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*Almost* no-name PC clones

SomeGuy

SomeGuy

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I was thinking it would be interesting and informative to have a thread to document the names sometimes found on "no-name" generic PC clones. These were often machines assembled by small computer shops from generic parts. The key factor is they used generic, usually Taiwanese, IBM XT or AT form compatible parts. The cases literally would have no name on them, just a square or rectangle where a badge might be affixed.

In the 80s and 90s these were popular "budget" machines. One might buy them from a small shop or mail order, or buy individual parts and assemble them themselves. Some companies may have also assembled and badged computers for their own internal use.

It can be quite difficult to search the web for these, as there is often zero information or the name matches too many common words.

The only one I personally have that fits this category is a "Ethom Atlanta" XT. I don't think I have the original case (parts were swapped around a long time ago), but here is the badge from the keyboard:
ethom.jpg
As far as I know they were (and seemingly still are) a tech consulting company in the Atlanta area.

The TAVA PC I posted about almost fits in to this category.

Magitronic XT Clone.jpg
A couple seen elsewhere: Magitronic was a brand associated with a large parts supplier. Their parts were all over the place, but I guess they offered complete machines too.

Vss 4000 - 2.jpg
A random one spotted on eBay "Vertical Software System Personal Compatibles" Never heard of them before.

PCs Limited - 1.jpg
Of course, there was this little company churning out generic XT clones run by this dweeb named Michael Dell :p .
 
I think that one of my cases here still has a "Pantex" badge on it. Like most of these, parts made in (usually) Taiwan, assembled in USA.

Not that long ago, there was a US outfit sporting the "made in USA" logo, with "union made", etc. asking a significant premium on their stuff--offering to build a 'made in USA" PC to order. I dropped them an inquiry asking where their cases and motherboards were fabricated. You guessed it--China. Basically a bunch of guys with screwdrivers.

Up until 2000 or so, I believe that SuperMicro advertised some of their motherboards as being "made in USA' and the BIOS logon even stated that. I don't know when they stopped doing it.
 
I'll have to look at my circa 1998 SuperMicro P6SBA for Made in the USA markings. I sold off one US built Micronics board. I still have a Nice/Lion Computers SuperEISA 486 board that proudly states it was Made in USA complete with a flag. A lot of the "2nd tier" clone makers of the 90s (think Midwest Micro) weren't much better then these "almost" no name PCs. They all used off the shelf parts and cases.

The computer shop I used to work for had stickers to put on the beige boxes we built and for some reason we had piles of FCC certification stickers that my boss was paranoid about ensuring was on the machines. As far as I know, there was no requirement for the assembled system to have a FCC certification sticker and I doubt all the custom built configurations we did with numerous brands of power supplies were even remotely covered by that FCC ID. ;)
 
MITEK and PC General are two I've got. My original x86 was a PC General 286/16. My XT Turbo clone is Redstone Computers branded. I believe they made Apple II clones as well.

Interesting thing about my MITEK, a 386DX25 system, is it has a sliding door to cover the 5.25" bays.


Edit:Seems Mitek is still in business.
PC General went bust in the late 90s
 
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Chuck(G) said:
I think that one of my cases here still has a "Pantex" badge on it.
Click to expand...
Oh yea, I remember Pantex. I think they may have been based out of Texas, but had a distributor in Norcross Georgia. Bought some no-name Pentium 1 era parts from Pantex around 1997 to upgrade a machine on the cheap.
 
Didn't every large city have a dozen or more of those? I remember in the 90's there were tons of large computer companies owned by Russians in the Cleveland area and they advertised like crazy in computer shopper.
 
In the San Jose area, they were mostly Taiwanese sellers. I thought they'd just write a relative back in Taiwan to fill a container with PC goodies and then flog the stuff. I remember one XT clone that my wife bought even threw in an ST506 free gratis with every system purchase. Apparently 5MB hard drives weren't a hot item and Seagate was dumping them at stupid-cheap prices. I still have the drive, believe it or not--I remember patching the controller BIOS to use the slower stepping times.
 
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Some brands I recall:
- Kloon (Dutch word for Clone, great brand)
- Sunshine
- Trust (they still exist, don't make computers anymore, but mice, speaker sets, network cards, that sort of thing: https://www.trust.com)

For me personally, I only bought two pre-fab PCs, first a Commodore PC10-III, then a Commodore 386SX-16. My 486 was the first PC I assembled myself, by hand-picking all the parts I wanted.
I've been building my own PCs ever since, never bought a prefab machine again. Don't think I ever will.

I have a collection of PC magazines from about 1988 to 1995 or so.
They are full of ads of all sorts of PCs, both brands and generic clones. Would be interesting to create a list of them all.
 
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I've got a "TCS Systems" 486 (or really just the case and a few of the components from it, it's not really the same machine anymore). It was bought by my parents back in the early-mid 1990s from a shop called The Computer Store. Yes, the TCS in TCS systems stood for The Computer Store, as they put together the system themselves.
 
I sold alot of DTK, Gem, Vextrec and CAF branded systems back in the day.
I also used to buy cases from Pantex, Don was my sales person out of Texas, but he passed away in the 90's.
 
That's the problem, isn't it? :) I used to have frequent exchanges with a guy from Pantex in the 80s, but I'll be darned if I can remember his name after all these years. (Mike something...)
 
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We also sold our own house brand from 86 to around mid 2000's, that's when we stopped selling enlight cases, and dropped using a case badge.
MTX.

Later,
dabone
 
Hmmm no way I would remember the name but UIM a vendor took out a full page ad in 80 Micro advertising a baby sized AT (XT clone). Would be interesting to see that ad. It was conspicuous as it wasn't made by Tandy.
 
2icebitn said:
That is one of the most pleasant (on the eyes) screens I've seen. Great choice of colors. Not sure I would want to look at it all day long, as in the case of a forum such as this. But it's very easy on the eyes.
Click to expand...

I can't take credit for it, it's a direct copy of emacs tsdh-dark theme.
 
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