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Ibm 5150 pc xt?

According the dates from Ole Juul, it seems to be one of the latest 5150s.

And as fatwizard says, a beauty and a bargain. I think the same.
Every machine has his (not always known) history. This label
has probably his own story.

But like I thought in the first place 5150 != XT.

Maybe I find a PC only label in the future. For now I really like the machine as it is.
I've had several 5160 machines but never had an 5150. And I definitely
want to play with that tape interface using Basic on an IBM.

Thank you all for your opinions.
Regards, Roland
 
The WD25 HDD was mostly used in the XT-286 (IBM 5162) machines. There was a rumour that the XT-256 was designed just to get rid of the remaining stockpile of XT-chassises at the very end of the lifespan of the PC and XT. I doubt it, but in April 1987 the PS/2 line did completely replace the original IBM PC/XT/AT line so I won't deny they might have used what parts remained for the latest systems.

Practically speaking there are not much difference between the 256KB PC and the XT. The XT has more expansion slots and a motherboard with quite a bit of configuration posibilities*, while the PC has the casette interface. Otherwise they're practically identical.

* You can for example remove the BIOS from the memory-map with a jumper. Very convenient if you have a custom BIOS on an ISA card. There are also a lot of configurations for the motherboard memory decoding, with support for unusual memory chips (16Kx1b +5V only or 125Kx1b), or various onboard memory sizes. You can with a custom decoding chip practically map any of the onboard banks of RAM anywhere you want in the address space.
 
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Roland Huisman said:
And as fatwizard says, a beauty and a bargain. I think the same.
Every machine has his (not always known) history. This label
has probably his own story.
Click to expand...

I think the machine is just fine as it is, and the mystery of its past is actually a plus and part of its charm. Perhaps you can make up a likely story of your own about it. ;) As for collectability, there are plenty of factory perfect machines in collections. There are fewer that show the inevitable oddities of real life, like yours does.

BTW: Just for the sake of historical perspective, I believe the IBM XT came out, along with PC DOS 2.0, on March 8, 1983. The overlap with the ongoing production of the 5150 which had a long run, is noteworthy. Four years of having both side by side (more in practical presence) leaves a lot of room for some mixup.
 
Actually that's a good point for anyone with a case and no guts or other parts unit although I don't think it's a major issue other than cosmetic and knowing yourself. If anything it's somewhat interesting if it was a professional fix, adds to the story of the system.
 
One question I have. There is typically a date stamped somewhere inside the front cover. How well does it match the date of the main chassis?
 
Just adding my experience, I have a 1987 5150, assembled in Australia, and the case badges are identical front and rear - "IBM 5150" instead of "Personal Computer". My 1987 5160 has the same traits, 5160 badge on the front instead of "Personal Computer XT".

I'm not sure if this was a marketing thing for the Australian/NZ market OR if IBM just started using one badge design instead of two in later batches.
 
SpidersWeb said:
Just adding my experience, I have a 1987 5150, assembled in Australia, and the case badges are identical front and rear - "IBM 5150" instead of "Personal Computer". My 1987 5160 has the same traits, 5160 badge on the front instead of "Personal Computer XT".

I'm not sure if this was a marketing thing for the Australian/NZ market OR if IBM just started using one badge design instead of two in later batches.
Click to expand...

My U.S. built PC manufactured in January 1986 says "IBM Personal Computer" on the front badge and "IBM 5150" on the rear badge. But I wouldn't be surprised if there were some creative substitutions being done at the very end of the production run, as they ran out of some parts and/or had excess inventory of other parts.

It surprises me that anyone would buy a 5150 after IBM effectively made it obsolete by introducing the floppy-only 5160 XT models in 1985, but I guess either the PC was still cheaper than the XT at that point, or some companies just wanted a real, original "IBM PC" and nothing else.
 
I picked up an XT yesterday that has the exact opposite :D

It's an XT, date labeled 24th sept 1985 in the case, with an XT 64-256K mainboard (8 slots) also labeled 1985, an ST-412 drive and one FH 360K drive and 130W PSU. The cover however, is labeled something octember 1986 and says "Personal COmputer" so it's the wrong cover hahaha. So my idea would be that these were switched during maintenance or something, since it also has a 3rd party memory card (probably upped the system to 640K, haven't powered it on yet because I'm still totally pulling it apart to clean the ages of dust and pine tree needles... yes, pine tree needles!).
 
Denniske1976 said:
I picked up an XT yesterday that has the exact opposite :D

It's an XT, date labeled 24th sept 1985 in the case, with an XT 64-256K mainboard (8 slots) also labeled 1985, an ST-412 drive and one FH 360K drive and 130W PSU. The cover however, is labeled something octember 1986 and says "Personal COmputer" so it's the wrong cover hahaha. So my idea would be that these were switched during maintenance or something, since it also has a 3rd party memory card (probably upped the system to 640K, haven't powered it on yet because I'm still totally pulling it apart to clean the ages of dust and pine tree needles... yes, pine tree needles!).
Click to expand...

Maybe you guys can work out a trade! ;)
 
I had quite a few of these machines back in my youth, both the 5150 and the 5160... I also opened them up quite often to upgrade them, swap parts and what not. Who knows, I could have swapped the covers back in the day and my old machines eventualy ended up with you two... I never knew what exactly happened with my old baby's when my parents decided to end my collection while I was at school... I still wonder. So for comfort of thought I'm now going to asume you guys have them and they are still getting TLC, lol.
 
When I worked at a computer store in the early-late 90's, it was SOP to take an old IBM PC case, rip the guts out and replace with a more modern motherboard and peripherals. It was also SOP to use a bit of this and a bit of that to make up a complete system since case parts and guts were mostly interchangeable. So, I would not be surprised to see many many mutts in the IBM PC's of today.
 
if someone had two lids off of similar computers, it would be too easy for a lazy or greenhorn tech to confuse the lids.
this could have been a problem mistake since 1985.. lol.
 
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