Very nice! Nothing wrong with going with a VGA card - it was certainly an option at the time, and CGA was getting a bit long in the tooth by the time of the AT.
I'm surprised it came with a Model M with the well-known ANSI layout - not a lot of PC/ATs did. Most of them had a Model F with the AT layout, which you hardly see anymore. An old Model F, especially NOS, would have been a very nice thing to have indeed. Just as well, though, ANSI layout is better and the Model M is fantastic, especially the oldest variants like that!

I forgot just how freakin' skookum those old cases were, though, haven't seen one in the flesh since high school (and that wasn't a real AT anymore, but rather a PC/AT's case retrofitted with some earlyish 486 board, running OS/2 and serving files. Nobody wanted to try to move the thing...)

jade_angel wrote:

Very nice! Nothing wrong with going with a VGA card - it was certainly an option at the time, and CGA was getting a bit long in the tooth by the time of the AT.
I'm surprised it came with a Model M with the well-known ANSI layout - not a lot of PC/ATs did. Most of them had a Model F with the AT layout, which you hardly see anymore. An old Model F, especially NOS, would have been a very nice thing to have indeed. Just as well, though, ANSI layout is better and the Model M is fantastic, especially the oldest variants like that!

I forgot just how freakin' skookum those old cases were, though, haven't seen one in the flesh since high school (and that wasn't a real AT anymore, but rather a PC/AT's case retrofitted with some earlyish 486 board, running OS/2 and serving files. Nobody wanted to try to move the thing...)

I think the AT models with the 6Mhz CPUs came with the AT version model F, while the 2 8Mhz models came with the model M.

Ah, good to know! I didn't realize that - I thought the Model M was introduced with the PS/2, and only the very last ATs shipped with them, mostly due to having ceased production of the Model F. TIL!

Model 319 was an 8MHz model that came with Model F.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Model 319 was an 8MHz model that came with Model F.

Oh yeah, guess I didn't look at that one document on minuszerodegrees hard enough.

That's a beauty.
I'm glad it survived the postal service.

if this really has original battery cell, remove it or you eventually get a funny repair session 😳

I never liked the AT case but that thing is beautiful internally. Look how shiny and clean the mobo is!

Hah, the same can be said about the Amiga 2000! :) Some (or most ?) Amigos didn't like the look and "feel" of it (or because it was designed in Germany ?).
IMHO, the Macintosh II also shared a similar "blocky design". Either ways, that PC/AT really is a beautiful machine.
It's the grand father of our modern computers in several ways : AT keyboard and F11/F12 keys, CMOS setup, 1.44 floppy drives, VGA, ISA BUS, Protected-Mode, IDE "AT-BUS" fixed disks, etc.

Who doesn't like the original AT case? It looks even better if you get the tower conversion kit.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Who doesn't like the original AT case? It looks even better if you get the tower conversion kit.

The XT is more striking in my opinion 😉

XT has more a 70s look to it. The AT is firmly 80s square styling.

LGR just did a video the other day of the same PC new in box. Guessing you bought it from the same seller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLy_jEbuY-U

jade_angel wrote:

Very nice! Nothing wrong with going with a VGA card - it was certainly an option at the time, and CGA was getting a bit long in the tooth by the time of the AT.

It wasn't, though, not when the AT was new. EGA was the best possible option.
The AT was launched in 1984, VGA didn't arrive until 1987, when the AT was EOL, and IBM switched to PS/2 systems.
But I'm sure many people upgraded their AT to VGA at some point. Even for XTs and clones it was a reasonably popular option.

Scali wrote:

It wasn't, though, not when the AT was new. EGA was the best possible option. The AT was launched in 1984, VGA didn't arrive unt […]
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jade_angel wrote:

Very nice! Nothing wrong with going with a VGA card - it was certainly an option at the time, and CGA was getting a bit long in the tooth by the time of the AT.

It wasn't, though, not when the AT was new. EGA was the best possible option.
The AT was launched in 1984, VGA didn't arrive until 1987, when the AT was EOL, and IBM switched to PS/2 systems.
But I'm sure many people upgraded their AT to VGA at some point. Even for XTs and clones it was a reasonably popular option.

IIRC this specific machine was manufactured in 1988 so an early VGA card would definitely be period correct 😀

cj_reha wrote:

IIRC this specific machine was manufactured in 1988 so an early VGA card would definitely be period correct 😀

Well, as far as I know, production of the IBM AT ended in April 1987, when IBM introduced the PS/2 line, and VGA being part of PS/2. I don't think any ISA-based VGA was available at the time.

Scali wrote:

cj_reha wrote:

IIRC this specific machine was manufactured in 1988 so an early VGA card would definitely be period correct 😀

Well, as far as I know, production of the IBM AT ended in April 1987, when IBM introduced the PS/2 line, and VGA being part of PS/2. I don't think any ISA-based VGA was available at the time.

Correct. 'Extended EGA' or 'Emulated VGA' would have been period correct i.e. 640 x 480 @ 256 colours was achievable but, prior to the end of 1987, no other 'BIOS compatible' 3rd-party VGA boards had been released yet. This Infoworld article helpfully illustrates what was happening during this period of transition:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_z4EAAAAM … epage&q&f=false

I just picked up one of these as well, based on the LGR video. The seller sold 4 of them yesterday alone.. I wonder how many more that they have?

rkrenicki wrote:

I just picked up one of these as well, based on the LGR video. The seller sold 4 of them yesterday alone.. I wonder how many more that they have?

Hehe, according to LGR's video of the storage room, a bunch of them!