So, a few days ago I saw an 'unknown vintage PC' from some house clearance people on eBay for £60, I could see from the pic it was late 386 to early Pentium era so took a chance on it.

A few people on Vogons did some guessing as to what specs it might have based on phe pics in the listing.

Well, today it arrived, here's what we have:

Quick power on test reveals a 486DX4-100 and 16MB of RAM. Post beep, mem check fine. CMOS battery is dead.

I thought I could hear something rattling around inside the chassis so decided to power off and investigate inside before going any further.

There was oxidation on the rear screws and the shell was hard to get off.

Inside the case I found...these...🤣 - just loose in the top of the chassis, goodness how long they've been there.

Cable management in the case leaves much to be desired, guessing this is somebody's old home build:

Next I whipped out the VGA card:

"Diamond Stealth 64" - aka S3 Trio 64, a 2MB card from 1994.

As a long time fan of DOS game OSTs and Midi music, the sound card was the part I was looking forward to the most:

ESS ES1868 - a Soundblaster clone, according to Phil's Compupter Lab, one of the better ones. I'll pop it in the Socket 370 system tonight and put it through its paces with the LucasArts titles I already have set up on there.

Finally we have the CPU, completely bare, I did not take off the heatsink and fan, it came like this, just dangling loose - I wonder how many times it's been run like this?

Overall, I'm pleased with the buy - there's much work to do; but it's a nice time capsule and aside from the cable management nightmare, and the corrosion around the back of the case; it's working and very clean. Board looks spotless, surprisingly!

90s cable management: "Do the cables get trapped when I put the cover on?" no "All good then, no need to get anal."

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-03-25, 19:59:

90s cable management: "Do the cables get trapped when I put the cover on?" no "All good then, no need to get anal."

Heck, I still sometimes do that today, just behind the motherboard tray instead of in front of it. 😜

Heh, if we're honest, we've all seen worse cable management. I think people cared less before PCs had side windows.

I'm going to need a PS/2 PCI card. The DIN adapter I have works fine with a PS/2 keyboard, but my mouse + serial port adapter doesn't work in the serial port, it lights up so I know it's powering, but it's not seen by Windows 95. It could be driver related I guess.

Looks like an ex-school PC, along with Windows 95 there's some bloatware from RM who are an OEM who make computers for the UK education market. The most recent files on the system are from 1998.

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:44:

Heh, if we're honest, we've all seen worse cable management. I think people cared less before PCs had side windows.

I'm going to need a PS/2 PCI card. The DIN adapter I have works fine with a PS/2 keyboard, but my mouse + serial port adapter doesn't work in the serial port, it lights up so I know it's powering, but it's not seen by Windows 95. It could be driver related I guess.

Most PS2 mouses do not support working on serial ports via adapters. Only some models will work, specially the ones that came with the adapter inbox.

Some Genius and Microsoft wheel mouse or even Intellimouse come to my mind.

mmx_91 wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:51:

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:44:

Heh, if we're honest, we've all seen worse cable management. I think people cared less before PCs had side windows.

I'm going to need a PS/2 PCI card. The DIN adapter I have works fine with a PS/2 keyboard, but my mouse + serial port adapter doesn't work in the serial port, it lights up so I know it's powering, but it's not seen by Windows 95. It could be driver related I guess.

Most PS2 mouses do not support working on serial ports via adapters. Only some models will work, specially the ones that came with the adapter inbox.

Some Genius and Microsoft wheel mouse or even Intellimouse come to my mind.

Thanks for the heads up. In that case, a serial mouse might be easier and cheaper than the card.

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:44:

Heh, if we're honest, we've all seen worse cable management. I think people cared less before PCs had side windows.

I'm going to need a PS/2 PCI card. The DIN adapter I have works fine with a PS/2 keyboard, but my mouse + serial port adapter doesn't work in the serial port, it lights up so I know it's powering, but it's not seen by Windows 95. It could be driver related I guess.

Looks like an ex-school PC, along with Windows 95 there's some bloatware from RM who are an OEM who make computers for the UK education market. The most recent files on the system are from 1998.

I think we started thinking about cable management when we needed to move well over 100W of heat and airflow management became important. This coincided with the window era.

smtkr wrote on 2024-03-25, 21:25:

I think we started thinking about cable management when we needed to move well over 100W of heat and airflow management became important. This coincided with the window era.

Once again demonstrating why my lust for an ATX compliant CM5 is so rational. Only 25 watts but can handle every workload I want except one, and that\* could be handled by adding a 40W GPU.

\* Blender doesn't work on the VideoCore. Though, that's an OpenGL issue so the Vulkan builds *might* work. Either way, a Quadro P620 or T600 should fix it.

