Vintage PC - Help identifying components

[Bloody George]

This is for old PC experts.

Over 12 years ago, my father worked at an office out of town, and he had his personal computer over there. That office was the only place where I could have a computer all for myself, play my games, write my school assignments, et cetera. I remember the computer had a Win98 OS, and it was not the best of machines.

Well, the company went bankrupt in 2004, and we moved back into town right afterwards. Earlier this year, my dad told me that their office had been abandoned since then, and nothing from there was even rounded up for moving. I thought, "Hm, what if that old PC is still there...?" We arranged a meeting with an old employee to get the keys for the place, and after a fascinating, near-Chernobyl experience of indoors exploration, I found the bastard and brought it home. I don't have any hopes of making it work again - not before some serious renewal -, but I'll keep it with me for nostalgia's sake for the time being.

Problem is, I can't figure out any model of hardware inside this old-timer, so I would need a great deal of help from someone that'd have that kind of knowledge to identify the components. Things like mobo, what kind of boards are those connected, RAM, this kind of stuff. I'm posting pictures so you guys can help me out, if possible. If you need more pictures, just let me know what of, and I will take them.

Thanks a lot in advance, friends!

 

[R_1]

memories, misty watercolored memories. lol
the first picture is of the ram sticks, those are fast page or FPram dimms, they are paired, must have two to work, or upgrade in pairs
the second is the VGA card, you can see the empty ram slots so you could upgrade the RAM. Ah the good old days.
third, the rear card is the sound card, ct2590 that would be a creative labs sound blaster 16 card, the card directly in front of that is a modem, probably 28.8kbps, or a 33.6 kbps.
the CPU is in the bottom corner of the fourth picture, a socket 7, pentium or AMD, maybe even a cyrix. CPU speed under 300Mhz
The white slot the GPU is plugged into is 32-bit PCI, the Black slots that the sound and modem are plugged into are 16-bit ISA slots, the predecessor to PCI.
if you need anything else take a pic and ask
right above the CPU is a small brown slot that is the Cache for the CPU. the cache.

 

[R_1]

just noticed the BIOS battery is missing, it is a CR2032 3v lithuim cell
the chip with the gold label is the BIOS
that looks to be an AT form factor motherboard. back then nothing at all was onboard. hence all the slots.

 

[combinebasic]

That computer might be a Socket 486 mother board, this computer have an OS of windows 95, the hardwares use here base of the pictures is the socket 486 mobo, the vga is PCI card that have a 2 MB of RAM, the mobo can be mounted with a PCI cards like internal modem,and also a EISA cards(Enhance Industry Standard Architecture) this is the oldest slots of the mobo that have a color black- you can insert here a sound blaster like the one in your picture or any expansion cards for printer. The connection of HDD uses an IDE cable and bus wires for available ports like DB 9 male connector and DB 25 female connector that can be connect here an external modem or a hard ball mouse. This computer uses a RAM called EDO RAM(Enhance Data output)inserted to the SIMM slot. This computer compatible only 4mb, 8mb, or 16 mb of RAM. The processor probably is the intel i486, cyrex 386 or an AMD k2 or k5. Your PSU have a 12 pin power assignment that you can connect it all black wire in the center when you connect it to the power supply connector.

 

[R_1]

That computer might be a Socket 486 mother board, this computer have an OS of windows 95, the hardwares use here base of the pictures is the socket 486 mobo, the vga is PCI card that have a 2 MB of RAM, the mobo can be mounted with a PCI cards like internal modem,and also a EISA cards(Enhance Industry Standard Architecture) this is the oldest slots of the mobo that have a color black- you can insert here a sound blaster like the one in your picture or any expansion cards for printer. The connection of HDD uses an IDE cable and bus wires for available ports like DB 9 male connector and DB 25 female connector that can be connect here an external modem or a hard ball mouse. This computer uses a RAM called EDO RAM(Enhance Data output)inserted to the SIMM slot. This computer compatible only 4mb, 8mb, or 16 mb of RAM. The processor probably is the intel i486, cyrex 386 or an AMD k2 or k5. Your PSU have a 12 pin power assignment that you can connect it all black wire in the center when you connect it to the power supply connector.

EDO simms, duh thanks.
arent EISA slots brown, and ISA slots black? Ive never seen a 486 or earlier with a heatsink. I think its a pentium or newer socket 7 chip.

 

[combinebasic]

That computer might be a Socket 486 mother board, this computer have an OS of windows 95, the hardwares use here base of the pictures is the socket 486 mobo, the vga is PCI card that have a 2 MB of RAM, the mobo can be mounted with a PCI cards like internal modem,and also a EISA cards(Enhance Industry Standard Architecture) this is the oldest slots of the mobo that have a color black- you can insert here a sound blaster like the one in your picture or any expansion cards for printer. The connection of HDD uses an IDE cable and bus wires for available ports like DB 9 male connector and DB 25 female connector that can be connect here an external modem or a hard ball mouse. This computer uses a RAM called EDO RAM(Enhance Data output)inserted to the SIMM slot. This computer compatible only 4mb, 8mb, or 16 mb of RAM. The processor probably is the intel i486, cyrex 386 or an AMD k2 or k5. Your PSU have a 12 pin power assignment that you can connect it all black wire in the center when you connect it to the power supply connector.

