Complete & Very Tidy Acorn Risc PC for sale

[tezza]

I got a A4000 from him plus extras. It was a good trade.

[RonTurner]

I was having a giggle at estar7's wish-list.

LOL That one really came out of left field

I did actually track down what estar7 is looking for, looks pretty wicked to...
http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~r_high/memorial/rocketship.html

[caluser2000]

Ester wanted know if your machine had a StongArm cpu card in it (co-developed by DEC and Acorn), which it doesn't obviously..The Kinetic StrongArm card seems the holy grail for some folk. Quite valid qestions considering the asking price. By delfault that would've ment RiscOS 3.7 roms or higher. This enables you to softload load RiscOS 4.01 if you wanted. If the roms were 4.0x or later you can softload later versions of RiscOS on to the HDD, for example right up to RiscOS 6.0 if you have the hardware. This gave some enhancements but also breaks compatibility with a lot of older classic Acorn software. RiscOS 3.11 is generally considered the most compatible with old software This runs on pre RiscPC kit and there's even an updated version of it http://qubeserver.com/Qube/classicriscos.html with all sorts of goodies.

The "Rocket Ship" is a bit of a legend. The reality was that anything higher than two slices was a right pain in the deary aire. Requiring more psus to supply enough power. Some folk went as far as, with a bit of cuting and slashing, putting RiscPC innards into AT mini tower cases.

The Pi is a good option if all you wanted was a modern setup running RiscOS but it certainly is not a replacement for those folk who want to get hold of early-mid 90s Acorn gear.

[RonTurner]

He could always buy my computer and then buy one of those cheap $15 CPU cards from the UK

[caluser2000]

I'd like to get hold of a good A7000+. Poor mans RiscPC. if you will, with quite limited expandability. Would good next to Zenith and Acer Across 486. Beige is beautiful No silly flip up/down drive cover either. A good thing about them is they take ps/2 mice and keyboard.

[RonTurner]

Specs up as best I could, the RGB-PC monitor out at Kaiapoi has failed so I cannot power it up to figure out the rest until I can move another monitor all the way out there (which is a real mission in it self!)

64 mb System RAM (would have been sold with 4 - 8mb ?)

VRAM ? but goes to a very high RES for a system of that era !!!!

Hard Disk is shown as lowest size likely (it could be twice that size), I cant tell until a monitor is connected.

If I cant sell it I will get a $15 CPU upgrade and keep it, may even put a pizza oven and a sandwich toaster on it

where would I get one of those $15 boxed CPU cards from, link please...Thanks. Because at that price I will definitely be into one.

[caluser2000]

They function fine on almost any vga monitor and even tellies with vga input. You didn't set it to a resolution the monitor couldn't handle by any chance?

You've got your wires crossed somewhere along the way. Reread may previous post. I was referring to x86 cards not Risc cpu cards. Indeed the ones I actually purchased locally . The sad fact is you paid way to much for yours and are unlikely to recoup that back. Caught in auction fever I'd imagine. We've all done it.

Nice to see you've given as much info as possible.

[RonTurner]

Yes, I meant X86 Card, so you cant actually buy them from anywhere ATM, but you mean you have paid that much once, some time ago ?

Thats a shame, I thought you meant that I would actually be able to buy one... from somewhere....

not to worry, at least im not alone in paying to much, everyone else who purchased one of Kendall's machines paid to much also because I paid less than the others.

where are the cheaper Acorns for sale ? I couldn't find any ? or do you mean if any others where for sale (somewhere) then they could likely be cheaper ?

[caluser2000]

Funny. I actually bought my cards off Kendall as well as 3 RiscPCs so have a fare idea of what the market value is. Good luck.

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum ... .php?23526

[RonTurner]

I note the forum post date is January 17th, 2011 I purchased my Acorn on 29th April 2013, almost 2.5 Years later.
During which time multiple Acorns and CPU cards came up, and every last one had very aggressive bidding on them,
reaching prices aproaching $160 - $200 !

There is currently only one Acorn PC700 for sale world wide (as far as I can tell) I have checked ebay.com.au/uk etc
so (if I can borrow the commodore example) you could say a commodore has a known market value because there may be 25,000
commodores for sale throughout NZ and you can compare prices, but who can say what the market value of a commodore
is if its the only one in NZ and no other commodores are in car sales yards (they have gone falcon) ?

Its true of every computer sold on TradeMe, someone somewhere has paid a lot less. I dont necessarily think those traders who
pay more have bidding fever, they just really wanted it and took control and won the auction under circumstances where
there where no other place where they could get that item, rather than wait for another to appear somewhere,sometime

[caluser2000]

Only the one you won, x86 card, got that high. I actually bidded on it for a bit.

That first I machine got was local That's when I started that thread. The second from Christchurh, also one from from Greymouth, the rest were from Julian last year or 2012.

[RonTurner]

I did not purchase the PC700 through TradeMe, it was a private purchase.

The 486 card, I dont remember you bidding, but I do remember Matdawson dropping out around $160 ?

If your interested in selling me the 586 card (at market value $15-$35) please PM me

[caluser2000]

There's few UK outfits that sell RiscPCs and spares. And if you visit http://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/ they come up for sale occasionally. You'll need to know the secret handshake to join up though. If you join up don't forget to add your machines serial no. to their database http://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewto ... &start=150

A wee bit of a fib eluding that it's the only RiscPC sale worldwide. A bit research will show otherwise.

[RonTurner]

This includes shipping (computer only, not CPU card)

At the time this was less than what I saw the others sell for (ie market value)

[caluser2000]

I'm sure prospective buyers will be pleased to see that. (Pic of transation showed $160 total for those that didn't see it )Take off around, say. $25 for shipping to the south island. So you paid around $135 for. Looks quite reasonable, I'm surprised he didn't throw in a sealed RiscOS 3.6 manual. Most of his auctions had them included. He threw in 4 extras with one of mine.
The photo of the battery is nice and clear. Well done.