Compaq 486 PC part 3 - upgrade to a real Pentium!

Рет қаралды 20,245

Күн бұрын

This is the "bonus" part 3 of my Compaq Deskpro 466 XL restoration and upgrade series! You can start with this video if you haven't seen the previous parts, but you may enjoy the earlier videos too:
Part 1: • Compaq 486 PC explorat...
Part 2: • Compaq 486 PC restorat...
In this video, I'll be upgrading from the 486DX2-66 that this machine came with to a full Pentium 100. Compaq made that easy with the use of processor boards in their high-end workstations. Mainly this video is just about testing it out and seeing how much faster various things are with the new CPU - it's just a bit of fun.
I'm also testing a new VGA capture setup here, and while I think it worked well, the workflow I used definitely resulted in some blurriness in the final product. There's just a lot of scaling and compression going on at different points in the process - the output straight from the capture card is beautifully sharp. That means I just need to figure out how to minimize quality loss for future videos, but since the original video is so pristine, I should definitely be able to improve things for next time.
Keep in mind, though, that most of the time on KZfaq, if you're seeing older games or DOS screens that look super-sharp, that's usually being done with emulation on a modern PC, not real hardware. This is real old hardware.
Enjoy!
Music:
Nico Staff - Walking in the Sky (KZfaq Audio Library)
00:00 Intro
01:23 Explaining 486 upgrade options
03:50 Compaq's different approach
05:04 Explaining my (very simple) VGA capture setup
05:58 486 BIOS and benchmarks
09:04 486 DOS games
13:26 Replacing the processor board
14:30 Pentium BIOS and benchmarks
18:20 Pentium DOS games
22:15 Windows games
30:06 Conclusion

Пікірлер: 89

@dolphhandcreme 3 жыл бұрын

Before the ATX-standard, we had (Baby-)AT. It was standard, since the earliest PCs. Only some companies built proprietary boards (as they still do today, sometimes) while the majority was shaped like the original XT board. Despite the slot spacing on the earliest IBM XT, everything stayed the same until it was replaced by ATX.

@TerryMcKean 3 жыл бұрын

My first 386 was an Acer desktop someone gave me back around 1997 or so. I don't remember the model number. It was very nicely and ruggedly built. It had a 20 mHz 386 CPU chip soldered onto the MB and next to that was a full-insertion-force socket which would accept a 486 or 486DX2 chip very nicely. That definitely pepped the set up when I stuck a 486DX2 in it. (I typed 'full-insertion-force socket' because the MB's 486 socket was just a bunch of friction-grip receptacles for each of the pins coming off the bottom of a 486 chip, and one had to make sure all the pins on the 486 chip were straight, then carefully align all those pins with all the receptacles on the MB's 486 socket and then precision-mash the 486 chip down into place... lol. :-D ... no 'ZIF'-ness in that machine. ;-) With the 486DX2 chip plugged in and 8 megs of RAM, the Acer ran nice and smoothly at around 40 mHz, running MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1.

@CDE.Hacker 3 жыл бұрын

Wow! This brought back memories of putting a Pentium overdrive processor in a 486 dos card for Macintosh 6100. That was fun times creating a franken computer

@tammysilverwolf1085 3 жыл бұрын

Wow, I used to love Destruction Derby on the PS1! I didn't know it was a PC title too, holy crap talk about a nostalgia trip!

@ModernClassic 3 жыл бұрын

Apparently the PS1 version is better (has some extra stuff, runs pretty smoothly) but I didn't know that at the time. I've had the PC port since it first came out.

@Blurredman 3 жыл бұрын

I always prefered DD2 myself..

@tammysilverwolf1085 3 жыл бұрын

@@Blurredman Also a great game. I had both, Ace Combat and this cool Dungeon Keeper type game from Tecmo; entertained for months and still have fond memories 20+ years later.

@psychoticgiraffe 3 жыл бұрын

Incredible project. Glad to see these classic machines working this well

@NickOfTime99 3 жыл бұрын

Great video! I finally got my Deskpro back working again. Reloaded everything I had installed in the past and been enjoying it. Really enjoying this series

@East-Coast-NS 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, would love to see more of this Compaq. That paint job came out awesome too.

@Alex4SiliconValley 3 жыл бұрын

There is some nostalgia about having a 386 or 486 computer. This is the era when CPUs where made with Gold. It is true that some DOS games play better on a Pentium but then you loose the Nostagia of calling the computer a 486. Also I believe this was the era when the retro computer industry in America was at its height.

