I too would be interested to see a list of branded high-end 486 systems which are not upgraded units. Anything which came stock with an Am5x86-133, POD83, or Cyrix 5x86.

bristlehog wrote:

I want to buy some branded 486 or Pentium based, that would look smooth enough. Desktop or tower is no big deal. But it has to b […]
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I want to buy some branded 486 or Pentium based, that would look smooth enough. Desktop or tower is no big deal. But it has to be simple in working with, with no BIOSes hidden on HDD and other surprises. It must also contain 3 or more ISA slots, vertical preferred over horizontal (so that long ISA cards won't bend under their own weight).

A good example is Compaq Prolinea 4 series:

Any other thoughts?

Hidden bios partitions didnt Compaq get rid of before the Deskpro EP/EN models if memory serves me well. HP Vectra or Dell Optiplex 486 and early Pentiums had ordinary bios, but somewhat downstripped as until today.
Today i counted 6 Compaq 486 Prolineas/Deskpros and 4 early Pentium Prolineas/Deskpros stored at work. All desktops i saved from scrapping years ago. Tried to save one of all models we had, but sadly i missed to take away one Deskpro XL with Ppro200 and Eisa 😢

I have a Compaq Deskpro 6000, it is a Socket 7 system, supports 8 slots of SIMM EDO RAM, and it is very robust and reliable computer. It also has that hidden partition bios, what i have disabled, and extracted the tools, so i can use them and change settings in ordinary DOS and Windows 3.1.

I have an MMX Deskpro 4000 and, besides the hidden partition thing, it is pretty decent. Currently stored because the front panel is broken beyond recovery, so it looks ugly as hell. Also, my K6-2 took over its retro duties, so I am not really going out of my way to find a replacement panel.