Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-10, 10:20:

Thank you for broadening my horizon with this thread. Didn't even know these existed, let alone in such a variety. Until I came […]
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Thank you for broadening my horizon with this thread. Didn't even know these existed, let alone in such a variety. Until I came by this offering on ebay:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/PC-486-retro-Computer … s-/154826245495
palladium.jpg
281 € "for parts or not working" - they appear to be in high demand. (I did not buy that one!)
Did some research on that Palladium, apparently they were sold by German mail order Neckermann.

I did not read all the posts here, but would assume that the audio on all of these machines was abysmal.
And I really would like to have one!

How did you find one on ebay!? I was searching earlier and no matter what I put in I got back either macs (which have built in spekaers), old computers with speakers, just speakers, or things unrelated to any of my search terms. But no PCs with actually built in speakers.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2019-08-25, 08:17:

Comaq had a nice all-in-one Presario CDS series This is my CDS 524, a 486DX2/66. I also have have the Pentium 75 variant as well.

One of these is teasing me semi-locally, would be almost a day trip to go get it.

BW-halo:"No, no, no, too much cash, too much gas, not enough space."
BW-horns:"Yessssss, feel the power of the AIO side, look at it, it's perfect."

davidrg wrote on 2022-03-10, 18:52:

How did you find one on ebay!? I was searching earlier and no matter what I put in I got back either macs (which have built in spekaers), old computers with speakers, just speakers, or things unrelated to any of my search terms. But no PCs with actually built in speakers.

Well, as I initially wrote, I did not so much find it as "come by it". Have a search alert for 486 in that category, that's all.
But, I'm not in the habit of buying old machines for 281 €...

I's not going to do you any good in NZ anyway, but I found at least one other for sale here in Germany:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/r … 816218-225-7427
- And to sum up the German description for you: That dude doesn't expect to get any less money for his.

While there was quite some buzz about "multimedia" in Germany back then, the official MPC standard and those multimedia cases were rather unknown. I obsessed quite a bit about the offerings of major OEMs and outlets at the time, but none of them ventured in that area.

So, they're just rare, I'm afraid. My approach on ebay would be to resesarch certain models that were relatively numerous and search for these.
Few people who want to get rid of old PCs appreciate features like these here and include them in the description.

So, if I find one in the junkyard, I'll be happy to schlepp it home, but so far, there are two Highscreen Colani cases waiting to be restored here.

Yeah, these sorts of multimedia cases seem pretty rare here too - I think I've only ever seen two. The one I own and another of the same model that some friends of my parents had. So that probably makes restoring the one I have somewhat more worthwhile!

Mark 1 eyeball is still the best search tool, ppl who care enough to get the model name and numbers right usually want $$$ too. Perfectly formed search strings fail in the face of "Old system unit. Think it was a compact. Might be a pentium, used to have windows but the memory got full." ... when a) it's not a compaq but it's the only computer brand they could think of, b) isn't a pentium, but it's the only CPU type they could think of, c) could have any version of windows from Mac OS thru Gem to Win2003 server.

Grabbed my example of case #1 out of storage and it is as I remembered it - yellowed and a bit rusty with both the 3.5" floppy drive and hard drive mounting brackets missing (they were gone when I got the case ~20 years ago). I think a mouse and got inside at some point in the distant past which didn't help its condition. Surprisingly it had a 100MHz Pentium installed in it - guess I must have upgraded it from a 486 at some point. Files on the hard disk are dated 2004 so I guess that's about when I last used it.

The speakers are 5W 4 ohm and magnetically shielded, it has front jacks for headphones and microphone, a volume control knob and a SB/CD button to switch between the sound card and cd-audio.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-10, 20:01:

Perfectly formed search strings fail in the face of "Old system unit. Think it was a compact. Might be a pentium, used to have windows but the memory got full." ... when a) it's not a compaq but it's the only computer brand they could think of, b) isn't a pentium, but it's the only CPU type they could think of, c) could have any version of windows from Mac OS thru Gem to Win2003 server.

😁 Hell, I'd say you've probably delivered the most comprehensive, spot-on representation of the average quality of ebay listings. OK, maybe some more typos and factual errors.

Hi all!!
I love this thread! Here s my case, number 6 in the op.
Added photos of my all time favourite game!!

retro4fun wrote on 2022-05-01, 12:06:

Hi all!!
I love this thread! Here s my case, number 6 in the op.

Nice!

I am currently rebuilding a 486/66 Palladium Multimedia PC.
How do I connect the soundcard (out) with the built in amplifier (in) correctly?

ildonaldo wrote on 2022-08-23, 18:23:

I am currently rebuilding a 486/66 Palladium Multimedia PC.
How do I connect the soundcard (out) with the built in amplifier (in) correctly?

IMG_20220821_164114 (SVGA).jpg

You should be able to use a male to male 3.5mm cable and go from either the line out or speaker out of the sound card to the speaker Jack on the case and the same for the microphone. The preamp out Jack would be for connecting to an external amp and speaker setup.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2022-08-23, 18:39:

You should be able to use a male to male 3.5mm cable and go from either the line out or speaker out of the sound card to the speaker Jack on the case and the same for the microphone. The preamp out Jack would be for connecting to an external amp and speaker setup.

You mean somthing like that?

ildonaldo wrote on 2022-08-24, 10:22:

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2022-08-23, 18:39:

You should be able to use a male to male 3.5mm cable and go from either the line out or speaker out of the sound card to the speaker Jack on the case and the same for the microphone. The preamp out Jack would be for connecting to an external amp and speaker setup.

You mean somthing like that?
Out-In.jpg

Yup exactly like that.

ildonaldo wrote on 2022-08-23, 18:23:

I am currently rebuilding a 486/66 Palladium Multimedia PC.
How do I connect the soundcard (out) with the built in amplifier (in) correctly?

IMG_20220821_164114 (SVGA).jpg

I have the same case as you could see in the previous posts. Use 3.5mm TRS-TRS cable. Connect "SPK" input to "line out" on the soundcard (unless there is no one, then Speaker out on the soundcard and set the volume knob on the soundcard really low) - like on your picture. Otherwise you can mess up the case's amplifier.

Retro-PC: my 1995 Palladium 486DX-66 VLB Multimedia PC plays ... DOOM!
Finally I've got my 486 PC up and running ...
... and it plays DOOM - look at this video 😀 😀

Probably my favourite Desktop type case out there. Looking good. Congrats

Very nice ildonaldo! Let me know if you ever want to sell that setup 😉

Here’s one I spotted on eBay several weeks back, that I don’t think has appeared here, almost pulled the trigger. Anyone here nab it?

ildonaldo wrote on 2023-04-23, 17:06:

Retro-PC: my 1995 Palladium 486DX-66 VLB Multimedia PC plays ... DOOM!
Finally I've got my 486 PC up and running ...
... and it plays DOOM - look at this video 😀 😀

Wow that case is outstanding!