Overview over my Vintage-PCs

Here is a list of PCs with old hardware I assembled. The use is for capturing old games and demoscene productions from real hardware. The systems are also used as working game PCs at events such as the yearly Long Night Of Computer Games in Leipzig. The pictures may not be up to date regarding the component tables as systems get changed sometimes.

486DLC system
CPU Cyrix 486DLC-40 (1 kB L1 cache) with IIT 4C87DLC-40
Mainboard SiS 386 mainboard
RAM 8x 4 MB SIMM 30pin
Graphics TSENG ET4000 with 1 MB and Truecolor DAC 80 MHz connected with VESA to #9 GXiTC
Number Nine GXiTC with Acumos2 VGA part 512 kB and TIGA with 4 MB framebuffer and 1 MB instruction RAM, 135 MHz DAC.
Network 3Com Etherlink III 10 MBit/s
Sound Primax AltraSound (identical to GUS CD3) with 1 MB
Terratec EWS64S with 18 MB
Storage Multi I/O controller from Acer with M5105
3.5" and 5.25" HD disk drive
Quantum Lightning 540A - 520 MB
Sony CDU-33A double speed drive on own controller card
serial/parallel ports with 16450 UART
Other Seventeam ST-221WHT AT power supply
Lintec desktop case

This system runs MS-DOS 6.x and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. WfW is configured to use the TIGA graphics. The card is set to 1280x1024 at 64K colors with full 2D acceleration. This is quite impressive for a 386 class system and fits with a common 17" TFT display as native resolution. In DOS the TSENG ET4000 is fast enough for the 386. The sound cards support all important standards for games, noteably also General Midi with the EWS64S custom loadable soundfont support from DOS.



386 system
CPU AMD 386DX-40 with i387-33 (at 40 MHz)
Mainboard Soyo SY-019I with ETEQ386-8 chipset
RAM 8x 4 MB SIMM 30pin
Graphics TSENG ET4000 with 1 MB and Truecolor DAC (image similar)
Network 3Com Etherlink III 10 MBit/s
Sound Sound Blaster 16 ASP (DSP 4.05) with Wave Blaster CT1900.
Gravis Ultrasound PnP Pro with 8 MB
Storage Multi I/O Controller Goldstar Prime 2
3.5" and 5.25" HD disk drive
Quantum Fireball 1280AT
Samsung SHD-30560A
Sony CDU-33A double speed drive on own controller card
serial/parallel ports with 16450 UART
Other Quantimet AT tower case


This is a rock solid 386 system.
The system has a common Sound Blaster / Ultrasound combination for sound support. The GUS-PnP has full hardware acceleration games that support the standard or for tracker style musik playback. The Sound Blaster 16 covers all Creative standards and has a real Yamaha OPL3. The Wave Blaster wavetable board uses 4 MB ROM for instrument samples and the Proteus Soundengine and can be set to use General Midi sound set or MT-32 compatible sound set.
Since the BIOS got the 504 MB CHS limit I was thinking of replacing the IDE drive with a SCSI drive. On the other hand all the DOS stuff that runs on a 386 is not taking up a lot of space. So I kept it with two 504 MB HDDs and added Stacker 4.1 disk compression on the secondary drive.
The chipset has 64 kB L2-Cache that caches up to 16 MB. Though this does not hurt DOS games as there are not much DOS games that run on a 386DX-40 and require more than 16 MB. Just in case a XMS Ramdrive with the size of 16 MB can be loaded to cover the top area of memory which runs uncached. MS-DOS 6 and Win95a run fine, XTC-Player with GUS PnP support, oldschool demoscene productions. Win95 uses the whole 32 MB including the uncached top 16 MB. But there are not many useful application anyway (Total Commander, MOD4WIN, mIRC, Winamp for Midi).



