The Archives (My Emporium of Electronically Extinct Equipment)

Basically my computers in time;

Well if you start with my first PC it was given to be back over three years ago (August 96) and was

A Compaq Deskpro 286 - 12Mhz Chip, 640KB ram, VGA Graphics, 20MB hard disk, 14" VGA Screen, 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disk drive. This later died in the December the CMOS Battery went and I didn’t have a Setup disk

Around May/June I received a second hand IBM PC/AT, 640KB ram, CGA Graphics, 32MB hard disk, 5.25" floppy disk drive. But this had a dead CMOS battery and no setup disk. A few weeks later I received a Black & White VGA Screen. An then after some trying to get another IBM PC/AT to work, It was given to me (it did work but was difficult to setup), I managed after some weeks to get the RAM up to 1024KB (1MB) and run Windows 3.1 (also adding my 3.5" floppy drive) VGA card from Compaq Deskpro 286 and using the VGA Mono Screen.

By this time I had lent out the 32MB Hard disk from the first IBM PC/AT and had killed the Deskpro 286, it’s hard disk and it’s screen. I later stripped the first IBM PC/AT.

I then bought a 386 box IBM PS/2 which was dead for £2.50. and in the mean time my friend gave me a 12" Hercules Monitor and I picked up a graphics card for it!

The stuff hung round my house and later I received an old dot-matrix printer. I was up and away! Then around a year later during and just after my GCSE’s my comprehensive school where removing their BBC Computers so I’ve got a model A and another Dot-Matrix Printer, some of the machines and my other dot-matrix went to a Primary School and I took all the software checked they had sufficent disks and that back-up copies were made!

I popped up to my friends one Friday to return some things and got in to find a PC had been left for me with my parents a 286 16Mhz, 1MB Ram, 40MB Hard Disk, VGA graphics, 5.25" floppy drive, so I picked up a 3.5" floppy drive from my friend and setup it up and then blew up the floppy drive, then later the person who gave me the machine arrived with a VGA Colour screen and a 24-PIN dot matrix printer, so my brother had the IBM PC/AT setup and I had the 286 with colour screen. Later I received an 8-bit sound card for it and a 720Kb floppy drive (this was salvaged from a dead PC we were scrapping).

Later the 40mb hard disk died and then the motherboard processed it’s last cycle! So my brother no longer had an IBM PC/AT!!!!!!

Then in the august I got my job with Kwik Save and built myself a 486 SX/33, 8MB RAM, Vesa graphics and I/O and 2 creative 6X CD-ROM drives) with loads of other stuff for £50, I then bought an 850MB hard disk for £50 and some other leads and stuff. I sold the one CD drive and built my machine. This ran Windows 95 (slowly!). I then purchased a Olivetti JP-170s colour printer.

I then at a radio/computer rally in London, purchased a 486 DX2/66 chip, two 486 M/Bs, Creative AWE 32 Sound Card (£3) and a Modem 28.8K (£3) and loads of other stuff. I upgraded the machine to a DX2/66 and added the sound card. I then bought my scanner in around January 99 and then replaced my motherboard and bought an AMD 5x86 133 chip (but this would not work with my board so I used my DX2/66, I then sold the old board and card I had lying around. The AWE 32 died and I bought a cheap sound card!

Then in April I received a HP Deskjet 660c (which was slightly faulty) but it works fine for me?

I then bought around May/June a Pentium Motherboard, Pentium 100 chip and 16mb ram and a SCSI CD-writer and a SCSI CD-ROM and using things I had from different machines SCSI Card, PCI Graphics Card, I had a Pentium 100, 16MB Ram, 256Kb Secondary level cache, 2MB S3 Virge PCI Graphics Card, 6X Creative Labs CD-ROM Drive (IDE), Quad Speed NEC Multispin 4Xi (SCSI), and a Panasonic CW-7501 CD-Recorder (SCSI), but guess what I still have that tiny 850MB Hard Disk and have added a 120MB drive to complement it. Oh ! and I am using the old VGA Screen from the 286/16! Which I can squeeze 800X600 out of!

The story of the 486 DX/2 66 is that after striping what I wanted from it and adding 120mb hard disk to get it run Windows 3.11. I was upgrading a mates computer (a 486 DX/2 66) with the AMD 5x86/133 (equivalent to Intel Pentium 75). I blew the motherboard and had to put my PCI 486 and chip (cause I busted one of the pins) plus my Cirrus PCI Card (I was not a happy bunny so I had a dead 486 board (and tons of spares)

So I picked up a cheap 386 board for a fiver and use 2 of the 4mb of 30-pin simms (rescued from the above) in it (but being me I busted one of the other 2mb left) and used some spare ISA Cards (video/disk controller) to build a 386 (later I stripped this and gave it to a school to upgrade an aging 286) and what about the IBM/PC AT (which Chunky says I should destroy he's at www.rygar.co.uk) I know it's got 2MB ram, 2x 32MB hard disk, VGA Card, 3.5" 720Kb floppy drive. This nice little beauty is dead, the motherboard went goofy. So This is what I was running for a few months;

and my current PC after a purchase of a very good value £15 dead base to find everything in it worked and the only reason it was dead was cause SOME FOOL forgot to put SOME RAM in the PC. But their loss is my gain, and of course my very cheap 17gb hard disk £100.

And now after a few more additions and lots of moving thinks about we have!

And my messy PC which my mate Ben is borrowing;

My brothers PC

My Server

and my current spare parts;

And lots of other rubbish which I can't think of….

Well what I need to get now is a Graphics Board an AGP Voodoo3 2000 16MB a new hard disk probably about 30gig maybe 2 as I have raid then a new SCSI Card, then probably a DVD and a new screen 17" maybe. Possibly then some new speakers…so quite a bit to get really better get working and earning some money…

So after some wild money spneding I decided on a AGP Voodoo3 3000 16mb which set me back the fine some of £50, from there I have purchased a 30GB IBM Hard Disk - Deskstar 5400rpm and A Genius 5port Hub Card (Very good!) so my network is complete at last.

Hmm well after much time and lots of other things to do...I've slightly given up on this - its going to start to be come like somebody's attempt to write "All the food i've ever bought" and "All The clothes I've ever bought" which is really sad. You can check my current PC page which I will try to keep updated as and when.