IBM PS/1 model 2121 upgrades?

[AznRetroGamer]

Hey, guys...I just pulled out my first DOS based PC and want to fire it up again. Although I want to soup it up a bit so I'll see more action and less hourglass lol. My questions are

1. Video card - We all know the PS/1 has got an onboard VGA controller with 256KB VRAM. That's good for 640x480 @ 4bpp and 320x200 @ 8bpp. That was sufficient when I was 10 but I was wondering if it possible to use the ISA slot to add a 1mb SVGA card and run the monitor into it? For some 640x480 @ 24bpp perhaps.

2. The CPU is a surface mounted i386SX. I remember back then the best upgrades for this chip was a clip on Cyrix 486SLC either by TI or Evergreen. Will the PS/1 have fits with this?

3. I seem to remember a key combination you pressed during boot which bypasses ROM and goes straight to either floppy or hard drive. Anyone remember this?

4. The PS/1 audio card is too expensive on eBay. Can I use either a Sound Blaster Pro or Thunderboard in one of the ISA slots? Would prefer the SB Pro since it has a CD-ROM interface.


Thanks, hopefully this Sparks my memories.

 

[mcs_5]

1. Only if you can disable the on-board video...

4. Yes, you can install a standard sound card.

 

[ngtwolf]

I also have this PS/1. As mcs_5 mentioned, you can install a sound card, it's a standard ISA - I have an SB card in mine. No idea on VGA card, but considering the weird setup on the PS/1 with the dedicated monitor that is powering the PC, I probably wouldn't even attempt to try to use a different video card with that monitor (would that monitor support SVGA? I have no idea).

As for the key combo, I'm not sure what that is but you can actually go in there and just automatically have it boot to floppy or disk and avoid the whole crappy boot rom stuff anyway (unless you feel the need to run prodigy again). One simple way to improve that system is to pick up a CF2IDE adapter (usually around $5) and a CF card (about another $5), and set that up. That would get you a nice 500mb hard disk that would boot up super fast and get you plenty of space to store all your software/games/etc.

 

[Trixter]

1. You can't use a different video card, for varying levels of "can't". The PS/1 is a semi-proprietary setup and it would take quite a lot of effort to try to use a different ISA card, if it's even possible.

2. Yes, people have done that before (on this forum, IIRC, you may want to search all of the PS/1 posts).

4. Yes, any sound card should work just fine. The IBM PS/1 sound card has some unique properties (the version of Silpheed that comes with it is the best version released for the platform), but overall it is a terrible card for music, so any old sound card is preferable.