Why bigtower? For all your SCSI equipment of course. The cables/terminators take more space than the drives themselves.

Oh and I promise that in a few days I'll share some pictures of my beloved systems mentioned in my signature.

octopus wrote on 2021-12-20, 09:29:

Hi everyone! […]
Show full quote

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the forum, bumped into it while I was looking into USB options for my pentium 120 rig.
What I found was lots of great info and nice comments, so why not join the fun.

The adventure for me started some 25 years ago, when my dad came home with IBM XT parts and monitors for us to play with.
Since then, I've always enjoyed fiddling with hardware, drivers and what not.
Not much is left from that time, however I still have some. Pictures of that will follow later.

For now, I'm working on a Pentium 120. It's an Escom, and last week a friend from work even found me matching speakers!
So what's inside:
- FIC PA-2005 mainboard with a VIA chipset.
- Diamond Edge 3d video card with 2 Sega Saturn ports
- Yamaha a301-g50 sound card
- 16MB of RAM
- 128 GB HDD
- Mitsumi 8x CDROM drive
- Regular disk drive

What speakers are those?

Jungtimer XP Machine:

2007 - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 4Ghz
2007 - MSI P35 neo2 Mainboard
2006 - 4x 1GB Corsair DDR2 RAM
2006 - 2x MSI GeForce 7900 GTO @ SLI (with HyperSLI)
2006 - Zalman CNPS9700 NT CPU cooler
2007 - Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650 650W ATX 2.2
2008 - Lite-on ES 128 GB SSD
2007 - Western Digital WD Raptor 160GB
2013 - SAMSUNG Super-WriteMaster SH-224DB

vad4r wrote on 2022-01-06, 08:09:

Jungtimer XP Machine:

2007 - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 4Ghz

Oh, cute!!

I did a bit of recreation of my first slim-line desktop PC-AT:

- AMD 286 NL80L286-16/S at 16MHZ (1990)
- 4MB Samsung KMM591000BT-7 SIPP RAM 30-pin 70 ns
- LM-103S motherboard with Headstart chipset (1990)
- Goldstar 3KHO IO/Diskcontroller (1993)
- Paradise '88 PVGA1A-JK VGA card (1989)
- BTC 11VO ESS1833/5 REV:A soundcard (1996)
- Escom branded slim-line case with 150 Watt PSU (1992)
- Canon MD 5501 5 1/4 " FDD
- Floppy tray 5 1/4 '' sized storage tray
- DELOCK 91624 IDE to CF backside bracket
- Gotek FlashFloppy with OLED, power LED and buzzer
- Target DH-1570M (1995) sVGA monitor
- N7R stereo sound LM-08 monitor mounted speakers (1995)
- BTC 7XX9 Keyboard
- Tulip branded serial mouse

The biggest challenge of this build is the spacing of the components. The low profile case has a riser with only 3x 16-bit ISA slots on the left side of the riser and two 8-bit on the right.
The SIPP Memory modules are also in the left side area on the motherboard. The clearance between the upright SIPP Memory modules and the bottom-most card (VGA card) is so small,
that I had to apply kapton tape to the back of the card to prevent any short circuits.

I retro-brited the faceplate of the case which was severely yellowed and applied a new domed badge and stickers for Geekenspiel.
Also, monitor mounted speakers and the faceplate of the Canon MD5501 disk drive were retrobrited to match. The faceplate of the Floppy Tray and Gotek were spraypainted to a lighter tint of grey.

Sweet setup! I have a soft spot in my heart for monitors with speakers and 286 setups. Most people stick with 808x or skip to 386.

Not much of a desktop retro setup but here is mine:

HP 200 LX (186 based, 32 Meg RAM, 256 CF based HDD, CGA through 4 shade color LCD)

HP Omnibook 425 (486 based, 4 Meg RAM, 256 Cf based HDD, VGA 256 through 16 shade color LCD)

My favorite is the LX for sure. That is such a marvelous piece of engineering and kit.

The other big caveat with these systems is that both of them run on double AA batteries. The LX is 2 AA batteries, and the 425 uses 4.

Megantonneke wrote on 2022-01-09, 19:38:

I did a bit of recreation of my first slim-line desktop PC-AT:

splendidly vintage through and through!

2disbetter wrote on 2022-01-10, 08:43:

HP Omnibook 425 (486 based, 4 Meg RAM, 256 Cf based HDD, VGA 256 through 16 shade color LCD)

would be interesting to know what you think of that screen in practical use - eg for applications and for games

Megantonneke wrote on 2022-01-09, 19:38:

- BTC 7XX9 Keyboard

This is the best keyboard layout ever. Large Enter, large Backspace, Large Left Shift and reasonably-sized Right Shift. Too bad it's non-standard.

luckybob wrote on 2022-01-09, 21:16:

I have a soft spot in my heart for monitors with speakers

Integrated speakers are also common on LCD monitors these days. But they are not as big and conspicuous as on good old CRTs (nor are they as powerful).

gerry wrote on 2022-01-10, 09:03:

2disbetter wrote on 2022-01-10, 08:43:

HP Omnibook 425 (486 based, 4 Meg RAM, 256 Cf based HDD, VGA 256 through 16 shade color LCD)

would be interesting to know what you think of that screen in practical use - eg for applications and for games

For applications it is more than enough. For games it is another story. For anything that has a lot of action and rapid screen refresh, it can become a blur. But honestly I think most of those types of games are still playable to a degree. I just remind myself that the LCD is why the whole thing can run on AA batteries.

