ted@helios (Ted Cantrall) (02/06/90)
I would like to hear from anyone who has upgraded an XT to a 386SX by replacing the motherboard. I would like to find an inexpensive one, but not cheap. 1) Are there some chip-sets that are better than others? Especially in terms of memory management. 2) Will it fit into an XT flip-top case? Especially height. 3) Is the 150W power supply OK? 4) Will these cards work with an SX and how well (in general)? A) video B) HD controller C) FD controller D) port card E) 2400 baud modem If they will work, but not very fast(compared to the 386), that may be OK, as the rest of the system could be upgraded a bit at a time as I can afford it. Any help is welcome, but I especially want to hear first hand experiences. If there is a lot of interest, I can post a summary. Please reply E-mail. Thanks in advance. -ted- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ted@helios.ucsc.edu | "The opinions are mine... (408)459-2110 | ...the facts are public domain." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
besler@egrunix.UUCP (Brent Besler) (02/09/90)
>I would like to hear from anyone who has upgraded an XT to a 386SX by >replacing the motherboard. I would like to find an inexpensive one, but >not cheap. >1) Are there some chip-sets that are better than others? Especially in > terms of memory management. Try to find a board with the Chips and Technoligies NEAT chipset and an AMI or Pheonix BIOS >2) Will it fit into an XT flip-top case? Especially height. Most of the motherboards are the right size. You may have to drill some holes though to secure it inot the case >3) Is the 150W power supply OK? Some motherboards will work with XT power supplies, others won't. The Jameco 386 board(20 Mhz) I put in my XT case did. 150 watts is OK is you only have one hard disk. >4) Will these cards work with an SX and how well (in general)? > A) video > B) HD controller > C) FD controller > D) port card > E) 2400 baud modem You may need to replace the HD controller. If you do I would get a dual/HD floppy controller(WD 1006VSR2 or WD 10006 VMM2 [RLL or MFM] recommended). I had no problems with my original cards. I even booted of floppy with the old XT floppy controller. I had an old WD RLL card in the XT. WD tech support said teh card probably wouldn't work in over 12 Mhz systems. > If they will work, but not very fast(compared to the 386), that may be OK, > as the rest of the system could be upgraded a bit at a time as I can > afford it. The hard disk I/O is going to bog down the 386SX. >Any help is welcome, but I especially want to hear first hand experiences. >If there is a lot of interest, I can post a summary. See a previous post about my experiences upgrading an ARC 8 Mhz 8088 with a Jameco 386/20 motherboard. I belive JDR Microdevices has a 386SX board for about $400 built with the NEAT chipset and an AMI bios. You will have to buy new memory for any of these boards as the old XT memeory is too slow. I would recommend a 386/20. It would cost about $250 more, but in my opinion the extra speed is worth it. Brent H. Besler > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >ted@helios.ucsc.edu | "The opinions are mine... >(408)459-2110 | ...the facts are public domain." >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------