Well I can't speak for the US, but in Europe I'm not sure 286 PCs were that common in households at the time. My parents bought our first PC in 1987, and it was an XT clone with 512k RAM and a single 5.25" floppy drive. I was a kid so I couldn't tell if they got ripped off, but I remember it being really expensive - a 286 would probably have been way out of reach.

Of course things might have been different in the US where tech stuff has traditionally been available earlier and for less money.

I'm Swedish (check out the weird keyboard in the photo 😎 ) but I got my first computer in 1995 so I wouldn't really know. I'm basing my knowledge of 1987 on old issues of PC Magazine though so that would reflect the American market.

That's interesting to know then, thanks! I guess it's not very low end then, more like a normal home PC.

And if that's the case, I understand even more why the C64/Amiga/Atari ST were more of a thing here than stateside. That's a lot more bang for the buck than an XT... Unless you're all business and just want to run WP and 1-2-3 😀

MMaximus wrote:

Well I can't speak for the US, but in Europe I'm not sure 286 PCs were that common in households at the time. My parents bought our first PC in 1987, and it was an XT clone with 512k RAM and a single 5.25" floppy drive. I was a kid so I couldn't tell if they got ripped off, but I remember it being really expensive - a 286 would probably have been way out of reach.

Same here! My parents also bought an XT clone in 1987 with 640K RAM, 20MB MFM HDD, 5.25" DD floppy and a NEC amber monochrome monitor 😀 I thought it was state of the art and wouldn't let any of my friends touch it he he

Here it is:

Half-Saint wrote:

Same here! My parents also bought an XT clone in 1987 with 640K RAM, 20MB MFM HDD, 5.25" DD floppy and a NEC amber monochrome monitor 😀 I thought it was state of the art and wouldn't let any of my friends touch it he he

Here it is:

Nice looking XT! I assume it has a big red power switch on the side? I actually don't really remember how ours looked but I definitely remember the switch and the noise it made on power-up 😀

Also, 640k RAM and 20MB HDD were definitely good specs in 1987. It's great that you still have the machine. I only managed to hold on to a few user manuals from our XT and 386 era... our XT clone was model KW-520B but I never found any info online related to this model... no doubt it was one of the countless Taiwanese clones available at the time. We also had a Z-Nix mouse, with 3 buttons IIRC.

D-Braklet 2

My System

Mobo : MSI KT2 Combo (VIA KT 266A)
Cpu : AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Ram : Corsair 512 MB x 2
Vga : 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 AGP
Hdd : Seagate 80 GB IDE
Nic : 3Com Etherlink XL 10/100 PCI (3C905C-TX)
Sound : On Board ( VIA AC'97 )
OS : Windows 2000 SP4 + Amigamerlin 3.1 R11 Driver

I'm newbie here THX..

robocon wrote:

http://www.uppic.org/image-53DC_57E683E7.jpg […]
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http://www.uppic.org/image-53DC_57E683E7.jpg

http://www.uppic.org/image-AA3F_57E683E7.jpg

http://www.uppic.org/image-AE74_57E683E7.jpg

http://www.uppic.org/image-97BF_57E683E7.jpg

*snip*

I dunno if it's just me, but these images don't want to load.

SW-SSG wrote:

robocon wrote:

http://www.uppic.org/image-53DC_57E683E7.jpg […]
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http://www.uppic.org/image-53DC_57E683E7.jpg

http://www.uppic.org/image-AA3F_57E683E7.jpg

http://www.uppic.org/image-AE74_57E683E7.jpg

http://www.uppic.org/image-97BF_57E683E7.jpg

*snip*

I dunno if it's just me, but these images don't want to load.

+1

Also I have problem with that last images. Better is to use imgur.com service for them.

Tiger433 wrote:

Also I have problem with that last images. Better is to use imgur.com service for them.

