precaud wrote:

For the last 38 years I've been collecting (i.e. not getting rid of after an upgrade) computer gear. I've been fortunate to have […]
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For the last 38 years I've been collecting (i.e. not getting rid of after an upgrade) computer gear. I've been fortunate to have some indoor storage space to stuff it into. But that's gonna change. I need to pare it down.

I have three "pre-Pentium", "pre-PCI" PC boards/systems that I need to choose one of. I figger, nostalgia aside, I don't need three early DOS systems. The choices:
: An XT clone with 8MHz 8088, 8087, 640k. Decent selection of 8-bit IO cards for it (except HDD). Pretty basic stuff.
: An AT clone with 80286-12, 80287, NEAT chipset, 4MB ram. Many more IO cards to choose from.
: An Everex Step/25. 80386-25, 80387, ???MB ram (can't remember, but plenty). Ditto on the cards.

My past use of these machines was mostly for engineering, general business software, etc. I'm not into games.

My personal inclination is to keep the 386 and let the others go. I can always throttle it down if need be.

What's yours?

For games, the 8088 is the most useful. There isn't a lot of 286 speed sensitive software, and you can slow down to a 386 with lots of different kinds of machines.

For practical business and engineering software I have no idea. Depends on what you use I guess. I would think that all of that software would run fine in dosbox.

Everex 386. Everex made good shit.

mothergoose729 wrote:

For practical business and engineering software I have no idea. Depends on what you use I guess. I would think that all of that software would run fine in dosbox.

Yes, none of these machines would be kept for functional reasons, except to run perhaps the old EPROM burner. That's why the question is: "which one would YOU keep", not "which one do you think I should keep".

I'd keep the 386. A 386 can do anything the others can do, plus it can access protected mode.

I would keep the 386, but that's because it's both a platform that I feel nostalgic for and it runs games from an era I'm fond of (early 90s adventures/RPG).

Now, you say you're not into gaming so I assume you're only keeping these machines for hardware nostalgia alone? In that case the decision will depend exclusively on what is the era of early computers for which you have stronger feelings.

Unless you still want to code/run this business software you mention? I see no reason for that, there are far better modern alternatives and you can either target older platforms using modern compilers or run old compilers in DOSBox, VMs, etc. Old games have many quirks that sometimes make it difficult to re-create the original experience, that's the reason for forums like this one, but running old general purpose/business software is generally done out of necessity.

TheMobRules wrote:

Now, you say you're not into gaming so I assume you're only keeping these machines for hardware nostalgia alone?

Yes, the decision to keep any of them is complicated, irrational...

In that case the decision will depend exclusively on what is the era of early computers for which you have stronger feelings.

Good point. That would not be a PC-based platform, it would be CP/M-80 and early HP workstations.

I would keep the XT.
8088@4.77 was the original PC platform, and dominant for many years, there was plenty of software designed for this exact configuration. Your turbo clone may be 8 MHz, but in de-turbo it's exactly 4.77 MHz
286 - too fast for stuff made for the original PC, and a lot of the later stuff needs 386+
386 - it's 32-bit, ie. much less interesting for those into vintage...

I love the Everex machines, especially the desktops (as opposed to towers). Been looking for one for years.

Personally I'd want to save as much function as possible, so I'll tend to have multiple systems on a KVM or something like that. Or have one case and 3 motherboards.

The 286 kind of splits the difference, especially if you have speed control (a 16 or 20MHz would split it better).

I would keep the 286, I don't give a damn about the few lame arcade style games that would run too fast on it. For me its the perfect speed for sierra and lucasart adventure games and mostly good with anything the XT can do. 386 is too new for me to care, at that point I'd go full Pentium 90.

honestly all 3 they are all awesome

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Everex 386. Everex made good shit.

I recently acquired an Everex Tempo 386sx. Despite the lameness of the SX, I've been very impressed with it. The build quality is excellent.

Shagittarius wrote:

\386 is too new for me to care, at that point I'd go full Pentium 90.

Never go full Pentium.

I have decided to let go of the 8088. For that level of primitive experience, I can go CP/M.

So now its between the 286 and 386. They both were excellent boards.

Please tell me you're selling them or giving them to someone? Not binning these venerable warriors

386-25, if it is an SX, makes the 286 obsolete. Otherwise, keep them all.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Shagittarius wrote:

\386 is too new for me to care, at that point I'd go full Pentium 90.

Never go full Pentium.

A keyboard and a monitor, you owe me.

Binning 'em? I wouldn't do that....

Definitely sell them, you can get some pennies for them.

oeuvre wrote:

Definitely sell them, you can get some pennies for them.

Your avatar certainly supports that... 😀

I played with the Everex last night and decided that it's the keeper. Definintely better built than the others, but not by a lot, though; the SIIG 286 is also an excellent board.

I also had an Epson Equity II+, a 286-12 gifted to me some years ago and set aside, which was in the mix. Booted it up last night. What a turkey. Limited to 640k ram. No setup in BIOS; it requires a floppy setup disk which is unobtanium now. I'll salvage a few parts and scrap the rest.

Epson Equity II+ user manual
https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/e2p___/e2p___u1.pdf

I wasn't able to find the reference disk, but I think if you look hard enough you should be able to track it down. Or...I am somewhat confident a 3rd party configuration program like "gsetup" would work on this system.

I used to own an Epson Equity IIe. I think it's somewhat similar to the II+, except that it has a few SIMM sockets. I remember it was a fairly quick 12MHz 286 system. On 286s it was somewhat common for the motherboard to only have 640k or 1MB. The normal way of upgrading 286 memory was to get an ISA memory expansion card. I think at some point I had 4MB on my motherboard, plus an additional 6MB on two Everex EV159 expansion cards. I ran Windows 3.1 in standard mode, and it was pretty neat.