<wojtek@chylonia.3miasto.net> writes:

> > After 3 1/2 years, it seems my Abit BH6 motherboard is fading fast (I
> > recently ended three weeks of unexplained kernel crashes and corrupted
> > files by setting the FSB down to 66Mhz (from 100); this was after
> > swapping out RAM and CPU with known-good components). This, along with
> 
> i had exactly same problem with that board. after adding another 128MB RAM
> (having total 384 now) it does work ONLY at 66Mhz stable.

Hmm. This machine has worked great at 100/450 from Oct. of 1998 up
until now. Although now that you mention it, a few months ago I tried
putting in a 2nd DIMM to bring RAM up to 256MB, and got lots of
segfaults during kernel builds, so I removed it. I have an identical
system across the room from it (purchased at the same time) that is
still going fine, no problems, but I've never had more than a single
(256MB) DIMM installed in it.

> > My thought for a quiet system is:
> 
> another idea. put your noisy computer without GFX at another room and make
> X-terminal from some 486 and VLB/PCI GFX card (which can be more than
> one).

The only problem with that is that I don't have one of those "another
room" things ;-) Space is limited in this house, and even more limited
in the place we'll be moving in 5 months. As a matter of fact, the
machine this will replace is headless, and the new machine will
probably be headless as well - it is my internet gateway, file server,
mail server, web server, etc. I connect to it from a desktop machine
running VNC. My curiousity about the graphics chip was only idle
curiousity, just in case I ever decide to play with it.

What I *will* do (unless heat is a problem - it isn't now but might be
once I get it to an un-airconditioned apartment in Istanbul in the
middle of August ;-) is put it inside a cabinet that is ventilated
through muffles out the back or something similar. But the quieter it
is to start with, the better the result will be.

BTW, my actual desktop machine has to be something with more
horsepower than a 486, as my work requires me to have a Windows
machine around for running MS development tools, and Windows just
isn't conveniently remoted (VNC server on a 450Mhz Windows machine
uses > 50% of the CPU constantly!).  Anyway, I can't live without my
SGI 1600SW LCD display, and it uses an AGP graphics card. I'm figuring
on putting together a bit larger machine for workstation, and putting
it in the same cabinet (with DVD/CD writer in an external box at the
end of a firewire cable).

BTW2, what's the deal with you and 486's - do you have a bunch you're
trying to sell or something? ;-) (Seriously, I agree with you that the
CPUs in most systems are gigantic overkill. I have an old slimline,
pre-CPU-fan 486 system too, waiting for me to find a task for it (if
it just had more RAM). I used to have others, but over the years I've
given them away to relatives.)