View Full Version : Do you still have a 486
RADCOM
05-21-2008, 03:32 PM
many of us get attached to our hardware..........some in ways we don't talk about lol I was wondering If anyone here still had a 486 in use and what they used it for. I kept one and I keep meaning to put DOS on it and make a MAME games machine.
[cTx] Nooc
05-21-2008, 03:47 PM
Took a phillips screwdriver and gave it a good 'exploring' when I was about 11. Last time I've touched a 386.
Bobsama
05-21-2008, 03:49 PM
Something 2/3/486, IDR which. The machine runs--Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, and Sim City 2000.
-Evo-
05-21-2008, 04:03 PM
Man I used my 486 DX2 for quite a long time back in the day. Matter of fact I even bought the "accelerator" to bring it up to 586! Windows 95 was cruizin' with that upgrade.
xlink
05-21-2008, 04:07 PM
my mom bought a system in 1992 or 1993 I beleive.
no idea what was in it. I think it might have been a 486.
it got binned after the CMOs battery died.
family friend said ti died and my mom didn't want to pay $$$ to replace it(I was 12 and didn't know anything about computers really so i couldn't stop her)
Xel'Naga
05-21-2008, 04:21 PM
Never had one. My first comp was a Duron 1200. Still working, except for the NIC, which was struck by lightning and had to be replaced. I could OC it to 1284, but more and the internet connection would die due to no FSB/PCI lock :D
zanzabar
05-21-2008, 04:24 PM
i have a pentium pro and its a great foot stool, and the 486 for a stand when working on my comp
Blackstare
05-21-2008, 04:39 PM
I still have my old 386, I sometimes clean it and hook it up to play Sierra's King's Quest 2 the way it's meant to be played hahahaha...
Seraphiel
05-21-2008, 04:42 PM
I had a 486 DX2 66 MHz until 8 years ago, that was used for nostalgic gaming. It was mostly used for the '7th Guest', 'Alone in the Dark', 'Legacy', 'Might & Magic 4+5: World of Xeen', and the Commander Keen series games. A nice PC then with 4 MB RAM, 20 MB HDD, Gravis UltraSound and a Diamond Stealth Pro card (it was 2 MB, I think).
HotGore
05-21-2008, 08:12 PM
I had a 386, and it was my first PC. Loved it until I decided to explore it with a screw drive.
At the store I work at we still have a bunch of 386/486 CPUs laying around.
[XC] Lead Head
05-21-2008, 08:26 PM
I still have a working 8086 board, 640kb of ram, has a working 25MB Seagate ST-225 5 1/4" harddrive. 16 color EGA FTW.
Movieman
05-21-2008, 08:29 PM
Functional 386/20 sitting in the garage with win95 on it.:rofl:
stocius
05-21-2008, 08:30 PM
A screw driver seems to a prop in a recurring theme. I've got 486 around somewhere.
[XC] riptide
05-21-2008, 08:31 PM
I got a Packard Bell 486/DX2/75Mhz with 4 megs of Preinstalled Ram and a 545Meg Hardrive. LOL. I paid .... IR£1100 / €1400 equiv. back in 96/97. I subsequently stole some more RAM for it to bring it to a Massive 40megs.
Ity still works although I had taken it apart for something. LOL. Just put back in the old drive and '98 SE will fire up nicely on it. It came with the brand spanking new Windows 95. Dayum.... It had a 2x CD-ROM drive. It had a small passive heatsink smaller then the ones you see on South bridges nowadays.
The thing about old PC's is that when you fired them up, the old HD's really made a racket.... like a small turbine spooling up.
Movieman
05-21-2008, 08:34 PM
I also have a factory package of Crucial SIMM chips sitting around
4x16mb if I remember..
RyderOCZ
05-21-2008, 08:37 PM
I have a 486/20 and 2 Quad Pentium Pro 200 7U Compaq servers... talk about beasts.
They run Linux/Novell really well though.
