creepingnet
Veteran Member
Logistics
Assembled: 1990
Last Modified: September 2007
Purchased: $35, E-Bay, August 2005
Nicknames: GEM 286, The Ultimate 286
SPECIFICATIONS
CASE: unbranded Full Size AT Chassis
PSU: Custom Home-Built 250 Watt Full-Size AT PSU
MOBO: Octek FOX II REV.4 Motherboard, 8XISA (2X 8-bit only), supports 80286 10-16 MHz CPU
CPU: Intel 80286 SX-10
NPU: ITT 802c87-12 ALU
RAM: 6144K (4MB on Motherboard, 2MB on RAMpAT Card)
Floppy: 1.44MB Epson 3.5" Floppy A:, 1.2MB 5.25" Mitsubishi Floppy B: on Generic ISA Multi I/O Card
HDD: 540MB Seagate with DDO on Multi I/O Card
GFX: OTI 1MB SVGA ISA - Max Res 800X600 @256 Colors
SND: SoundBlaster Vibra 16
NET: Linksys PnP ISA 10mbps LAN
Noted Mods: Custom AT PSU with guts from a BABY AT PSU, Custom internal speaker setup (experimental) using the internal speaker as an output for the SoundBlaster, usage of PnP hardware in a pre-PnP system. Overclocked (12 MHz) via a BIOS glitch introduced by the 12MHz ITT Co-Processor.
PERIPHERALS
Keyboard: Magitronic 101 Key XT/AT Switchable
Mouse: Microspeed PC-TRAC Serial
Monitor: HP 1015 15" LCD SVGA Monitor
Game Controller: PC-PRopad 4
OPERATING SYSTEM: MS-DOS 6.22
GUI(S): Windows 1.01, Windows 2.03, Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1
Primary Usage: DOS Games from 1985-1989 (the 286/386 era).
MY TIDBITS
I bought this in 2005 because it was made by GEM Computer Products out of Norcross Georgia (I'm a big fan of their 80's whitebox clones). GEM Computer Products was a company owned by a MEC, or Micro Electronics Corporation, and had a second "Consumer" IT business/brand called C.More. In my little world, GEM is notable for making AT class desktops using ridiculously heavy and huge full AT chassis (my favorite kind to work with) populated with baby AT motherboard and miniscule expansion cards. I also had a 386 of theirs that became my main Pentium III system that I used up till 2008. They are also notorious for coming to me with a dead 1.44M Mitsubishi floppy drive.
While the 386 had a neater case (my favorite, it was a full AT knockoff of a Compaq Deskpro 8086/286/386 chassis), the 286 caught my eye as I'm always looking for vintage GEM computers, and this one turned up on E-bay under that exact phrase "Vintage GEM Computer". I knew not what lurked beyond the cover...I just took a chance in guessing it was a 286 most likely (mostly based on the case, the 386 was likely meant to be a clone of the Deskpro 386...it was also older and had a 1986 BIOS Date whereas this one has a 1989 BIOS date).
This computer replaced the Deskpro 286 and PS/2 Model 30 I had in my collection. They both were too proprietary and hard to find parts for for me to justify keeping them around. Also, the PS/2 was finicky about any hardware post 1990, and the Deskpro had run out of spare Drive Rails.
Funny anecdotes involve power spikes/surges in the local power grid sending filter caps off as firey rockets from the Octek motherboard...only to just reboot, POST, and go back to chomping 16-bits at a time in DOS again like nothing ever happened.
The GEM currently runs as my main DOS-only box. It never crashes, and even spent 2 years up and running as a peer file storage as well as DOS internet access box and DOS Gaming box, and I it took the original power supply dying to take it down finally...roughly 2.5 years later.
This computer also has the most elaborate multi-boot config of any computer I"ve ever had, with a submenu and over 20 entires with special memory configurations to get the maximum power and speed out of it's inherent limitations of being a 286. It has 6MB of RAM, and uses ALL of it, and rather well. It runs every version of Windows right up to Windows 3.1, and 3.1 is nice and speedy, with full sound and SVGA graphics. I'd say this computers retro-work stops around 1993...which is not bad considering it's 1984 era Technology.
