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XT machines..

R

Robin4

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2011
Messages
519
Hello all,

Iam also building an XT class machine. Because its a way time back i don`t know much about it anymore..
But i still have some questions..

- For testing purpose i have now an 8-bit vga card in it. When i going it to use to play some games with it wouldnt this xt machine getting it to much charged so it running completly slower then when iam going back to CGA / or EGA?

- When iam looking for an graphics card. There are also combo graphics card that they use EGA / VGA.. When i connecting my monitor to the VGA output would EGA support still be avaible or need it to be connect it to the EGA output?

- Is it possible to get an SCSI harddisk running in an XT class computer (the controller i have over here) Or is it to much trubble to get it going on an XT class machine..

- It it possible to get an 40MB harddisk full on an XT class machine.. I know the programs are not to big.. Or i never get it to 40mb of data...
 
Robin,

A lot of us know. And a lot of this has been covered in prior posts here on the forum. Use the search function and do some reading.


I think your first question is about the speed of VGA vs/ CGA and EGA. But the question is not formed well and it is hard to parse. It is possible that the CGA card is slower than the VGA card running in CGA mode, but on a 4.77Mhz machine it is not going to make a tremendous difference.


The second question: VGA emulates MDA, CGA and EGA modes. If you have a VGA card it will do all of those modes on your VGA monitor. You do not need the other types of monitors connected. Some video cards have multiple outputs, so the answer to the question actually depends on the exact card that you have.

SCSI is possible - you need to find an 8 bit SCSI card. I would recommend the XT-IDE card instead. Look for the threads here on the forum.
 
40MB disk is fine, how much could be used depends on the DOS version:
  • DOS 1.x - hard disks not supported
  • DOS 2.x - one partition of up to 16MB
  • DOS 3.2 - one partition of up to 32MB
  • DOS 3.3 - one primary partition of up to 32MB (drive C) and up to 23 logical drives in extended partitions (drives D through Z) of up to 32MB each
  • DOS 4.x and above - As DOS 3.3 but partition size maximum increased to about 2GB.

Running applications with VGA graphics will be very much slower than CGA, as each frame has a lot more information in it.

Hope that helps.
 
Ok thank you

So i better could use an EGA card instead?(i love to have color) because vga is much slower on XT..
 
It really depends what monitor you have and what software you want to run. Most software that was really designed to run on an XT would probably be MDA/Hercules/CGA I would have thought but you'd need a suitable screen. As said already, software for CGA/EGA can be run on VGA hardware, and at whatever speed it would be on real CGA or EGA hardware, but you'd have the (signficant) advantage of being able to hook it up to a modern screen and the flexibility to use higher-res VGA mode if required if the speed impact didn't matter.
 
Hello

Iam using now (for testing purpose) an vga LCD 15 inch VGA monitor.. So it was easier for me to buy an VGA card for it for now.. The only con is that iam thinking.. that the vga draws to much power from the processor.. So the systems goings hicky..
I love to have color, but dont like that the machine gets to hicky.. And this VGA monitor wouldnt be the real monitor to use this system on. (its only for configuring it and testing)
Iam only need to look for an monitor for it with 9 pins.. These are very hard to find these days.. But if i cant give it up for find one, i think i will find something thats matching up my XT system..
 
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