@PixelPipes 3 жыл бұрын

Pentium 1 is, IMO, the best for late DOS era gaming. You can always use faster CPUs but this is a great balance of speed and authenticity, so yeah I think it's a smart decision to leave it in.

@Heru3005 3 жыл бұрын

Nice to see Close Combat getting some love. One of my all time favorites. I fondly remember, after a few years of playing it on and off, finally completing it during the summer of 1999 on my dads by then old Pentium 166 machine.

3 жыл бұрын

Best COMPAQ ! Modern Classic Rules!

@frankowalker4662 3 жыл бұрын

Nice upgrade. And congrats on the capture card, works realy well.

@EgonOlsen71 3 жыл бұрын

Actually, Quakes improved performance doesn't really come from the floating point performance itself but from the fact that the Pentiums FPU can run in parallel to the integer parts of the CPU. That's used for doing the perspective correction for the next chunk of pixels on the FPU (which is just a simple but costly division) while the CPU is busy rendering the current 16 pixel texture chunk. Once this is the done, the new value from the FPU is ready for consumption and the process starts again with the next chunk. That's why Pentiums are also faster in Quake then let's say a K5, K6 or Cyrix 6x86 because their FPUs couldn't do this.

@patrickbateman3490 7 ай бұрын

Nice and gorgeous machine for sure :)

@nickwallette6201 10 ай бұрын

The "upgradable PC" was a real holy grail for a while there. From the late 286 era up to Pentiums, some manufacturers kept trying to make modular systems that would last longer. Tech was moving so fast, it was hard to justify $2k on a system that was going to be "old" in a year. It just never worked. The modularity cost so much, that you spent 1.5x as much for the initial buy, then 1.0x as much as a new system to put a new CPU / memory card in to a system with an old backplane and old drives. It made no sense at all. Apple _kind of_ got it right after a while, with PDS slots and such. At least you could replace almost just the CPU itself -- maybe the RAM, too, which caused all the same cost issues as the PC world. But the slots were useful as more than just half-X-D'd versions of the next-gen motherboard -- rather, they could be used for video and network upgrades, capture cards, all kinds of things. Ultimately, nothing ever beat a new, low-cost PC -- except, of course, a DIY build that became a Ship of Theseus. :-)

@Obie327 3 жыл бұрын

Nice setup Modern! Add more ram and the Pentium is done. I'm reliving my earlier days with these upgrades. Hope to see more on this Compaq. Thanks for the video!

@thetinpin 3 жыл бұрын

Great stuff! I'll have to check out your other videos!

@rhysholdaway 2 жыл бұрын

I didn't realise how versatile that Deskpro was!!! Got myself a Pentium Dell as it had a step down feature in software for running older games like Wing Commander. This is a way cooler solution.

@DosGamerMan 3 жыл бұрын

That is one fine upgrade.

@gruberjens4354 2 жыл бұрын

Makes me nostalgic... The first PC I bought myself was a Pentium 100 :-)

@joetheman74 2 жыл бұрын

There is a guy here on KZfaq that overclocked a 486 to 200 mhz and got Quake running 27fps! ON A FREAKING 486! Man I would have loved that 486 back in the day!

@OzzFan1000 3 жыл бұрын

That's an excellent little system. I would have been envious to have one of those back in the day. Sadly, my 486 was soldiered to the motherboard and I only had a Socket 1 upgrade socket, limiting me to a DX4/100 or one of the AMD DX5/133 upgrades, which weren't bad but the real limiting factor was the all-ISA bus for graphics. I was stuck with this system until I could afford to upgrade, which wasn't until the Pentium II CPUs came out.

@pleaseyourselfsir 3 жыл бұрын

I really loved this model when i was a kid in the 1990’s ! 🧐🇬🇧🤔🤝👍❤️

@SAL10101 3 жыл бұрын

great job!

@TheRetroRaven 3 жыл бұрын

Destruction Derby also had a 3Dfx Voodoo patch, which was amazing.

@BorislavElenkov 2 жыл бұрын

By the way in Bulgaria we copy Apple II to Правец 82, this legendary computer is my first "love". I dont have one, in Bulgaria there many of them in my high scool, back in 1986.

@Natures_Intentions 3 жыл бұрын

I use to have the same compaq computer it was stolen from me years ago. That is one awesome vintage computer.

