Personally, I love these dell keyboards. Nice to type on and they have a nice set of media controls with a volume knob. I pick them up when I see them at goodwill. They used to be plentiful, but not as much now. Only problem is the usb ports are absolutely useless for thumb drives, and i'm hesitant to use a wacom tablet on one.

xplus93 wrote:

http://www.dengler.net/SK-8135/SK-8135.jpg […]
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Personally, I love these dell keyboards. Nice to type on and they have a nice set of media controls with a volume knob. I pick them up when I see them at goodwill. They used to be plentiful, but not as much now. Only problem is the usb ports are absolutely useless for thumb drives, and i'm hesitant to use a wacom tablet on one.

Those were my favorite of the modern Dell keyboards for a long time, have one in one of my offices at work for diagnosing issues with computers there actually, except the knob is missing (the common problem with these). I used to deploy these things new for Boeing back in 2007-2011 (Dell tech). However, there were some versions of these that I disliked, they were the earlier ones, they were too springy for me.

TBH though, I prefer clicky keyboards myself, I have a Monterey K104 for my 286, and my 486 uses a Chicony XT/AT Switchable 5161 with Alps Keyswitches. I love alps more than buckling spring Model M's, but my #1 favorite was the Northgate OmniKey 102 with the function keys down the side as I use the function keys a lot. I wish I still had the OmniKey but it got destroyed in moving.....hope to find another one or a OmniKey Ultra someday for a price under $200, RE-PC has one in Seattle for $75-100ish, but I'm not sure about paying $100 for that keyboard.

Monterey K104

Chicony 5161 XT/AT Switchable

creepingnet wrote:

Those were my favorite of the modern Dell keyboards for a long time, have one in one of my offices at work for diagnosing issues with computers there actually, except the knob is missing (the common problem with these). I used to deploy these things new for Boeing back in 2007-2011 (Dell tech). However, there were some versions of these that I disliked, they were the earlier ones, they were too springy for me.

Hmm, yeah, the older ones with the "midnight grey" color instead of black are not as good. I've got one set aside simply to match an XPS 600 that I plan on getting.

I'm a fan of my Corsair K70, but that's rather modern - for classic things, the best I've used (having never had one of those mechanical Dells or Model Ms) has to be that on the Inspiron 8000 and 8100 laptops!

Just ordered myself a Laplink 2000 kit, hopefully it's all there!

I'm actually buying one of these as I type this:

Lukeno94 wrote:

I'm a fan of my Corsair K70, but that's rather modern - for classic things, the best I've used (having never had one of those mechanical Dells or Model Ms) has to be that on the Inspiron 8000 and 8100 laptops!

Those are pretty good, they're the same as on my Precision M50 and Latitude C810. I've heard IBm ones were better. The best laptop keyboard i've used has been the powerbook 5300/3400 keyboard. It feels like a desktop keyboard, not a good one, but still far better than any other laptop keyboard.

@appiah4

OOOOO... Thats spiffy. I like it!

I think I just blew march month's retro money on something interresting....
Good or bad purchase? Personally I like it, but what do other say?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262824323891

brostenen wrote:

I think I just blew march month's retro money on something interresting....
Good or bad purchase? Personally I like it, but what do other say?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262824323891

Very nice deal, man. Even the cache is upgradable with the empty sockets. Very good graphics card and VLB controller. Complete package. 😀 Do you have any AT cases?

clueless1 wrote:

brostenen wrote:

I think I just blew march month's retro money on something interresting....
Good or bad purchase? Personally I like it, but what do other say?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262824323891

Very nice deal, man. Even the cache is upgradable with the empty sockets. Very good graphics card and VLB controller. Complete package. 😀 Do you have any AT cases?

Thanks.... I only searched for VL Controller on eBay and it came right up on first page of results (or second).
Regarding the case... Well... See that is the thing. I have no spare AT case.
To complete my collection of machines that show the hardware progress from mid-80's to circa 01, I need
two AT cases or three. If I can source beige ATX cases with holes for AT boards, then they will do.

My collection is actually a project I started on in 2013, were I decided to see if I was able to collect
a fleet of working machines. So basically.... I am nearly in goal, with 13 functional machines as of now. 😜

My FIC 486 VIP IO are in an early A-Open HX45 case, were I have mutilated a 5.25 bay cover with a switch.
So yeah.... ATX's can do. Real AT's are preferable, just, they have dried horrible up. 🙁

EDIT:
I have seen people reporting about searching for something else, and a good deal came up instead.
Just never ever thought that it would happen to me personally. 😀

brostenen wrote:

I think I just blew march month's retro money on something interresting....
Good or bad purchase? Personally I like it, but what do other say?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262824323891

I have the same boards here..

