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Desktop or Tower - What's your Preference - 368 / 486

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Smack2k

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Just curious of everyone's opinions / preferences here..

For a 386 and a 486, what do you prefer for each, a desktop or a tower (mini-tower)?

I lean towards a desktop for a 386 and a mini-tower for the 486 personally...
 
I prefer slimline desktop systems just because they take up less space. Most of my 386/486 systems are standard AT style desktop systems.
 
I like the desktop boxes for casual use--gives me something to put the monitor on to bring it to eye level and give me proper posture. I have a couple of HTPC boxes that come in handy there, as well as a couple of retrofitted boxes, such as HP Vectra and IBM Netvista. After that, maybe a minitower.

Full towers I reserve for things like the 386 box with a FH SCSI drive and 6 floppy drives. Rack-mount for peripherals like tape drives that have to be rack-mounted. Thin clients for device programming and whatnot. I've got a P3 HP ePC which is kind of cute, but I haven't used it for anything in years.
 
If I was building museum type examples of enthusiast builds I'd have a 486DX2/66 tower with a LCD readout, and a 386DX20 in an oversized XT/AT style desktop case.

But for general use, I quite like my 386/486 slimline machines as they're easy to drag around - and you can stack them easily.
 
My favorite is lay-flat Desktop style cases as far as aesthetic goes, I usually like the older ones that came on early 386 units on back. Stuff that looks like this....

af9c.jpg


Though lately I've been considering getting a full-height tower for my 486 because I'm constantly adding onto it - I already have a dual IDE controller in there, and have no aversion to adding more stuff to it as I find it/feel like using it.
 
Towers. I like 286 and earlier in desktop form. Exceptions would be a 486 desktop Everex just because I wanted one back in college.
 
back in the day I preferred desktops, cause you cant set a monitor (very stably) on a tower and I had very small areas to work with
 
Full-size desktop cases make a statement... by taking over your entire desk! It is a design that demands attention, not something to be hidden on the floor.

IMG_2743-800px.jpg
 
I started using towers and mini-towers fairly early. So I miss those desktops. There's something sleek and attractive about them.

BTW, on a somewhat related point, I always put my tower on the floor or on a shelf under the desk. It looked very odd to me when someone put a tower ON a desk.
 
There were also stands that allowed one to put their desktop on the floor also. IBM even sold them.

Downside of it all was that the PSU fan, floppies, whatever, was on the floor, ready to suck up dustbunnies and doughnut crumbs. Also easier for the mice and roaches to nest. Made for really filthy interiors. Oh the other hand, it did remove clutter from your desktop.
 
Chuck(G) said:
There were also stands that allowed one to put their desktop on the floor also. IBM even sold them.

Downside of it all was that the PSU fan, floppies, whatever, was on the floor, ready to suck up dustbunnies and doughnut crumbs. Also easier for the mice and roaches to nest. Made for really filthy interiors. Oh the other hand, it did remove clutter from your desktop.
Click to expand...

I liked the way the desktop looked on the desk. Just not towers.
 
Chuck(G) said:
There were also stands that allowed one to put their desktop on the floor also. IBM even sold them.
Click to expand...

Radio Shack sold a nifty tower stand for the Tandy 2000. The system was designed for either desktop or tower use, as the front panel logo can be rotated. I wonder if it counts as the first tower PC? (Using that term loosely, because although it runs MS-DOS, the 2000 is not very much IBM PC hardware compatible...)

tandy2000.jpg
 
Wonder how much that piece of solid plastic cost to have a tower?

I am going to go with the desktop look for the 486 I think...its what I had as a kid and some of you put it right, it just looks good...

I may actually use the same case my old 486 was in when my mom and uncle used to build them for people (strange as my mom now has no clue about any part of a computer, how times change)

My other option is an extra 5160 case I have....does anyone know how much modding, if any, is needed to get a 486 into the 5160 case? I know the motherboard for the 486 is a bit smaller, so thinking the card slots wouldnt match up with the back. I have an extra 5160 case just sitting there, so thinking I could give it a go?
 
The slots are the same. ISA is ISA.

I put a 286 board and a 386 board into XT cases around 25 years ago. The drives and drive bays were the biggest PITA. I would never do it again. :)

Get an AT case.
 
Chuck(G) said:
There were also stands that allowed one to put their desktop on the floor also. IBM even sold them.

Downside of it all was that the PSU fan, floppies, whatever, was on the floor, ready to suck up dustbunnies and doughnut crumbs. Also easier for the mice and roaches to nest. Made for really filthy interiors. Oh the other hand, it did remove clutter from your desktop.
Click to expand...

This one was quite fancy

pctower.jpg
 
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