First post, by NJRoadfan
Going through parts I kept over the years, I think I pinned down all the original components. This computer was built as a family gift for Christmas of 1993. It totaled close to $3000, which was a bit at the time.
First off the specs:
-486 DX2/66Mhz
-8MB of RAM (in 1MB 30-pin SIMMs)
-256k L2 writeback cache
-486 VESA "Typhoon" Motherboard. (see notes below)
-Western Digital AC2340 340MB Hard Drive (still have)
-Cirrus Logic CL-GD5428 based video card with 2MB of RAM. I do not remember the make, but recall the user's guide had a green cover and it used generic drivers.
-generic 14.4k ISA modem (still have it somewhere, I should pull the AT strings!)
-Mitsumi LU005S "pull out" 1X CD-ROM Drive
-Mitsumi 1.2MB and 1.44MB floppy drives
-ATI Stereo F/X sound card with CD-ROM interface
-Generic Winbond VLB I/O-IDE-Floppy card (still have)
-Attractive mid-tower Baby-AT Enlight case (for some reason I still have the drive bay covers that ID'ed the make!)
-CTX CMS-1561 15" Multisync monitor
-Labtech CMS-150 speakers. (sitting next to my Apple IIgs!)
-Some 24-pin Star Micronics dot matrix printer (I hated it.... a lot, I wanted a Deskjet)
-PC DOS 6.1 and Microsoft Windows 3.10
The hardest thing by far with this machine was determining what motherboard it contained. Since both the board and the manual are long gone, I'm going by memory. The board clearly stated "Typhoon" in the manual, and I remember it having the Unichip chipset (U4800VLX to be exact). From what I could tell it was a clone of the Gemlight GMB-486UNP. The board was also sold as the Dataexpert 4407WB v1.1 and given their history, DTK likely used it as well. VHS video that I have of the machine shows the AMI BIOS vendor code of "6257" which is not identified on any BIOS website. The BIOS was the 06/06/1992 Hi-Flex core. TH99 says "Typhoon" was a brand used by "Target Micro". Seems like a generic Taiwan made deal.
This machine did receive a few upgrades in mid-1994 to the sound system. Despite what people may think of it today, the ATI Stereo F/X was a lousy noisy 8-bit sound card. So it got the following:
-Prolink "Soundplus-16" ESS688 based sound card.
-Altec Lansing ACS3 speakers with subwoofer (still in use!)
That Star printer was eventually replaced with a Canon BJC-4000 inkjet in mid-1995.
This machine at the time could run everything. I had quite a few 386 owning friends who came with their PC games (of which I made copies of) to play them. The CD-ROM was dog slow, but it got the job done. Eventually the machine was upgraded to Windows 95 and replaced with a Packard Bell on Halloween of 1995. My sister took this computer to college for a few years and eventually it was disassembled due to motherboard failure around 1997ish.
Fun Fact: This machine was built by the president of PC Enterprises, a now defunct New Jersey based company that specialized in PCjr and Tandy 1000 upgrades for the educational market.
