LGR - Compaq Presario 425 MS-DOS PC Overview
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
Michal
Great video, but to be honest, doing a 386 vs 486 by comparing the slowest CPUs both has to offer (386SX at 16 Mhz vs 486SX at 25 Mhz) is not really accurate because the 386SX/16 has rhe performance of a 16 Mhz 286 or less due to the crippled data bus (for most home intents and purposes a 386SX/16 would be a 286 because it is not faster, and any 32-bit SW is not gonna run on it anyway because it would be too slow so the whole -can run 32 bit code- advantage is mostly theoretical anyways, and a 486SX/25 is barely faster than a 386DX/40 anyways. If you have shown the 386DX40 it would run Wolfenstein just as smooth as the 486, I had it on the 386/40 we used to have, it ran smoothly even with a slow Trident videocard. I always viewed the DX as the real 386 as opposed to the -286 in practice- 386SX. 386SX systems also tend to be budget models which means the video card, chipset etc. are likely to bottleneck the system.
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Great video, but to be honest, doing a 386 vs 486 by comparing the slowest CPUs both has to offer (386SX at 16 Mhz vs 486SX at 25 Mhz) is not really accurate because the 386SX/16 has rhe performance of a 16 Mhz 286 or less due to the crippled data bus (for most home intents and purposes a 386SX/16 would be a 286 because it is not faster, and any 32-bit SW is not gonna run on it anyway because it would be too slow so the whole -can run 32 bit code- advantage is mostly theoretical anyways, and a 486SX/25 is barely faster than a 386DX/40 anyways. If you have shown the 386DX40 it would run Wolfenstein just as smooth as the 486, I had it on the 386/40 we used to have, it ran smoothly even with a slow Trident videocard. I always viewed the DX as the real 386 as opposed to the -286 in practice- 386SX. 386SX systems also tend to be budget models which means the video card, chipset etc. are likely to bottleneck the system.
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SouthwesternEagle
It's sad that kids today would think that a 486, a 1MB graphics card and a SoundBlaster 16 are all junk. Kids today wouldn't know what to do with a 1993 gaming PC. They would boot it up and just see -C: \ _- and then toss it. I was probably the youngest PC gamer EVER in 1993, being born in 1990, but even a kid from the latter half of the Millennial generation like myself sees a lifetime of fun to be squeezed out of that hardware. I actually built a 486 PC in 2003 that has EVERYTHING imaginable! It even has an AM/FM radio and a TV tuner card!
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It's sad that kids today would think that a 486, a 1MB graphics card and a SoundBlaster 16 are all junk. Kids today wouldn't know what to do with a 1993 gaming PC. They would boot it up and just see -C: \ _- and then toss it. I was probably the youngest PC gamer EVER in 1993, being born in 1990, but even a kid from the latter half of the Millennial generation like myself sees a lifetime of fun to be squeezed out of that hardware. I actually built a 486 PC in 2003 that has EVERYTHING imaginable! It even has an AM/FM radio and a TV tuner card!
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R.
I am currently restoring a presario CDTV 528. Well restoring may be the wrong word, as it was in really good shape when I got it. The CD-Drive was busted and I replaced it and I put a new OS on. I also am thinking about updating the RAM and the hard drive.
I really love this series, I think especially the 500 series are really good DOS gaming machines. For me the form factor was important. I live in a rather small apartment with my girlfriend so having more than one or a huge retro PC was not an option
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I am currently restoring a presario CDTV 528. Well restoring may be the wrong word, as it was in really good shape when I got it. The CD-Drive was busted and I replaced it and I put a new OS on. I also am thinking about updating the RAM and the hard drive.
I really love this series, I think especially the 500 series are really good DOS gaming machines. For me the form factor was important. I live in a rather small apartment with my girlfriend so having more than one or a huge retro PC was not an option
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MegaManNeo
What a great little machine, especially with the Overdrive installed.
All I had was the DX2 itself inside my computer back then but it was more than enough if we didn't try to install Windows95 on it.
For whatever reason tho, Westwood's Monopoly didn't work either.
As for TMNT, you have a computer with both types of disk drives right there, is the floppy copy protected or what stops you from transferring the files over to a blank 3, 5- floppy disk?
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What a great little machine, especially with the Overdrive installed.
All I had was the DX2 itself inside my computer back then but it was more than enough if we didn't try to install Windows95 on it.
For whatever reason tho, Westwood's Monopoly didn't work either.
As for TMNT, you have a computer with both types of disk drives right there, is the floppy copy protected or what stops you from transferring the files over to a blank 3, 5- floppy disk?
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Richard
I had one of those as a kid.
25sx cpu and 4mb ram.
I'm pretty sure the hdd in mine was a whooping 104mb. I upgraded mine too, dx2-66mhz and 12mb of ram.