386 system 2
CPU AMD 386DX-40 with ULSI 3C87-40
Mainboard unidentified Ali M1429 / M1431 chipset, 128 kB cache
RAM 4x 4 MB SIMM 30pin
Graphics SPEA-V7 MERCURY PRO with S3 Vision928, 4 MB VRAM, Truecolor DAC 170 MHz
Network 3Com Etherlink III 10 MBit/s
Sound Aztech Sound Galaxy NX II
Gravis Ultrasound MAX with 1 MB
Storage TEKRAM DC-600CF cache controller with 4 MB, EIDE support through extended Int 13h.
3.5" and 5.25" HD disk drive
HDD Quantum Fireball 2110AT
CD-ROM Mitsumi FX600S
Costronic RTA-03C with 4x serial ports
Other Power Supply: Bestec BPS-2004-4T 200W
Highscreen 386SX-16 desktop case



AMD K5 system
CPU AMD K5 PR166 @ 125 MHz (1.5x83.3 MHz)
Mainboard ASUS P5A-B
RAM 256 MB SDRAM
Graphics Hercules Dynamite 128/Video (TSENG ET6000)
3dfx Voodoo with passive coolers
Network Realtek RTL8139C
Sound Guillemot Maxi Sound 64 Dynamic 3D with 16 MB RAM
Storage onboard PIIX4 controller
3.5" HD disk drive
HDD Quantum Fireball lct10
CD-ROM Teac CD-524EA 24x
Other Power Supply: Astec SA201-3440
Peacock desktop case

The system pictures are not up to date and still show the previous configuration. Benchmarks show that games run a faster with 83 MHz FSB compared to standard settings at 66 MHz FSB, even with lower CPU clock. The effective CPU power is somewhere between a Pentium 166 MHz and Pentium 200 MHz. The ET6000 is fast in DOS. The regular 4 MB Voodoo accelerates Descent 2, GTA, Tomb Raider a.s.o.



AMD Slot-A Athlon system
CPU AMD Athlon 800 MHz - Thunderbird core
Mainboard Gigabyte GA7-IXE with AMD Irongate chipset
RAM 512 MB SDRAM sufficient for default Win98SE
Graphics 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP
Matrox m3D
Network Realtek RTL8139C
Sound Terratec EWS64 XL with 34 MB
Yamaha DB50XG (in front panel of EWS64XL)
Primax Music Sound (identical to GUS CD3) with 1 MB
Storage 3.5" Newtronics D359T7 HD disk drive
Transcend TS128GPSD330 128 GB EIDE SSD
Pioneer A05SZ Slot-In DVD-ROM drive
Other Hauppauge WinTV 44804 D148
Power Supply: BeQuiet BQT E9-400 400W
Midi tower case for slot systems (with rotated power supply)

Photos are a bit outdated. This system covers DOS games that require a fast system. In Win98 the graphics cards cover D3D, Glide and SGL standards. At the same time one can choose from various wavetable options for music. The TV card is for home computer sources such as C64 as it is BT878 based which can handle 50 Hz progressive sources.


Pentium III Slot-1 650 MHz
CPU Pentium III 650 MHz - Coppermine
Mainboard HP Holmes mainboard with Intel i440ZX chipset
RAM 256 MB SDRAM
Graphics onboard Matrox G200A AGP with 8 MB SDRAM
3dfx Voodoo2 SLI, 12 MB each
Network 3Com Fast Ethernet TX 100 MBit/s
Sound Terratec EWS64 XL with 18 MB
Roland Sound Canvas SCB-55 (in front panel of EWS64 XL)
Storage 3.5" and 5.25" HD disk drive
HDD Quantum Fireball lct10 4 GB
CD-ROM Lite On LTN485S 48x
Other Power Supply: Astec SA202-3645 200W
HP Vectra VL case

A versatile Glide system. The onboard Matrox combines well with the 3dfx cards. It is also well suited for demanding DOS games with full support for GM music.


Pentium I 166 MMX
CPU Pentium 166 MMX
Mainboard Gigabyte GA-586HX 1.51 (image shows board rev 2) with pipelined burst cache module. (512 kB).
RAM 384 MB PS/2 SIMM
Graphics ELSA Victory Erazor PCI 4 MB SGRAM, Video In/Out
A-Trend Helios 3D (3dfx Voodoo)
Network Realtek 8139C 100 MBit/s
Sound Guillemot Maxi Sound 64 Home Studio with 4 MB ROM and 16 MB RAM
Yamaha DB60XG (NEC XR385) on the Maxi Sound 64
Primax AltraSound (identical to GUS CD3) with 1 MB
Storage Intel PIIX3
Highpoint HPT370/372 dual channel EIDE controller with extended INT 13h.
3.5" and 5.25" HD disk drive
HDD IBM DTLA 305040 40 GB
HDD IBM DJNA 351520 15 GB
DVD-ROM Pioneer DVD A04SZ
Other Power Supply: 200W
AT Midi Tower 2x 5.25", 3x 3.5" case