EDIT: Ha Dave... I have some 1MB, 2MB, 4MB, and some 32MB simms here somewhere :D
[XC] Synthetickiller
05-21-2008, 09:02 PM
IBM 701c :)
I have two 701c's (not CS's, they suck) and a 700c,i believe its 25 mhz. One of the 701c's has 98, linux (i forget the flavor), dos, and OS/2 warp 4. The screens on the 700c and 701c are dead/dying which sucks. 10" screens rock!
I think my dad owned a 386, but I was too young at the time to know. Come to think of it, I should pull out my 486, what can I use it for?:shrug:
twilyth
05-21-2008, 09:13 PM
Alright, beat this. I have a Timex Sinclair 2048 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair_2048) (gray case, different markings) and a TI-99/4A (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99) that I bought new. Since I'm making the rules up as I go along, to qualify for the Dino-Tech Award, you have to still own the machine and had to have bought it new. Sorry boys and girls, only the grown-ups can compete. But you can still qualify in the Late Great 80x86 category and we will count machines owned by your parents and siblings as long as someone in the family still owns it. My entry would be an original IBM PC XT with 20 gig - oops - 20 meg hard drive and AST 6-pack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AST_Research), but I didn't get it new.
I don't want to hi-jack the thread but reading this I was overcome with nostalgia. It's weird. I remember my first computers, but after that, it's just sort of a blur. I know more or less what I'm running now (main reason I keep them in my sig - to remember), but as soon as I take a machine down, I can barely remember any of its specs. Anyway, let me know if you think I should put this in a new thread.
seeker010
05-21-2008, 09:14 PM
IBM PS/2 Model 50z? I still do some C stuff on there in Turbo C.
Sparky
05-21-2008, 09:22 PM
I skipped the 486. I went 286 > 386 > AMD K5 133 which got fried by a surge so was replaced by a Pentium 100MHz I overclocked to 133MHz :D
RADCOM
05-21-2008, 11:35 PM
Man you guys have some old junk lmao. Great to hear about old kit and even funnier that the younger people remember their parents computer ( now us I suppose) . Please feel free to post piccies of what twilyth lovingly calls dino-tech :)
ZOMGVTEK
05-21-2008, 11:48 PM
I have one around here... somewhere...
Blackstare
05-22-2008, 12:02 AM
IBM PS/2 Model 50z? I still do some C stuff on there in Turbo C.:ROTF: I still have a Model M keyboard hooked up on my computer man!
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/4962/dsc04438vt0.th.jpg (http://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc04438vt0.jpg)
It's a little dusty lol
twilyth
05-22-2008, 12:33 AM
Man you guys have some old junk lmao. Great to hear about old kit and even funnier that the younger people remember their parents computer ( now us I suppose) . Please feel free to post piccies of what twilyth lovingly calls dino-tech :)
I wouldn't do this for anyone but you guys.
The Timex Sinclair 1500? 2048? - says it's a 1500, but doesn't look like the 1500 on Wikipedia
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/TimexSinclair2048-DSC08810.jpg
The TI-99/4A
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/TI-99-4A-DSC08811.jpg
IBM PC XT with 20 meg HDD and AST 6-pack - front, back, side
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/ibmpcfront-DSC08809.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/ibmpcside-DSC08808.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/IBMpcback-DSC08807.jpg
300 baud mad analog modem
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/300baudmodem-DSC08805.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/300baudmodem2-DSC08806.jpg
Blackstare
05-22-2008, 12:46 AM
How does it work? Looks like you put a handset over it... I've never seen anything like this, I guess i'm still young hahaha
twilyth
05-22-2008, 01:01 AM
How does it work? Looks like you put a handset over it... I've never seen anything like this, I guess i'm still young hahaha
I think it was called an acoustically coupled modem and you're right, you put the old fashioned handset into the cups. You can't see it very clearly in the picture, but there is a little sticker on the left that says 'cord' so you knew the correct orientation.
[XC] riptide
05-22-2008, 01:03 AM
Gawd. Old School! I'd liek to see kŠngŠn try and 3dmark that!
Martijn
05-22-2008, 01:04 AM
Oh yeah, my very first PC was a 486 @ 50Mhz. Had a whopping 64MBs of RAM and a 500MB HD, which was :eek: back then. I still have it :D
It got replaced by a dual Pentium Pro, then loads and loads of P2/P3, P4 2.4C, D820, then the rig in my sig.
