VOGONS


First post, by Imito

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Back in 1993, IBM released the PS/1 2168
One of the last IBM PS/1 machines, was equipped with 486DX or DX2
Model 2168 was a tower. It had more 3.5" and 5.25" bays as well as ISA expansion slots present on a special daughterboard. In front, a sliding cover is a characterisitcal part of this machine
There was a variety of 2168 submodels, so in some units the volume trimmer in front controlled the volume of MWave sound chip, while in older units it controls PC Speaker.

5c7cd2bf132ca5836571dbea.jpg

it was the windows 3.1 era, and this machine i think came with many different motherboards too.

1. I know some models of these were sold WITHOUT (speakers, CD-ROM drive, volume trimmer, soundcard)
2. Some models were sold WITH Speakers, CD-ROM drive , volume trimmer, soundcard.

the motherboard i have only has 1 ide connector for floppy drive, and 1 ide connector for the hard drive.
So i am wondering how did they connect a CD-ROM drive to the base models?

Was the CD-ROM drive connected directly to an IBM soundcard using an ide cable?
Was the CD-ROM drive connected with the same IDE cable as slave that is connected to the Hard drive?
was the CD-ROM drive connected to a special ISA card (that the base model did not have) to make it work?

i am trying to understand how to upgrade it with a cd-rom drive, what are the possibilities that can work, in order to install a cd-rom drive into the most base model that did not game with a soundcard nor with a cd-rom drive.

Reply 1 of 6, by NeoG_

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I am speculating but it's unlikely this system has ATAPI support in the BIOS, which means that you would need to use option 2 or 3 as connecting a CD-ROM to the motherboard IDE header won't do anything. They are basically the same option except one is a combo controller+sound card and one is just the controller card.

In 1993 it almost certainly would have been an MKE/Panasonic, Sony, LMSI/Philips or SCSI CD-ROM rather than IDE. If it came with a sound blaster and CD-ROM as an option package, definitely MKE/Panasonic.

98/DOS Rig: BabyAT AladdinV, K6-2+/550, V3 2000, 128MB PC100, 20GB HDD, 128GB SD2IDE, SB Live!, SB16-SCSI, PicoGUS, WP32 McCake, iNFRA CD, ZIP100
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Reply 2 of 6, by theelf

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I have same computer, i was thinking like you... "what was original cdrom drive?" and some other stuff, like what was original speakers etc

Finally i found this picture

The attachment IMG-20221109-WA0022.jpg is no longer available

I open this thread some time ago

Re: IBM PS/1 Help to identify speakers

I found the speakers!

The attachment IMG_20221201_124856.jpg is no longer available

About CDROM, if you look at pictures, is a Matsushita that can use MKE-Panasonic CD-ROM interface or IDE

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ7uPeM4GNdaAsGFHzBAghZNnO-hB2dhR_dUw&s

In theretroweb i can see still MKE interface units was made in 94,

https://theretroweb.com/cddrives/433

I dont really think any IBM came with CDROM in IDE interface. But i dont know exactly what sound card they use, in mine came a MWAVE, that dont have any cdrom connector

Reply 3 of 6, by Imito

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nice ! that picture is great, i did not know they sold these with labtec speakers back then!

so this machine should work in theory under pure DOS, with a soundblaster card isa card , that has the IDE connector, (not MKE/Panasonic, Sony, LMSI/Philips or SCSI)
and attaching any branded IDE cdrom drive

right?

Reply 4 of 6, by theelf

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Imito wrote on 2026-03-28, 13:02:
nice ! that picture is great, i did not know they sold these with labtec speakers back then! […]
Show full quote

nice ! that picture is great, i did not know they sold these with labtec speakers back then!

so this machine should work in theory under pure DOS, with a soundblaster card isa card , that has the IDE connector, (not MKE/Panasonic, Sony, LMSI/Philips or SCSI)
and attaching any branded IDE cdrom drive

right?

