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The Intel Pentium Overdrive CPU for 486 Systems

vswitchzero

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Back in 1995, Intel released a very special upgrade processor for owners of 486 systems. Despite having a very different architecture and external data bus, the Pentium Overdrive was able to drop right into an existing 486 system and provide next-gen performance. Was it a worth-while upgrade? Or was this heavily modified Pentium processor held back by the aging 486 platform?

In today’s video I’ll be restoring a badly neglected 83MHz Pentium Overdrive and will try to answer that very question.

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00:00 Introduction
00:35 A Bit of History
02:02 A Special Processor
03:49 A Closer Look at Processor
05:29 It’s Broken
08:23 Does it Work?
10:39 Slowest Pentium Ever?
11:31 Active Fan Monitoring
14:54 Included Software
16:23 A New Cooling Solution
22:46 Benchmarks
24:07 Can it Handle Quake?
25:05 Final Thoughts
26:56 Overdrive Installation Demo

As mentioned, the closing track is an original called “Prelude to Space” by Bertrand Guégan. You can find more of his work here:
SoundCloud: bertrandguegan

20 Comments

@Edward135i 3 years ago

Absolutely insane to think that 4 years after this they'd go from 133mhz to 1ghz, man what a time for computing.

@commodore71 3 years ago

My family got a new 486 DX2 66 computer in 1995, less than a year later I convinced my father that we needed a Pentium computer for my school work (I wanted to play Quake). I showed him this processor and he bought it without hesitation, the POD 83 was about 5000 SEK and to exchange the almost new computer would cost atleast 10000 SEK. I was happy and he was content 😁

@Amigafur 3 years ago

I was born in 2007, the week after Intel finally discontinued the 486. They may be older than me, but I love and collect these computers :)

@Guimhj 3 years ago

That boot beep hit me right in the heart

@bigmango202 2 years ago

its actually pretty cool how most of the times silicon is either completely broken or completely fine in my experience

@infinity2z3r07 3 years ago

I was just a little too young for 486 stuff in the day, but I do find the era to be really interesting. Definitely looking forward to a AMD/Cyrix comparison!

@luheartswarm4573 3 years ago

I grew up in the early pentium 4 era, but man I found early computing so fascinating!

@fadingbeleifs 3 years ago

Every single one of these that I ever had had a heat sink and fan permanently mounted to the chip.. this is the first time I've ever seen one with it removed and not absolutely destroyed!

@alansaladan 3 years ago

That song is sick!!!

@maliggno4198 3 years ago (edited)

Now I need that processor…

@tallpaul9475 3 years ago (edited)

My first PC, bought from Electronic Avenue at Montgomery Wards, was a Packard Bell desktop. I think it was around late 1994. Windows for Workgroups 3.11, I eventually upgraded to Windows 95. Originally 486DX-2 66Mhz, I had the Pentium Overdrive @83Mhz that was bought at one of the many electronics businesses in Silicon Valley that eventually went out of business. It worked well for what it did. Learned a lot with that thing.

@nFBMAGIX 3 years ago

The 5800X3D back in the days 🥲

@john_ace 3 years ago (edited)

You can often soften the heat conductive glue with ca-glue remover/debonder. Simple CA-glue is a good heat-conductive glue btw. You can heat the heatsink with a blowtorch a bit to loosen the CA-glue afterwards if needed.

@BSzili 3 years ago

That's one hell of a cooling tower for the Pentium Overdrive.

@thatonetimeatbandcamp 3 years ago

Back in the day I had a 486DX4 100Mhz with 16MB of ram. I remember when Winamp came out it cried that it needed MMX instructions, so I spent the money to upgrade to the Pentium 60mhz.. even though it was "40mhz slower", it included those MMX instructions that allowed me to run Winamp.. man I wish I kept both of those boards.

@ToddsNerdCave 3 years ago

Great video! I remember installing the DX2 66 Overdrive into my SX33 back in the day and how big an improvement it was. I would have passed out from this kind of performance back then. 😂

@AllanAdamson 3 years ago

well I got a 486 back then & I knew about the pentiums but what I ended up doing was building my next machine, it was a 233 mmx in 97.. that's because I went from using my 486 at home to working at a computer store and after that 233 mmx I built machine after machine & I remember when the 1.33 ghz t-bird came out from AMD & I built a system on that.. of course I had a super socket 7 system, actually multiple, as well as slot A, and flip chip system, along with a dual slot 1 and dual socket 370.. ah I just kept having fun with it for years & even now I'm behind the latest hardware & it's just a matter of what you want to spend your money on and how many systems you have & over the years you begin to know what's going to fulfill your demands & don't really spend more unless you have to.. course monitors too now are crazy.. great video here I like stuff that brings back memories ... haha just remembered buying that 4.2GB bigfoot & thinking I'd have enough space lol oh man after that I built a raid array out of some fujitsu drives

@TurboBass 3 years ago

The outro video is unlocking core memories here!

@cynic5581 3 years ago (edited)

I love when YouTube recommendation section hits a home run. All your content has been fantastic! Subscribed

I had a 486sx2 at the time iirc. I do remember starring through the glass cabinet at the Pentium OD at CompUSA. The main incompatibility was the cost for my 14 yo self.

@BrassicGamer 3 years ago

Kinda wanna get one now simply because I know what to do if it's messed up. Nice work! Great to have this documented so succinctly. Seems like ages ago you were talking about this on Twitter, so I'm glad you got the video out. And that tutorial from Intel is absolute gold. Impressed by the performance in Quake - definitely acceptable performance.