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

Rarest machine is the still working
CASI Apollo VP2 S100 based computer portrait system
I only know one other person with a similar machine, it’s so rare I can’t find the keyboard (which had an 8008 cpu inside), the printer, the original camera or cables.
Always hoped to make it complete some day so I could print 14x14” text based photos
 
Most of my rarest stuff would be from the mid to late 90's:
Creative 3D Blaster VLB
Diamond 3D Edge
Matrox M3D - PowerVR card
Alliance AT3D card
Sierra Promethus Aria16 sound card
STB Soundrage 32 Pro sound card
Yamaha SW60XG sound card
Socket 5 mobo with VLB slots
 
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I’ve been collecting vintage computers and accessories since I was a kid in the 90’s (when “vintage” more easily translated to “junk people were happy to give away to a computer-obsessed teenager”), and while I don’t still have all the cool stuff I had back then, I’ve definitely found / held onto a few notable things. Here are some highlights of my collection, no particular order (all are working machines / devices unless otherwise noted):

  • IBM ThinkPad “701 Series” machine with the amazingly clever ‘butterfly keyboard’ which expands as the machine is opened
  • BeBox with Dual 66MHz PPC CPU’s
  • Macintosh 128k with original accessories, manuals, software, etc. in the official Apple-branded padded travel-case
  • Macintosh 128k (upgraded to “Fat Mac” 512k) with original accessories, manuals, software, etc. in the official Apple-branded padded travel-case
  • Macintosh IIfx - this is a fairly rare machine in any case, but mine is special: it is fully loaded with the maximum amount of (oddball, difficult-to-find) RAM, powerful aftermarket NuBus video card, Radius Rocket board (essentially a second Mac inside the IIfx, very cool piece of hardware), etc. Even cooler: this was the actual machine used to do the first CAD design work for the New Mexico Spaceport, and I have the original drafting files (in MacCAD format) on the machine still
  • Macintosh Quadra 950 (not wildly rare, but increasingly difficult to find in good shape)
  • Macintosh Portable (enhanced version with the nicer backlit display)
  • PowerMac G4 Cube (absolutely maxed out: larger see-through aftermarket case, upgraded VRM, upgraded GPU, dual-1.5GHz G4 upgrade, Solid State Drive, max RAM, etc.)
  • HeathKit Microcomputer Trainer (Motorola 6800-based DIY kit, literally just bought it on eBay and received the box today, it’s currently sitting in the trunk of my car outside my office as I type this)
  • DEC Rainbow in a vertical “minitower” (aka “looks more like a skinny refrigerator than a computer”) configuration, complete with CRT monitor and massive keyboard
  • Sony Magic Link device with “Not For Resale” demo content on an NFR PCMCIA card (in terms of sheer rarity this demo card may be the rarest thing I own, even if it’s not especially valuable - there can’t be many working examples left)
  • Sony “Net Yaroze” Playstation (the “DIY” PS1 dev-kit)
  • Apple IIe Platinum w/ Applied Engineering RAM Expansion and TransWarp CPU card (IIe’s aren’t exactly rare, but the Applied Engineering stuff is getting harder to find)
  • Commodore Executive SX-64 (not insanely rare, but mine is in great working condition and just needs the handle reattached)

Of course, some of the stuff I didn't hold onto as a dumb kid still drives me crazy. Had a complete Bell & Howell Apple II kit, IBM 5150 with a ton of upgrades, Vector Graphics S-100 machine, tons of TRS-80 gear, etc., but they're all long gone...
 
We recently acquired 2 pretty rare computers. An Apple III with original profiler and Apple III+ screen:


And this little machine, the Casio FP-6000 with disk interface
 
So I just read through this whole topic and what stands out the most is how few rare x86 machines/pc clones there are.

And wow, the admin with the Apple I... isn’t that worth like... a million dollars?

I don’t have anything particularly rare unfortunately, maybe some future rarities like my EVGA SR-2. I don’t think there are any rare PS/2’s, which is what I mostly collect because their aesthetic is strangely vaporwave to me.
 
Well the rarest items I own are:
Ventless Apple II
Apple IIe Hard Drive - Design Concept Prototype
Apple II Revision 5 Motherboard - Only one I know of that exists
Super II Prototype
Apple IIe Prototype
Apple IIe Prototype Motherboard
Apple II Dual Liron Drive Prototype
Macintosh 128k Prototype
Apple Lisa GLM Prototype
Apple Lisa Prototype RAM Cards
Apple Lisa Prototype Test Cards
Apple Lisa Priam Card
Apple Lisa 4Port Unix Card
 
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I have a few rare Australian computers that are unknown in the US or UK, all from early to mid 80's

Microbee Kit
Applix 1616
Excalibur 64
Amust Executive 816
Portapak
 
don't know about 10 items
but have CM-1803 big and heavy special soviet computer with 8" drives, and don't know anybody who have it

And have another computer CM-1810 called "NIVKA" also one man have another working computer and few peoples have not working computers and parts
This is soviet XT 8086 copmputer but have multibus architecture, not ISA here, and present 768 kb of ram
Also supporting multiprocessors. Operating systems MS-DOS and iRMX86 soviet clones.
 
My collection is pretty mainstream PC, Tandy, Amiga, but I have a few items that are not everyday finds:

- Cipher M990 9-track tape drive
- TI Professional Portable
- Sun Ultra Sparc 10 with matching accessories (including vintage Sun mouse pad)
- Mouse Systems M2 optical mouse w/matching pad

Call it "young vintage", but I recently acquired a first generation Alienware Chieftec Dragon tower with original Chieftec PSU and period-correct Pentium4+Radeon 9700. Working on replacing leaking caps on the PSU and a few bulging ones on the mobo while I'm at it. Will be loading up some period games like Commandos, Quake III, Thief 2, Half Life 2. May also load up some other games I never played at the time like Halo, Diablo II and Red Alert. Ah yes, the turn of the century games. Who cared about Y2K when you could just bury yourself in virtual mayhem and carnage!
 
Right now my collection is built around late 90s water cooling and gaming parts. Id say my rarest stuff I own is my cross drilled aluminum blocks from 97-2000. I know most dont see that as vintage, but its close. I have a block for SK7 and even slot one. Sadly the slot 1 block is toasted from galvanic corrosion.
 
My rarest vintage stuff would probably be
1. Presenter 1280 with cable and card installed in my R5000 Indy
2. Beige G3 with a 500mhz MAXpowr G3-G3, and Sonnet ATA133 IDE card.
 
I guess I should add a few more items to my list: 1/2 dozen S-100 computers, a NEC Starlet laptop plus floppy drive module, Netronics RS-232 terminal board with keyboard, Quest Super Elf with S-100 expansion board plus 64K RAM board and lastly an Epson QX-16 that needs a CRT monitor.
 
I kind of keep to the "pretty rare but generally known about" camp:

1) Apple II Rev-0 with toggle power-supply
2) Commodore PET 2001-8 with Blue Label in mint condition
3) IBM 5150 with IBM EGA card + daughterboard + IBM EGA monitor
4) a hand-wired COSMAC ELF 2000 with custom wood enclosure (one-of-a-kind!!! ;) )
5) MSD Dual Floppy Drive with Disk Duplicator ROMs
 
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