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Upgrading the Full Yes 82430I to 512KB of SRAM Cache!

vswitchzero

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After de-cachifying my poor "Full Yes" 430FX board - yes, that's got to be one of the coolest names in motherboard history - I get it back up and running. Rather than replacing the cache with similar chips, I'll be upgrading it from 256KB to 512KB and providing some information and history on SRAM and caching in general.

You find more detailed information on the board in my socket 7 buildoff video here:
Building a high-end 1995/1996 Socket 7 Gam...

You can also see part one of my daily 486 gaming rig series here:
Building a 486 System for Retro Gaming - P...

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20 Comments

@OzzFan1000 4 years ago

Cache memory is often overlooked on motherboards. I like to populate my boards with as much cache as the board will take just because it feels good. :-)

@knightsun2920 2 years ago

I think there were some late Supper Socket 7 boards that had 2MB L2 or with the K6-3 2MB L3 cash.

@Paar86 4 years ago

I would recommend doing some benchmarks with and without the async. cache. The 66MHz bus speed is pretty fast it may make the async. cache obsolete and in some cases, having no cache could be faster than having some (especially with tight RAM timings). I think Doom in particular is slower with async. cache enabled. That's the reason pipelined-burst cache has been created in the first place, for L2 cache to make sense with Pentium CPUs.

@OCROldComputerRebuilds 4 years ago

Nice upgrade to the system.

@Константин-ш1ц8ш 3 years ago

async cache is a bottle neck of pentium with 430fx. Much better to mount PB cache.

@jozsiolah1435 2 years ago

When the cache is active and working, the hdd hardly blinks, and the cpu is at 00% to 2% working, the computer still runs. The cache acts as an ssd, that stores the data. However, if a game starts, the cache is out of order, and the hdd boots the game. The cache really works as an ssd when you handle the desktop, rename, click on the start menu open a folder, etc. That's when the cpu still runs at 00%.

@KikuVasNormandy 3 years ago

I have a nuch of those Trident 9440... over in latam they were like the plague of cheap PCI VGA cards.

@envoycdx 3 years ago

nicely done :)

@rikidawson7510 2 years ago

6:27 16 edo ram slots. My god that would have cost a fortune to populate. I paid $100nzd (new zealand) per mb back in '92

@turborunner 2 years ago

i've got a fyi(Full Yes Industries) MVP3 m-atx board with an amd k6-2-300 and most of the capps have leaked now. It was pretty much the cheapest board you could get to run an amd k6-2-300 and had issues with the via chipset on the mb with some addon cards .

@Timer5Tim 3 years ago

Dude you can't show that Magnum board and then not do a vid on it! Please do a vid on that!

@brianterrill9587 3 years ago

Cache you next time lol.

@davidmbolden 2 years ago

You're still running a dallas chip? How is it still holding a charge?

@DevilbyMoonlight 3 years ago

is there an Mr BIOS out for this board? my old Zappa Triton chipset board run really well with it

@southernflatland 3 years ago

Um, why wasn't there a 9th chip? Hell, my old 486 board had a 9th parity chip.

@Stefan_Payne 2 years ago

All Intel Chipsets for SOcket 7 only support 64MB Cacheable area.
Which is quite unfortunate for the i430TX CHipset and makes it quite useless and not desirable.

@nasanierulastname2997 3 years ago

I actually picked up a machine with this board a few months back. I’m in the process of rebuilding it right now; what’s the fastest CPU this board will support? I currently have two Socket 5 P5-120s and they don’t feel super nice on Windows 98.

@O.Shawabkeh 4 years ago

I wonder if you have luck founding old graphics cards memory chips. Seems not available on eBay right now.

@CesarDRK 4 years ago

I have the exact same board. Unfortunately my ps/2 port got damaged when i stumbled on the mouse wire while the computer was on and possibly shorted something. When i power on the system with a ps/2 optical mouse the optical sensor briefly lights up during boot but then shuts off, and it does not get detected in dos or windows.

@colinsmith6340 3 years ago

Those trident cards arent very fast. I would highly recommend getting some PCI tseng labs cards, go for the 6000. Very fast card. 90mhz core, and full GDI acceleration.