First post, by Robin4
- Rank
- l33t
Here you find my other systems:
NEC V20 XT SUPER TURBO 8088 BUILD: NEC V20 XT SUPER TURBO 8088 BUILD
MY IMPRESSIVE 286 12/16 SYSTEM: My impressive 286 system!
MY ROCKING AMD 386-40MHZ: Rocking AMD 386 DX 40Mhz system build
MY ROCKING AMD 486 - ??? MHZ SYSTEM: MY ROCKING AMD 486 - ??? MHZ SYSTEM VLB
MY OLDSKOOL PENTIUM 1 SYSTEM: MY OLDSKOOL PENTIUM 1 SYSTEM
MY INTEL PENTIUM III BASED WIN98SE SYSTEM MY INTEL PENTIUM III BASED WIN98SE SYSTEM
ATHLON 64 DUAL BOOT WIN98SE/WINXP SYSTEM: ATHLON 64 DUAL BOOT WIN98SE/WINXP SYSTEM
MY 32-BIT COMPATIBLE OLDER SYSTEM LATER ON
Some information is already been outdated, so i need to updating every system.. more will come.
For now i`ll put my main focus on this system.. Because its not hard to fix and not very time consuming. Actually i hadnt planned this build really.. It came in my live by chance, when i picked up a pile of AT style computers couple of months ago.. I found an advertisement from someone who had a pile of AT style computers for free, who wanted to get rid off.. He didnt wanted to throw these systems away, but wanted to make someone happy with it.. So when i got this chance, i ask my girlfriend to go with me and pick this pile up.(because i dont own a car) After some hours (that almost takes the whole afternoon, but it was a nice day on to have experienced. And that was really worth it. So when i got home, i also was a little bit tired of that long journey so I had not much sense to look at these computers. When 2 days passed i made some time to look inside this LASER one and the other goodies.
The good news was, that the paint on the case is actually still in a decent nice state, but on the front side it looks some a bit of dirty.. The person from who this computer was, had written the drive letters on the drivers it self, what was looking messy.. and also the innerparts had some of dust covered a little bit.. But the most where in the PSU self..
My focus then wasnt on this computer at all and was more like a surprise. but actual i wanted those other cases.. And this one just came with the others. I also had checked the insides of the other computers.. But also thought what i could do with this system. When i got it i also dont wanted to sell it or giving it away, because finding an 8086 one computer is more harder then trying to find an 8088 one.. I didnt wanted to get rid of it because it gave me just a good feeling finding an almost complete system unit like this one and in this state..
The parts in this computer are:
150 watt 230volt AT old style PSU brand just v-tech own parts.
Vtech 8086 motherboard, which had a memory upgrade from 512k factory size to 640k maximum base memory size.
I think these systems have an Siemens 8086 processor (but on mine i cant see it because there is a heatsink installed on it) (want to leave the heatsink in place)
720KB 3.5 inch floppy drive (weird thing is that its needing a driver to make it usable for 720KB floppy disks, otherwise it would work only with 360KB it seems
It had an MDA/CGA 9 pin graphics card.
It came with the seagate ST-11R RLL interface card connected to a NEC D5126 RLL 20MB 5.25 HH drive in full operation.
And a chinon 360KB 5.25 floppy drive..
But i wasnt really happy with the 9 pin MDA / CGA graphics adapter, i know that its more period correct thingy. But it makes it almost impossible to find an TTL monitor for it, and to hold it compatible with more available monitors near future. (maybe i could find one TTL monitor, but if it breaks 2 years later and cant fixed that thing i would be screwed and cant use the system anymore, so i really would adapt it with a VGA card instead to make it compatible with VGA monitors.
I wasnt also very happy with the original laser I/O floppy controller board... I know thats an really oldie one from the period when 360KB 5.25 drives where more common. Its nice that is would work with 360KB drives on the fly. But wasnt very happy with the hassle, to run a driver to getting 720KB, because i thought that getting 1.44MB drives was already hard to do.
Now what i did already..
What i really was lucky on, that this system came with all of its 5.25 black drive rails, that are hard to find now days.
For now, i disassemble the whole unit, and cleaned the casing from his dust particles wiped with a damped cloth and some soapy stuff..
I have also removed the dust inside the PSU unit.. (also the fan is now cleaned) ( I only have to polish the outside of the metal, to give it a more nicer looking shine)
I have also removed the dust from the motherboard with an air canister.
I have cleaned the face plate of the 360KB 5.25 inch drive.
The plans so far are:
Changing the old 720KB floppy drive with an 720KB / 1.44MB drive one that is matches the case color. ( i want to have 1.44MB support to this system)
Changing to FDC ISA board with an High capacity one.
Changing the HDD (20MB is somewhat to small if you want to have a collection of stuff on this system)
Changing the HDD controller board.
I will give all the functions to the motherboard.
I dont know which dos version i would install, but it would be in a 3.31 - 5.0 range.
Maybe not a surprise, but the graphics board would be an ATI WONDER+ also with 512KB of ram installed.
And iam also thinking of installing an 3com 3C503 Etherlink II TP NIC card.
The rest i still a surprise here.
Some pictures as the system is now:
Stripped system unit.
The backside.
The vtech 8086 motherboard.
~ At least it can do black and white~