I have this IBM with a IDE 128GB HDD in master, in slave a panasonic 12x CD like picture, and a AWE64 with IDE and i attach a ZIP 100 pata

You can connect the cdrom to internal ide or sound card is same

i upgrade to DX4/100mhz and 256kb cache, the onboard Cirrus is a nice VLB card, the computer perform very well

Reply 5 of 6, by Imito

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theelf wrote on 2026-03-28, 20:55:
I have this IBM with a IDE 128GB HDD in master, in slave a panasonic 12x CD like picture, and a AWE64 with IDE and i attach a ZI […]
Show full quote
Imito wrote on 2026-03-28, 13:02:
nice ! that picture is great, i did not know they sold these with labtec speakers back then! […]
Show full quote

nice ! that picture is great, i did not know they sold these with labtec speakers back then!

so this machine should work in theory under pure DOS, with a soundblaster card isa card , that has the IDE connector, (not MKE/Panasonic, Sony, LMSI/Philips or SCSI)
and attaching any branded IDE cdrom drive

right?

I have this IBM with a IDE 128GB HDD in master, in slave a panasonic 12x CD like picture, and a AWE64 with IDE and i attach a ZIP 100 pata

You can connect the cdrom to internal ide or sound card is same

i upgrade to DX4/100mhz and 256kb cache, the onboard Cirrus is a nice VLB card, the computer perform very well

I did the same! Intel DX4 Overdrive 1oo mhz , and 256 cache. and kept the onboard cirrus logic.
the fast isa cards are kind of expensive, and the 83overdrive is too expensive

you said "You can connect the cdrom to internal ide or sound card is same" so 1 ide cable from the motherboard goes to the HDD and also the cdrom drive? and it will work? i didn´t know that.
can you share some pictures from the inside to see , maybe you have another motherboard

Reply 6 of 6, by theelf

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Imito wrote on 2026-03-28, 23:08:
I did the same! Intel DX4 Overdrive 1oo mhz , and 256 cache. and kept the onboard cirrus logic. the fast isa cards are kind of […]
Show full quote
theelf wrote on 2026-03-28, 20:55:
I have this IBM with a IDE 128GB HDD in master, in slave a panasonic 12x CD like picture, and a AWE64 with IDE and i attach a ZI […]
Show full quote
Imito wrote on 2026-03-28, 13:02:
nice ! that picture is great, i did not know they sold these with labtec speakers back then! […]
Show full quote

nice ! that picture is great, i did not know they sold these with labtec speakers back then!

so this machine should work in theory under pure DOS, with a soundblaster card isa card , that has the IDE connector, (not MKE/Panasonic, Sony, LMSI/Philips or SCSI)
and attaching any branded IDE cdrom drive

right?

I have this IBM with a IDE 128GB HDD in master, in slave a panasonic 12x CD like picture, and a AWE64 with IDE and i attach a ZIP 100 pata

You can connect the cdrom to internal ide or sound card is same

i upgrade to DX4/100mhz and 256kb cache, the onboard Cirrus is a nice VLB card, the computer perform very well

I did the same! Intel DX4 Overdrive 1oo mhz , and 256 cache. and kept the onboard cirrus logic.
the fast isa cards are kind of expensive, and the 83overdrive is too expensive

you said "You can connect the cdrom to internal ide or sound card is same" so 1 ide cable from the motherboard goes to the HDD and also the cdrom drive? and it will work? i didn´t know that.
can you share some pictures from the inside to see , maybe you have another motherboard

Each IDE channel (ATA) supports up to two devices (master/slave). You can mix HDDs, CD-ROMs, ZIP drives, or other ATAPI devices, although some combinations may have compatibility or performance limitations. This is standard behavior on AT-compatible systems.

You can even connect hard drives to the IDE interface on the sound card and use it with 4HDD

https://oldcomputer.info/hacks/4hdd/index.htm