@the_kombinator 10 ай бұрын

I had an NCR 386DX/16 - the motherboard was basically a planar with a keyboard connector and the CPU and base RAM were on a special ISA slot with an extra "SLI" extension that connected to one or more memory boards. I had 4 Mb RAM, meaning it had two RAM expansion cards and the CPU card connected to them on that extra floating bus. Theoretically, you could take out the CPU card and put a 486 one in.

@bmurching 3 жыл бұрын

If you’re interested in pushing further, it’s relatively easy to upgrade all the way to a P200MMX via one of the CPU boards plus an overdrive upgrade. I have done this and it works great. There are boards for Pentium Pro 200s that can take an overdrive upgrade all the way to a P2/333. I have this hardware as well, unfortunately it requires a system board from the XL PPro models which I have been unable to locate. Conversely, although the system will complain on boot about the lack of an FPU, you can drop down to a 486SX/25. It’s an impressive range of performance for a single machine. I have extended the XL in about every way possible so please feel free to hit me up with any questions.

@lordpurchase9189 6 ай бұрын

I remember the Acorn later computers having plugin options for a 486 board and processor to be able to run Windows 95. The later Acorn computers ran RISC OS.

@Nabeelco 3 жыл бұрын

9:25 You missed all the secrets in that level of Doom 2! The 8 year old me is super frustrated you missed them! No chainsaw, no rocket launcher, no secret rooms! 😂😅

@100Underscores 3 жыл бұрын

8 year old you is dead. Also you missed the point of the video

@bastionrexnet4794 2 жыл бұрын

I remember my 486-100 was not able to play MP3, so i upgraded to a Pentium 120... Then i used for a while the 486 with a Philips CDD2000 to record and copy the first compact disks...

@AlejandroRodolfoMendez 2 жыл бұрын

nice update. maybe you could put the memory of the other add on on the pentium one. could you do a video of how to capture from vga? it was really smooth.

@weegerri1sm 3 жыл бұрын

'Takes me back looking at these ol' Pentium games. 🙂 I don't know what that tune is that starts at around 7:17 but it reminds me of one of my favourite songs, Rename - In Different Things, transposed to a different key but very similar. 😊

@ryanyoder7573 3 жыл бұрын

I upgraded hundreds of 486 AT style boards to Pentiums in the 90s. This was the cheapest option. Replace the 486 MB with a 89 dollar Pentium MB and install a low cost 75 MHz Pentium CPU. Those overdrive chips were kind of niche and only for systems that had proprietary motherboards like Packard Bells. Even Packard Bells were easily converted to standard AT tower cases though. CPUs, cases, motherboards were cheap back then. For 600 bucks you could triple your performance.

@timmooney7528 3 жыл бұрын

Retro games are best when the hardware is optimal. Whenever I would upgrade a pc or video card, I would go back and play some older games to see how much better they played at peak settings.

@youp1tralala 3 жыл бұрын

I had a dx2/66, then a P90 so can really relate to that video! So much time spent playing Doom and Quake. Quake was so much faster on the Pentium! Also remember that Destruction Derby game

@eg1885 3 жыл бұрын

Just thought I'd mention the video capture footage has a bit of static or feedback in the sound. Noticeable while wearing headphones. Disabling microphone input may solve this issue.

@MeneGR 3 жыл бұрын

I knew that the salesman back in 1996 was right, that I should go for the Pentium100 instead of the 486 DX4/120 I was thinking about. I wasn't expecting that much difference to be honest!

@2qwik4u 3 жыл бұрын

Compaq Rules!

@thetinpin 3 жыл бұрын

I was once the scourge of battle.net when trying to play StarCraft over 33.6Kbit dial-up on my 486DX/2 66Mhz!

@thetinpin 3 жыл бұрын

My lag bars were misleading - yellow - which was pretty average in 1997. Those load times tho...

@weirdmindofesh 3 жыл бұрын

And here I am looking for a P1 overdrive because I'm rebuilding my childhood PC, personally, if I need P1 performance, a Pentium 3 running DOS is more than adequate.

@B24Fox 3 жыл бұрын

Which is the other CF adapter that you ordered? Can you please provide a link ???

