What are the top 10 rarest vintage computer bits you own?

[wperko]

Hi,

I have a few vintage S-100 boards;

The harder are the Processor Technology boards for building an Altair 8800 SubSystemB;
I have the Processor Technology CUTS board (UnTested) and I'm looking for a GPM board and a 3P+S board complete a SubSystem B build.

Compupro VIASYN SPIO (Not Tested) (I wish I could find documentation to see if it works.)


These I want to trade off for stuff I need:
Vandenberg Data Products 16K Static RAM Tested Working
DynaByte 16K Static RAM Tested Working
IMSAI RAM-4A Rev2 Static RAM (Needs help)
Jade Computer Products Serial/Parallel Interrupt board (UnTested)
Compupro VIASYN SPIO (Not Tested) (I wish I could find documentation to see if it works.)
XITEX Dallaw SCT-100 Composite Video (Not Tested)
ITHICA Audio IA-1100 Composite Video (Not Tested)
2x ADS PROM Blasters (Not Tested)
TeleTek SBC-1 CPU board (Not Tested)
MITS 88-S4K (Bare Board)


I'd like to get ... in the order of importance:
Processor Technology GPM board
Processor Technology 3P+S board
Solid State Music SSM-IO4 board
CompuPro Vector Godbout RAM17 board
Solid State Music SSM-IO2 board

wperko at brainless org

 

[seaken]

Most of what I have is not rare. But if I look at some of the oldest stuff I have, it's this:

NorthStar Advantage (Z80 CP/M)
Atari 800 Home Computer
Commodore 64 Home Computer
Tandy CoCo2 Color Computer
Apple IIe

Tandy 1000HD (8088)
Tandy 1400FD (8088/V20)
Packard Bell VX88 (8088/V20)
IBM 5162 XT-286 (80286)

I owned a NorthStar Horizon back in 1987 but I sold it. I wasn't collecting computers then and I was better at using the Advantage so I didn't need it. I wish I had kept it.

Seaken

 

[gepooljr]

The rarest vintage computer I have is a TRS Model 1 Rom 1 with the original 4K of memory with Tandy Monitor aka TV Set. From around 1977 I believe. Has not been modified. You can type in programs for Rom 1 Basic or attach a Tape Drive and use it to load/store progames. Also have the original manuals. It was discovered in Ohio by a buyer/seller of Storage Lockers and had been there uncovered for several decades. It's in really good shape for its age.

 

[thegenerallee86]

The Only thing I have that is Hard to find rare is my Complete in Box Windows 1.0 and My Redneck Rampage Deer Hunting from interplay.

 

[VERAULT]

Been following this post for a long time not sure if I ever posted. Who is to say what is rare? In my opinion these are my rare items in somwhat order of rarity:

A 1971 Wang 700 (only thing I own with core memory) with matching Wang modified selectric typewriter/printer
(just added) Cromemco System 1 with 512KB RAM and z80/68000 dual cpu board
An MAI BASIC 4 mini computer with portrait mode CRT terminal and wide format daisy wheel printer (MAI branded)
IBM 5110 Model 3
Fully functional Apple /// system (upgraded with APPLE III PLUS+ mainboard)
2 X 1977 Commodore PET 2001-8 systems with chiclet keyboards and 6550 RAM (one with a blue crt bezel one with black bezel)
Commodore model 8050 dual floppy drive
ACTRIX Matrix CP/M Luggable
two Apple IIc Plus systems
(related) a Zip chip 8000 (8mhz)and Zip chip 4000 (4mhz) 6502 architechture cpu accelerators
8 bit ISA 386 16mhz upgrade overdrive board with 2x 4mb ram upgrade daughter cards
TRS-80 model II
TRS-80 model 4D
Apple Lisa 2 (with working 5mb profile hard drive)
Macintosh 128K
Motorola and Daystar Macintosh clones
Working TRS-80 model 2000
Kaypro2000 laptop

Im sure I have more that I just cant remember but those are what spike my interest/memory

 

[famicomaster2]

Fully working CMI-6426S with zero bad sectors, does that count? I also own a Seagate ST-406 (working with bad blocks) and a Cogito CG-912 (responding but bad surface 0), of which I've seen very few. I think the next thing would probably be my PowerBook G3 Kanga with the max 192MB of RAM.

I also have a bunch of weirdo expansion cards, like a Rockwell PCI internally bonded ISDN modem and some Ubiquiti military miniPCI wireless radios with wildly illegal transmit power ratings.
I have a 1959 Philco Predicta Debutante (Chassis 10U43), too, if that counts.

A lot of my things are one of a kind but utterly valueless!

