TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Ruru]

Also the difference between 386SX & 386DX can be a little confusing if comparing to 486; their difference is that SX uses only 16-bit wide bus. Even the DX doesn't have a FPU, it needs a 387DX (and SX needs a 387SX respectively).

 

[QuietBob]

I bought a 386 when I started college in 1990 (studying Electrical and Computer Engineering) and then a few years later sold it and got a 486DX2 and the difference was huge for me.
I was using PSpice to simulate electronic circuits and it took 3 to 4 days to finish a simulation on the 386 and with the 486 they would complete in about 24 hours.
So for me at least that on chip FPU made a world of difference.

Now that's a huge improvement! Talk about money well spent. But CAD/engineering software has always been floating point math heavy. That's why I mentioned typical home/office use in my previous post.
And let's not forget we're comparing two different architectures here, spread six years apart. The 486 had roughly 2x the ALU performance of the 386 clock-for-clock. So a 33 MHz 486SX, even without the FPU, would still be twice as fast as a 33 MHz 386 at most tasks. And even faster when computing x87 code on the 486DX's FPU.

BTW, anyone noticed the post counter on this thread?

 

[NoJuan999]

Now that's a huge improvement! Talk about money well spent. But CAD/engineering software has always been floating point math heavy. That's why I mentioned typical home/office use in my previous post.
And let's not forget we're comparing two different architectures here, spread six years apart. The 486 had roughly 2x the ALU performance of the 386 clock-for-clock. So a 33 MHz 486SX, even without the FPU, would still be twice as fast as a 33 MHz 386 at most tasks. And even faster when computing x87 code on the 486DX's FPU.

Very True.
I just remember being Soooo happy when a circuit simulation finished in a day (or even less).
I had a few instances when a simulation on the 386 would run for a few days and then the PC would crash and I'd have to run it again.
That was excruciating.
I don't remember any of the simulations I ran on the 486 crashing, but that could be selective memory on my part.

 

[kiriakost]

my first system was previously mentioned 486 DX2, which is part of the reason why I wanted to get my hands on 386 system nowdays, to see how it compares against DX2

First PC that I did use for two months prior ordering My Own new PC (486DX100) this was a 286 and the only training which I could do this was playing Tetris.
CD Tertris / Tetris.exe (All the action in Black and Green).
For the new PC I got a SONY Trinitron 15" 75Hz and this was a great choice against eyestrain, and a true joy regarding vivid colors.
The most wise choice which I did over the decades, this is giving priority at getting always a very high quality PC monitor.

BTW, anyone noticed the post counter on this thread?

Minor detail.

Gentlemen lets enrich this thread with learning tools of 1995 era and later, in which we learned using and or repair PC computers with out us having an internet connection.

 

[biffzinker]

Made a difference in speed on processing a lot of apps and games.

I thought the most popular software back during 286/386, and early 486 was reliant on Integer code?

 

[kiriakost]

I thought the most popular software back during 286/386, and early 486 was reliant on Integer code?

At 1988 we was learning at school in Greece, programing with C language.
Since 1988 up to 1995 most PC computers was in a accountant office they was running C language software at DOS environment.
Since the year 1996 the operating system Win95 it did the big bang, the graphical environment this made computers user friendly.
In the same year the computing force and economy of Japan had it own big bang, the Japanese was masters at using DOS operating system and C language, and the newcomer Win95 this crashed down their monopoly and dominance at programing of electronic chips and be the No1 at electronics development.

When you see an AIWA cassette deck or Audio CD player of 1990, this has digital counters and VU meter and programing capability of you making your own play list.
They did all that with out them having Microsoft Windows.

 

[NoJuan999]

In 1984-88, I was in the US Navy and learned Assembly (and electronics repair) to help develop and maintain weapon systems and also stood watch (doing maintenance and repair) on a Reel to Reel Main Frame.
I didn't use a PC until I left the Navy and went to a University.

 

[kiriakost]

on a Reel to Reel Main Frame.
I didn't use a PC until I left the Navy and went to a University.