@ResonantBytes 2 жыл бұрын

5:10 Wait... I'm pretty sure I picked up this card from a dumpst... I mean lootbox once! :D *runs to the box with unidentified PCI/PCIe card in the basement* And sure enough, there is this exact card in my hand! Now let's watch the rest of the video and hope the card is any good! ;)

@earving3245 28 күн бұрын

PS2 90 and 95 were upgradable both on the socket than with a new board from IBM, almost 4 years before the production of this Compaq

@ModernClassic 28 күн бұрын

Correct. We've been talking about it in the comments over the couple years since this video was published. But this video is specifically about upgrading to a Pentium, which the PS/2's weren't doing 3 years before it was even released.

@georg6876 3 жыл бұрын

You can remove an expoyed heasink by blasting it with an upside down compressed air can to freeze it off.

@BorislavElenkov 2 жыл бұрын

My first computer was compaq with pentium MMX. I bouth it from local after market just for 50 USD. I think still have this computer? Nice videos, thank you!

@Dxceor2486 3 жыл бұрын

Max is pentium pro ? I wonder if a pentium 2 overdrive would work on it. That would be one hell of an upgrade :p (or perhaps with a socket 8 to Socket 370 adapter you could run a celeron or a pentium 3 ?)

@techtomek5062 2 жыл бұрын

It would be funny if you try upgrade the CPU, a K6-2 400MHz would have to accept the multiplier, but even with lower clock rates it would be much faster than the P100. Crazy fun stuff

@foxyridergaming9198 3 жыл бұрын

can you try make this old pc to make how high end old pc best he got

@dawn1berlitz 5 ай бұрын

if you can find the mounting rails you might be able to move the CF card to the front of the PC

@Ozfrank 7 ай бұрын

WOW!!! Just like that??? Or this is only Compaq feature??

@MotownBatman 4 ай бұрын

Pretty Sure I watched this with the others.... Forgot to "Like" Is.. Guess I'm Watching Again LOL

@dxg999 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting use of the word "restoration." In heritage buildings, conservation tries to keep the building stable in its current state - so re-capping would be an analogy of that. Whereas, restoration is taking the building beyond even its original condition to try to fully realise the Architect's original vision which, for whatever reason, wasn't achieved when first constructed. So this is most definately a restoration!

@Starcat128 3 жыл бұрын

I didn’t know they had a fall out game that Old

@altbeetle1998 3 жыл бұрын

it was always interesting whether 486 fallout would pull my first computer was a AMD K5 133 mhz, he coped, but slowly I apologize for the possibly incorrect translation

@henkpasman1195 2 жыл бұрын

You know about the 486.000? You can actually fit a quad core chip in the socket of a 486. It wil run single core but on a speed compatible with a pentium 5000.. next to that there are memory banks of 256mb that fit, those are very special but you could fit something like 768 mb .. the 486.000 pc

@robintst 3 жыл бұрын

With Fallout it looked like it was hitching while your guy was taking every other step on the 486. I mean Fallout already moves kind of herky-jerky to begin with but it was noticeable. Still playable if you had no choice at the time.

@kcgeil 3 жыл бұрын

very wise to not slip the 486 back in imho. It covers a lot more ground, comparability wise with a pentium.

@Slevin-Kelevra 3 жыл бұрын

🙂

@ironhead2008 3 жыл бұрын

Now slap a Voodoo 1 in that thing and turn it into a Swiss Army knife of a late 80s to mid 90's PC! What's the fastest processor for that card? Can you get a Pentium 133 or a MMX in there?

@dennisp.2147 3 жыл бұрын

Assuming it's socket 5, he can get a Pentium 200 on it. With an interposer chip, The sky is the limit.

@ModernClassic 3 жыл бұрын

I would love to try a Voodoo 1 in this machine, but not for the prices they usually go for these days. If I find a good deal on one, though, I'll grab it.

@ironhead2008 3 жыл бұрын

@@ModernClassic Yeah, that's how I stumbled onto mine. They pop up for decent prices (35-60 bucks) occasionally from Central Europe. It's a Guillemot Maxi Gamer (has a TI DAC, unlike most Voodoo 1s) I found on ebay for about 50 bucks + 15 or so shipping from the Czech Republic. It was originally going to go in a Super Socket 7 build but now I plan to use it in a MediaGX based build alongside a AWE 64 and perhaps a PCI Quadro NVS card (actual GPU is similar to a MX440 or 460 and uses the same drivers ) or perhaps a Rage Pro Turbo AIW (would love to play around with some of the ATICIF stuff). If all else fails I have a Riva 128 I can use! You also might want to look out for one of the Voodoo Rush cards using the Macronix 2D chipset. It's supposed to be fairly compatible and all around better than the Alliance ProMotion based cards.

