My den.

The Win98 machine:

Specs:
Pentium II 350MHz
ECS P6BX-A+ (440BX) Motherboard
256MB PC133 (running at 100MHz)
ATI Rage Fury Pro 32MB (AGP)
Creative Vibra 16XV CT4170 (ISA)
Realtek NIC RTL8029AS (PCI)
Some generic modem I plan on removing (PCI)
3.5" Floppy Drive
40X BTC CD-ROM (I'm amazed this drive works so well, I remember these being junk)
LG DVD-ROM/CD-RW (Mostly there to fill the front panel until I find something better)
Fujitsu 3GB HDD
OS: Win98SE

Next plans:
- Replace the generic "POWER WIN" PSU with something a little more trusty
- Replace HDD with an IDE to SD adapter when it arrives
- Build a 386 or 486 DOS rig (though finding parts around here has been difficult...I'm sad thinking of all the 8088/286/386/486 systems I junked back in the day...)

The Power Win PSU is probably not too bad or at least worth having a look inside. They were a generic brand, but they were apparently built appropriate for the design load. As with any vintage PSU, though, capacitors should probably be replaced (especially those on the 5V SB rail).

gdjacobs wrote:

The Power Win PSU is probably not too bad or at least worth having a look inside. They were a generic brand, but they were apparently built appropriate for the design load. As with any vintage PSU, though, capacitors should probably be replaced (especially those on the 5V SB rail).

That's probably true. This system was built by the same local computer builder that I got my first new computers from (dad's friend worked there and got me a deal) and they always seemed to ride the line of using cheap, yet reliable parts.

I'll still do a re-cap later.

Some pics of both systems....

The Gateway is a 1995 Gateway 2000 P5-100 Baby AT system, and the last GREAT thrift find I made earlier last year. It was marked at $40.00, I waited and they marked it down to $10.00 - so I bought it. It was built in December 1995, and is all original right down to the 3.4GB SCSI Hard Disk as far as I can tell, and it even came with the original keys. I did upgrade the RAM though from 16MB of 64MB.

GATEWAY P5-100 Specs
CASE: Baby AT Gateway
PSU: 230 Watt Baby AT Switching
MoBo: unknown, have not dug that deep, all I know is it's a Socket 5 era board, my first Socket 5 (all my Pentium's prior back in the day were Socket 7)
RAM: 64MB EDO (upgraded from 16MB)
CPU: Intel Pentium 100
FDD: 1.44/1.2MB Combo Drive
HDD: 3.4GB SCSI on Adaptec Controller with Firmware BIOS Extension
CDR: Unknown speed CD-ROM Drive, SCSI
GPU: ATI Mach64 PCI
SND: SoundBlaster 16 Value w/ Panasonic CD-ROM interface
NET: Added, Linksys Etherfast 10mbps ISA
O/S: Windows 95 OSR2 OEM

The Gateway needs some work though. Tried upgrading to Win98SE and it failed to network for whatever reason, though my CD-R of 98SE (copied off my original CD I bought in 2002) might be bad and corrupting as a result.

The 80486 is in a "rebuild" phase right now, I just upgraded the VRAM on the graphics card to 2MB from 1MB with some SRAM from E-bay, and I'm looking for either a replacement XT power supply or a replacement Baby AT case (as I have a spare Baby AT PSU) to put it into, preferably desktop if I can find one. I'm also planning to upgrade to a DX4 and put in 512K of Level 2 Cache (32Kx8 Tag 24 pin DIP, 4x 128Kx8 SRAM 32 pin DIP). The Disk space on this thing is insane....I did a lot of "trickery". May be pushing it to the 128MB RAM maximum as well. I have tabs on a Flip-Top case for it but I'm almost tempted to get away from anything I can't just throw an adapted ATX PSU into later on.

