Want to take a stab at identifying my 90s computer hardware from old polaroids of it? \ VOGONS

Want to take a stab at identifying my 90s computer hardware from old polaroids of it?

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First post, by dukeofurl

Posted on 2025-01-12, 19:38

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My family (based in USA) made a computer from different mail order parts in 1996. The cpu was a pentium 166, but since it was created from individual parts, it's not something I can easily look up and find. I happen to have some old blurry polaroids of it, so bit of a long shot... but curious if anyone here recognizes any make or model info for the motherboard, case or CRT?

Motherboard, no doubt a socket 7 for the pentium 166. Looks like 3 ISA and 4 PCI slots. Maybe the tan color is distinctive?

The attachment P166 motherboard.JPG is no longer available

Case. Very very tall vertical case. Lots of room for drive bays. 6 I think? I think it had a turbo button, and within the black area, displayed the cpu speed (166) via green LED numbers like a digital clock.

The attachment case.jpg is no longer available

CRT monitor. Any guess as to the make?

The attachment CRT.jpg is no longer available

A PCI video card we installed the day the pictures were taken. It was not a 3D accelerator card. You can also see it somewhat in the motherboard picture above.

The attachment PCI video card.JPG is no longer available

Reply 1 of 17, by Nexxen

Posted on 2025-01-12, 19:55

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Motherboard:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p-i-p55tp4n

Easy to spot, not only I know ASUS socket 7, but P/I is only ASUS 😀

Graphics I can't tell, guess S3.

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Reply 2 of 17, by debs3759

Posted on 2025-01-12, 20:03

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I love the case! Love large cases with lots of drive bays for high end systems of any era 😀

See my graphics card database at www.gpuzoo.com
Constantly being worked on. Feel free to message me with any corrections or details of cards you would like me to research and add.

Reply 3 of 17, by dukeofurl

Posted on 2025-01-12, 20:13

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Nexxen wrote on 2025-01-12, 19:55:
Motherboard: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p-i-p55tp4n […]
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Motherboard:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p-i-p55tp4n

Easy to spot, not only I know ASUS socket 7, but P/I is only ASUS 😀

Graphics I can't tell, guess S3.

Wow that was fast! Sweet! Totally going to buy one of these for my next old pc project.

Reply 4 of 17, by PD2JK

Posted on 2025-01-12, 20:36

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Graphics card, Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM

The attachment s-l400.jpg is no longer available

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Pluto 700 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 5 of 17, by dukeofurl

Posted on 2025-01-12, 20:45

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PD2JK wrote on 2025-01-12, 20:36:

Graphics card, Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM

The attachment s-l400.jpg is no longer available

Wow, super impressed at this ID based on the blur I provided! That's got to be it. Gotta add it to my shopping list now 🤣 Thanks!

Reply 6 of 17, by dionb

Posted on 2025-01-12, 21:15

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Also 2x 4MB or (more likely) 2x 16MB 72p SIMMs. Probably EDO, although FPM can't be ruled out.

The floppy drive is nice, looks like a Teac FD-505 combo drive. Won't be cheap to find one of those...

Reply 7 of 17, by BinaryDemon

Posted on 2025-01-12, 22:10

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For a minute I thought that board had VLB, but I spent the last 5min learning about ASUS MediaBus.

Reply 8 of 17, by Nexxen

Posted on 2025-01-12, 22:42

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dionb wrote on 2025-01-12, 21:15:

The floppy drive is nice, looks like a Teac FD-505 combo drive. Won't be cheap to find one of those...

I've never seen one for sale. Was it rare?

Reply 9 of 17, by dukeofurl

Posted on 2025-01-12, 22:54

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After just searching through images of beige tower cases I found one on a spam website, probably nicked from an old auction, that looks like a match.

The attachment 7192sYIassL.jpg is no longer available

Reply 10 of 17, by dukeofurl

Posted on 2025-01-13, 02:28

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User Oerk in this 2015 topic seems to have a PC with the same case and very similar motherboard as I did. Maybe it was a kit.
My Socket 7 "1997" Project

The case seems very similar but not identical to the Macase KS-130, a picture of which (and their entire line of "diamond" cases) is available in this thread
PC tower cases by year

Reply 11 of 17, by Horun

Posted on 2025-01-13, 03:03

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Nexxen wrote on 2025-01-12, 22:42:

dionb wrote on 2025-01-12, 21:15:

The floppy drive is nice, looks like a Teac FD-505 combo drive. Won't be cheap to find one of those...

I've never seen one for sale. Was it rare?

Yes, same with those Canon MD-5511 or 7511 dual drives..though they come up once in a while.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 12 of 17, by dionb

Posted on 2025-01-13, 06:56

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Nexxen wrote on 2025-01-12, 22:42:

[...]

I've never seen one for sale. Was it rare?

Uncommon, but not unobtainium. There are a few on a well-known auction site for the sort of price anything sought-after is there.

It's a particularly interesting choice in this system as their main use case is to save space in very small cases - they always were more expensive than two regular separate drives, whereas this is a huge bigtower with tons of unused bays. My guess is that it was recycled from a (smaller) earlier computer.

Reply 13 of 17, by wbahnassi

Posted on 2025-01-13, 08:04

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Plus maintaining them is a pain. Extra disassmbly steps, even smaller parts, if one of them totally fails you'll need to replace the entire unit. So I'd take two separate drives any day over combo drives unless size is indeed a factor... but honestly the only "case" (pun intended) where combo drives are really useful is a flatbed desktop PC with only two drive bays. So one bay goes to the combo drive and the other goes for CD drive. The most compact tower cases always have at least 2 5.25" drive bays and one 3.5" bay.. so combo is not needed there either.

Turbo XT 12MHz, 8-bit VGA, Dual 360K drives
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Intel 486 DX2-66, CL5428 VLB, SBPro 2, 2x CD
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Reply 14 of 17, by liqmat

Posted on 2025-01-13, 08:15

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That CRT manual looks to say Ultra 17. The brand logo is a tough one on the left side.

Reply 15 of 17, by PD2JK

Posted on 2025-01-13, 09:22

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Hmm... the CRT took me about an hour.

I think it's this one:

The attachment Princeton Ultra 17.png is no longer available

"Princeton Ultra 17"

Mix of an IBM and a NEC Multisync? Never heard of it haha.

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Pluto 700 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 16 of 17, by PC Hoarder Patrol

Posted on 2025-01-13, 10:57

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PD2JK wrote on 2025-01-13, 09:22:
Hmm... the CRT took me about an hour. […]
Show full quote

Hmm... the CRT took me about an hour.

I think it's this one:

The attachment Princeton Ultra 17.png is no longer available

"Princeton Ultra 17"

Mix of an IBM and a NEC Multisync? Never heard of it haha.

Brand seems to have had a pretty good rep...

The attachment dc000681.pdf is no longer available

Reply 17 of 17, by dukeofurl

Posted on 2025-01-13, 13:45

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PD2JK wrote on 2025-01-13, 09:22:
Hmm... the CRT took me about an hour. […]
Show full quote

Hmm... the CRT took me about an hour.

I think it's this one:

The attachment Princeton Ultra 17.png is no longer available

"Princeton Ultra 17"

Mix of an IBM and a NEC Multisync? Never heard of it haha.

Nice job! That's got to be it!

Wow good job everyone! I didn't expect that essentially all major parts would be identified, especially not within 24 hours!

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