@Carstuff111 3 жыл бұрын

I am starting to find it funny when the KZfaqrs I watch apologize for making long or longish videos..... Come on guys and gals, you know we are not going to complain about longer videos, we are here for this kind of stuff and a longer run time, most of us are not going to mind. Not to mention, I learn a lot from these videos because, unfortunately, I didn't really get to live with many computers from this era because, well, my family was too broke for any real computers when I grew up, hell I didn't get to mess with a computer at home will about 1995-1996, and that was a well used Commodore 64 machine from about 1985 that was given to my mom. My first real home computer experience didn't happen till 2003, when I got my first custom built (from used parts) 1GHz AMD Athlon Thunderbird machine with 256MB of RAM and a 64MB GeForce 4 MX graphics card.

@ModernClassic 3 жыл бұрын

You would be surprised about what some viewers of free content complain about... I would offer them refunds, but I can't.

@Carstuff111 3 жыл бұрын

@@ModernClassic Those that complain about longer videos, can go watch the garbage on TikTok the way I see it.

@jeremyandrews3292 10 ай бұрын

I would say that if you want to run Windows 95 and Pentium era games, you really are better off with the Pentium. The 486 would really be more suited to Windows 3.11 and early 1990s DOS gaming. My recollection is actually that Windows 95 on a 486 was not a great experience and you needed a Pentium to run it well, and the best OS for a 486 was something like Windows 3.11 or OS/2 Warp running Windows 3.11 programs if you want a bit more stability and multitasking. I know Microsoft said it would work fine with a 486 and 8MB of RAM, but that's more like a recommended minimum than what you need to really enjoy it. Though honestly, by the time you get to the Windows 9x era, Windows 98SE and ME are generally better versions of what Windows 95 was anyway, and they work best on Pentium II or III class hardware... so that's why in my view, a 486 should be for Windows 3.11 and DOS 6 only, and Windows 9x games should probably run on something newer. Pentium is the perfect CPU for Windows 95 if you really want that specific version, though.

@little_fluffy_clouds 6 ай бұрын

OS/2 ran painfully slowly on a 486, really needs a Pentium, too

@kght222 9 ай бұрын

you know you dont have to move the prompt to a folder to run a program right? think about it like a batch file or .bat just type in the folder name with a backward slash then the program executable. like if you are on c: just type games\doom\doom.exe all of it done in one input.

@kght222 9 ай бұрын

oh, and if you are on the a: prompt but your program is on the c: prompt (yes i know they are drives) when on a different prompt you can just type c:\games\doom\doom.exe

@vapourmile 3 жыл бұрын

Title needs more specifics: Which 486 are you upgrading to which model Pentium? :)

@ModernClassic 3 жыл бұрын

That's why the video exists...

@photolabguy 3 жыл бұрын

Notification squad!!!

@DAVIDGREGORYKERR 3 жыл бұрын

Seems like someone blocked the HDMI socket on the back of my personal computer and stuck a Graphics card into it which drives me up the wall.

@Philfluffer Жыл бұрын

A penguin is just a 586... cannot patent just numbers. That’s why it’s name became ‘Pentium’

@PearComputingDevices 3 жыл бұрын

I loved these old compaq systems. Sure most had been proprietary and had this weird bios program that wasn't stored on an eprom chip but on the hard drive, the quality of the compaq systems also was obvious. Even the later Evo systems while considerably cheaper and fairly generic still hung on to some of the elements that made them a better computer. That merger with HP howevee really killed the brand. I mean HP used much of Compaq designs and basically sold them as HP, while applying the Compaq label to really low end hardware giving the name a bad rap. In HP's defense however it did keep the Compaq name alive in the bussiness sector for a little bit. But they did such a poor job at combining both companies. Next to Daimler-Benz it had to be one of the worst mergers ever.

@SuperMoleRetro 3 жыл бұрын

Great video, but there were ads every 5 minutes. That was annoying.

@sedixmrboss5625 2 жыл бұрын

Does anyone know what happened to this channel? Has been dead for over a year...

@maedero05 Ай бұрын

True 3D games like, only race or flight sim offered any real fps acceptible like FS 5.1 or Grandprix, Need fo speed. Temptation to upgrade is indeed very high as we are so spoiled by present systems. 486 Win 3.x might for me be the limit as Win 95 is more a pentium thing. Shooters waist of time nothing significant except a score, more love building, stategy gmas except simulations !