Here are some pictures of the IBM 5170

Very nice machine.

I think you should post pictures of the inside of the machine and also the rear, so we can evaluate what's inside it. Might want to take pictures first, and then remove each card individually and lay them out so you can take stock of what you have. If you do that I'd post pictures of all the cards as well.

First impressions:
-Those are IBM BIOS messages, and you mentioned BASIC, so it has a real 5170 motherboard, most likely.
-Check the value of the clock crystal to see what the clock speed actually is (note: it's 6 MHz, not 6 Hz). On mine, it has a 6 MHz chip, but someone upgraded the clock crystal to run it at 8 MHz.
-Nice, a 5153 monitor - one of the original IBM monitors that went with this machine.
-Dual 5 1/4" floppy drives. You'll want to replace one of those with a 3.5 inch drive for convenience. Probably will only be able to use 720K disks with it, but that's okay.
-That is not the original keyboard, and its layout is kind of odd. You can use a standard IBM Model M with this machine or try to find an original 5170 keyboard.
-Probably a CGA card - you will want to upgrade that to EGA to continue to make use of the 5153 monitor while gaining support for a vastly larger array of DOS games.
-Yes, you need to configure the hard drive in the BIOS. Post in here a picture of the drive and its controller card so we can help you out there.
-The base RAM is all in chips on the motherboard. You get 256K or 512K that way. Additional RAM is always on expansion cards. Since the BIOS counted up 640K, that means you have an additional 128K of RAM on one of your expansion cards. RAM above 1MB is extended memory, and will be counted by the BIOS but will be unusable without an extended memory manager such as HIMEM. Furthermore, between 640K and 1024K is a reserved area for BIOS functions and option ROMs, some of which you can sometimes use, but mostly is not available to you. So you pretty much have to expand your RAM past 1MB to get anything above 640K, and then your program has to be written to make use of it.

You should bookmark the following website, as it has a wealth of information on every possible aspect of this machine and its kin: https://www.minuszerodegrees.net

These old IBM machines are lots of fun to play around with. The configuration can be tedious to complete, but is usually logical and works if your hardware isn't bad.

Hi, I second all of this above! ^^

I have a few thoughts on this, though.

Instead of installing an EGA card, it might be interesting to leave the CGA card installed and add a Hercules card.
And a second monitor, maybe an IBM MDA monitor (IBM 5151).

That way, there's dual-monitor support. For AutoCAD, for example.
Or have Windows/GEM/GEOS running in useful desktop resolution.

Dual monitor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zugZGBPTSA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSzFvOQp_XM

Old AutoCAD needs register compatible CGA:
Re: MS-DOS, S-100, hi-res graphics and AutoCAD ?

Switching DOS console output is possible via MODE utility (DOS 5; MODE CO40, MODE CO80, MODE MONO).

Leaving CGA card installed also enhances compatibility with games from early-mid 80s,
which use palette switching via registers.

Neadless to say that the CGA has Composite output, so a monochrome monochrome can be added.
Or an NTSC colour video monitor, to play games using NTSC artifact colours (Composite CGA).

CGA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSzFvOQp_XM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNsK_F4JlG4

StarFlight in NTSC Composite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvl8gcy-erI

If the extra Hercules card is not used, it can be used as a cheap UMB card.
There's a driver in IBM DOS that can do it, but needs an original Hercules card (no clone).

Memory upgrade. Generally good, but it depends.
If the goal is to play 80s games like on a Turbo XT, then Extended Memory maybe is not needed.
The contrary, it may even slow down the AT due to A20 Gate switching.

An Lo-Tech 2MB EMS card might be an alternative.
It's easy to install, not so expensive and EMS was a common technology in the 80s (on higher end XTs).
Some Windows 2.x applications can use it, too.
The Sierra Collection has newer versions of Space Quest 3 etc. which can use XMS/EMS.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in for XMS/Extended Memory on an 80286 PC.
But then it has to have VGA, soundcard and a CD-ROM drive, too! 😁

He wants to play DOS games. Dual monitor is not very useful for that purpose, but EGA is.

But he wants to play DOS games from the 1980s?
An EGA card has poor CGA compatibility, unless it's a clone with CGA emulation mode.

Well, it depends on what he means by 80s, I guess.

Yes, that's true. It's up to him. Early-mid 80s was more about CGA, late 80s got more EGA titles.
Hence I meant the AT being used as a "Turbo XT".
There are some titles that are even running too slow on period hardware, despite them especially written for PC or PC/XT.
StarFlight's descending animation, for example. It's unbearable on an 4,77 MHz PC of its time.
PC/ATs or then-new AT 386s are much more enjoyable here.
(StarFlight oddly looks best on NTSC/CGA, even compared to later EGA release.)

I mean, strictly speaking both the IBM PC, XT and AT were around from the get go.
The IBM PC was available internationally since ~1983, the IBM AT since 1984.
EGA came out in 1983/1984. Unexpanded, I mean. The IBM original.
The enhanced clones with full 256KB of video RAM came out by 1985/1986.
And some games need more than 64KB of video RAM to work in EGA mode.

Edited.