Our 1996 made PC at my school, it was a metallic mainframe something similar to MAC computer with attached keyboard, about 40 kilos of weight its one and we had five for a class of 25 students.
Such design this is self protected from get stolen.

 

[QuietBob]

In 1984-88, I was in the US Navy and learned Assembly (and electronics repair) to help develop and maintain weapon systems and also stood watch (doing maintenance and repair) on a Reel to Reel Main Frame.

Lucky of you to have had access to a mainframe! Also, your Popeye avatar has suddenly become clear

For the new PC I got a SONY Trinitron 15" 75Hz and this was a great choice against eyestrain, and a true joy regarding vivid colors.

Best CRTs there were. I used to have a 17" and 19" Diamondtron (NEC-branded Trinitron). Both could do 1600x1200 @ 75Hz.

Gentlemen lets enrich this thread with learning tools of 1995 era and later, in which we learned using and or repair PC computers with out us having an internet connection.

Love the cheesy cover of that DOS manual!

 

[stinger608]

I thought the most popular software back during 286/386, and early 486 was reliant on Integer code?

Pretty much true. However, ID software was beginning and started developing games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and some other titles from early "3D" game developers.
Of course ID Software, well specifically John Carmack, revolutionized the gaming world as we know it today!

 

[kiriakost]

Love the cheesy cover of that DOS manual!

This is how Microsoft it did imagine to conquer the universe, but then they made Windows and they become lazy.

 

[QuietBob]

My first 3D accelerator card

The Riva 128 is widely regarded as the first "modern" Windows GPU to successfully combine 2D and 3D acceleration. Too bad I don't have a mobo to put it on

 

[dorsetknob]

Got one of those
Have kept it (working of course) as a Flash Recovery spare usefull for those mb that only have 1PCI x slot
Card has a massive 4mb ram

 

[kiriakost]

The Riva 128 is widely regarded as the first "modern" Windows GPU to successfully combine 2D and 3D acceleration. Too bad I don't have a mobo to put it on

Riva 128 came with delay, every one of us clan of first explorers of 3D Gaming we had Voodoo2 or a better Voodoo3 among with a first pack of games them using OPEN GL.
Additionally, Riva 128 this were mostly DirectX and INTEL CPU & MMX commands dependent.

Actually when 3D gaming started, we had more benchmarks as 3D capabilities demonstration than real games to play.

 

[Dinnercore]

Why do things always go wrong on a regular schedule...

Coming home from work, happy to find a parcel only to open it and find that the RAM sticks inside have been packed touching each other.

Result:





Two caps holding on for dear life and the heatspread is bend so its no longer touching the chips. What makes this painful, these are Kingston HyperX 9600D2K2

 

[kiriakost]

Two caps holding on for dear life and the heatspread is bend so its no longer touching the chips. What makes this painful, these are Kingston HyperX 9600D2K2

Luck this is still standing at your side, one sharp soldering iron tip, at the hands of an expert him working with electronics professionally, he can fix that in 30 seconds.

 

[QuietBob]

Two caps holding on for dear life and the heatspread is bend so its no longer touching the chips. What makes this painful, these are Kingston HyperX 9600D2K2

Oh crap... Some of the fastest DDR2 modules out there. Feel sorry for you man!

 

[Dinnercore]

Luck this is still standing at your side, one sharp soldering iron tip, at the hands of an expert him working with electronics professionally, he can fix that in 30 seconds.

And that 'expert' will be me! I hope. I mean I'm not an expert but I have some soldering experience and all the tools right here. I'm glad they are still in place, makes the job easier.

EDIT: Ok so I did not find my narrow tip which is why I don't post an image of my solder job. I did re-attach it to the pads but also added some blobs to the top edges in the process. Looks horrible but its working.


Currently have them naked, I don't think I'll even bother with the stock heatsinks. These are so thin and flimsy, I'll transplant them some from an OCZ-Reaper kit.



