What to do with an ancient system?

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DanK

Gawd
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
948
Hi everyone,

I have in my posession a real dinosaur of a system, a complete IBM PS/2 286 model 8560. I have the Model M keyboard, the world's least ergonomic mouse, and even a ProPrinter. (Sorry about the yellowness of the first picture.)


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I'm going to be moving out of state soon, and can't possibly take this with me. I don't want to throw it out, firstly because I'm sure it's full of hazardous materials, but also because I don't like to throw things out that still work. The original battery died, so it lost its configuration; all it will load at the moment is the BASIC interpreter. If someone wanted to mess around with it, they could find the restore disk on the internet (I know it's out there, I don't have time to search around... also, my computer doesn't have a floppy drive) and load the settings again. I'm pretty sure it has a working installation of Windows 3.1 on the hard disk.

Does anyone want this? Or know of someplace that collects ancient computers like this one? I'm not looking to sell it, I'd gladly give it away to anybody who wanted it. At the very least, it could make for a cool case mod...
 
:p :)

I also posted this on Anandtech, someone suggested that I post it on Craigslist. I didn't know until I looked that Gainesville FL had a section there, so that's definitely something to look into.

Also, I calculated the shipping costs for the whole thing, it'd be about $100 to ship via FedEx...
 
Keep the keyboard, if it still works. I find that old, pre-486 keyboards are the best. Most (non-expensive) modern keyboards feel like you're typing on a tray of marshmallows. That, and you could most probably use it to extract physical bodily revenge for an intentional TK at a LAN. The only reason that my current keyboard doesn't have an XT/AT switch is because that one (the GOOD one!) died after twenty years of being pounded mercilessly by teen and pre-teen kids in Apogee platformers.

As for the rest of the gear, if it's in good condition, sell it as a historical artifact or something. I doubt that you can get any ribbons for that printer :)
 
Ancient 286: Free
Ancient ISA soundblaster: $1
EGA graphics: <$1

Playing Commander Keen in 2006: Priceless :D
 
You know, these old systems are only worth something AFTER you get rid of them. I used to have a 386 rig I held onto (and couldnt GIVE away at the time), and right after it went in the trash, someone was looking for one in the WTB threads. I also had a complete Commodore 64 setup I threw away, and right after that, I found a guy who was looking for one. :mad:
 
Thanks for the replies.

I already have plenty of spare Model Ms; I'm typing on one now as a matter of fact. :D Since it's from a PS/2 system, no adapter is needed to get it to work on a modern system. :)

Unfortunately, the same isn't true with peripheral cards... the PS/2 was the line in which IBM introduced their own peripheral bus, called Micro-Channel (MCA). Good luck finding a sound card for it. The built-in graphics are actually VGA, though, which was advanced for the time. (You could hook up your 22" Trinitron to this if you wanted.)
 
OMG I want that thing! Minix would be a blast on that.
That's a very nice and complete setup too.

Edit: yeah that mouse was the most uncomfortable thing evar
 
Take the RAM out (did it exist back then?) and hang it by string on your car's rear view mirror. Uber geekness! :cool:
 
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