681

So, that's the nickel tour! When I put things back together, I did put the cards in a slightly different order. You do have to juggle a bit given how small this case is: no big ISA cards in the first couple of slots, and putting the NIC in the bottom slot makes the clip tight.

I did take a picture of cable configurations, but wanted to make sure I got the turbo button right, so we ran a quick speed test!

On reassembly, I fought the CD-ROM a bit. At first, I thought it might have been a cable issue since that cable is pretty pinched! I did forget that the CD-ROM needs to be plugged into the "ISA IDE" connector on the Promise card which is the bottom connector here.

Anyway, the system is now all back together and everything is detected and working great!

So, the questions I wanted to answered were: what is the voltage on the processor, and what is the type of case (since I had forgotten both, ha!) I believe all 486 DX4/100 CPUs are 3.3V, I could have just looked that up! But this way was more fun 😂

Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks as always for following along!

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