another 'poll' - how many of you test your chips?

[edge]

Anything I happen to pick up, I test, if nothing more out of curiosity.

Sadly, my collection these days is much smaller than it used to be.

[alvaro84]

Oh yes, I test what I can. I piled up a few boards (I prefer small ones) so I could try the more common types in my collection. I usually boot DOS and run Aida and/or Astra, make a report of the config then sometimes I even watch a demo or at least a few 256-byte intros. When I test whole batches I usually skip the demo part.

The boards I have right now:

- KM-S4-1 for 486s (SiS496/497 chipset, PCI, FPM RAM). I couldn't get an AMD DX4-100 NV8T working in it, but everything else worked so far. That might even be a dead CPU.

- Acorp 5ALI61 for Socket 7 (100MHz FSB, SD/EDO/FPM, ISA+PCI)

- No Slot1 board right now because I'm not satisfied with the Acer board I found earlier

- Gigabyte GA-6WMM7 for Socket370 Mendocino/Coppermine (AGP/PCI/ISA)
- MSI MS-6337 for Tualatin, large and lacks ISA, so it's not perfect. I had a long pursuit after a working Tualatin board. I've tried a lot and at least I have one now that works...
- ABIT KT7A for Socket A. Unfortunately everything newer than Palominos show up as 'Unknown CPU' and don't always boot. Have a new addition (Asrock K7S41GX) that know even Bartons but it's somewhat damaged and I have to hold the cooler down while testing...

- AsRock P4VM800, finally for any Socket 478 CPU (I tried ones that were limited to 400 or 533 MHz FSB and one that didn't support Willamette CPUs only Northwoods and Prescotts...)

- Asrock 939NF4G-VSTA for Socket 939. It's kind of an accident, I wanted an AM2 test board but this is what I got in my hands and I didn't want to get it shredded when I have a few 939 pieces after all...

- Asus P5GC-MX/1333 for LGA775. DDR2, Wolfdale, 1333MHz FSB. They don't list quad core CPUs as supported but I don't have any yet anyway.

- Actively used PCs around for Socket AM2 and LGA775, as a last resort. I got to test 5 AM2 CPUs when I upgraded my brother's desktop. Should a quad core 775 not work in my test board I could try it in my Gigabyte 965P-DS3P.

I might set up a 386 testbed too, but the m/b I last tried seemed to be dead. Unfortunately most of them have dead batteries spilled acid on the PCB.

Even though I prefer to have onboard video on these I have some ISA/PCI/AGP/PCIe VGAs for the tests. And a GUS PnP for DOS sound. An SB32 too but I couldn't yet get that working. Maybe a Voodoo 2 (or 3) would be nice to try too, I have some lying around...

[Chook]

I don't test most of my chips. I am a cosmetic collector mainly, wanting chips that look nice.

However, I can test the following:

4004
4040
8080
8085 (when I get the extensions soldered)
8008 (when the new tester arrives!)
The above with Molka's amazing testers!

Some 386
All Socket 3
All Socket 5, 7
Socket 8, but not early ones.
Slot 1
Possibly some Slot 2
Socket 370
Socket 423 (possibly including the early ES)
Socket 478
Socket 775

I have no testing capability for 286, 186 or 8086.

I am chasing a setup to run NexGen cpus.

[alvaro84]

Well, I'm done with testing my set of 386DXs and 387s, including 486DLCs and the RapidCAD1+2 set. I was lucky because even the 20-MHz pieces ran at 33MHz (lowering the board's speed would need replacing the oscillator - which is socketed but I don't have any parts to replace it). I used a GUS Classic for sound as the board wouldn't initialize the PnP boards (not very surprising) so none of them worked in it (SB32/AWE64/GUSPnP were all invisible).

Also, a 754 and an AM2 board is here too so the deck pretty much covers all the common pieces now. Socket 4 and Socket 423 (w/ RDRAM), maybe...?