Thx for advice ,

Here's my Tyan 440BX build.

http://imgur.com/a/LFflF

Antec SX1080 ATX Case
Tyan Tsunami ATX Slot I 440BX motherboard
Pentium II 400MHz (ordered a 600MHz PIII for upgrade)
256mb RAM
3.5" floppy drive
DVD/RW drive
CD/RW drive
120GB Seagate SATA Hard Drive (SATA to IDE adapter)
Windows 98SE
2GB Seagate ST32171W 68-pin SCSI
Windows 95C
Adaptec 2940UW PCI SCSI controller
NVIDIA GeForce MX440-SE AGP
Creative Sound Blaster Live! CT4780
3COM 3C905B-TX Ethernet

My retro Pentium3 PC before mobo (north bridge I think) was died:
http://ra.afraid.org/images/misc/timemachine/ … 0704_171850.jpg
http://ra.afraid.org/images/misc/timemachine/ … 0704_171932.jpg
http://ra.afraid.org/images/misc/timemachine/ … 0817_171458.jpg
http://ra.afraid.org/images/misc/timemachine/ … 0817_171508.jpg
http://ra.afraid.org/images/misc/timemachine/ … 0704_230552.jpg

Did not remember full specs. It was something like:
- MB: Intel SE440BX-2 Slot1
- CPU: Intel Pentium III 500Mhz
- RAM: 512MB (128+128+256)
- Sound Card: ISA CSS (noisy as hell)
- Video: Radeon 92xx (overheats in 3D)
- HDD: 80GB IDE Maxtor
- Network: 3com xxx 100Mbit
- USB 2.0 Extension Card
- Lite On DVD Recorder
- 3.5" Floppy drive

My first project was supposed to be finished earlier then my second one, however due some "minor" setbacks and some good sales on ebay and local places I got my 2nd project working faster then expected.
It is not done yet as I am still waiting for some parts, these are minor though.
bought a old tower recently, which I hated the colours off (spray painted it Ral 9010 and the the blue part I used some old spray paint I had from my old Volvo 264 '78)
As a precaution for the chance that my Voodoo SLI becomes to hot, I installed a additional cooler on the front that blows air to the back.
It is a very silent system with exception to the CPU cooler which has had its best days, will replace it asap.
With exception Voodoo cards this system has all parts from 1999 (not counting parts to be replaced)

Currently:
PSU Aopen (will replace ASAP with something decent)
Asus P3B-F Rev. 1.03
Pentium III 500 Mhz (will replace with a Pentium II Deschuttes 450 Mhz
PC100 256 Mb SD ram (still waiting for another 256 Mb)
guillemot Nvidia Geforce 256 32Mb (replaced the cooling as the pins were broken off and was loose)
3DFX Voodoo 2 SLI
Creative SB 64 (testing purpose will replace with a Creative SB Live! Platinium CT4670)
Seagate 20 GB IDE (waiting for a new one as this one has a few damaged clusters)
LG Dvd-rom (Don't have a proper dated cd-rom from 1999 yet)
The cd-writer is not in use and won't be in the future its to cover a empty bracket I have yet to find a cover for.
Speaker if non functioning now as I broke it when assembling it (will solder it properly in the future)

Richo wrote:

PSU Aopen (will replace ASAP with something decent)

AOpen PSUs are usually pretty decent. Often made by FSP.

I don't personally like your case as that thingy in the front makes it harder to stack more stuff on top of it 🤣

It's not done yet? What OS will it be running?

oeuvre wrote:

Here's my Tyan 440BX build. […]
Show full quote

Here's my Tyan 440BX build.

http://imgur.com/a/LFflF

Antec SX1080 ATX Case
Tyan Tsunami ATX Slot I 440BX motherboard
Pentium II 400MHz (ordered a 600MHz PIII for upgrade)
256mb RAM
3.5" floppy drive
DVD/RW drive
CD/RW drive
120GB Seagate SATA Hard Drive (SATA to IDE adapter)
Windows 98SE
2GB Seagate ST32171W 68-pin SCSI
Windows 95C
Adaptec 2940UW PCI SCSI controller
NVIDIA GeForce MX440-SE AGP
Creative Sound Blaster Live! CT4780
3COM 3C905B-TX Ethernet

What PSU are you using? The gold-colored grill often doesn't indicate the PSU being a non-crappy brand one 😢

I like that case a lot though, even though I don't really like such doors. I have a Dragon...something here that's somewhat similar, but looks kinda worn.