They can do ~625Mhz @2.00V CL5. That is above the rated 600 and still far below the stock 2.3V, I'm happy now

 

[Susquehannock]

That MSI board is a very good AGP benching board. IMO, second only to the Asrock NF3-VSTA board.
Find a 3850. It crushes the 7800. I have both.

EDIT- Holy crap look at the paste on that CPU.

Yeah, all the paste made me chuckle. They even spread it on the foam pads.

Thanks for confirmation on the MSI board. Thought it might be a good one. And you are right about the 3580. I simply will not be happy until one is in my hands. Remembering how dissapointing it was back in the day when discovering they were not compatable with my nForce2. How is the 12 volt load with the 3580 and it's 8pin? Using heavy 5 volt rail PSUs right now.

 

[kiriakost]

EDIT: Ok so I did not find my narrow tip which is why I don't post an image of my solder job. I did re-attach it to the pads but also added some blobs to the top edges in the process. Looks horrible but its working.
...... I'm happy now

Good for you !
But do not push more than 10% OC or you will end up with Windows OS files corruption.
Ghost 14 and a second HDD this is your only insurance (OS partition image) if you are up to for OC wild experiments.

 

[QuietBob]

How is the 12 volt load with the 3580 and it's 8pin? Using heavy 5 volt rail PSUs right now.

Official specs call for a 450 W PSU with 30 A on 12 volt

 

[Massdeth]

I have an IBM PS/2 386SX still running my alignment machine at the shop! I haven't opened it up for at least 8 years. Running DOS and running strong!

Welp, you win brotha! Still runs, no TLC for 8 years and its actually running a machine for a active business..... you cant beat that, lol.

 

[Dinnercore]

Good for you !
But do not push more than 10% OC or you will end up with Windows OS files corruption.
Ghost 14 and a second HDD this is your only insurance (OS partition image) if you are up to for OC wild experiments.

I don't use this system for anything else but OC. It's my dedicated OC-HDD for Win7 and XP.

And so far Windows has proven to be very resistant to corruption. I frequently push unstable RAM and FSB clocks. In fact I tested a few sticks recently to create a voltage / frequency curve for DDR2 Micron RAM and in the process I crashed and booted with unstable RAM ~200 times or more.



There are some funny things that start to happen, but the very same install is still working on my benchtable. Did not have to re-install it yet.

My current goal is to hit 700MHz+ on RAM and when I got that I will try my best to get a 700+ FSB validation.

On my retro-gaming PC with XP I would never try unstable OC, I'd rather like that one to stay intact

 

[Trekkie4]

Yeah, all the paste made me chuckle. They even spread it on the foam pads.

Thanks for confirmation on the MSI board. Thought it might be a good one. And you are right about the 3580. I simply will not be happy until one is in my hands. Remembering how dissapointing it was back in the day when discovering they were not compatable with my nForce2. How is the 12 volt load with the 3580 and it's 8pin? Using heavy 5 volt rail PSUs right now.

Bah, you haven't seen nothing yet. Take a look at this one...

To those of you who are Nostalgic Hardware Club seniors, this Athlon will probably look familiar Picture was taken a while ago, back in 2015 and even now in 2020 it is STILL officially the worst TIM application that I've seen with my own eyes!

And yes, just in case some of you are wondering - that Athlon 1000 cleaned up just fine. In fact I've had it all this time up until recently, when I gave the entire machine to a fellow forumer, from a local forum, where it will hopefully continue working for many years to come

 

[QuietBob]

Bah, you haven't seen nothing yet. Take a look at this one..

Someone put a genuine effort into this. Note the brush strokes on the TIM. And they took extra care not to daub the pads...
Good job cleaning it tho!

On my retro-gaming PC with XP I would never try unstable OC, I'd rather like that one to stay intact

Same here. The Phenom on my primary retro-rig could be pushed higher, but that mobo was never meant for OCing. Even though I added small copper heatsinks on the VRMs, I wouldn't want to lose another AM2 AGP board. I've got another complete build with a Phenom II on an Asus Crosshair IV Formula, and that one is game-stable at 4.2 GHz.