Assembled: 1990
Last Modified: September 2007
Purchased: $35, E-Bay, August 2005
Nicknames: GEM 286, The Ultimate 286
SPECIFICATIONS
CASE: unbranded Full Size AT Chassis
PSU: Custom Home-Built 250 Watt Full-Size AT PSU
MOBO: Octek FOX II REV.4 Motherboard, 8XISA (2X 8-bit only), supports 80286 10-16 MHz CPU
CPU: Intel 80286 SX-10
NPU: ITT 802c87-12 ALU
RAM: 6144K (4MB on Motherboard, 2MB on RAMpAT Card)
Floppy: 1.44MB Epson 3.5" Floppy A:, 1.2MB 5.25" Mitsubishi Floppy B: on Generic ISA Multi I/O Card
HDD: 540MB Seagate with DDO on Multi I/O Card
GFX: OTI 1MB SVGA ISA - Max Res 800X600 @256 Colors
SND: SoundBlaster Vibra 16
NET: Linksys PnP ISA 10mbps LAN
Noted Mods: Custom AT PSU with guts from a BABY AT PSU, Custom internal speaker setup (experimental) using the internal speaker as an output for the SoundBlaster, usage of PnP hardware in a pre-PnP system. Overclocked (12 MHz) via a BIOS glitch introduced by the 12MHz ITT Co-Processor.
PERIPHERALS
Keyboard: Magitronic 101 Key XT/AT Switchable
Mouse: Microspeed PC-TRAC Serial
Monitor: HP 1015 15" LCD SVGA Monitor
Game Controller: PC-PRopad 4
OPERATING SYSTEM: MS-DOS 6.22
GUI(S): Windows 1.01, Windows 2.03, Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1
Primary Usage: DOS Games from 1985-1989 (the 286/386 era).
MY TIDBITS
I bought this in 2005 because it was made by GEM Computer Products out of Norcross Georgia (I'm a big fan of their 80's whitebox clones). GEM Computer Products was a company owned by a MEC, or Micro Electronics Corporation, and had a second "Consumer" IT business/brand called C.More. In my little world, GEM is notable for making AT class desktops using ridiculously heavy and huge full AT chassis (my favorite kind to work with) populated with baby AT motherboard and miniscule expansion cards. I also had a 386 of theirs that became my main Pentium III system that I used up till 2008. They are also notorious for coming to me with a dead 1.44M Mitsubishi floppy drive.
While the 386 had a neater case (my favorite, it was a full AT knockoff of a Compaq Deskpro 8086/286/386 chassis), the 286 caught my eye as I'm always looking for vintage GEM computers, and this one turned up on E-bay under that exact phrase "Vintage GEM Computer". I knew not what lurked beyond the cover...I just took a chance in guessing it was a 286 most likely (mostly based on the case, the 386 was likely meant to be a clone of the Deskpro 386...it was also older and had a 1986 BIOS Date whereas this one has a 1989 BIOS date).
This computer replaced the Deskpro 286 and PS/2 Model 30 I had in my collection. They both were too proprietary and hard to find parts for for me to justify keeping them around. Also, the PS/2 was finicky about any hardware post 1990, and the Deskpro had run out of spare Drive Rails.
Funny anecdotes involve power spikes/surges in the local power grid sending filter caps off as firey rockets from the Octek motherboard...only to just reboot, POST, and go back to chomping 16-bits at a time in DOS again like nothing ever happened.
The GEM currently runs as my main DOS-only box. It never crashes, and even spent 2 years up and running as a peer file storage as well as DOS internet access box and DOS Gaming box, and I it took the original power supply dying to take it down finally...roughly 2.5 years later.
This computer also has the most elaborate multi-boot config of any computer I"ve ever had, with a submenu and over 20 entires with special memory configurations to get the maximum power and speed out of it's inherent limitations of being a 286. It has 6MB of RAM, and uses ALL of it, and rather well. It runs every version of Windows right up to Windows 3.1, and 3.1 is nice and speedy, with full sound and SVGA graphics. I'd say this computers retro-work stops around 1993...which is not bad considering it's 1984 era Technology.