One is the 4AHT version, the other is the 4AH cheaper version without VRM.. (that last one iam going to mod)

These boards are from 1994.. The highest cpu you can use is the AMD 486 DX4 120 Mhz.. Maybe it will support overdrive processors, but not more then that.

Robin4 wrote:

I have the same boards here.. […]
Show full quote

brostenen wrote:

I think I just blew march month's retro money on something interresting....
Good or bad purchase? Personally I like it, but what do other say?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262824323891

I have the same boards here..

One is the 4AHT version, the other is the 4AH cheaper version without VRM.. (that last one iam going to mod)

These boards are from 1994.. The highest cpu you can use is the AMD 486 DX4 120 Mhz.. Maybe it will support overdrive processors, but not more then that.

No worries. I am going to recreate my DX2-66 system that I bought in 1995. 😀 Or at least something that reminds of it. The original board was an Edom VLB board, that had 3 VLB slots. Same CL model though, with 1mb on the one I had back then.

brostenen wrote:

I think I just blew march month's retro money on something interresting....
Good or bad purchase? Personally I like it, but what do other say?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262824323891

I'd say for that price and that much hardware you'd have a hard time going wrong. Bare motherboards are pretty much the same price. I guess you gotta wait in silence till April for a soundblaster though. 😜

xplus93 wrote:

brostenen wrote:

I think I just blew march month's retro money on something interresting....
Good or bad purchase? Personally I like it, but what do other say?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262824323891

I'd say for that price and that much hardware you'd have a hard time going wrong. Bare motherboards are pretty much the same price. I guess you gotta wait in silence till April for a soundblaster though. 😜

Actually the same thought that hit me, at 4am. The board goes for roughly the same as the complete bundle.
I guess I can put it in another perspective. Motherboard + free bonus items. 😀 (or something)

For the soundcard, I am planning to look for an Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16 (if I remember the name correctly)
This was my first soundcard, that I ever had. On the other hand, I had that in my first Computer, that I ever bought.
Wich were an Cyrix 486 SLC-2 (50 or 66. I can't remember) with 4mb of ram, ET4000 and 120mb HDD.
So I might not feel that it belongs in a DX2 system, in wich I used to run a SB16-Value CT2770.

Finally... I have a nice stash of ISA soundcards. And I think I might use one of my SB16's instead.
If I eventually go all out on era correct cards, I might be using my Creative AWE32 CT3900 card.
It is sitting inside a box, packed in an antistatic bag doing nothing as of now.

Anyway.... That is for the future, for me to figure out what to do.

brostenen wrote:

Finally... I have a nice stash of ISA soundcards. And I think I might use one of my SB16's instead.
If I eventually go all out on era correct cards, I might be using my Creative AWE32 CT3900 card.
It is sitting inside a box, packed in an antistatic bag doing nothing as of now.

I'd say go with that, i've got a CT3600 and I love it. Need to put some SIMMs in it though.

Robin4 wrote:

One is the 4AHT version, the other is the 4AH cheaper version without VRM.. (that last one iam going to mod)

Looking more close at the pictures, I kind of think I spot a Voltage regulator.
Is that correct or wrong? (It is on the last picture)

brostenen wrote:

Robin4 wrote:

One is the 4AHT version, the other is the 4AH cheaper version without VRM.. (that last one iam going to mod)

Looking more close at the pictures, I kind of think I spot a Voltage regulator.
Is that correct or wrong? (It is on the last picture)

Looks like it to me as well with the heatsink.

xplus93 wrote:

Lukeno94 wrote:

I'm a fan of my Corsair K70, but that's rather modern - for classic things, the best I've used (having never had one of those mechanical Dells or Model Ms) has to be that on the Inspiron 8000 and 8100 laptops!

Those are pretty good, they're the same as on my Precision M50 and Latitude C810. I've heard IBm ones were better. The best laptop keyboard i've used has been the powerbook 5300/3400 keyboard. It feels like a desktop keyboard, not a good one, but still far better than any other laptop keyboard.

As someone with a whole bunch of ThinkPads; the Inspiron's metal contacts are just far in advance of any IBM ThinkPad I've ever used.

I bought two motherboards today (drunk bidding, again). I'm not sure if they work and there's one that looks quite odd to me:

It's a Daewoo (I just hate this brand) VLB motherboard. I don't know how to fit these PS/2 interfaces in any typical case, so it's probably propietary (although it does not propietary to the extent IBM or Compaq boards are).

What seems interesting:
- mentioned PS2 interface;
- UMC chipset;
- integrated IDE and FDD controller;
- two VLB slots;
- integrated beeper.

Where's the CMOS battery?

EDIT: Nvm, looks like it's already been removed? (below PS2 ports)