IBM PS/2 (not the connector, the PC)

[metalliqaz]

I was starting to help clean out my parent's basement for the holidays and I decided to finally dig out my old IBM PS/2 model 56 and try to boot it up.  This thing is old and it has taken a beating.  It was in service for years at a large company before they abandoned it.  It sat in the basement for maybe 9 years?  Was it broken?  Hell no.  This thing is heavy duty.  As I found it described...

It was intended for government use and had to obey special safety regulations. Thus it has an all-metal case that even covers the floor and makes it extremely heavy, and a special switch that ensured it could not be powered on with the case off.

Anyway, I plugged it in and it booted up fine!  The internal battery didn't even die!  Played with Windows 95 and played DOOM in DOS 

Check it out, here



Anyway, this is how I got my model M.  I think the model M has a reputation for being almost invincible, and this PC is another example of that kind of build quality.  It's a tank.  If you ever wonder what kind of machine that keyboard was meant to be hooked up to, look no further.

[sth]

haha sweet. i can't believe the thing booted with a hard drive that old. i love older desktop-style workstations, been thinking about doing a hackintosh in a case like that for a while.

[rowdy]

IBM stuff was made to last, and not just the keyboards.

No-one ever got fired for buying IBM

[fohat.digs]

I have a nice 486 box that is untested but probably works great. There is one trim strip along one edge that came loose but could easily be reattached with hot glue. Otherwise it is very clean and nice.

I would sell it, but shipping to anywhere would be obscenely expensive.

[tipo33]

IBM stuff was made to last, and not just the keyboards.

No-one ever got fired for buying IBM

The thinkpad T series comes to mind.  I own two.  Why they had a magnesium rollcage or screen back I will never know.  But it is certainly welcome in a world of creaky plastic laptops.

[microsoft windows]

I've got a few PC's from that era--one 486 and 3 Pentiums. All great machines! Most all of them are running on all original components, including hard disks and floppy disk drives, too and still run great. I run Windows 3.1 on most of them, and have them all on the Internet.

If you can get your hands on an old ethernet card and some extra RAM to throw in that machine, I bet you could get it on the high-speed Internet in no time.