CASE: 1989 GEM Computer Products AT Clone Chassis
PSU: Full AT PSU with Baby AT guts in it
MoBo: FIC 486 PVT Socket 3 motherboard, 2X VLB/ISA, 7X ISA Slots total (16-bit), modified to take CR2032 batteries for CMOS
CPU: Intel 80486 DX2-66 w/ Cyrix Passive Heatsink on it
RAM: 64MB FP RAM
L2: 0KB (I have an 16Kx8 TAG in there and a row of chips of unknown size in there that I tried earlier)
FDD: 1.44MB 3.5" Mitsubishi, 1.2MB 5.25" Mitsubishi
HDD: 8GB Seagate (MASTER IDE0), 20GB Western Digital (SLAVE IDE0) w/ MAXBLAST DDO
CDR: 52X CD-RW Burner (CD ROAST For DOS !!!)
GFX: S3 809 VLB w/ 2048K VRAM
SND: SoundBlaster 16
NET: Linksys Etherfast PnP 10mbps LAN
O/S: MS-DOS 7.01 w/ Windows For Workgroups 3.11 and DOSSHELL interfaces optional to load via multi-boot config (a huge one)

creepingnet wrote:

GATEWAY P5-100 Specs
MoBo: unknown, have not dug that deep, all I know is it's a Socket 5 era board, my first Socket 5 (all my Pentium's prior back in the day were Socket 7)

If that's a baby AT motherboard,it's probably some Intel Desktop Board. Looking at it,you might be able to replace it with a normal Socket 5/7 motherboard,unless the PSU has a proprietary pinout.

PcBytes wrote:

creepingnet wrote:

GATEWAY P5-100 Specs
MoBo: unknown, have not dug that deep, all I know is it's a Socket 5 era board, my first Socket 5 (all my Pentium's prior back in the day were Socket 7)

If that's a baby AT motherboard,it's probably some Intel Desktop Board. Looking at it,you might be able to replace it with a normal Socket 5/7 motherboard,unless the PSU has a proprietary pinout.

Intel Desktop Board would probably be a good bet. I was tempted to throw the 486 into that case at one point but I don't like that it says P5-100 on the front and appears to be mostly unmolested. If the Pentium ever dies though, maybe then I might swap it out. I have been playing with adding more drives to it though and putting more PCI parts in it (including a USB 2.0 card - and then use the internal connector for a USB wireless keyboard/mouse dongle).

What's kind of sad is that Pentium tops out at lower RAM than the 486 does - the 486 can go up to 128MB, the Gateway tops out at 64MB.

Put these two back together in their cases this weekend....as well as inventoried my hardware overall....

SYSTEM #1 - I'd moved this into the 286's case because it's in an XT case that uses XT form factor power supplies and the one I had died. The 486 is the "retro-system" I use the most out of the lot, it pretty much runs 24/7 and gets used daily for everything from gaming to little piecemeal tasks that I like the software on the 486 better for. It's networked, it runs multiple O/S On multiple hard disks in removable modules like Atari cartridges (or at least, it will, I need some more of those hard disk modules). The case I bought in 2004 new-old-stock from a surplus company on e-bay for $50.00 - I remember having to go two doors up the street to my elderly neighbor's house to get it because FedEx are a bunch of idiots.

Some improvements were made this go out, the most important of which was adding a fan to the cyrix stick-on heatsink on the processor so now my DX2 has proper cooling - I have a spare fan and heatsink for when I get a DX4-100 in for it (or maybe AMD 5x86 133). I plan to also top out the RAM at 128MB (yes, this board can take that much), and the L2 Cache at 512K. Just need to replace the wrong chips I have in there (a totally incompatible set of 16Kx8 TAG + 4 8Kx8 chips).

SPECIFICATIONS
CASE: SongCheer XT Chassis
PSU: J.R. Micro Devices 200 Watt XT PSU
MoBo: FIC 486-PVT Socket 3 System Board w/ VLB
BIOS: AWARD
CPU: Intel 80486 DX2-66 (soon to be upgraded to a 486 DX4-100)
L2 CACHE: None
FDD 0: 1.44MB 3.5" Mitsubishi
FDD 1: 1.2MB 5.25" Mitsubishi
HDD: Multiples ranging from 1.2GB to 80GB in removable HDD trays
CD-ROM: 52X CD-RW Burner
GFX: S3 805 VLB Video, upgraded to 2MB of VRAM, usually at 800X600 @60Hz w/ 16-bit color, though I've gone as high as 1280X1024 @8-bit color
SND: SOundBlaster Vibra 16, want to add one of those new USB MIDI Wavetable add-ons to it eventually (it has the connector)
NET: LinkSys NE2000 Compatible EtherFast 16 TP
O/S: DOS 6.22/WFWG 311, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, Linux (Slackware or Red Hat), Windows NT, Pretty much anything I can get to run on it

