old pc, 486,upgradable to what?

[dreyfus]

Hi to you all, I am trying to learn about comps, now my brother has an old one, I have'nt seen it yet but he says it is a 80486 with 12mb ram and 0.46gb hd. Can anyone tell me what this model is commonly known as and also what the possibilities are for upgrading it, it will be used by my 13ya nephew probably for school stuff, it will also give me some experience messing around with it, hope you can help, thanks

[AwARe]

Hello dreyfus, http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

First you need to get the computer and see exactly what youre working with.........

If you need to add more ram for example or a sound card or want to try to upgrade the video a little.......all those things would most likely be posible for a very small amount of money......

Keep in mind that a 486 is a very slow machine, and there isnt going to be much you can do to upgrade it to make it all that much faster.....

To say it plainly, its probably not worth putting much "if any" money into a 486....youd be better off just starting from scratch and building a new machine

If once you get it, you have any specific questions about how or if you can improve performance, Im sure someone would be glad (Me included) to try to help........Not really much anyone is going to be able to offer until you know more about the specific hardware.....

Just background note why I said the things I did........
My 10 year old has a 450mhz Celeron with 64MB of Ram a Voodoo3 video card, a SBLive! sound card 10GB hard drive etc etc etc.........and he complains about how slow etc it is all the time hehe....So the point of that is, "I sincerely wish you luck keeping a 13 year old interested in a 486 http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif"

My son started on a "286" 3 years ago and I made him learn DOS, so i know where youre coming from, 286 to 386 to 486 to P75 to P166 to P233 to 300 Celeron to 450 Celeron and its been a great learning experience for him (spent very little money on any of them "mostly parts left over from upgrading "my" machines").......but until he got the 1st Celeron each of those other comps had a "Very Short" lifespan (He always wanted to use mine and didnt want to use his own)........Not that many games etc are going run on a 486...and without the games they loose interest.........

If you have enough parts such as a monitor cdrom sound card etc that you can salvage from that machine, you could probably put a more up to date computer together fairly inexpensively "The monitor is the most expensive component"

Hope you find this Helpful!

[This message has been edited by AwARe (edited 05-28-2001).]

[tjaymadison]

The only model I can think of that covers it is -- OLD. Sorry. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

The amount of RAM and HD space will severely limit what you can do
with it as is. If it's a proprietary system like Packard Bell,
Compaq, or HP, that may make upgrading a fairly expensive proposition.

Otherwise, you may be able to find some things at auctions, computer shows
and flea markets. You probably won't be able to use current hard drive
models. And you may be limited to something like Windows 3.1. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif


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"I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
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-- Homer Simpson

[This message has been edited by tjaymadison (edited 05-28-2001).]

[dreyfus]

Thanks to you guys for your help,,I knew nothing now, I know something about this thing, would I be right in thinking the bios would'nt recognise a newer hd, and what about memory, suppose its simms, what could I put in to make it a bit faster. They have a second comp for games and stuff,
I could really impress my brother here,,er er,,maybe, heh heh,

[Paleo Pete]

486...these guys are spoiled... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Some good points have been made, both pro and con, so at least you can figure out what to do from a more informed standpoint. So here's how I look at it.

True, it is an older and slower machine, but not without its merits. I started on a 486-50 and look where it got me...more bald...It will run win 95, and possibly 98 if some beefing up is done, but I would not recommend trying win 98. It will also run a number of games, but all older ones. My neighbor's grandson plays Doom and Sim City on her 486 when he's up for a visit.

Upgrade possibilities- memory is probably 72 pin SIMM, possibly 30 pin. It's not cheap, but can be found. About 32MB would make a great difference. Hard drive will be limited to either 540MB, 2GB or 8GB, depending on motherboard and controller type. If the drive is currently on a controller card, most likely 540MB, if it's an onboard controller, maybe up to 8GB, depending on the motherboard and BIOS. Video could be ISA, VLB or PCI, all were used on that class machine, you'll have to "pop the hood" to find out what's inside. CPU is a possibility, it can often use up to a 66MHz CPU, and in some cases will support overdrive CPUs at 83, 100 or 120MHz.

As stated above, before we can make any specific suggestions, some more detailed info about what's currently inside would be necessary. You can find components that will work in resale shops, flea markets, garage sales and sometimes auctions. Some online sources sometimes have older parts available. A similar machine or two for $10-20 each could supply other useful components for less than new memory by itself would cost. Win95 will work on a hard drive that size, another from a parts machine would give you extra storage space, but it would still be quite limited...no 75MB downloads...

Also the learning experience referred to above to me was worth it. Now I always look for XT-286-386 machines, just to see if I can make them work. If it's under about $20 I already have a bunch of spare parts, and it's cheaper than shooting skeet or golf...plus I can rattle off a bit of technical sounding mumbo jumbo now and then and impress just about anybody. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

OK, seriously...find out what's inside, check around and see what kind of prices you can find on similar parts machines, used ones are usually fairly inexpensive if you know where to look...and go from there. If nothing else, for under $50 you can learn a lot. How many college classes will look your way twice for that much? And you already found where to look for good info...we can give you links for days... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Price Combat (http://www.pricecombat.com/)
Price Watch (http://www.pricewatch.com)
CSO (http://www.computersurplusoutlet.com/)


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[dreyfus]

To Paleo Pete, thank you for the comprehensive advice its given me some details of what to look out for,I'll really have a go at this thing after all, its all experience for me, bye for now,