In the mid 2000's I got an interest in being a dedicated Compaq collector for awhile, because I had a clone of the Deskpro 386 right on down to the general style of the case. The Deskpro 386 would probably be my favorite PC of the 1980's.
The most I ever paid for a full system was around $60.00 for an original 1986 Compaq Deskpro 386 Model 2570 in 2003/early 04' off of E-bay. It was ALL Original complete with EGA card, I then spent another $30.00 and got the Compaq Deskpro DSM Amber Mono EGA capable CRT with it (IN the friggin original box no less). Spent that summer playing classic Sierra Leisure Suit Larry games on that setup, I felt like I was back in 1988. It even came with the Case Keys! I sold it for more than I bought it for in 2005 to fund my move and fix the transmission on my truck...Here's a pic of that one.
Most I ever spent on a barebones was on a Deskpro 286 $21.99 - It needed a new PSU so I spent another $30.00 on a new Compaq Deskpro 8086/286/386 PSU for it. The last time I ever saw it it was in the shed at Mom's house, not sure if it's still there...the monitor is the same one as on the Deskpro 386 above, I used to flip flop it between the two (the 386 spent some time on an 8-port AT KVM with seven other computers at that time).
On random hardware most I ever spent per part....I've never paid over $70 for any single part to a retro-PC, much because my biggest buying/selling days are far behind me in the mid 2000's.
Power Supply - $60 - NOS in original box 200 Watt JD Micro Devices XT PSU for the case below, which is what my 486 is using now, bought that a month ago
Case - $45.00 - NOS SongCheer XT chassis, which is what my 486 is also using, it came with a 150 Watt NOS PSU and I got to put it together right on down to the feet. I will NEVER let go of this case until probably when I get too old for this stuff (which will be awhile). It's been a Pentium 200, an XT clone, and a 486 in it's lifetime where it was used. A funny anecdote was the case was delivered 4 days before I actually got it, it was delivered to the elderly lady up the street I cat-sat for, 🤣, dagnab you FedEx!
Motherboard - $35.00 - The FIC 486-PVT I have as well, It was to replace a board that got destroyed for senseless reasons I'd rather not get into (having nothing to do with me). I'm hating the idea I'm probably going to top this soon buying another one if I can't fix this one.
Most I ever spent on RAM - again, recently, $26.00 for 128MB of FP Parity 72 pin SIMMS
Most I ever spent on a CPU for retro hardware.....that'd be the 486 DX4-100 I bought, $15, because it was a gold-scrapper special.
Man I miss the days when people just GAVE me this stuff and paid me to take it away sometimes even. Whodathunk the junk 15 years ago would be today's most desired hardware in the retro PC scene, go figure.
