Pentium Socket 5 Build - Rounding out 2022 with a PC

As 2022 comes to a close I've completed one more PC build for the year.  This one is nostalgic for me, as the target year is 1994, which is around the time that I got my first PC.  Also, this machine replaces one of my first Retro PCs that I purchased back in 2019 an Epson Pentium 75MHz that was a Socket 5 Machine.  I damaged that machine while I was trying to perform a processor upgrade to bring it up to a 100 MHz chip, a sad episode which I regret quite a bit.

I just finished a Custom Socket 7 build which I'm very pleased with.  I think that these custom builds will be easier to experiment with and also easier to maintain in the long run, so although I do have one other Socket 5 machine, I have been on the lookout for another Custom Build.  Free Geek Twin Cities was selling this custom build at a really good price and I jumped on buying the machine.

The case on this one has yellowed a bit...

But overall I'm quite pleased with the appearance.  This build is based on an Asus Motherboard, PCI/I-P54SP4.  The machine was working as I got it from Free Geek but readers will know I'm not one to leave well enough alone.  According to Free Geek the Dallas clock chip was dead, so I de-soldered that and added a socket for the replacement clock battery, and I also lubricated the CPU fan which was running a bit rough.

Vogons has a nice scan of the manual for this board.  After alot of trial and error, I was able to upgrade the RAM a bit (As configured, it accepts only double sided FPM RAM SIMMs).  I have 48 MB RAM in the machine, but as it's a Windows 95 machine and will normally be running in DOS mode anyway I don't think this will be a problem.

I upgraded the old proprietary 1x CD-ROM to an IDE CD-ROM that will read CD-Rs, this is a nice "quality of life" improvement for the machine.  I also added an IDE ZIP drive which makes it much easier to move files onto the machine.

The machine is still sporting a 1GB Hard Disk drive, although I may replace that with a CF card to IDE adaptor pretty soon.  It's running Windows 95 and it has both an ISA 3COM Network Card and a Sound Blaster 16 (The less desirable CT2940) that work well in both DOS and Windows 95.

The final upgrade on this machine was to CAREFULLY install the Pentium 100 processor that I'd originally bought for the Epson machine.  It's working well and give this motherboard is maximum speed Intel processor.  Since the machine has a Front Panel MHz display and I couldn't find any documentation, I had to do some experimentation to set the display to 99 MHz, as this one doesn't have a third digit.  It's a cool look, and my only PC with the front panel MHz display!

So, perhaps this completes my the last Retro computer project for 2022.  Overall it's been a great year in Retro and I'm looking forward to the challenges and learning that will come in 2023!