[alvaro84]

I found some funny pieces in the meantime like an i820-based HP Slot1 board so I can test RDRAMs too. For 287 FPUs I found a Harris 286/25-based one which runs the CPU at 20MHz (??!) and has a second quartz for the FPU. The 8-10 MHz pieces could cope with the 12 MHz secondary clock so it's fine. And it's funny to fill the entire address space of a 286 with 16MB of 9-bit SIMM RAM sticks!

Also, here's a 386/486 combo VLB m/b which is a great toy! I plan to solder the missing 386 socket too so it can be a far better test board than the old one that died on me. Then a little 386SX-40 one, which is my least power hungry system so far (without the FPU the 286 draws 0.5-1W less than this 386/387 one but 287s are hot while 387s are cold so FPUs turn the tables).

486SLC-40, a perversion. I can't test anything special in it, but it's fun. Slot A. I have a 1GHz Athlon to test right now so it'll take a turn soon.

Socket 479 has a test bed too (like 478, 462, 775, AM2, AM3), but I'm clearly more attracted to 'true' retro configurations with ISA slots. Then can run DOS stuff that I miss since I have newer systems. The latest ISA boards I have are for Tualatins and Palominos. But I find the old ones up to Socket 7 are the most fun for me. I got a serial mouse for them too! (And a PCI 486 with a PS2 header).

Unfortunately old soldered battery boards (mostly up to 486 VLB) are usually damaged by the battery So they're quite hard to obtain.

Next thing will be a Socket 4/5 combo for that... two early Pentiums? No problem, it's a relic I hope it'll work.

Last time I counted I found 22 M/Bs and 35 (ISA/PCI/AGP/PCIe) VGA cards in my cupboard. I still don't have a Socket423 board, though.

[alvaro84]

The Socket 4/5 board is here and works like a charm

Also, I acquired a Socket 423 + RDRAM one. I like this one, Socket 423 P4s are clumsy-sexy beasts in my eyes, a little similar to those 64-pin 68000s. And an FM2 too, with a Trinity A6-5400! It's a very exciting find for me. But now I'm in dire need of DDR3 sticks. I have plenty of RAM for every other platforms I have but DDR3 is still a rare find in the scrap. My AM3, 1155, 1156 and FM2 boards have gaping empty memory slots and even our FM1 Llano 'kitchen computer' is low on memory (2GB for win10 isn't too much). I hope it'll change.

And lately I test memory too, and prepared a few HDDs with proper Windows setups for several boards. I put my ISA sound cards through thorough tests via DOS games and demos

Socket 8 is still missing.

[alvaro84]

Update on the topic: counting 28 test boards.
Two new additions, one old, one new: one is for 8088/V20 the other for LGA1366. Thankfully it came equipped with 6GB of memory so it didn't deepen my DDR3 shortage. That Nehalem i7-920 can be a nice heating equipment for the winter...

But I'm playing with the XT board right now. Somehow older machines are more fun for me. Even though it's a hassle to copy anything to it. An XT-IDE or XT-CF would be great.

[alvaro84]

Another update, just the platforms/sockets...

8088(V20)/8087 - unfortunately no FPU for this one
286/287 (plastic LCC)
387SX (the CPU itself is soldered)
386DX/387DX
486 / socket 3 (up to 5x86s and PODs), both VLB and PCI flavors
Socket 7 + Super 7 (50-110FSB, 2.0-3.5V)
Socket 8
Slot 1 (BX, i820)
Slot A
Socket 370 (CuMi+Tualatin)
Socket A/462 (200-400FSB)
Socket 423
Socket 478
Socket 479 (400FSB only)
Socket 754
Socket 939
Socket AM2+
Socket AM3+
LGA 775
LGA 1156
LGA 1366
LGA 1155
LGA 1150
Socket FM1
Socket FM2

The latest addition is a board for Haswell CPUs. I have only a single Celeron for it but it's just a question of time to get more, I guess.