Photos of 386 computer.

Both of these systems are pretty nice in my opinion. If you end up going with the DTK, I'd try to track down an AMI BIOs for it though. DTK BIOSes are known to be troublesome.

Yeah, I am kind of leaning towards a good 386 computer that is Non-proprietary.
And quite.
The IBM is Loud and Proprietary and expensive to own.
And the IBM has a 2.88mb Floppy. Do you know if a 2.88 floppy drive can read 1.44 diskettes ?
Adding drives to the IBM would be a big tasks too.

Adding a CDROM to the 386 would be easy. Would you use an Adaptec SCSI card or Sound card with IDE controller ?

Do you know what the limitations or known problems are with the DTK bios ?
I noticed this bios was different.

DTK branded bios doesnt seem all that non-proprietary

Intel486dx33 wrote:

And the IBM has a 2.88mb Floppy. Do you know if a 2.88 floppy drive can read 1.44 diskettes ?

You mean you haven't tried it yet? Yeah, it works, backward compatibility was the whole point.

With the 386 you can also upgrade the mobo if anything should happen to it. Fitting a cdrom drive to the 386 is a breeze. Also fitting a network card and sound card is a simple job. I use a 2gig BigFoot drive in my 386 using EZBios. Works really well. Not having a 2.8meg fdd isn't that big a deal hardly anything shipped in that format anyway. With the 386 you can use CF cards with the right adapter. Other drive options are external parallel port Backpack CDRoms, LS120 and Iomega drives.Updating the video card is a breeze as well.

No silly setup disks required to sort out the MCA configuration either.

Intel486dx33 wrote:

Con’s: IBM computer is proprietary and rare and expensive IBM Micro channel (MCA) cards CPU upgrade is expensive and rare. Propr […]
Show full quote

Con’s:
IBM computer is proprietary and rare and expensive
IBM Micro channel (MCA) cards
CPU upgrade is expensive and rare.
Proprietary drives are expensive and rare.
Will be very expensive to own.

Only drawback of MCA is the allmost unobtainiable sound card, but I am using a Logitech Soundman parport sound adapter with mine.
Network cards for MCA are availiable. Ethernet is sometimes hard to find, but why not setting up a small token ring network?
The 486slc2 is allmost not upgradable due to its 16 bit memory interface, for better CPU upgradability look for a Model 76/77.
The 57 uses industry standard SCSI drives, not the proprietary DBA drives limited to 160 MB the previous PS/2 models use.
A SCSI CD-ROM drive could be easily added, but finding the proper blinds and a original IBM drive could be difficult.
If you are going for an external drive you will require the proprietary IBM 60 pin SCSI cable.
eisapc

I put up a MCA sound card on ebay a month or so ago. It sold in THREE HOURS for $400.

let that sink in.

MCA IBM is for masochists.

Avoid MCA PS/2s at all cost, they're not really DOS gaming machines... (well they can be, but sans the sound, and splurging a few grands for a MCA Soundblaster.... IMO this isn't worth the financial pain) The ISA PS/2 models are fine however.

luckybob wrote:

I put up a MCA sound card on ebay a month or so ago. It sold in THREE HOURS for $400.

let that sink in.

MCA IBM is for masochists.

Yeah, i saw one listed for $900

Intel486dx33 wrote:

Photos of 386 computer.

That looks lovely.

luckybob wrote:

I put up a MCA sound card on ebay a month or so ago. It sold in THREE HOURS for $400.

let that sink in.

MCA IBM is for masochists.

Thats the reason not owning a single MCA sound board (besides the RS6K boards) despite owning allmost the full range of IBM PS/2 and loads of spare boards.

MCA is not for masochists but for real enthusiasts. Dealing with MCA for the last 20 years its not worse than configuring EISA machines.
comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware is allways a good source for information and meanwhile I know some of the german members personally.

eisapc wrote:

comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware is allways a good source for information and meanwhile I know some of the german members personally.

sweet! Another forum to lurk on. ^.^