Heyo folks,

https://youtu.be/YI3yeY2sOo4

Al's Geek Lab delivers you -- my IBM 5160, complete with original 256K motherboard still in play, delivers you a slice of DooM running at ~20FPS.

Yes, it is running with an upgrade card - an Intel Inboard/386 PC
Yes, I rodded the hell out of that too, with a ParrotyError 4MB ram expansion piggyback board and an IODATA PK486 Blue Lightning 3 (IBM/Cyrix) CPU which clocks in at 96MHz!

It's wild!

Lettuce know what you think!

Cheers,
Al


hyjinx // Alistair Ross
Author of 'Back to the BBS' Documentary: https://bit.ly/3tRINeL (YouTube) alsgeeklab.com

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Al's Geek Lab -=- bbs.alsgeeklab.com:2323 (21:1/126)

Helo hyjinx!

On 07 Sep 2025, hyjinx said the following...

Al's Geek Lab delivers you -- my IBM 5160, complete with original 256K motherboard still in play, delivers you a slice of DooM running at
~20FPS.

Really cool! Love the vids! And I recognize the sound of that IBM power switch from when I used to have a PC/XT/AT... =)

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

hyjinx wrote to All <=-

Heyo folks,

https://youtu.be/YI3yeY2sOo4

Yes, it is running with an upgrade card - an Intel Inboard/386 PC
Yes, I rodded the hell out of that too, with a ParrotyError 4MB ram expansion piggyback board and an IODATA PK486 Blue Lightning 3
(IBM/Cyrix) CPU which clocks in at 96MHz!

Amazing to watch! I see sleeper builds with modern motherboards in old hardware, but seeing an upgraded IBM PC motherboard running is pretty
amazing. I don't recall seeing the keyboard, but typing on one of those
XT keyboards with the Fkeys on the left would be a walk down memory
lane.





--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

https://youtu.be/YI3yeY2sOo4

Al's Geek Lab delivers you -- my IBM 5160, complete with original 256K motherboard still in play, delivers you a slice of DooM running at
~20FPS.

Dude - that computer is so sick... I've watched you morph it into the beast it is over several YT videos!!!! So cool.



|07p|15AULIE|1142|07o
|08.........

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

Al's Geek Lab delivers you -- my IBM 5160, complete with original 256K motherboard still in play, delivers you a slice of DooM running at
~20FPS.

Yes, it is running with an upgrade card - an Intel Inboard/386 PC
Yes, I rodded the hell out of that too, with a ParrotyError 4MB ram expansion piggyback board and an IODATA PK486 Blue Lightning 3
(IBM/Cyrix) CPU which clocks in at 96MHz!

It's wild!

Thats so cool, I wonder how much further you can push it!

Is the processor on the piggyback board socketed or not? If it is I wonder what you could replace it with......

Lettuce know what you think!

You've turned that 5160 in a real Rocket ;)

Also I wonder what performance would be like using a super XT motherboard that runs at a higher clock speed than the XT? Bumping the ISA bus speed up to 8 or 10Mhz would surely speed things up quite a bit!

... A toast -- To a kinder gentler echo

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

kirkspragg wrote to hyjinx <=-

Also I wonder what performance would be like using a super XT
motherboard that runs at a higher clock speed than the XT? Bumping the
ISA bus speed up to 8 or 10Mhz would surely speed things up quite a
bit!

Timing on old ISA cards was tricky - I had an AT that I tried swapping
crystals on. Tried going for 16 mhz, ended up having to settle for 12
because of crashes. I remember reading that card timing was usually the problem.

Amazing to think back then how we got around with so little. I had a 8
mhz 286, clocked to 12, 2 MB of RAM on the motherboard, and had an AST AboveBoard with 8 MB extra on it, plus 2 socketed UART serial ports. One
of them got a 16550 to run a modem, and the system was able to run
Geoworks and Windows 3.0 (but just barely)

Those were fun times.

... Adding on
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
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Al's Geek Lab delivers you -- my IBM 5160, complete with original 256 motherboard still in play, delivers you a slice of DooM running at ~20FPS.

Yes, it is running with an upgrade card - an Intel Inboard/386 PC Yes, I rodded the hell out of that too, with a ParrotyError 4MB ram expansion piggyback board and an IODATA PK486 Blue Lightning 3 (IBM/Cyrix) CPU which clocks in at 96MHz!

Thats so cool, I wonder how much further you can push it!

The next bit of modding is to /reduce/ the clock speed actually. I am going
to change the crystal on the Inboard to 20MHz (down from 32MHz). This means I'll be able to run the BL3 CPU at 80MHz rather than 96MHz. I think that
80MHz will be better than the 96MHz because of the bus timing on the InBoard.

Is the processor on the piggyback board socketed or not? If it is I wonder you could replace it with......

Yes, the CPU is socketed. I don't think there is much more performance to
get, regardless of the CPU - this is because of the 8 bit bus on the IBM motherboard.

Also I wonder what performance would be like using a super XT motherboard runs at a higher clock speed than the XT? Bumping the ISA bus speed up to 10Mhz would surely speed things up quite a bit!

Looks like you already understand the above issue. If I changed the DMA controller and other support chips on the IBM 5160 mainboard, I could likely get the ISA bust to at least 8MHz. I did so on my

... A toast -- To a kinder gentler echo

It is indeed a kinder, gentler echo :). Lovely people!


hyjinx // Alistair Ross
Author of 'Back to the BBS' Documentary: https://bit.ly/3tRINeL (YouTube) alsgeeklab.com

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Al's Geek Lab -=- bbs.alsgeeklab.com:2323 (21:1/126)

Is the processor on the piggyback board socketed or not? If it is I w you could replace it with......

Yes, the CPU is socketed. I don't think there is much more performance to get, regardless of the CPU - this is because of the 8 bit bus on the IBM motherboard.

I largely agree, though if you could use something with more internal cache that whatever the current CPU has, it could make up for the bus at least a little....... if it works with that board.... and the board supports whatever voltage it needs.... I doubt that this will make much difference though.

Looks like you already understand the above issue. If I changed the DMA controller and other support chips on the IBM 5160 mainboard, I could likely get the ISA bust to at least 8MHz. I did so on my

Oh seems your last sentence was cut off :(

Upgrading all the chips on your 5160 sounds like quite the commitment! Are they mostly socketed or are we talking desoldering with a re-work soldering station here.

... Jesus Saves - and Dalglish scores from the next attack!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
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likely get the ISA bust to at least 8MHz. I did so on my

5162 (IBM XT/286)

Oh seems your last sentence was cut off :(

Upgrading all the chips on your 5160 sounds like quite the commitment! Are mostly socketed or are we talking desoldering with a re-work soldering sta here.

Something like a PC-Sprint to up the speed of the support chips would be necessary. That would require desoldering.


hyjinx // Alistair Ross
Author of 'Back to the BBS' Documentary: https://bit.ly/3tRINeL (YouTube) alsgeeklab.com

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Al's Geek Lab -=- bbs.alsgeeklab.com:2323 (21:1/126)