The 40 GB HDD boots DOS, the 15 GB boots Windows NT4 workstation. Both HDDs are connected to the Highpoint controller and the DVD-ROM to the onboard IDE controller. The Riva128 is fast in DOS and has full VBE3 support. The Maxi Sound has a badly placed waveblaster connector so the DB60XG is plugged a bit tilted to the pin connector, however the contact is reliable. The ROM of the Maxi Sound 64 contains the Roland Sound Canvas sampleset from Dream. It is not possible to load additional sound fonts in DOS. On Port 330 the DB60XG plays which sounds different and also supports XG standard. This computer was also setup at the Long Night of Computer Games in Leipzig.
The system runs even Firefox 2.0.23 fine (with flash disabled).


AMD K6 233 MHz
CPU AMD K6 233 MHz (at 3.3V)
Mainboard Gigabyte GA-586HX 1.55 (image shows board rev 2) with 512 kB cache.
RAM 128 MB PS/2 SIMM
Graphics Innovision Mighty Banshee 16 MB SDRAM
Network Realtek 8139C 100 MBit/s
Sound Terratec EWS64 XL with 18 MB
Roland Sound Canvas SCB-55 (in front panel of EWS64 XL)
Gravis Ultrasound 3.4 with 1 MB
Storage Intel PIIX3
Adaptec AHA-2940UW
3.5" and 5.25" HD disk drive
HDD SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash 4 GB
CD-ROM Plextor PX-40TS UltraPlex
Other Power Supply: MACASE 250W
AT Midi Tower 2x 5.25", 3x 3.5" case / Starchip Computer Profiline

Rather silent PC for old DOS games and scene demos. It features all important sound card standards of this time. The Banshee has the new 2D core from 3dfx and is one of the fastest 2D-cards (in VESA modes) in DOS. The Pentium systems with the HX chipset are quite matured. It has fast PCI local bus, 2 channel IDE onboard and usually 3 or more ISA-Slots and some even have USB. So the hardware is between the old DOS era and the Windows era. MS-DOS 6 and Win98SE run as OS.


AMD K6-2+ 600 MHz
CPU AMD K6-2+ 570 at 600 MHz (6x 100 MHz)
Mainboard Asus P5A Rev. 1.04
RAM 384 MB SDRAM
Graphics ELSA Gloria III / NVidia Quadro2 Pro (Geforce2 Pro) 64 MB DDR-SDRAM
3dfx Voodoo2 SLI 12 MB each from Orbit 3D
Network Realtek 8139C 100 MBit/s
Sound Terratec Base 1 with Radio Module
Active Radio Module
Dreamblaster X2 Wavetable
Storage Intel PIIX3
Adaptec AHA-2940UW
3.5" and 5.25" HD disk drive
HDD Quantum Atlas 10K2 10000rpm, 18 GB
DVD-ROM NEC DVD-RW ND2100-AD
Other Power Supply: 350W Raptoxx RT-350W
ATX Midi Tower 2x 5.25", 3x 3.5" case from ???

On this system MS-DOS and WIN98SE runs. The graphics solution is very fast for the CPU and a single Voodoo2 would not be slower. However it could not run 1024x768 resolution. The Quadro2 has also DVI Out. While the card do not support dual view the digital output is nice for lossless captures. Nonetheless the screenshots from the pictures are analog routed through the Voodoo2. The system shows no AGP instabilities at full 2x speed. The ASUS P5A has an early ACPI BIOS that maps all PCI IRQs to ISA. So in Win98SE IRQ9 is always occupied by SCI IRQ for ACPI and the required IRQ for the Base-1 MPU-401 interface has to be moved elsewhere. So I disabled in the Ali IDE driver the secondary IDE channel in the device manager which is not used in the system. This frees IRQ 15 where I could move the MPU-401 to. USB is disable din the BIOS as it would take another IRQ.


