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Huge 286 tower found

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First post, by Half-Saint

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Another dumpster find, picked it up hoping for a Pentium Pro since it's a really really tall case. It just barely fits under my desk as it measures 63cm high.

It turned out to be a Headland 286-16 with coprocessor, 1MB onboard + 4 empty SIMM sockets. Graphics probably Hercules (installed a Trident 512K), HDD/FDD controller, one 5,25" floppy and a 112MB WD hard drive (amazingly no bad sectors).

It was used either by a HAM radio club or a HAM radio operator. Plenty of HAM radio software left on the hard drive, no games tho.

Will try to take a pic tomorrow. The case is also quite nice, only slightly yellowed.

286tower.jpg
286inside.jpg

Last edited by Half-Saint on 2013-11-28, 11:37. Edited 3 times in total.

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Reply 3 of 37, by sliderider

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Jorpho wrote:

SIMM sockets on a 286? I never would have thought. What would you do with them?

Yup. I bought a board from artifact systems a while back that had them. They are only on late production 286 boards, which is probably why a lot of people have never seen them. Boards that have them usually also have a 16, 20, or 25mhz 286 installed and either a Headland or C&T chipset.

Reply 5 of 37, by Robin4

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Jorpho wrote:

SIMM sockets on a 286? I never would have thought. What would you do with them?

I think the later boards do.

~ At least it can do black and white~

Reply 6 of 37, by Half-Saint

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Jorpho wrote:
Unknown_K wrote:

You can install up to 16MB on a 286 and 386/SX.

Well, sure, but what would you run on a 286 that could use that much RAM?

Some games took advantage of extra memory.

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Reply 8 of 37, by sliderider

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16mb on a 286 is a bit extreme. I can't see having that much as being very useful except if you wanted a massive RAMdisk for lightning fast access times. 4mb is probably more than enough for a 286 system.

Reply 10 of 37, by Anonymous Coward

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How about 16MB in an original 5170? Is that being too extreme? 😎 (It's actually 16.6MB, with the last 6MB as EMS)

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 11 of 37, by Unknown_K

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For gaming 4MB was more then enough for a 286, but you have to remember nobody purchased a speedy 286 for anything but work back then. Gaming was something you did after the work was done.

A 286 is a 16 bit CPU that can only address 16MB (same as the 386 SX). Anybody loading up RAM back when was doing some serious database , spreadsheet, server, or CAD work.

I think I have one generic 286 motherboard with 4 SIMM sockets (286-16 or 20), and a few PS/2 systems that can take RAM upgrade cards )or SIMMs in a Model 30-286).

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 13 of 37, by pianoman72

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Jorpho wrote:
Half-Saint wrote:

Some games took advantage of extra memory.

On a 286? Can you name some? I am genuinely curious.

I remember two Event Horizon games that could use more than 4mb of EMS ram, The Summoning and Veil of Darkness. They perform well on a fast 286.

Reply 15 of 37, by Half-Saint

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Added pics. How do you make the inline photos visible without having to click on the link?

On another note, how do you feel about a Sound Blaster Vibra 16 CT4180? It's the oldest card I've got...

Also, check this out: Re: post up pics of your "computing area"

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Last edited by Half-Saint on 2013-11-29, 08:26. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 18 of 37, by Skyscraper

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This system should be in your keep list.

It looks like it is in great condition.

New PC: i9 12900K @5GHz all cores @1.2v. MSI PRO Z690-A. 32GB DDR4 3600 CL14. 3070Ti.
Old PC: Dual Xeon X5690@4.6GHz, EVGA SR-2, 48GB DDR3R@2000MHz, Intel X25-M. GTX 980ti.
Older PC: K6-3+ 400@600MHz, PC-Chips M577, 256MB SDRAM, AWE64, Voodoo Banshee.