Michel, my old PB 486SX50 was in a small desktop case, (like a big
pizza box) and the motherboard had a riser card where the ISA
add-on cards were plugged in. Very proprietary!
There is no upgrade motherboard to replace that, to my knowledge.
Even if there were, the little rinky-dink power supply is near
failure and probably couldn't handle the stress of a modern system.
Standard AT or ATX powers supplies won't fit in there.
If the PB in question has a different case, it may have an AT main
board, but not likely. You'll have to open it and study it and look at
pictures of AT boards to compare it with, particularly the location of the
keyboard/mouse/serial/parallel ports.
If the question is about a possible purchase of the old PB, I'd
say, "Don't buy it. Look for something better, more standard".
You can learn a little from it, as far as updating ram and cards but,
you won't get far with it, and 5 years is really old in computer years.
And the stuff you buy to upgrade it won't be any good in a modern 'puter.
I spent a couple years on my old PB, upgrading it a little and web surfing
until last Feb. when I robbed parts off it to build this; mid-tower, Abit
mainboard, celeron 300a, overclocked to 450, etc. The PB collects dust
now until I find time to get it running again as maybe a network server,
probably will be worth more to me as scrap metal. :-)
I'm also looking at A+ certification and will throw in a couple links that
may help;
http://www.brainbench.com/
http://www.braindumps.net/
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Hub/4507/aplus.html
http://cramsession.brainbuzz.com/
http://4computertraining.4anything.com/?%3B019039a
http://www.comptia.com/index.asp?ContentPage=certification/certification.htm
Good luck,
Larry Hooper
michel wrote:
> Can I use a 5 year old Packard Bell 486
> as a PC to upgrade a new motherboard on
> and experiment on so as to learn? I am
> working on A+ cert. I've heard that
> Packard Bell is propriatary though and
> may not accept another MB.
PCBUILD's List Owner's:
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Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>
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