 

[duewix]

I completely understand the idea of something being unique but valueless - it's at least valuable to me! Here are some of my rarer boxes. I've tried to focus on the gear I have not seen in other collections:

1. Resilient 110 - a fault tolerant SPARC server with 3 Sparcstation 5 compatible workstations running in triplicate
2. nCube server, a massively parallel media server which previously ran an exhibit at Epcot Center
3. Clipper coprocessor board - essentially an Intergraph workstation on a card
4. SGI set top box - an SGI INDY packaged as a set top box with custom audio/visual hardware for doing streaming, part of a demo in Florida in the 1990s
5. Motorola VME/10 - early Motorola desktop computer using the VME bus
6. SGI Virtu VS100 - essentially a BOXX workstation in SGI clothes, pretty boring but uncommon
7. Cisco MSM - the mid-range C-bus router reconfigured as a terminal server
8. SiCortex SC072 - multiprocessor development system with 72 cores
9. Orion Multisystems - desktop cluster using Transmeta processors
10. Sherpa APA6670 control box - a custom built multibus computer made by IBM Research Division as a print server; mine came from CMU

Here are some more common but still cool items:
1. Xerox Daybreak workstation
2. SGI Prism
3. Sage II, runs p-System
4. Onxy C8002 (Z8000 based)
5. IBM PS/2 model 70 486

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Love to see a picture of that Indy set-top.

 

[Glyndur]

I don't have a ton of rare stuff but a few that I'm proud of are:

1) Control Data Corp (CDC) branded R4000 Indigo with Entry graphics and the matching red Entry 4000 case badge. I've seen a few other CDC Indigos but I've never seen another red badge in the wild before.
2) Counterfeit Chinese "Golden Tiger" Pentium chip. Its basically a mobile pentium mated to an adaptor pcb in order to fit in a Socket 7 motherboard.
3) Intel Itanium Engineering Sample clocked at 667Mhz (lower than the base 733Mhz offered at retail). I used to collect ES chips and this is one of the few I kept when I gave that up.

 

[famicomaster2]

Wow! Those golden Pentiums are super cool. I'd love to have one of those someday, if the CPU collectors ever let the price fall enough for me to get one.

 

[TheDrip]

Added a Wang PC005 complete with monitor and keyboard to my collection. All working minus the HD.

 

[Rory]

Sparcbook 3gx. Bought it before it even made it to the sellers table at an MIT swap fest.

 

[jafir]

I’m jealous. Are these tadpole laptops reliable? I’d really like an Alphabook, but at the prices these kinds of things go for, I wouldn’t want one if they are likely to disintegrate or have some sort of failure that cannot be repaired.

 

[Michele31415]

Wow - a Sparcbook! That is *so* cool! I really craved one of those back in the day but it was just way out of reach. I don't even have 10 really rare computers but my top three would be a Xerox Alto, Xerox D0 Dolphin, and Xerox 1810 Sunrise. The Alto and Sunrise work, the D0 is having problems Ether booting.

 

[ST251]

does something from the late '90s count?

I have a post-Gateway acquisition ALR server (ALR 8300), a sealed copy of Windows 95 on 3.5" floppies and a sealed copy of Office 95.

 

[jafir]

I have a sealed copy of Office 1.6, I think it is. It was just laying on the floor in the lobby at Computer Reset and people kept stepping over it so I bought it as a joke and didn’t realize that it was a pretty old version until later.

 

[Rory]

I’m jealous. Are these tadpole laptops reliable? I’d really like an Alphabook, but at the prices these kinds of things go for, I wouldn’t want one if they are likely to disintegrate or have some sort of failure that cannot be repaired.

Currently the scsi hard drive is dead. Other than that, everything else aside from the obvious dead battery works great.

 

[famicomaster2]

Wow! Never thought I'd meet an Alto owner, that's pretty cool.

In recent times, I added another rare piece to my hard disk collection: a drive manufactured by Josephine County Technology, the JCT 100. It's a 5 megabyte drive and it looks like it was built by a high school shop class. Sadly, it has some board level fault that causes it to act funny and not really work. It has a battery operated head lift/park mechanism. I have never seen another one. The only photos I have been able to find are this exact drive. Mine is serial number 67. Anyone else who has one or might know where one is, I beg of you to let me buy it, or at least get me some nice pictures. Apparently, this one came out of some type of industrial scale. Interesting!

 

[Unknown_K]

I have a sealed copy of Office 1.6, I think it is. It was just laying on the floor in the lobby at Computer Reset and people kept stepping over it so I bought it as a joke and didn’t realize that it was a pretty old version until later.

Microsoft Office is not that old since it is a Windows application suite that came out with 1.0 in 1990. Version 1.6 came out in 1991 and was the last version that supported Windows 3.0 so if you had a 286 that is what you were stuck with.
Before the Office bundle you had to buy apps individually and each company tended to do just one type of app. they were good at. Once MS started bundling for Windows Lotus and Borland started doing the same even buying up others to fill out the package.

 

[Unknown_K]

Wow! Never thought I'd meet an Alto owner, that's pretty cool.

In recent times, I added another rare piece to my hard disk collection: a drive manufactured by Josephine County Technology, the JCT 100. It's a 5 megabyte drive and it looks like it was built by a high school shop class. Sadly, it has some board level fault that causes it to act funny and not really work. It has a battery operated head lift/park mechanism. I have never seen another one. The only photos I have been able to find are this exact drive. Mine is serial number 67. Anyone else who has one or might know where one is, I beg of you to let me buy it, or at least get me some nice pictures. Apparently, this one came out of some type of industrial scale. Interesting!

I kind of wonder how hard it would be to use a single modern platter (to make it more simple) from a malfunctioning drive with some low tech heads and controller to make a "new" MFM drive. New drives with massive storage are complicated beasts but if you dial down the design where say a 2TB platter just needs to be 200 MB spinning at 3600 RPM or less you might be able to hack something up in a garage.