486DX2-66 PCI system
CPU Intel 486DX2-66 with write-back support (P24D)
Mainboard Elitegroup ECS-UM8810PAIO Rev.2.1 with 256 kB cache
RAM 128 MB PS/2 SIMMs
Graphics ELSA Winner 2000 Pro PCI 8 8 MB VRAM, 250 MHz DAC
Network 3Com Etherlink III 10 MBit/s
Sound Terratec EWS64 XL with 34 MB
Gravis Ultrasound PnP Pro with 8 MB
Storage 3.5" and 5.25" HD disk drive
HDD Maxtor 7546 AT
DVD-ROM LiteOn SOHD-167T
Other AT Power Supply
ATX Midi Tower from Multitask with internal change to AT form factor

On this computer MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 runs. The CPU supports write-back but this is in benchmarks and games slightly slower due to the increased cache latency for writes to main memory, so I use write through by default. The switch at the front was bent at a transport. The image quality of the graphics card is very good as it has a 250 MHz RAM DAC. The EWS64XL and GUS is very versatile for DOS games.


486DX2-66 VLB system
CPU Intel 486DX2-66 (P24)
Mainboard Elitegroup ECS-UM486V-AIO(DIP) Rev.2.0 with 256 kB cache
RAM 8x 1 MB SIMM
Graphics Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM VLB 4 MB VRAM
Diamond MVP-2000 MPEG-1 Video Extension 2 MB VRAM
Network 3Com Etherlink III 10 MBit/s
Sound Terratec Maestro 3296
Gravis Ultrasound 2.4 with 1 MB
Storage Adaptec AHA-1542C (page shows 1542B)
3.5" and 5.25" HD disk drive
HDD Seagate ST410800N Elite9 series 9 GB
CD-ROM Plextor PX-40TS UltraPlex
Other ATX Power Supply with AT adapter
AT tower case from Peacock
The Diamond Stealth 64 Video VLB is a High End VLB graphics card with a 220 MHz DAC and Video Overlay support. The MVP-2000 Video Add-On allows to play full screen videos in 1280x1024 at 64K colors with hardware interpolation. The hard drive has the capacity to store larger software as well as videos. The HDD requires active cooling that was added to the case.


Compaq Presario CDS-520
CPU AMD 486SX2-66
Mainboard Compaq Cyclops board, no L2 cache
RAM 52 MB PS/2 SIMM
Graphics VLB Cirrus Logic GD5424 with 512 kB BitBLT support.
Network 3Com Etherlink III 10 MBit/s
Sound ESS 688 (onboard)
Gravis Utrasound ACE with 1 MB
Storage onboard controller
3.5" HD disk drive
HDD Seagate ST51080A Medialist 1080sl 1 GB
CD-ROM Mitsumi CRMC-FXN01DE double speed
ISA Modem card
Other all integrated case

The Compaq Presario CDS-520 is a all-in-one system and looks like a big Mac classic. It has an integrated 14" CRT screen and speakers. It runs MS-DOS 6 Compaq edition / Window for Workgroups 3.11. The 486SX2-66 runs Descent very well and appears to be in integer benchmarks just 10% slower than a self-built 486DX2-66 (Norton Utilities 7 Sysinfo). Turbo and cache can be switched by software with MODE.COM.
The computer has been donated to Haus der Computerspiele.


Commodore PC-1
CPU Siemens 8088 at 4.77 MHz
Mainboard Commodore Custom Made Mainboard
RAM 512 kB DRAM
Graphics Motorola 6845 CRT controller for text mode and Paradise PVC2 for CGA / Plantronics? with 32 kB DRAM
Network n/a
Sound PC Speaker
Storage no HDD
5.25" DD disk drive 160 kB
3.5" DD Amiga drive can be plugged as external drive (720 kB)
Other small desktop case
This is one of this custom desktop PCs from Commodore without ISA slots. Expandability is quite limited. The PC runs MS-DOS 3.3 fine, Textadventures, Space Quest 1,2. Lemmings in CGA mode is already rather slow. Specifically for Commodore is the extension port for external drives that is comaptible with external Amiga drives. The keyboard plugged must support XT mode.
The power supply was defect so I used an AT power supply (which can be plugged in a special orientation to the onboard power connector). Of course a regular AT power supply does not fit into the case.