The 286 on the other hand was put together pretty much as it was before, except I can't find my RAMpAT card anywhere....I think it fell behind something in the closet so I'll find it later when I get around to it, I have massive purge of stuff in the closet coming on this year.

1989 GEM Computer Products 286
CASE: Full Size AT Chassis, strangely painted in a chocolate milk textured paint of some kind from the factory
PSU: Baby AT 350 Watt guts in a full size AT PSU Case
MoBo: Octek Fox II System Board
BIOS: AMI
CPU: Intel 80286-10
CoPro: ITT 802c87-12
RAM: 4096K on 30 pin SIMMS
FDD 0: Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy
FDD 1: TEAC 1.2MB 5.25" Floppy
HDD: Seagate 540MB with DDO
ZIP: Iomega ZIP 100
GFX: TSENG ET-4000 SVGA 1MB
SND: SOundBlaster Pro 2.0
NET: 3Com Etherlink III TP
O/S: MS-DOS 6.22/Windows 1.01/2.03/3.0/3.1

and now the obligatory pics

all you guys with your cases are making me jealous 🙁

My K6-2 is likely going into an emachines case.

Neco wrote:

emachines case.

The only reliable part eMachine manufactured. 🤣

lmao its true. I'm getting it from a friend he thinks the mobo fried. Hopefully the PSU is up to the task of running a DOS machine.

Brickpad wrote:

Neco wrote:

emachines case.

The only reliable part eMachine manufactured. 🤣

Not always, you must have got one of the good ones. Around 04' I rebuilt one of those computers when I was freelancing, I wound up giving someone an extra CD-ROM drive because the front cover panel on the computer broke off for the second 5.25" drive bay and superglue is not going to hold that in well.

I've always thought a cool small endeavor for someone with metal and plastic work talent would be to make retro or retro-styled computer chassis. Big ol' beige boxes with clunky push buttons in back where the paddle switch goes, and oldskool style' digital readouts out front with decimal points should you choose to toss a modern system in there. If InWin could make an ATX/AT hybrid with the Q500, I'm sure a full AT/ATX desktop would be doable with similar traits.

Neco wrote:

all you guys with your cases are making me jealous 🙁

My K6-2 is likely going into an emachines case.

Ah many of us know the feeling. I kept all of my processors and good sound cards and bins of memory, but the beige cases found themselves in the trash almost 20 years ago 😵 . They go for decent prices on ebay but the shipping is outrageous, I'm waiting for a local sale hopefully a bunch of them in one shot.

creepingnet wrote:

I've always thought a cool small endeavor for someone with metal and plastic work talent would be to make retro or retro-styled computer chassis. Big ol' beige boxes with clunky push buttons in back where the paddle switch goes, and oldskool style' digital readouts out front with decimal points should you choose to toss a modern system in there. If InWin could make an ATX/AT hybrid with the Q500, I'm sure a full AT/ATX desktop would be doable with similar traits.

Yes, a retro-looking case that can host AT motherboards and ATX PSUs would be awesome — I'm often worried that I try to get the best parts for my builds that end up relying on a 20+ year old power supply. Amiga community has recently produced new cases for A1200, btw. However, I think that a retro PC case would inevitably be large and heavy, so the logistics would certainly be quite a challenge.

jheronimus wrote:

creepingnet wrote:

I've always thought a cool small endeavor for someone with metal and plastic work talent would be to make retro or retro-styled computer chassis. Big ol' beige boxes with clunky push buttons in back where the paddle switch goes, and oldskool style' digital readouts out front with decimal points should you choose to toss a modern system in there. If InWin could make an ATX/AT hybrid with the Q500, I'm sure a full AT/ATX desktop would be doable with similar traits.

