Greetings from Wellington :)

[SpidersWeb]

I'm Jono, 30, grew up with MFM hard drives and 86/286/386, Amstrads and Acorns.

So you can pretty much guess what I collect.
I had a large collection around ten years ago, but constant pegging about my "junk" unfortunately led to it being dispersed.
Being older and having a greater appreciation for their rarity - I plan to build a collection which I will never part with (exception for museums) and document where possible. I love being able to look up a machine on the internet and find out heaps - so the more I can do to help I will.

When I was 15 I had two large boxes filled with MFM drives (count the ST225's!), now finding them is almost impossible.

Currently in my collection, only really 3 items:

IBM PC 5150 - all original and in pristine condition with twin floppies (and the spare faceplate), documentation etc
Toshiba T3200SX - 1Mb of RAM but still runs WIndows 3.1 as happy as it did new.
I removed an 8080 CPU board that the original owner had fitted (still in my possession) and fitted a SoundBlaster Pro for Wolfenstein 3D goodness.
Fountain Console - with about 10-15 game cartridges in original boxes.
(oh and a Compaq, not quite an antique yet, Pentium III on NT4 Workstation)

These are all in safe storage, however I plan to revive them soon, and hopefully by next weekend I will have more to add to this

[tezza]

Hi Jono and welcome to the forums.

I also have a museum quality 5150. One of my treasured machines. What's attracted you to IBM's specifically? Are you also interested in the PS/2 line, or just ISA-type machines?

I guess you have seen someone is selling an XT box on Trademe right now?

[SpidersWeb]

Yeah I'm the guy on that auction asking the annoying questions haha
I've organised transport for the XT and his other machines, just crossing fingers I win the auction(s)!

Mostly interested in the 5150/60/70 but if I see a PS/2 Model 30 for sale I'll jump on it. Beyond that I'd like a 386 or 486 desktop - but I'm not brand specific on that.
I've always been interested in the early IBM's - since around 1998 I was even bugging IBM via email and they went me some big posters (unfortunately 'misplaced' when I split with an ex, along with my precious 5160 *sadface*). As a PC guy, these IBM machines were the trailblazers for me, a historic icon, the ISA/MFM setups were what I grew up on too.

Collected some original software/disks too from when I was younger, PFS:First Choice and First Publisher on 5.25 in packaging, and an unused MS Mouse with disks too. Although my 5150 was missing it's original diskettes

[SpidersWeb]

Oh and I'm interested in a CPC6128 and possibly 464 simply for nostalgia as they were my first computers ever, but will respond to 'for sales' rather than intentially hunting these out.

[Carcenomy]

Bugger that you're in Wellington Jono, I just happen to have a CPC6128 spare, and a variety of 386/486s. Just pulled an HP Vectra 325N out of my stack for testing too!

Ed: Oh yeah, talk to Alan Gilchrist if you're after MFM gear. He tried to give me a whole box of them, I took a couple but really have no need for dozens

[SpidersWeb]

haha why must things be so large and heavy
Cheers for the heads up, I've emailed Alan Found a part on trademe that was on his wishlist, so that might earn my required brownie points
I don't need too many, just a couple of spares, but if a box was on offer I'd guard it with my life.

Oh and my computer history:

CPC-464 (I was in primary school at this stage)
CPC-6128 (disk drive yeah!)
Acorn A3010 one christmas (I think I screamed)
Was using and learning on 8086/80286/80386 at and after school at a friends house.
Acorn A4000 (I would've been 13 I think?) - parents got me this so I could run DOS apps
Finally got a 80386SX/16 that I added to - EGA, 20 + 40Mb MFM drives, Windows 3.0 - my cigarette rep father swapped a box of cigs for this!
IBM Aptiva Pentium 75 ($3999 with free Windows 95 voucher)
Generic Pentium II 350
After this I lose track.
Now it's a Core i7 @ 4.1Ghz that's been running happily for over a year now

Actually looking back I owe my parents a lot, we weren't a rich family. I also had a tonne of 286/386 machines from the trade and exchange - Commodore PC-10 with the XT-IDE through to an ICL server from 79 that could run 8 dumb terminals - had Concurrent CP/M 2.2 I think.

[Carcenomy]

Those PC10s are sharp wee boxes, I've got one in stock condition (but its bloody XT-IDE drive failed and replacements make MFMs look super common) and one that's heavily modified as my HTPC. Never did manage to acquire a real IBM though

I think I know the Aptiva model you speak of too - I'm foreseeing perhaps a desktop machine with the flip-down drive cover and an Mwave ORCA soundcard/modem? If so I've got one of those still, I haven't tested it yet but it's all still there, which is promising. Had the tower version too but it also went under the knife. There's pics of the Aptiva and PC10 in this thread if you're curious

[SpidersWeb]

Yes that's the one!
Mwave, much dislike for that component, had to balance it's CPU between modem and sound card - more modem speed for less sound or vice versa. On mine I replaced it with a seperate 28.8 and a proper soundblaster card.

Came stock with OS/2 Warp 3.0 dualbooting Windows 3.1 but there was a Windows 95 voucher in the box - but wasn't exactly overnight delivery on that - talking like 3-6 months. Quad speed CDROM too if I remember right. If I'm working my brain correctly, the onboard video failed (actually might have been the onboard IDE), and I gave it to a friend who's dad used it with a seperate card.

Oh and is that a watercooled PC10? lol nice

[Carcenomy]

You betcha it's a watercooled PC10! I'll go slap some more recent pictures in the other thread for ya.
Yeah the Orcas were notoriously bad. I remember reading all sorts of articles at the time on what an abismal unit they were. Made me feel better that the PC I was using at the time was a Compaq - it uses normal ol' S3 Trio64V+ video with an ESS1898 soundcard and an upgradeable 19.2K modem. I still use that machine to this day for data transfers to my Amigas! I'll have to pull the Aptiva out for a test fire.

[bert]

We share similar paths

If you track down MFM gear, give me a shout I'd be keen on a couple of 20MB drives. I'd have no idea where to go looking for the stuff....

[bert]

Oh were you the fella who picked up the $200 XT on Trade Me recently? Hope you're happy with your purchase!

[SpidersWeb]

Yep.
Haven't got it yet, sitting in Hamilton! Having a friend bring it down when they return from a trip in two weeks along with the 286 and 386.
Would rather wait 2-3 weeks than risk a courier messing up those precious MFM drives.