EDO simms, duh thanks.
arent EISA slots brown, and ISA slots black? Ive never seen a 486 or earlier with a heatsink. I think its a pentium or newer socket 7 chip.

Probably its a socket 7 Pentium 1, I forgot that because its too old.

 

[R_1]

That computer might be a Socket 486 mother board, this computer have an OS of windows 95, the hardwares use here base of the pictures is the socket 486 mobo, the vga is PCI card that have a 2 MB of RAM, the mobo can be mounted with a PCI cards like internal modem,and also a EISA cards(Enhance Industry Standard Architecture) this is the oldest slots of the mobo that have a color black- you can insert here a sound blaster like the one in your picture or any expansion cards for printer. The connection of HDD uses an IDE cable and bus wires for available ports like DB 9 male connector and DB 25 female connector that can be connect here an external modem or a hard ball mouse. This computer uses a RAM called EDO RAM(Enhance Data output)inserted to the SIMM slot. This computer compatible only 4mb, 8mb, or 16 mb of RAM. The processor probably is the intel i486, cyrex 386 or an AMD k2 or k5. Your PSU have a 12 pin power assignment that you can connect it all black wire in the center when you connect it to the power supply connector.

EDO simms, duh thanks.
arent EISA slots brown, and ISA slots black? Ive never seen a 486 or earlier with a heatsink. I think its a pentium or newer socket 7 chip.

Probably its a socket 7 Pentium 1, I forgot that because its too old.

hey I forgot EDO simm

 

[combinebasic]

That computer might be a Socket 486 mother board, this computer have an OS of windows 95, the hardwares use here base of the pictures is the socket 486 mobo, the vga is PCI card that have a 2 MB of RAM, the mobo can be mounted with a PCI cards like internal modem,and also a EISA cards(Enhance Industry Standard Architecture) this is the oldest slots of the mobo that have a color black- you can insert here a sound blaster like the one in your picture or any expansion cards for printer. The connection of HDD uses an IDE cable and bus wires for available ports like DB 9 male connector and DB 25 female connector that can be connect here an external modem or a hard ball mouse. This computer uses a RAM called EDO RAM(Enhance Data output)inserted to the SIMM slot. This computer compatible only 4mb, 8mb, or 16 mb of RAM. The processor probably is the intel i486, cyrex 386 or an AMD k2 or k5. Your PSU have a 12 pin power assignment that you can connect it all black wire in the center when you connect it to the power supply connector.

EDO simms, duh thanks.
arent EISA slots brown, and ISA slots black? Ive never seen a 486 or earlier with a heatsink. I think its a pentium or newer socket 7 chip.

Probably its a socket 7 Pentium 1, I forgot that because its too old.

hey I forgot EDO simm

Me I can't forgot this RAM I have here until now

 

[R_1]

my very first pc was a 166MMX, looked a whole lot like that one. I remember having to buy the simms, sold seperately, required in pairs. When I read EDO the memory of upgrading to 16 whole megs flooded my mind.

 

[Bloody George]

Guys, I can't express my gratitude enough. Thank you all so much! Getting hold of this machine has been emotional for me, as I never imagined I'd see my first gaming PC again.
I brought you guys some more pictures. I managed to remove the CPU cooler and heatsink with quite a bit of force (10-plus years of dry thermal paste can create quite an adherence). It turns out that it's indeed an early Pentium. Which model do you reckon?

Also, it appears that the GPU is a Cirrus Logic GD5434-J-QC-F. However, I couldn't find any picture of that exact same model that looks like mine.

Additionally, do you guys know what motherboard this could be?

What about this stick? Do you know what it is?

Thank you all again for the prompt responses. You guys are awesome!

 

[ComputerSecurityGuy]

A quick check reveals that the Cirrus is equipped with 1 or 2 MB of RAM, is an Alpine family chip and such. The reason it looks odd is probably because it is an OEM version but the article I read mentions "extendable memory". I am by no means an expert on the era but I hope this helps some.

 

[R_1]

http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/chipsets_d/OPTi/Viper/
I found this
http://www.opti-inc.com/html/pci_brdg.html
CPU is a pentium, no mmx 100 Mhz
http://www.cpu-world.com/info/id/Intel-Pentium-identification.html

I already told you that stick is the cache for the CPU, before they added it to the DIE you had to buy it and add it seperately. made a huge difference.
the brown slot above the CPU is the cache

 

[Bloody George]

Oh my, how inattentive of me! XD Sorry about that, and thanks again!
Yeah, the CPU is that very same! As for the mobo, I guess those specs fit the right profile for this one.

All in all, coming here was crucial. Many thanks for the thoughtful assistance in breaking down this old brick of a PC, guys! It's been great following the replies! 🙂