Yes, a retro-looking case that can host AT motherboards and ATX PSUs would be awesome — I'm often worried that I try to get the best parts for my builds that end up relying on a 20+ year old power supply. Amiga community has recently produced new cases for A1200, btw. However, I think that a retro PC case would inevitably be large and heavy, so the logistics would certainly be quite a challenge.

I know MTM Scientific might get more people interested in their original IBM PC kit if they actually had a chassis to put it into without having to scout out some old, yellowed, or rusty IBM PC 5150 chassis with a questionable XT class PSU. I got VERY lucky when I found the $40 PSU for the XT case my 486 sits in as that was brand new, in box, with the original manual and warranty cards from 1991. I learned from this spat how dire the PC case/PSU situation currently is.

I've looked at some of the Amiga reproductions on Amibay already and am quite impressed. PC's are coming along on the hardware side well with things like XT-IDE and all these other add-in cards and a kit PC motherboard, but chassis are kind of a problem, especially for the odd stuff like the orginal 5-slot Pc.

One way to make it more worth the time for the case manufacturers would not be hard at all. Basically, produce them as an ATX "Retro Style" case - and then have them available with multiple front I/O Panels, and 3 different rear panels to put in (PC 5-slot wide spacing, AT/XT 8-slot w/ wide hole for later 486 boards that put a PS/2 port next to the AT keyboard, and an ATX plate), the rest would be cut identically to support all the form factors supportable. One deluxe models, we could offer 2 right rear paddle switch assemblies - one with a actual switch for PC/XT/AT, and another for ATX that has a large red button in it instead.

That way, modern system builders who want something "retro" have a case that looks the part but supports all modern functions. And vintage system builders won't need to pay $100 to be shipped some old beige chassis with rust, scratches, dents, stickers, missing parts, and yellowing plastic and paint, and then find out they need to hacksaw something to fit. Could even offer colors like black or gray, and lighting and stuff - to make a system with a retro feel but has that colorful cold-cathode LED heavy gamer slant too. Then just made reproduction AT PSU - maybe even just one or two wattages like 200 and then a 300 - since old systems need nothing more than that, and most of us are cramming even our oldest retro-boxes to the gills with stuff anyway.

Another feature I'd love to see return would be the "Flip Top" case - those are GREAT for guys like me who are constantly taking parts out and putting parts in. For me, vintage PC's are sort of like a vintage hot-rod you pull into the driveway on the weekend and spend hours under the hood fine tuning it so you can take it to the track and drive it around - actually, still do that latter part technically (Test Drive I-III anyone?).

Now the Tandy 1000a - I bought this thing in 2007 for $10 at Value Village 100% original and stock, but decided to hop-it-up with an XT-IDE controller and turn it into my main XT-Class Machine. Future plans and the only other mods left are an NEC V20, 8087, one of the compatible TRS-80 style mice, and figuring out some way to control the volume to the internal speaker. I also re-adjusted the focus and voltage to the NEC I'm using with it now, the graphics are bloody crisp and clear as an LCD now, but without all the negative aespects of an LCD and all the positive ones of a CRT running low-res graphics - had to lower the voltage on the flyback (it was overvoltage a bit) and adjust the focus as well.

SPECS
Tandy 1000a
Steel Chassis with plastic cover, 3-slot version
54 Watt Proprietary PSU
Tandy 1000a system board w/ DMA and support for 8087 added (original 1000s did not have a socket for an 8087 or DMA, they were slower than the IBM PC-5150)
i8088 @4.77 MHz
360K DSDD 5.25" floppy Drive x1 (TEAC) - I kept the second drive as a backup
8GB Seagate EIDE HDD split into 4 FAT-16 partitions on XT-IDE controller, NO DDO needed, just plug n' play!
Stock 16-color Tandy Graphics
Stock 3 channel Tandy Square/Pulse Sound
3C509 based 3Com Etherlink II TP 8/16
MS-DOS 6.22 w/ Windows 1.01, 2.03, 3.0, and Deskmate II and Deskmate III installed
NEC MultiSync II JC-1402HMA Color Monitor in CGA/EGA mode
84 Key Tandy Keyboard

creepingnet wrote:

Now the Tandy 1000a ....

