Treasure Chest Computer Systems

[MAB]

I have an 80386 computer from Treasure Chest Computer Systems bought back in March of 1992. It had:
OPTI-386 Motherboard
TVM Mediascan 4a vga color monitor md-14 iv
Super Mouse II Z-Nix company, Inc.
TVGA 8900C Graphics Card (Not sure what it is specifically)
MS-DOS
Windows 3.1

I was wondering if anybody has any information about the computer and the company? I have many numbers and addresses listed in the manual, but none of them are current and either the company is now defunct or was bought out by another company. I'm just curious about their other products and any literature or information would be much appreciated. Here's some images to help job your memories. Thanks!

 

[vwestlife]

Sounds like one of countless cookie-cutter PC clone shops, which bought aftermarket components, assembled them, slapped their company logo on the case, and sold the systems at their store and at computer shows. The company names ranged from boring and generic like "Micro Tech" to interesting and unusual like "Future Power" and "Lion's Gate."

Essentially this is how Michael Dell started his company back in the mid-'80s, first as "PC's Limited" and then later named after himself.

 

[Unknown_K]

I think they are defunct. I purchased a combo motherboard and CPU set from them in the early 90's, they were big sellers in Computer Shopper for parts and systems.

 

[Dave Farquhar]

I remember this company. They sold motherboards, MB/CPU/video/memory bundles, barebones systems, and complete systems. I know they sold via mail order out of Computer Shopper. In old Computer Shopper mags, you would see their ads under TC Computers and Motherboards for Less. They also had a color catalog they would send existing customers. They had a good selection of motherboards and good prices. I ordered a lot of stuff from them over the years, both for myself and for whoever I happened to be working for at the time.

Another larger company bought them out around 2000 or so. I want to say CDW, but I'm not sure. It wasn't a company that sold components, either before or after the sale. Maybe they just wanted the customer list or warehouse space or something. That was pretty much the end of TC's components business. Too bad, because at one time, they were in position to be Newegg years before Newegg came along.

 

[framer]

Insight took them over.

framer

 

[Dave Farquhar]

That's right. Thanks for the correction, framer.

 

[MAB]

Thanks so much

Thanks so much

Thanks guys for all the information, I really appreciate it. If anyone has more info on the insight company that would be much appreciated. Also, does anyone know where I can find old computer shopper magazines, or better yet scans of them online?

 

[Unknown_K]

I tossed most of my CS magazines years ago, they were just too bulky. IF I have any left I will scan a TC advertisement (they were in each issue).

 

[MAB]

Thanks for looking for one of your old magazines and offering to scan it. At your convenience i'll be looking forward to seeing one of their advertisements.

 

[Dave Farquhar]

Insight is still alive and well, at https://www.insight.com/. They're a public company, listed on the NASDAQ exchange. I've never ordered anything from Insight directly, but one of my previous employers used to order stuff like monitors and printers from them a lot. I think they do more business selling to corporations than individuals.

Just out of curiosity, I checked, and TC Computers' web site (www.tccomputers.com) is archived at www.archive.org. Some of the archived pages take you straight to Insight, but clicking around, I was able to pull up archived copies of the site from 2001, 1996 and 1998. I can't believe what I paid for some of that stuff way back when.