CM5 comes in Sparc, Asus, Banana and Raspberry flavors so maybe you want to be a little clearer.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-03-26, 01:15:

CM5 comes in Sparc, Asus, Banana and Raspberry flavors so maybe you want to be a little clearer.

Sorry, I thought that was implied by the context of "25W, VideoCore, can handle every workload". To be more clear, I mean the probably-upcoming Raspberry. Not fitting in a standard ATX mount was my bugbear with the previous I/O board, and no-one ever fixed it by releasing a standard-fit carrier.

Having something that fits in the space of ITX, but you can break out to slot space for expansion cards with the PCIe flex would basically be my dream ARM mobo. And as the World's Worst Recording Studio proved before I blew up the Sound Canvas; it really meets all my minimum specs.

I'd probably be even tempted by a $200 switch chip breakout board that turns 1xPCIe into 1xPCIe, 1xPCI and 1xNVME. But my core requirement is ATX mounting. Then I can put it in all my server chassis (the one with 8 sata bays, the one with the tape drive, the one with the CD and floppy and the three plain-compute-node boxes) as well as my old beige desktop case for building my dream retro-lookin home PC.

My house would just be full of fruitcake.

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:44:

Heh, if we're honest, we've all seen worse cable management. I think people cared less before PCs had side windows.

I'm going to need a PS/2 PCI card. The DIN adapter I have works fine with a PS/2 keyboard, but my mouse + serial port adapter doesn't work in the serial port, it lights up so I know it's powering, but it's not seen by Windows 95. It could be driver related I guess.

Looks like an ex-school PC, along with Windows 95 there's some bloatware from RM who are an OEM who make computers for the UK education market. The most recent files on the system are from 1998.

Haha yeah, those CDs certainly look like evidence of an under-supervised child, jamming them under the gap in the top 5.25" bay cover.

Serdashop sells a powered PS/2 to Serial adapter that would probably make your mouse work. But yeah, might be cheaper to find a serial mouse.

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:55:

mmx_91 wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:51:

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:44:

Heh, if we're honest, we've all seen worse cable management. I think people cared less before PCs had side windows.

I'm going to need a PS/2 PCI card. The DIN adapter I have works fine with a PS/2 keyboard, but my mouse + serial port adapter doesn't work in the serial port, it lights up so I know it's powering, but it's not seen by Windows 95. It could be driver related I guess.

Most PS2 mouses do not support working on serial ports via adapters. Only some models will work, specially the ones that came with the adapter inbox.

Some Genius and Microsoft wheel mouse or even Intellimouse come to my mind.

Thanks for the heads up. In that case, a serial mouse might be easier and cheaper than the card.

Any 2 or 3 button balled ps2 Logitech or Microsoft mouse is a solid bet for Serial support through the adapter. Or an OEM rebrand of the same mouse (Compaq, gateway, etc) Same with the scroll wheeled versions.

ODwilly wrote on 2024-03-26, 05:13:

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:55:

mmx_91 wrote on 2024-03-25, 20:51:

Most PS2 mouses do not support working on serial ports via adapters. Only some models will work, specially the ones that came with the adapter inbox.

Some Genius and Microsoft wheel mouse or even Intellimouse come to my mind.

Thanks for the heads up. In that case, a serial mouse might be easier and cheaper than the card.

Any 2 or 3 button balled ps2 Logitech or Microsoft mouse is a solid bet for Serial support through the adapter. Or an OEM rebrand of the same mouse (Compaq, gateway, etc) Same with the scroll wheeled versions.

Sounds good, appreciate this. Much better than a PCI PS/2 card that will have questionable compatibility with a 486 motherboard - and much cheaper than a serial mouse with an RS-232 head, they've become collectors' items.

Found a two-button Microsoft balled mouse on eBay for 1.50, basic as they come but looks clean and claims serial compatibility.

A lot of PCI PS/2 cards are actually dumb adapters with a USB chip on them. I'm not certain that there are any true PCI PS/2 cards out there. Certainly none that would work from DOS. You might be better off with a serial card.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-03-26, 06:09:

A lot of PCI PS/2 cards are actually dumb adapters with a USB chip on them. I'm not certain that there are any true PCI PS/2 cards out there. Certainly none that would work from DOS. You might be better off with a serial card.

Indeed. But a serial card I already have, in the end it was just a matter of finding a serial mouse.

I think you’re right about the PCI cards though, certainly none of the modern ones will work in DOS or Win 95.

Brought this today... now to find a beige desktop case..

I haven't seen a slot1 Celeron with the plastic cover so I snatched this beauty. It's a Celeron 300A Sl2WM.

That's pretty neat. I've never seen anything like that either.

That’s absolutely not an official Intel case! Nice oddity 😀

I got those two motherboard from two difference site yet they are arrive 1 days apart 😁