This miniature Intel 486 computer runs Windows 95, but not much else

[Shawn Knight]

Why it matters: Eric Mackrodt from The Eric Experiment was interested in building a small retro computer using modern hardware like a Raspberry Pi but after doing some research, decided to shift gears and use genuine hardware for better compatibility. He picked up an SBC with an Intel 486 DX4 CPU clocked at 100 MHz as well as a four-slot ISA backplane for expansion purposes.

Mackrodt went with a Tseng Labs ET4000 for graphics and chose an ESS AudioDrive ES1868F for sound. An SMC Ethernet card will make it easier to transfer files to the computer and allow it to get online, while an SD-to-IDE adapter will enable modern storage capabilities.

Other hardware bits include a floppy disk emulator, a Pico power supply, and an adapter to be able to connect a CD ROM drive.

The coolest part of the build is without a doubt the miniature monitor and computer case. Both were custom designed and 3D printed to look like smaller versions of the real thing. The monitor was modeled after a Samsung SyncMaster 3 CRT and uses a 7-inch 4:3 LCD display operating at a resolution of 800 x 600.

As you'll see, the project involved lots of custom fabrication and modifications as well as many printed piece revisions to get everything just right. This is truly a one-of-a-kind build and really, it's the attention to detail – the little things – that make it special. The period-correct color choices for the frame and the panels, the key lock, and the tricked out 5.25-inch floppy drive all look great, as does the spot for a case badge.

Mackrodt was able to get everything up and running without too much fuss. Windows 95 is right at home on the system but unfortunately, the hardware itself just doesn't have enough horsepower to do much of anything respectably. Games of the era loaded but weren't really playable due to their low frame rates. Even Winamp struggled to play an MP3 file. Ouch.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98607-miniature-intel-486-computer-runs-windows-95-but.html

 

[pauleycz]

Honestly, why even bother with Windows 95? This looks (literally and figuratively) like a great DOS machine.

 

[kinetix]

It depends on what you want to do or play,. the 1rst upgrade of my first PC was to something similar to that (the videocard was a Cirrus Logic with 512kb of video memory, LOL, and no sound card, only the internal speaker, OC the i486 to 120MHz, it was to much for the MB, it latter died), and I played pretty well everything that interested me back then, Doom and DukeNukem3D ran quite well.

 

[arrowflash]

The video shows that DOS and Win 3.1-based games seem to perform quite well, actually.

Windows 95 games used to perform really badly even on higher clocked i486s - especially on systems without L2 cache and with an ISA bus video card, such as the one built by this guy. Windows 95 performance would be a lot better if the system had L2 cache and used a PCI video card, but still, proper Windows 95 gaming for anything more than Solitaire (including playing DOS games on a Win95 window) really demanded a Pentium-class machine with PCI video card. No surprises there.

Adequate MP3 decoding / playback also has always required a Pentium class PC. Higher clocked i486s (100+ MHz) could properly play MP3 files on systems with L2 cache and a good DSP-based sound card such as Sound Blaster 16 DSP or AWE32/64, as long as you didn't do any multitasking. Even my Pentium MMX 233 w/ 512 KB L2 cache, 64 MB ram and SB AWE64 would sometimes stutter on MP3 files when there was heavy multitasking.

 

[Tom Yum]

You can play mp3's on a 486, you just need to drop the bitrate. 64kbps was doable with my 486DX2-66 @83Mhz in Winamp, but yeah you couldn't do anything else while the MP3 played. Sure it sounded not great, but at the time it was passable.

 

[arrowflash]

You can play mp3's on a 486, you just need to drop the bitrate. 64kbps was doable with my 486DX2-66 @83Mhz in Winamp, but yeah you couldn't do anything else while the MP3 played. Sure it sounded not great, but at the time it was passable.

That's why I wrote "adequate" - which by my definition would be playing a 128 Kbps/44.1 KHz/Stereo MP3 on a GUI with at least some leeway for light multitasking. Sure it can be doable on 486s but not really adequate. Heck, I've seen anecdotes about people managing to reproduce 64 Kbps/22 KHz/mono .mp3s on 25 MHz 386s, using assembly-coded DOS players without GUI.

 

[Aus spot]

I was thinking whats all this rubbish about not playing mp3s on 386/486 computers. I use to play music files all the time.

Then I remembered they were MOD’s and similar. I still have my collection and play them occasionally. So much coolness for a collection of sounds manually put together on a PC. And like all older tech, so much less demanding.

 

[KofeViR]

Honestly, why even bother with Windows 95? This looks (literally and figuratively) like a great DOS machine.

Because 95 is nostalgica and DOS is boring

 

[McMurdeR]

Because 95 is nostalgica and DOS is boring

DOS was actually a fun time for games. I actually think it would be cool and edgy if MS went back to calling their OS DOS.

 

[pauleycz]

Because 95 is nostalgica and DOS is boring

Maybe you should try some DOS games then instead of trying to play around with just the OS?

 

[nnguy2]

Needs a "Turbo" button

 

[kinetix]

The video shows that DOS and Win 3.1-based games seem to perform quite well, actually.

Windows 95 games used to perform really badly even on higher clocked i486s - especially on systems without L2 cache and with an ISA bus video card, such as the one built by this guy. Windows 95 performance would be a lot better if the system had L2 cache and used a PCI video card, but still, proper Windows 95 gaming for anything more than Solitaire (including playing DOS games on a Win95 window) really demanded a Pentium-class machine with PCI video card. No surprises there.

Adequate MP3 decoding / playback also has always required a Pentium class PC. Higher clocked i486s (100+ MHz) could properly play MP3 files on systems with L2 cache and a good DSP-based sound card such as Sound Blaster 16 DSP or AWE32/64, as long as you didn't do any multitasking. Even my Pentium MMX 233 w/ 512 KB L2 cache, 64 MB ram and SB AWE64 would sometimes stutter on MP3 files when there was heavy multitasking.

wow, I hadn't noticed that, no L2 cache..

all my systems at the time had external L2 cache, at least 256kb. and EISA + VL-Bus (32 bits). then the next MB it already had PCI and my first sound car, a model I don't remember (it wasn't SB), played mp3 just fine, with an i486DX4 100mhzand latter an am5x86

I remember a PC that a relative had at his work, where they complained that it was going like ***. I checked it and it turned out that I had the cache disabled in the BIOS (?!?!). Needless to say, the radical change that the PC had just by enabling the cache.

 

[KofeViR]

Maybe you should try some DOS games then instead of trying to play around with just the OS?

Why tho? DOS games works in Win 95

 

[sauri]

Yeah, 100MHz is too little for mp3. I remember listening to my very first mp3 file (David Bowie's Telling Lies, Adam F Remix) in the summer of 1996, after spending half a hour downloading it over 9600bps dial-up, my P1/166 struggled a lot with it, the stuttering was barely tolerable.