A friend had a computer that looked the same but I'm positive his had a sx66mhz cpu and 200(240) mb hdd.
Ours had no modem though.
One fun thing about this computer, the 4mb of ram that was factory installed was just a chip on the motherboard. It had 2 empty 72-pin sockets on the mb.
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I had one of those as a kid.
25sx cpu and 4mb ram.
I'm pretty sure the hdd in mine was a whooping 104mb. I upgraded mine too, dx2-66mhz and 12mb of ram.
A friend had a computer that looked the same but I'm positive his had a sx66mhz cpu and 200(240) mb hdd.
Ours had no modem though.
One fun thing about this computer, the 4mb of ram that was factory installed was just a chip on the motherboard. It had 2 empty 72-pin sockets on the mb.
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Mike's
I had this same exact machine. Presario 425. Loved it. I had a touch screen on it that was cool. I had the Overdrive DX4/100 in it and the 20mb RAM plus a SCSI card and Sound Card so I could use a CD ROM on it. I ran Win98 SE on that thing for years! Great machine for its time, if you upgraded the processor. If you could have shoved more RAM in it you could have ran 2000 on it with ease. That DX4 chip was about as fast as a 75mhz Pentium!
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I had this same exact machine. Presario 425. Loved it. I had a touch screen on it that was cool. I had the Overdrive DX4/100 in it and the 20mb RAM plus a SCSI card and Sound Card so I could use a CD ROM on it. I ran Win98 SE on that thing for years! Great machine for its time, if you upgraded the processor. If you could have shoved more RAM in it you could have ran 2000 on it with ease. That DX4 chip was about as fast as a 75mhz Pentium!
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AmysFantasies
Something just occurred to me as I rewatched this video. It started as a 486SX-25 and the Overdrive chip upgraded it to a 486DX4-100? How does that work? The 486DX4 ran at three times the FSB speed, so a DX4 on that motherboard should run at 75Mhz. Now the Overdrive definitely says 100 and the original processor seems to be 25Mhz (the video's a bit low res) but I still don't get how that processor could work on that motherboard.
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Something just occurred to me as I rewatched this video. It started as a 486SX-25 and the Overdrive chip upgraded it to a 486DX4-100? How does that work? The 486DX4 ran at three times the FSB speed, so a DX4 on that motherboard should run at 75Mhz. Now the Overdrive definitely says 100 and the original processor seems to be 25Mhz (the video's a bit low res) but I still don't get how that processor could work on that motherboard.
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Evert
10: 32 -I think it's cool-
IT IS COOL!
But only for people who can emulate -Back in time- and see how powerful the system is. One week ago I purchased a IBM 390x Thinkpad with 6GB HDD and 128 RAM, I love it. It was -7. 50 and for that money I can play all the Dos game my hart content, HELL YEAH!
I love to fantasize I'me in 2000 and that IBM laptop is THE SHIT, that's what vintage retro love is all about; )
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10: 32 -I think it's cool-
IT IS COOL!
But only for people who can emulate -Back in time- and see how powerful the system is. One week ago I purchased a IBM 390x Thinkpad with 6GB HDD and 128 RAM, I love it. It was -7. 50 and for that money I can play all the Dos game my hart content, HELL YEAH!
I love to fantasize I'me in 2000 and that IBM laptop is THE SHIT, that's what vintage retro love is all about; )
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Eduardo
I remember having the 433 model. It came with a software called Print Shop Deluxe (or named similar) that was the equivalent of Microsoft Publisher. It you click to zoom in to much, to fast it will make the computer hang out up to one hour just to go from 50% to 500% (max zoom.
I also remember coming with an adventure game (point and click) about an island but I don't remember the name, anybody knows about it?
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I remember having the 433 model. It came with a software called Print Shop Deluxe (or named similar) that was the equivalent of Microsoft Publisher. It you click to zoom in to much, to fast it will make the computer hang out up to one hour just to go from 50% to 500% (max zoom.
I also remember coming with an adventure game (point and click) about an island but I don't remember the name, anybody knows about it?
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AfroDude
I remember trying to play the game Speedball on a 486 with a B drive floppy (the turtle game's format) a mate gave it to me as he didnt have the b drive, it was around '97 at this point and the 486 had 8MB of ram, running win95/dos, first family computer. It ran so ridiculously fast it was impossible, funny though. Star wars Dark forces was awesome though shame it couldnt save though
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I remember trying to play the game Speedball on a 486 with a B drive floppy (the turtle game's format) a mate gave it to me as he didnt have the b drive, it was around '97 at this point and the 486 had 8MB of ram, running win95/dos, first family computer. It ran so ridiculously fast it was impossible, funny though. Star wars Dark forces was awesome though shame it couldnt save though
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