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My completed IBM PC/XT 5160 build and blog - Thank you!

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nc_mike

Experienced Member
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Sep 28, 2014
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473
All,

I would like to extend my my sincere gratitude to so many of you that selflessly provided your knowledge and expertise along the way in my quest to complete this IBM PC/XT 5160 build. You can find the full details and story behind the build here along with lots of photos here: http://orignialbeast.blogspot.com/. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I've enjoyed building it.

Regards,
Mike
 
Do you have any pictures of the drive bracket you talk about? Or, model number or anything?
My half height drives are installed in a very undesirable fashion.
 
Sounds like a very nice system!
Especially that CPU card:
The CPU has been upgraded from an 8088 to an 80386 (selectable speed) via a rare Intel InBoard/386 w/math co-processor; runs 16-bit apps, upgradable to 133-pin compatible 80486DX
Click to expand...

One thing though: I suppose you meant it runs 32-bit apps? Because even an 8088 runs 16-bit apps :)
 
IIRC, at one point I had 4 half height drives in an IBM 5150 case via a flat square galvanized steel plate that I bought somewhere pre-made for just this purpose. Seems like you only needed one plate per pair of drives. I'm looking at a 5150 case and there's a plenty big enough gap between the center drive bay divider and an L shaped tab that is folded up from the bottom and aligns the rear of a drive. The trick may be to figure out if you need to attach the drives together before or after you slide them into the bay.
 
Nice build. It is very similar to mine except I only have a 80286 expansion.

I also have 2x half height drives in mine. Someone made a simple bracket from aluminium in the past just like the one pictured earlier (albeit not quite as well finished off). Any thin bit of aluminium should do the trick; there is plenty of spare space between the divider and the drive.
 
Scali said:
Sounds like a very nice system!
Especially that CPU card:


One thing though: I suppose you meant it runs 32-bit apps? Because even an 8088 runs 16-bit apps :)
Click to expand...

Yes, I stand corrected.
 
I would say the only thing you need now is the expansion unit, but I think the Above Board card would make it incompatible because of the change in the timings.
 
lyonadmiral said:
I would say the only thing you need now is the expansion unit, but I think the Above Board card would make it incompatible because of the change in the timings.
Click to expand...

You might be right if the timings matter to the expansion unit and if the Aboveboard or Inboard/386 wasn't engineered to be compatible with IBM or Tecmar expansion units. One would hope so given the board became available long after expansion units and I've read nothing so far in the official doc or in my many Google forays on such a restriction, but it could be few have ever tried since the Inboard's even moreso than the AboveBoard's were among the most exotic products - even back then.

I'd like to get an expansion unit to find out and if it doesn't pan out, I am certain I could resell it for what I would likely pay for one (as long as it comes with send/receive cards and cable). Given the way I've picked components there are not many more options I could add of high value. I'd like to get two of these bay-mount CF adapters to be able to easily change both the boot and slave CF cards I am driving off of the XT-IDE adapter (I don't have or want to add any MFM or RLL HDDs - the CF drives make them unnecessary). Right now I filled the extra full height drive bay with 5.25" bay cooling fan - the 80386 adds a bit of additional heat and that cooler helps some, and I have as I wanted to upgrade the 80386 to a 133-pin compatible 80486DLC but have been hesitant to try that since it could throw off the wonderfully compatible timings that I still have with the Inboard's 386 whose BIOS completely takes over after the normal 5160 POST. If I don't upgrade the CPU then I could free up the full height bay and slide in a pair of half-height 3.5" CF adapters mounted in a pair of 5.25 inch bay adapters (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...le+CF+SSD+Adapter+Card+Reader&N=-1&isNodeId=1) .

An expansion unit could also house a SCSI card and SCSI CD-ROM drive to get rid of the external backpack CD-ROM drive, but not great advantage without. Things are also getting dicey with fewer available IRQs with the currently packed unit and I don't have much if any room in upper memory to support any more card BIOSes if there were any beyond ones I've already had to reprogram arrange to not conflict.

Now my focus is turning more to working with dozens of vintage SW packages. But it would be fun to play with one of those expansion units if for no other reason to solve the mystery! :)

Regards,
Mike
 
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