response 1 of 12:

Oct 29 06:41 UTC 1997

To put it simply, the advantage of a 486 over a 386 is that the 486 is faster.
Likewise, the advantage of a Pentium over a 486 is that the Pentium is faster.
It's not like the division between a 286 and a 386, where software written
for the 386 often wouldn't run on a 286.  To get to that level, you have to
get up to the Pentium Pro or MMX, but even now there isn't that much much
software that absolutely requires one of those.

The 486 actually comes in four types of CPUs, and many more types of
motherboards.  The types of CPU are SX, DX, DX2, and DX4.  The SX has no math
coprocesser, while the DX and up do.  The DX2 is a DX that runs at twice the
speed of the motherboard (the regular DX runs at the same speed as the
motherboard).  The DX4 runs at three (no, that isn't a typo) times the speed
of the motherboard.  Then, all these CPUs come in a range of clock speeds,
but you're probably used that from your older computers.  Just make sure the
motherboard you get supports the clock speed of the CPU.

Then there's the issue of what motherboard to buy.  Motherboards with older
BIOSs only support < 540 MB hard drives, while newer BIOSs support larger hard
drives.  At the 486 level you will also get a choice of several types of BUS,
since in the 486 motherboard era they hadn't really standardized on what sort
of high speed BUS to use.  ISA was the pre-486 standard, and PCI is the
current standard.  You probably want to look for a PCI motherboard, to make
upgrading to a Pentium later more easy (any of these mother boards with
non-ISA BUSs will still have a few ISA slots).  My 486 has a VLB BUS, and I
think there were also a few other options but it's been long enough that I
don't remember what they were.

response 3 of 12:

Oct 29 13:09 UTC 1997

The machine I'm on right now has a 486DX50 in it.  I set the clock from
25MHz (CPU runs at 50MHz) to 33MHz (CPU runs at 66MHz) after adding a
heatsink and heasink compound.  It's been about a year of 8hr/day use
w/o a problem.
 
I'd go with a clone motherboard form CCS, etc.

response 5 of 12:

Oct 30 06:00 UTC 1997

  I only need 4 or 5 slots (Modem, video, controller etc).

 Thanks scott and scg for being so eloquent in your explanations of the
hardware. I now need to wait a bit while some things come together.

I'll probably be buying from a place called Bryan Computers on Jackson Rd,
and the memory from Chip Merchant. 

Has anyone done business with Bryan Computers? I know Chip Merchant is a great
place but I've never heard of Bryan Computers.

response 7 of 12:

Nov 17 19:54 UTC 1997

 I can certainly use it. 

 I'll mail you.

response 9 of 12:

Nov 17 23:34 UTC 1997

Nope.  It has to be a 486 motherboard.

response 11 of 12:

Apr 11 09:59 UTC 1998

I've got an AMD 486DX2-66 that I could part with, I'll have to see if I can
find a DX4-100 if you'd want it. I *do* have a TI486/DLC that should fit your
386 board, if that's the way you would want to go (not a real good idea).