Show us your PC setup

[marcoguy]

I noticed there was a thread like this for early Apple machines, so I figured people might want to show off their PC setup, also. Here's my beloved 5160/5161 setup as of today:

 

[orion24]

Nice once. My first PC was a 386 and due to nostalgia I've thrown everything I could to it (Cyrix 486DLC/40 with FPU, 32MB 60ns RAM, 256K 15ns cache, S3Trio64 VESA, VESA controller, CD-RW, Iomega ZIP 250, LS-120 3,5 floptical, 5,25 drive).
In the 8088 era I currently own a 5150 board that needs fixing. I had an eye on an ebay auction for a complete 5150 system but it ended at 310 Euros that is well above what I was about to spend. I might now look into a top-of the line 8088 (I suppose there are with 10MHz CPU and 640K RAM)

 

[Cloudschatze]

There was a similar thread a few years ago, but far be it from me to pass up an opportunity to show off some outdated photos...

 

[SpidersWeb]

I have a lot of machines, but here are the IBMs. Photos taken 10 minutes ago.

First up, IBM 5150 256KB, as original as it can be with an IBM 5151 display, and next to it a 1987 IBM PC XT 640KB and 5153 graphics. To the right you'll see an Amiga 2000HD which adds a bit of flare to this room:

Then my 5160 256KB with working ST412 and another IBM 5151 MDA display - this is in a second room which is embarrassingly dusty but it's only used as storage so we don't notice until I take a photo for the internet of course :S To the side is a Toshiba T5200 (and around it are piles of VGA displays and 286/386 boxes). When I move house I will give it dedicated desk space.

I also have a third 5160 which I keep stored, it's half aftermarket half original and has it's own IBM 5151 display too (booted it up tonight, working like a charm)

Also bought a shelving unit to keep my software and books well protected and organised:

Many thanks to the VCF members who have helped me get these machines running. I can't wait to have more room so I can allocate them ALL the space they deserve. Apologies if my photos were too large :S

 

[fatwizard]

Here is my beloved IBM 5160 with a 5153 monitor. It had sat around neglected in my junk since the mid 90's. During a brutal cleaning out of the shop last spring, I ran across the old girl, and something just clicked in my little pea brain. It has been an obsession ever since. It is a later model with the 640K motherboard, and I have tricked it out some with a 1.44 3.5" floppy drive and controller to go with the 360K 5.25 drive. Soundblaster 2.0, Seagate ST01 SCSI controller and a succession of antique hard drives (another obsession). After safely storing the original WD25 drive, it has seen a Rodime 204E, Seagate ST-225, and now a Magnetic Peripherals 150 meg SCSI full size brick. I wore out the original case screws tinkering with this thing. I have since acquired two 5150's and another 5160, and just too many expansion cards to mention. I named her Mother, because nearly every computer I have serviced or owned was descended from this machine. I never had so much fun in my life.



Vintage systems. Atari 800, TI99A, IBM 5160's and 5150's

WTB 3.5" to 5.25" floppy mounting bracket with black fascia. 5160 power supply schematic (bet there are some knowing smiles at that last one).

 

[commodorejohn]

There was a similar thread a few years ago, but far be it from me to pass up an opportunity to show off some outdated photos...

Do you seriously have five MT-32s? Man, I kinda hate you now... ;P

 

[creepingnet]

My Stuff

My Stuff

There are two distinct setups in my mancave concerning vintage PCs.....

The first is the TV Rig....just disregard all the consoles (8-bit Nintendo, intellivision, Atari 2600, XBOX, and a DVD player for those who want to know), the star here is the 1985 Tandy 1000A running DOS 6.22 with a VCF XT-IDE (first revision) controller and a 540MB Drive. I made my own drive bay adapter using a 3.5" to 5.25" adapter and the screening off of one of my main desktop's expansion bay covers. The Tandy is fully networked, internet capable, and as you can see, seems to be able to crawl it's way through Ultima VI: The False Prophet even on it's meek little 8088 Processor.

The TV itself is a 1984 Mitusbishi CS1984R 20" Color stereo TV, and it has all the hookups anyone would need for something retro. The Tandy goes in via a 4 port A/V switcher into the RCA in back. I also can capture the Tandy's A/V outputs via a pass through on the TV, which runs to my modern PC where I can record and post videos on youtube of whatever the Tandy is playing (as well as anything else on the TV).

The second setup is the (less elegant) closet setup. In here is where the 286, 486, and MAC SE live.

The 286 and 486 share an Apex Outlook 180DX 8 port KVM I found at Goodwill for $10 (which is about $865.00 worth of KVM...best score ever), which sends them into an old AT keyboard with ALPS keyswitches, their own PC-TRAC trackballs, the 486 uses some passive speakers, while the 286 has an experimental internal speaker setup I am testing right now (allowing me to forego speakers all together using an internal PC speaker as speaker for the sound card). The video goes out into a cheap HP 15" LCD. the other 4-way switch I patched between the outlook and the 486 as it seems to correct a refresh rate problem that causes the HP LCD to blink on and off.

The 286 runs MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows versions 1.01 through 3.1. the 486 runs just about anything with that removable HDD caddy I have in it, currently I only have a DOS 6.22/WFWG 3.11, Windows 95 OSR2, and Windows 98 SE drive built out for it (3, 8, and 8 GB respectively). Tonight I'm actually tossing a huge pile of software on the 486's Windows 95 setup. The Yamaha PSS-680 Keyboard/Synth is tied to the 486 to create MIDI Arrangements in Voyetra Sequencer Pro, Presto Arranger, and also allow me to edit the Yamaha using PSS-EDIT in Windows 95.