Blackstare
05-22-2008, 01:16 AM
I think it was called an acoustically coupled modem and you're right, you put the old fashioned handset into the cups. You can't see it very clearly in the picture, but there is a little sticker on the left that says 'cord' so you knew the correct orientation.Wow that's really old-school! :eek:
My first comp was a 486 dx2 66mhz, 512k gfx card, 4mb ram, and 500mb odd HD :D
upgraded around a year later to 8mb of ram, added a soundblaster 16 sound card and cd drive
the sound card worked till i threw it away about a year or 2 ago, shame it was isa or id still use it :p:
Bobsama
05-22-2008, 08:14 AM
I think my first system was a 286. Anyways--the longest-lasting legacy of old systems are my two IBM Model M keyboards--one original IBM/Olitte and the other IBM/Lexmark. The older one has a broken cord, so I have to replace that.
C38368
05-23-2008, 08:14 AM
Not quite so ancient (and hallowed?) a collection as some have here, but I've still got an old 486 DX hiding up in my parents' garage... right next to a pair of old IBMs (an XT and an AT, complete with keyboards and monitors). My dad is becoming rather irked that I won't let him junk them, and haven't any room at my place for them!
Hmmm... if I could scrounge up an 8086 and a 386, I think I'd have a complete lineup of x86 generations. I think I've found a new goal in life ;)
Logos
05-23-2008, 08:37 AM
I played Doom 2 on a friend's computer that was a DX 33MHz, back in 1995. I was amazed and addicted. But my first PC was a Pentium 233, a bit later...3DFX Voodoo and Quake 2 inside :D (2D card was an ATI)
jas420221
05-23-2008, 08:37 AM
486 DX4 100Mhz...trashed when I got my P2 266 rig...
tiro_uspsss
05-23-2008, 08:58 AM
Sim City 2000.
i kinda miss that game :( :up:
i have a pentium pro and its a great foot stool
:rofl:
the 1st pc in this household was a 386.. the 1st thing i learnt to do on it was 'Format C:' :ROTF: eventually (cant remember how) Win311 got on it & simcity 2000.. I still have a P3-633mhz (?) box for Win95/98 games :D :up:.. apart from that, the next 'oldest' rig is a 2.4C :)
twilyth
05-23-2008, 11:32 AM
Not quite so ancient (and hallowed?) a collection as some have here, but I've still got an old 486 DX hiding up in my parents' garage... right next to a pair of old IBMs (an XT and an AT, complete with keyboards and monitors). My dad is becoming rather irked that I won't let him junk them, and haven't any room at my place for them!
Hmmm... if I could scrounge up an 8086 and a 386, I think I'd have a complete lineup of x86 generations. I think I've found a new goal in life ;)
If it's an original IBM brand AT running at 6MHz (or 6 and hacked to run at 8), I'll take it - and pay shipping if you're in the US.
I still have a working 486 DX2 66MHz, good old turbo button :D 16/66MHz at will. 256mb HD, 4x cd-rom, sound blaster pro. I don't remember the other specs, has win95 & dos on it. I noticed a year ago the cpu fan had stopped working, well it didn't slow it down, still works just fine with that tiny heatsink and non working fan
[486]
06-21-2008, 05:15 PM
Both my dx2-66's died recently :( one was found in a dumpster in p2 days [cool how my age range is perfect to use the processors as an "era"]
and the other was bought for 7$ back in february
the first one had a 120mb HDD from a 386sx25 and 16 MB of ram [30 pin simms!!!]
the other had a 2 GB 50pin scsi 1 HDD and 3 or 4MB of ram
EDIT: the first one also had onboard SCSI
yankee
06-30-2008, 05:25 PM
My first pc that i ever owned was a 486/50 that i bought in 97 or 98 for 50 bucks. It was a whitebox with win95 plus! and it had 8 megs of ram in it. My dad had some spare ram lying around(lucky me) and we upgraded it to 24 megs. The I/O card in it had 2x60 mm fans on it- truly ahead of its time. The fancard may still be around somewhere. If it is, I'll post pics.