VOGONS


My retro PCs

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First post, by mael_b

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Hi,

First of all, sorry in advance for my english. I'm french and it's not easy for me to speak like shakespeare 😜

OK, so I'm new on vogon and I think i have to present my retro PCs 😀.
I have 3 machines :

Tandy 3000 nl : my first PC after a tandy 1000 which was too hard to use at my young age (7 at this time)
- IBM PC AT 286 @ 12Mhz
- 1Mo RAM 😎
- 40Mo HD
- 5"1/4 floppy drive
- 3"1/2 floppy drive
- Dos 6.22 and win 3.1

IBM aptiva 2144
- Intel DX2-66Mhz
- 32Mo RAM
- 540Mo HD
- 4x cdrom drive
- 3"1/2 floppy drive
- SB16
- Cirrus Logic 5430 1Mo
- Dos 6.22 and win 3.1
- and last but not least : roland MT 32 😊

Dell Dimension XPS R450
- Intel pentium II 450Mhz
- 128Mo RAM
- 12Go HD
- cdrom burner
- 3"1/2 floppy drive
- Geforce2 Ti 64Mo
- Turtle Beach 3D sound card
- win 98 SE

Here are some pictures of my 286 and 486 :

Tandy 3000 nl
IMG_2726.JPG
IMG_2727.JPG
IMG_2728.JPG
IMG_2741.JPG
IMG_2750.JPG
IMG_2752.JPG
I need to replace the CMOS battery...
IMG_2746.JPG

IBM aptiva 2144
IMG_2762.JPG
IMG_2763.JPG
I need to find 128KB of cache...
IMG_2768.JPG

Reply 1 of 40, by keenmaster486

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Nice. I really like that Aptiva 😀

What's the model # on the SB16 in it, and what's the video card?

What sort of video does the Tandy have (sorry, I don't know much about Tandys)

As for speaking like the Bard, just use a lot of Thee's, Thou's, and Whither's and you'll be good 😜

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 2 of 40, by mael_b

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Thank you 😀

The exact model of the aptiva sound card is vibra 16 CT 2800 and the video card is an integrated CL 5430 1Mo
IMG_1685.JPG

For the tandy, I'm not sure about the model but it's a paradise VGA :
IMG_2732.JPG

Reply 3 of 40, by GL1zdA

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Post pictures of the DELL. It's the classic beige tower in a very nice Palo Alto Design ATX Case.

getquake.gif | InfoWorld/PC Magazine Indices

Reply 4 of 40, by mael_b

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I will 😉. But i don't have any pictures right now (the Dell is at my parent's house...) !

It's this one :
dell1.jpg

Reply 5 of 40, by clueless1

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WOW! So clean and gorgeous. The Tandy especially looks brand spankin' new! Even the ribbon cables look like they just came out of a sealed bag. 😀 Thank you for sharing! My Dell Dimension 4100 looks very similar to the XPS R450 stock image you posted. 😀 Cheers!

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 6 of 40, by Darkman

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I really like the look of those older Aptiva machines.

Reply 8 of 40, by mael_b

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kixs wrote:

Populate the cache sockets on that 486 Aptiva 😉

It's in progress 😀 ! I've bought 128K of cache on ebay. Waiting to receive it !
I'll take a picture when it will be populated 😉

Reply 9 of 40, by bjt

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Nice Tandy. I like that the case looks like the later 1000 models. 16-bit slots are handy too.
Perfect EGA machine I reckon.

Reply 10 of 40, by mael_b

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bjt wrote:

Nice Tandy. I like that the case looks like the later 1000 models. 16-bit slots are handy too.
Perfect EGA machine I reckon.

Ty 😀. It's a VGA (640x480 16 colors 😎).

Reply 11 of 40, by MechaniKey

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That IBM Aptiva just begs for a Model M.

Reply 12 of 40, by mael_b

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MechaniKey wrote:

That IBM Aptiva just begs for a Model M.

Yep, I agree ! But that's hard to find.

Reply 13 of 40, by MechaniKey

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mael_b wrote:
MechaniKey wrote:

That IBM Aptiva just begs for a Model M.

Yep, I agree ! But that's hard to find.

Not exactly. They're fairly common, just overpriced all over eBay. But totally worth the high price 😀

Reply 14 of 40, by chinny22

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Hi and Welcome
Both are so clean! and even got a MT-32 😀
Whats the history of the PC's? did you get them recently or are they old PC's from your past?

Reply 15 of 40, by mael_b

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Ty 😀

The tandy was bought new in 1991. My father used it until 1995 and gave it to me (replaced by a P90 gateway 2000 😊).
It was my first real PC and I've learned a lot with this machine (I'm Project Manager in IT now and this tandy carry a part of the responsability !)

The two others are mine since a few years :
- I've bought the aptiva to have a good dos retro PC
- I've bought the Dell XPS R450 to have a good windows 98 machine

I need more room to have an other one but it will be nice to have a good windows XP plateform (with a strong PIV).
I like the dell XPS 600 but it's hard to find in France.

Reply 16 of 40, by mael_b

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Hi guys,

I search a sound card for my tandy 3000. What model of sound blaster could be installed ? Is the sound blaster pro CT1690 a good option ?

Reply 17 of 40, by jade_angel

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That'd be a mighty fine sound card for a 3000NL. Another decent one might be the ESS Audiodrive (1868 or 1869, give the 688 a pass), or maybe a non-PnP Gravis Ultrasound.

For a good XP machine - maybe you can find a Dell Precision workstation with a Nocona Xeon CPU. Those are a bit power-hungry, but they'll do well for XP, and they have PCIe (plus the Noconas are 64-bit, if you want that).

Main Box: Macbook Pro M2 Max
Alas, I'm down to emulation.

Reply 18 of 40, by YNS89

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IBM aptiva looks gorgeous!!!

Last edited by YNS89 on 2017-12-05, 10:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 19 of 40, by mael_b

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Here comes a new challenger : Toshiba t2150CDT
- Intel DX4-75Mhz
- 32 Mo RAM
- 520Mo HD
- 3"1/2 floppy drive
- ATAPI CD-Rom 2x
- Sound blaster pro 😊
- Dos 6.22 and win 3.1

It's a gorgeous notebook which can play a lot of the golden age of DOS games !
Here are some pictures :
IMG_3413.JPG
IMG_3414.JPG
IMG_3415.JPG
IMG_3417.JPG

I'm very happy with this notebook and my t2130ct have now a good friend 😉 !