Custom PC - Project MUSAC

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An ice cold snapshot of 1994.

"Hey I found this old computer in a wardrobe at dad's house, do you want it?"

Music to my ears! Absolutely!

I had no idea what horror of the deep my friend had unearthed but when he wheeled on up with it, I had a feeling it was something rather neat. No external badging other than a sticker that says '486DX2 66MHz', just a plain beige desktop case that looks eerily like another Macase design, just like Project Outatime.

When I cracked it open I was shocked that it was both very very clean, and very unique - a 486 motherboard with PCI and VLB?! Fancy!

I've already had my wicked way with it and started filling it with goodies, with more to come!

Specifications

Intel 486 DX4 100MHz CPU

16MB FastPage RAM

ASUS PVI-486AP4 mainboard with 512K L2 cache

3.2GB ATA hard disk

Creative CR563 2x CD-ROM drive

ASUS ATI Mach64 2MB PCI video card

Creative Sound Blaster 16 CT2230 sound card

PicoGUS 2.0 sound card

Intel EtherExpress PRO10S network card

MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11

Windows 95 RTM

Unique features

What contrived heresy is this - for some reason the motherboard, based on Intel's 420EX 'Aries' chipset features both PCI and VESA LocalBus connectors! If someone ever finds me the mythical Creative CT6200 3D Blaster VLB...

This board also features some fine quality of life improvements, namely onboard PS/2 mouse support so no nonsense trying to connect a pointing device.

The PicoGUS has certainly added an interesting element too giving the ability to hear multiple flavours of soundtrack at any one time!

Personal history

I received a random message from my old boss's son and couldn't say no.

It turned up here as a complete assembly with a 14" Acer CRT, mushy old 101-key keyboard and a Microsoft Serial Mouse, running Windows 95 and filled with... school time tabling software?!

Hence its name - MUSAC have famously been supply school administration software in New Zealand since 1989 and this machine 100% spent time working in a school!

It has certainly relinquished the shackles of educational oppression since though!