Great Tandy creepingnet! Where did you get your XT-IDE controller? Can one be added to a stock Tandy 1000a? I am asking because I am thinking of doing the same on one of my Tandy 1000a's as well.

retrofanatic wrote:

creepingnet wrote:

Now the Tandy 1000a ....

Great Tandy creepingnet! Where did you get your XT-IDE controller? Can one be added to a stock Tandy 1000a? I am asking because I am thinking of doing the same on one of my Tandy 1000a's as well.

Thanks', I got one of the early XT-IDE cards back when Vintage Computer Forum (now Vintage Computer Federation) first started selling them back in 2009-2010ish. Originally I had an XT put together (in my 486's case) and the XT-IDE was in that, then I moved it over to the Tandy using the BIOS for XT that I flashed it with when I got it. It was to replace the 800MB SCSI That was in it before (out of a Mac - using an old 8-bit Advanced Logic Research controller).

creepingnet wrote:

Now the Tandy 1000a - I bought this thing in 2007 for $10 at Value Village 100% original and stock, but decided to hop-it-up wit […]
Show full quote

Now the Tandy 1000a - I bought this thing in 2007 for $10 at Value Village 100% original and stock, but decided to hop-it-up with an XT-IDE controller and turn it into my main XT-Class Machine. Future plans and the only other mods left are an NEC V20, 8087, one of the compatible TRS-80 style mice, and figuring out some way to control the volume to the internal speaker. I also re-adjusted the focus and voltage to the NEC I'm using with it now, the graphics are bloody crisp and clear as an LCD now, but without all the negative aespects of an LCD and all the positive ones of a CRT running low-res graphics - had to lower the voltage on the flyback (it was overvoltage a bit) and adjust the focus as well.

SPECS
Tandy 1000a
Steel Chassis with plastic cover, 3-slot version
54 Watt Proprietary PSU
Tandy 1000a system board w/ DMA and support for 8087 added (original 1000s did not have a socket for an 8087 or DMA, they were slower than the IBM PC-5150)
i8088 @4.77 MHz
360K DSDD 5.25" floppy Drive x1 (TEAC) - I kept the second drive as a backup
8GB Seagate EIDE HDD split into 4 FAT-16 partitions on XT-IDE controller, NO DDO needed, just plug n' play!
Stock 16-color Tandy Graphics
Stock 3 channel Tandy Square/Pulse Sound
3C509 based 3Com Etherlink II TP 8/16
MS-DOS 6.22 w/ Windows 1.01, 2.03, 3.0, and Deskmate II and Deskmate III installed
NEC MultiSync II JC-1402HMA Color Monitor in CGA/EGA mode
84 Key Tandy Keyboard

There's one thing that always intrigued me, the display required for these old PCs with Tandy Graphics (also Hercules I believe), its an actual CGA/EGA 15khz monitor or 31khz's will work with that?

probnot wrote:

The Win98 machine: […]
Show full quote

The Win98 machine:

Specs:
Pentium II 350MHz
ECS P6BX-A+ (440BX) Motherboard
256MB PC133 (running at 100MHz)
ATI Rage Fury Pro 32MB (AGP)
Creative Vibra 16XV CT4170 (ISA)
Realtek NIC RTL8029AS (PCI)
Some generic modem I plan on removing (PCI)
3.5" Floppy Drive
40X BTC CD-ROM (I'm amazed this drive works so well, I remember these being junk)
LG DVD-ROM/CD-RW (Mostly there to fill the front panel until I find something better)
Fujitsu 3GB HDD
OS: Win98SE

Next plans:
- Replace the generic "POWER WIN" PSU with something a little more trusty
- Replace HDD with an IDE to SD adapter when it arrives
- Build a 386 or 486 DOS rig (though finding parts around here has been difficult...I'm sad thinking of all the 8088/286/386/486 systems I junked back in the day...)

I have 3 of those cases, one being a AT case. I love the looks of them.