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What is this? Post Photos of Mystery Items Here (vintage computers only)

Wood-grain vinyl manufacturer-applied over metal or plastic was definitely an 80's thing, as was beige computer gear. Nowadays we appear to like everything painted black. Tastes change.
 
Anyone know what this board is from?
 

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shirsch said:
I'm going to guess that's a drive controller of some sort. Beyond that it doesn't look familiar.
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It has an 8085 CPU with an 8253 timer and 8255 PPI, so it appears to be a complete embedded computer. Near one of the connectors on the top is an MM74c923 keypad encoder chip, this might have been used in some kind of industrial application? Probably not a disk controller.
 
Note also, the unpopulated pads for a coin cell holder at B1. My take is that it's largely worthless as-is because the ROMs that might give a hint as to function are gone.
 
"Identification" for a PC like that isn't really useful. Say it was put together by Jim's Computer, BFE...how does that help you? It's the components that matter.
 
rengwarr said:
Unfortunately this is the only picture I have, it is not mine :(
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Given its a PC assembled from off-the-shelf parts by a random person or computer shop its really impossible to tell anything useful about it without pictures of the rear and insides. Its quite possible the only identifying information it ever had on it was the now-missing badge on the front, though sometimes small PC builders might put a label on the back with warranty information and/or specs.
 
davidrg said:
Given its a PC assembled from off-the-shelf parts by a random person or computer shop its really impossible to tell anything useful about it without pictures of the rear and insides. Its quite possible the only identifying information it ever had on it was the now-missing badge on the front, though sometimes small PC builders might put a label on the back with warranty information and/or specs.
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Understandable, I am very new to this age of computer. I thought the case might have been recognisable for someone - even with the missing badge, but you are right it is a custom computer. I have seen similar Asus custom computers that look awfully similar to this? The person I'm trying to sell this isn't responding anymore so I posted here. I will update if the seller provides any more information/photos. Thank you for understanding.
 
davidrg said:
Its quite possible the only identifying information it ever had on it was the now-missing badge on the front, though sometimes small PC builders might put a label on the back with warranty information and/or specs.
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If a local maniac built it with his own three hands out of parts he mail ordered there's a very good chance it never had a badge at all. Rest assured, it's not special.
 
rengwarr said:
I have seen similar Asus custom computers that look awfully similar to this?
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Asus was and is a common OEM source for cases, and this very well could be an Asus case. But that only slightly increases the odds that anything else inside it also came from Asus. The only way to know what horrors lurk inside is to crack it open.
 
Inside such a case can live the most boring Celeron build ever or a killer period gaming setup. You just couldn't tell in those days. I had such a boring case with a P200MMX with a 12MB Voodoo2, AWE64 and a 512kb cache mobo that would eat any game of the DOS/Windows transition period for breakfast. I Sold it for 25euro. I should not have done that...
 
Welp, I guess I shouldn't have expected much! Either way, $20 isn't much to gamble is it? I will be picking it up later today and finding out what lies underneath. It's either that or it might end up being thrown away by the sounds - they won't even supply a quick photo of the inside :/
 
For reference - I bought a very similar computer to that at VCF So Cal for $55. Its probably not worth a whole lot more than that, unless it has some kind of really important graphics card.
 
In my experience: if you really hope to find an SLI paired Voodoo setup and an Adlib Gold 1000 in there, the box will actually have nothing but a fubar PSU, some loose cables and a mice nest in it.

On a more serious note: these kind of cases actually had a tendency of being just a bit too small to accomodate the largest Voodoo 2's. But they were plenty big enough for a Celeron build with an S3 Trio and a network card. Be still, my beating heart.

So don't spend anything over a few tenners on it unless there are concrete indicators of more valuable stuff in there.

...And the fact that it has a disc burner but no second disc drive in there, tells me this config was not exactly maxed out nor owned by someone in the Twilight gaming scene. Expect a soccer mom config.
 
Nicolas 2000 said:
But they were plenty big enough for a Celeron build with an S3 Trio and a network card. Be still, my beating heart.
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This is pretty much exactly what I just bought, except a genuine PII instead of a Celeron. That said, I mainly wanted it for the case, and these specs are PLENTY for a nice little DOS system.
 
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