4x86 project is coming along nicely, although I've been forced to change the specs (of both 4x86 AND 5x86) somewhere along the restoration process. Also, it seems that 3x86 board is unfortunately beyond repairs, as I'm not getting ANY feedback whatsoever. No sounds, not even power LED, even though I can feel the CPU getting warmer so it's most likely getting power... IDK, I've decided to hold onto it for now, but I'm not too optimistic.
Now, as for the actual 4x86, the system is mostly complete, in the process of final tweaks & cable management.
First order of business was to restore the (previously removed) NiCd battery, and I actually reused the one from 3x86 system since it's almost brand new, 6 months old according to the previous owner.
Then there was a big question... Which VLB card(s) to use, since I now had the luxury to choose between my own components (which had been previously tested) & these new ones, which haven't been tested & might work, even though I've noticed few small scratches & cuts, probably from tumbling inside the empty case. Also worth pointing out is that BOTH of these VLB cards have the same GPU, so in the end it was a matter of choosing the better & more reliable over the other one.
Same thing with HDD/Floppy/Serial Port controller card, I've decided to use my own which seems to be working just fine. I had a slight problem, getting the floppy drive(s) to get recognized but this turned out to be a jumper-related issue as someone previously disabled floppy feature on the controller itself.
I actually did a lot of work off-camera... Was hoping to stop for a minute or two & document everything, but with the amount of work that's been put into this thing so far, I just didn't want to waste any time. Such as taking apart the entire 5.25" floppy drive for the most detailed dusting & cleaning so far! Which turned out to be quite successful!
Also, I've noticed something very unusual with this 3.5" floppy drive unit - recognize the company brand?! Assuming it's the same "Citizen" company as the one which makes famous wrist watches, I had no idea they were into computer equipment, ESPECIALLY floppy drives!
And this is where things got uhh, somewhat complicated to say at least. I've been meaning to use this ESS sound card for 4x86, as (according to Phil's Computer Lab), it's the perfect choice for DOS gaming. However, after quick Googling for appropriate drivers, I've realized there's a ton of issues with these, mainly because of the amount of different sub-models & variations. Some of the folks managed to get their cards working straight out of the box, while the other group seems to struggle with whole bunch of difficulties.
And since I'm also going to use the sound card as a secondary IDE controller, I wanted to make ABSOLUTELY sure I don't run into any problems ... so I swapped cards between 5x86 & 4x86. Meaning the ESS card is now inside 5x86 & will be used under Win95 environment, where on the other hand this 4x86 will have Creative SB16, which has much superior driver support & SHOULD be (in theory, at least) much easier to set up. Furthermore, I find it easier to install Creative card over ESS, because of the IDE port orientation. ESS card had the pin-1 on the left, where Creative has the pin-1 on the right, so I didn't have to twist the IDE cable & make a complete mess.
Truly a relic from some other time & era when DVD recorders used to cost an arm and a leg! 