PS: There are some Super EGA clones with better CGA compatibility.
How about them, as a middle ground ? Having partial register compatibility with MC6845 would be a good start. 🙂
Though I still can't stop mentioning the importance of optional Composite output for games that support NTSC artifact colours. 😉

Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. Im slow going on the project. I will post more pictures soon. I been doing a lot of research on everything involving 80s computers and gaming. My head us going to explode. So I realized I will probably have two computers for the 80s games.
This 5170 6mhz which I realize now is very slow but will play select games that need that slow of speed. I thought about selling it and getting a 386 or 486sx 16-25mhz then just adjusting the cpu speed down if I need to so I can play older games.
I also have a pentium mmx 166mhz 1990 I read you can adjust the speed down to play games as far back as 1987.
I am a complete newbie to all this 80s era of PC building, and even into the 90s can be a challenge. Im more use to Pcs from 2000 on up.
I went and ordered a new cmos replacement battery for the 5170. I was just looking into the cga ega vga monitors and video cards.
I read where you could use a isa vga 8/16 bit video card to play nice with your ibm computer and games. There is some configuration that might need to be done though.
The computer doesn't recognize hard drive or any floppy drives. I saw someone on youtube where they went to setup to get the BASIC commands to enter into the computer that will recognize your hardware so I might have to do that. I was looking into getting some ibm diagnostic floppy disks setup but i'm not sure that would work if the computer doesn't recognize any hardware. I was also thinking of trying to mod the cpu tp have 8.8mhz cpu. That's a whole other thing
for the future.
Anyway, ill keep you updated. Thanks again for all the support.This is going to be a long journey.

Can someone tell me if this motherboard has an actual cpu already??
someone has this motherboard posted on facebook and says it doesn't have a cpu, but it clearly looks like it does. I was doing some research and it looks like the slotted square socket with the holes are for a math co processor???

What about the big 486SX processor on the right???

br_i_te wrote on 2025-09-07, 05:59:

This 5170 6mhz which I realize now is very slow but will play select games that need that slow of speed.
I thought about selling it and getting a 386 or 486sx 16-25mhz then just adjusting the cpu speed down if I need to so I can play older games.

Hi, sure. But that PC/AT is fine for all 80s games, really.
CGA doesn't look that bad all time, either.
Especially the early games look good on it, they're made for it.
Alleycat isn't all there is. There are comic adaptions, such as Spiderman:
https://www.mobygames.com/game/1870/spider-ma … creenshots/dos/

Here are even more cool games from that era.
The year is 1990 and you still have a PC/XT and can't upgrade. Which games are you playing?

And if you want EGA graphics, just add an IBM EGA or an clone card.
You can keep the monitor for most games. IBM's CGA card is mostly useful for the accurate NTSC output, the clones can do RGBI just fine.

Or try out one of those cheaper Plantronics cards (ATI Small Wonder):

https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/Manufacturers/at … mall_wonder.php

Meet the "Super CGA" Cards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNsK_F4JlG4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantronics_Colorplus
Newly written driver(s) for Sierra's Creative Interpreter – Starting with Plantronics ColorPlus

Misc. information:
https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2012/09/ … e-hardware.html

https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2012/07/ … -and-sound.html

Modern games with native Plantronics support:

https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/08/ … e-strategy.html

https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2023/09/ … iew-of-new.html

br_i_te wrote on 2025-09-07, 05:59:

I read where you could use a isa vga 8/16 bit video card to play nice with your ibm computer and games. There is some configuration that might need to be done though.

Hi, you can use an ordinary ISA VGA card. The PC/AT has 16-Bit ISA slots already.

Edit:

I was looking into getting some ibm diagnostic floppy disks setup but i'm not sure that would work if the computer doesn't recognize any hardware.

Hi, a 360KB formatted diskette (5,25" or 3,5") should always work, even if the drive is wrongly configured.

If you're familiar with emulators, please have a look at PCem/86Box.
Both emulate an PC/AT 5170 model, so you can practice there if you would like.
Hete you can do try out the diagnostic diskette and so on.

If you have access to an EPROM burner, you can even use better BIOSes that are easy to use and don't need the diskette.
Again, you can practice using them in PCem/86Box if you want.

They're mentioned here:
https://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5170/bios/51 … s_revisions.htm
https://www.minuszerodegrees.net/bios/bios.htm#5170

My favorite is the Quadtel type.

PS: A good Hex editor is WinHex, it can merge/split/interleave binary files if needed.
There's a shareware version that's good enough.

PS2: Please don't be disappointed if it seems like you're "stuck" and can’t get things to work.
It's not your fault, it's not unusual in the vintage computer hobby.
We're all sometimes stuck sometimes when tinkering with those things.
But with a little bit of patience and making a pause from time to time everything can be fixed.

The boot issue, for example, can be quickly solved with an XT-IDE card.
The 8-Bit card is slow, but easy to use.

If you have an multi-i/o card or an soundcard with IDE port, you can use an IDE/CF card adapter.
A copy of XT-IDE Universal BIOS can then be booted from an network card (has ROM chip socket).
On places like eBay people sometimes sell ISA network cards with XT-IDE Universal BIOS.