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Please identify this computer (it is going to be recycled briefly)

P

ppo

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Mar 22, 2009
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There's a pile of old electronics in my school (see Thread "Recycling Contest").

Among a lot of old monitors there are these three computers - one is a generic Pentium, the other only says "Personal Computer", and finally the only one that looks vintage:

4578638683_a8f9a24d57_b.jpg


Help me identifying this computer and please tell me if it is vintage.

By the way, the person responsible for this doesn't care about computers, so if I take the computer what should I say?
 
1985-1987.

vintage means typical of an era, so yes, it's typical of the mid 80's.

historical - no this is not a historical computer, but it is somewhat rare. If I saw one of these it'd be hard not to grab it, because the dual format drives are useful for moving files from really old PC's to newer ones. I'd save it!

Bill
 
IBM's first PCs says IBM Personal Computer.
The Philip is an NMS9100 AT computer, take it if you need a 286? Make an excuse about the large floppy drives being really hard to come by and trade it in for some heavy electro junk.
 
It's a keeper. Give it ten years...if we're still all alive...and it will be worth $500.00 easy, imo.
 
Wow yeah that'd be killing me if I was staring at that. Heck it still does every time I see those recycling drives. Either way it's not likely rare but it's interesting to see non-computer manufacturers with their computers so I'd say that's a good grab on the Philips PC. It's somewhat unique although certainly cooler if you could find a matching keyboard/mouse and monitor.

Regardless I'd snatch that one if it's possible.
 
If I were to find that 286, I'd definately take it! ...though nowdays I'd take any AT style computer home hehe.
$500 in 5 years, you might actually be right. imo
 
VintageComputerman said:
It's a keeper. Give it ten years...if we're still all alive...and it will be worth $500.00 easy, imo.
Click to expand...

Yea, and McDonalds will have a $50 happy meal by that point (inflation).

I would say name brand 286/386/486 machines will probably be worth some money in 10 years, depending on condition and if you have the AT keyboard and serial or ps/2 mouse to go with it. Plenty of times you find the machine but not the rest, heck even old CRT monitors of the period will be worth money by that point (working anyway) since they will have been recycled.

There will be many more people looking for a 386 in 10 years then there are people now who want to relive their IBM XT days over again. Plenty of people hung onto the expensive XT, but most are in a hurry to recycle that cheap 486.

It is hard to predict the future, but I bet money that old vintage laptops will be the rage in 10 years (small, portable, easy to store, built in screen).
 
Well, I had no idea this was so valuable.

I'm going to get the computer as soon as possible (if I can convince that person).

Probably it won't work but I'm counting with your help on that.;)
 
Last edited:
barythrin said:
It's somewhat unique although certainly cooler if you could find a matching keyboard/mouse and monitor.
Click to expand...

All of the keyboards were taken, even before I knew about the pile.

And also, there are 8 or more monitors around the computer, so how would a matching monitor look like?
 
I just meant if there was a philips brand monitor. Otherwise it would likely just use any generic monitor according to the video card that's currently in the system. It always bums me out when I see an IBM setup with a non-IBM monitor or kills the charm of an AT&T or Epson system with a generic monitor as well. It's more just for looks and my own personal opinion.
 
There were plenty of new systems that had generic monitors even when new (they were cheaper or of better quality). But if you did buy a name brand you would have ended up with their keyboard and mouse.

A while back I snagged a mint ZEOS 386 with its ZEOS branded keyboard, would have snagged the ZEOS CRT if it worked but I was told it was dead. I should snag a working IBM monitor that matches all the PS/2 systems I have (they all have vintage IBM keyboards and mice).
 
Finally I got back.

When I was looking for the computer (in a day it changed place) I've found something on the ground (I'll post a photo later).

Then I left the computer there and was going to take it later, when suddenly I hear the recycling company's truck and the sound of things falling on the ground and being tossed, so when the truck left I thought I had lost everything.

So, you can't imagine my surprise when I saw that they left and took only the heavier stuff and even better there was nobody around at the time, so I took the computer quickly.

A great add to my collection.
 
heh..good grab. Right in the nick of time. It's so weird to think how these companies charge you to take your free equipment to sell and make money. Seriously.. it's like, hey if you pay me $10 I'll eat your lunch and .. sell the left overs. Deal? Anyway.. our company is about to recycle a bunch of non-vintage servers too and it's not really an option to take stuff. The only thing of interest to be honest is some shelving that I could use which I may ask about if it doesn't upset everyone.

Never-the-less good grab and way to save a system.
- J
 
The local recyclers here are now paying for old computers since Goodwill is taking them for free now to be recycled. They have a hard time getting stuff to refurb and sell if they charge you for drop offs, but they still charge to show up to a business and clean them out. I think they pay $1.50 a lb for motherboards and cards, less for hard drives.
 
Ugh, those recycling drives. They trashed every computer in our computer club because the school needed the place and they didn't like us. We had a very fine collection of rat machines, everything from a PS/2, to some strange PPC based IBM (which I never got to work). The only fun thing about those rat systems were fixing them. I probably fixed more machines than anyone else had bother to fix before me, and people installed one single DOS game per fixed machine... and we only got to install Linux on two machines.
I did grab a kilo of ram though :) And the Pentium on which we first installed Linux, but no one wanted it and it's UART were broken (strangely a very common thing on those machines...).

So one should always grab whatever one can! :)
 
As promised - the photo:

(I don't know what it is, but it is from Philips too)
 

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