Tetrium wrote:

AOpen PSUs are usually pretty decent. Often made by FSP.

I don't personally like your case as that thingy in the front makes it harder to stack more stuff on top of it 🤣

It's not done yet? What OS will it be running?.

OS is win 98 SE, it was a fast install to test everything since the hd has some damaged clusters already. Will recieve a new 120Gb HD which I will divide in partitions for a dual boot WIN98 SE and Windows ME (had this OS in my first own computer which was a modded on, very stable for still have it)

Test went perfect, booted right away only some minor adjustements for CPU settings, format and clean install. Installed all drivers and a little stress test (all just in time for my night shift). The system worked like a charm will most likely start a thread soon when it's finished and maybe transplant it to a compaq case (pic in signature) this way I can stack it or at least be practical with my space (I can put the screen on top of it and the p1 nxt to it and switch with a KVM)
I do like the tower after the paint job, it's perfect for now maybe it will stay like that depending on the computers I can take from work nxt year (all compaq computers wich do include pentium 2/3/celeron maybe even some xeon). I am eager to see what's inside them besides a sit load of dust (all those computers were used for our plants IC2X program)

MMaximus wrote:

Well I can't speak for the US, but in Europe I'm not sure 286 PCs were that common in households at the time. My parents bought our first PC in 1987, and it was an XT clone with 512k RAM and a single 5.25" floppy drive. I was a kid so I couldn't tell if they got ripped off, but I remember it being really expensive - a 286 would probably have been way out of reach.

Of course things might have been different in the US where tech stuff has traditionally been available earlier and for less money.

It was the same over here, I think. Our first home computer was a used Apple II in 1987. I don't remember anybody I grew up with who had a 286 at home. Everybody I grew up with had affordable consumer models (Apple II/Tandy/Atari) until Multimedia PC Clones exploded after Windows 3.1 came out. Even at my Dad's law office, they used IBM XT's up until the '90 or '91. Even as a business expense they weren't willing shell out $30k to upgrade every 4 years just because an AT or a 386 came out.

Tetrium wrote:

AOpen PSUs are usually pretty decent. Often made by FSP.

Except the fact that FSP uses the lowest grade capacitors available. The 'F' in FSP stands for fire.

Seasonic, Delta, LITE-ON, ASTEC (when it was still around), Artesyn etc are all good. Sometimes Delta and LITE-ON use lower grade capacitors for brainless OEMs like HP or Acer.

A Dell Dimension 4100 http://imgur.com/a/52esr

raymangold wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

AOpen PSUs are usually pretty decent. Often made by FSP.

Except the fact that FSP uses the lowest grade capacitors available. The 'F' in FSP stands for fire.

Seasonic, Delta, LITE-ON, ASTEC (when it was still around), Artesyn etc are all good. Sometimes Delta and LITE-ON use lower grade capacitors for brainless OEMs like HP or Acer.

Even though I don't agree with your statement that FSP actually use the lowest grade caps available, there's more to PSUs than just the caps it uses.

Maybe you just had some lemon FSP? I've used FSP a LOT and none were ever problematic for me (I did check the caps and checked for any other damages of older FSP PSUs prior to actually using them, but it's good practice with computer parts from any brand and of any make)

It's not quite 'retro' yet, but I turned my old computer into a DOS-era to XP-era rig, including certain Steam games that are old enough to go on here - Civ3 and Doom3 atm. GTA:SA, WolfTNO, CivBE, TF2, Starbreak, and STO will go on the laptop along with non-Steam Win games that are too new for this rig, and emulation of all consoles up to gen5. Have also managed to get my hands on a VSC in addition to Munt and CM-32 ROMs.

AIDA spec shot.

MIDI devices.

CM-32 demo.

VSC demo.

dat Aptiva + IBM keyboard + IBM mouse