Megantonneke wrote on 2022-01-09, 19:38:

I did a bit of recreation of my first slim-line desktop PC-AT: […]
Show full quote

I did a bit of recreation of my first slim-line desktop PC-AT:

- AMD 286 NL80L286-16/S at 16MHZ (1990)
- 4MB Samsung KMM591000BT-7 SIPP RAM 30-pin 70 ns
- LM-103S motherboard with Headstart chipset (1990)
- Goldstar 3KHO IO/Diskcontroller (1993)
- Paradise '88 PVGA1A-JK VGA card (1989)
- BTC 11VO ESS1833/5 REV:A soundcard (1996)
- Escom branded slim-line case with 150 Watt PSU (1992)
- Canon MD 5501 5 1/4 " FDD
- Floppy tray 5 1/4 '' sized storage tray
- DELOCK 91624 IDE to CF backside bracket
- Gotek FlashFloppy with OLED, power LED and buzzer
- Target DH-1570M (1995) sVGA monitor
- N7R stereo sound LM-08 monitor mounted speakers (1995)
- BTC 7XX9 Keyboard
- Tulip branded serial mouse

The biggest challenge of this build is the spacing of the components. The low profile case has a riser with only 3x 16-bit ISA slots on the left side of the riser and two 8-bit on the right.
The SIPP Memory modules are also in the left side area on the motherboard. The clearance between the upright SIPP Memory modules and the bottom-most card (VGA card) is so small,
that I had to apply kapton tape to the back of the card to prevent any short circuits.

I retro-brited the faceplate of the case which was severely yellowed and applied a new domed badge and stickers for Geekenspiel.
Also, monitor mounted speakers and the faceplate of the Canon MD5501 disk drive were retrobrited to match. The faceplate of the Floppy Tray and Gotek were spraypainted to a lighter tint of grey.

Awesome set up. I have a weak spot for the 286. Especially love the ESS Audio badge. 😀

Megantonneke wrote on 2022-01-09, 19:38:

I did a bit of recreation of my first slim-line desktop PC-AT:

I would have to agree with the comments here. This really is excellent. My first computer was an IBM 5155 in 92. I remember trying to get everything to run on that. I was limited by the CGA graphics and the 8088 in the system. I remember thinking, if only I had a 286 then I could play so much more!!!

I did get a 286 but I had it for such a short amount of time, before someone dangled a 486 in front of me. Despite all that, because I wanted a 286 for so long, and thought about it all the time, it too has a special place in my heart.

Well done here!

vad4r wrote on 2021-05-19, 19:30:

I think the distance is a bit too far for that :D […]
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I think the distance is a bit too far for that 😁

Amiga 500 "Stefanie Tücking"
Comes to me in realy bad shape - fresh from the dump...
A500 ST a.jpg
Some parts from the Mainboard were missing, brocken Case near the floppy space and to much dirt. Complete disambled, cleaning and more cleaning, solder the missing parts, bleaching and add a Gotek.
Spüler.jpgTasten.jpg

Result:
A500ST_02.jpg
A500ST_03.jpg

The Amiga came out great, i like the artwork.

Nice 286 Megantonneke ... I like the 286-16, it's like the DX2-66 of 286es

P . I . X . E . L . I
================
My 486DX4 retro-PC

For starters, just a quick post inside this gallery.
Maybe I open up a dedicated showcase somewhen later,
including all (troublesome) experiences during assembly.

System Specifications

• CPU -- Intel 486DX4 100 MHz
• Mainboard -- Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 -- Chipset SiS 85C471, ZIF Socket 3, 5x ISA, 2x VESA Local Bus
• L2 Cache -- IS61C1024-15N, 9 pcs -- 8x 1024kbit = 1024kByte, 1x 1024 kBit TAG-RAM, 15ns, DIP32
• RAM -- Samsung KMM5364103CKG-6 -- 1x 16 MB, 72-pin FPM, Parity, 60 ns, single-sided
• HDD Controller -- Adaptec AVA-2825 -- VLB, SCSI-2, EIDE PIO 4, FDD
• GPU -- Diamond Stealth64 Video DRAM S3-868 VLB -- S3 Vision868, 2 MB DRAM
• Sound Blaster -- Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold -- ISA 16-bit, 4 MB onboard + 24 MB memory module
• Sound MT-32 -- Roland LAPC-I -- ISA 8-bit, MPU-401 intelligent mode, MT-32 + CM-32L
• Sound GM -- Roland SCC-1 -- ISA 16-bit, General MIDI + Roland Sound Canvas
• Ethernet -- 3Com EtherLink III 3c509 -- ISA 16-bit, 10BASE2 + 10BASE5 + 10BASE-T
• I/O Controller -- Compaq GNT75M990 -- 1x COM, 1x LPT, ISA 8-bit
• HDD -- IBM Deskstar XP, DPES-31080 -- 1 GB, SCSI-2, 3,5"
• FDD 3,5" -- TEAC FD-235HF -- 3,5", 1,44 MB
• FDD 5,25" -- TEAC FD-55GFR -- 5,25", 1,2 MB
• CD-ROM -- Plextor PX-83CS -- 8x CD-ROM, SCSI, Caddy
• ZIP Drive -- Iomega ZIP Drive 100, Z100Si -- 100 MB, 3,5", SCSI, internal
• PSU -- FSP Fortron SPI-300G(PF) -- 300W, AT, 4x Molex, 2x FDD, power push button
• PC Case -- Task TK-370 -- PC AT, retro-brighted by submerging in H2O2 35% at 60°C for 3h
• Display -- EIZO S2133-BK -- 21", 1600 x 1200, VGA + DVI + DisplayPort

Holy moly! It's like you could only have one vintage PC so you had put everything in it 😁 Very nice setup.

I'm digging it too, good job 😀

Wow what a beauty. I love it.

Is that speaker mount on the back of the case a custom job?