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

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.
Haha, 200MB is an extreme stretch. For 2 heads at 5mbit (9x1024byte) sectors, most controllers will top out at 18MB formatted. A general limit of 1024 cylinders can be expected, as most software from this era that deals directly with the drives won't accept more than that. However, drives did exist with more cylinders than that, up to 1924 as far as I'm aware. That would garner you 33MB. If you jump to the typical controller-imposed limit of 2048 cylinders and use an RLL controller to get 26x512byte sectors, the limit would still be 52MB. Very few drives ever exceeded 100MB in MFM-land, and most of them were actually RLL and just had a crapload of surfaces. See: Maxtor XT series.
Not to mention that these controllers make no account for servo tracking, so you would end up writing your own servo data if you plan to use a voice coil and therefore lose one of your surfaces, 50% of the disk's capacity.

All this being said though, I highly support this idea on a lower level. I have had some mediocre success with making my own platters, and almost all components used in such drives are still made today in some capacity. I have been learning to sand cast to make my own chassis (though obviously this could be done with just aluminum stock and gasket maker, as proved by JCT). Building a PCB would be trivial, as many drives of the era were completely "dumb" like this JCT 100 or the Seagate ST-506, and use all off the shelf 74 series logic chips and passives. Going further you could probably integrate the entire drive plus a few parts with a single modern microcontroller.
The last real hurdle, for me at least, is the heads. Good luck finding "low tech" heads, and good luck making your own! 3D printing sliders is one thing, and stamping twinarms out of sheet steel would not be impossible, and I'm sure the microcoaxial cable and amps still exist in some form - But winding ferrite heads, even on the largest scale is by no means a trivial task.

If you plan to pursue this idea further, please PLEASE DM me or make a thread about it. I have been working towards that exact goal for a while now.
 
I know I mentioned the Sparcbook, but I have some rare vintage hardware. I have a few Brook Trout ISA cards that I have no idea what they are for. Other than being involved with the phone system. They must be pretty rare since I ended up getting like $250 a pop for two of them about 12 years ago. I still have a bunch in the attic. They came from a coworker’s basement, who also had no idea what they were.

My usual definition of rare is usually if the item isn’t available on eBay. So my Alpha Personal workstation 500au fits this definition.

I don’t know if it counts as rare, but my Sun speaker box is pretty hard to find, or at least is expensive on eBay.
 
That is definitely a good definition of rare. I also like it because it applies to a significant number of things I own.

Every Tulin TL-226 I've seen on eBay in the last 5 years already belongs to me, and the only Hitachi DK505-2.
 
My usual definition of rare is usually if the item isn’t available on eBay.
Then pretty much 50% of my stuff is rare. :giggle:

If something is not listed on eBay, people may just think it's not worth the effort to list it there. Or you just don't see it due to eBay's filtering. E.g. if you browse eBay U.S. and search for something currently only offered in Germany with shipping limited to Germany only, you will not see it even in "worldwide" mode. That's because they changed that behavious years ago. "worldwide" is "from any country but with possible shipping to my location" since then. If your location is ruled-out by the seller or only specific countries defined to ship to, you won't ever see it unless you search on the eBay site it was listed at.
 
I have a few Brook Trout ISA cards that I have no idea what they are for. Other than being involved with the phone system.
I have a PCI one that I got from a place I worked years ago. We had them in a windows NT server and was used for receiving faxes directly to users' workstations or e-mail, back when faxes were a big deal. They could do 4 or 8 incoming lines, depending on if they had the extra daughterboard.

I think eventually we upgraded to something digital instead of analog, so these weren't needed anymore. I had two but ended up giving one away recently to someone on a facebook group that has a little PBX used for simulating dial-up or BBS or whatever.
 
My usual definition of rare is usually if the item isn’t available on eBay.
eBay should never be used to gauge whats rare. I dont know why we have to keep coming back to this. If its on ebay and says RARE its not rare. If you think its rare. it probably isn't.

What ebay should be used for is how to explain how a once successful and functional corporation has DONE EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER to screw over their primary source of income (sellers), outsource all of their jobs to incompetent over seas robots, and continually on a daily basis make thier product less and less useful.

Rare. Jesus christ you know whats rare? Children playing outside together. People reading a book. Independent though not culminated from the idiot mob mentality.

You know whats the most rare? Nay Extinct.... CUSTOMER SERVICE! You have to be pushing 50 years old to remember what that really is. Your computers were mass produced for the most part, just like your sweat shop sneakers...

I need my coffee....
 
While I agree that eBay sucks, nobody can deny that parts do not show up there. I've met some of my best suppliers through eBay, and I've bought plenty of junk I didn't need.

If there's a better auction site for buying vintage hard disks and car parts for my Metro, please let me know. I need to spend more money, and none of the foreign auction sites seem to have the things I want.
 
You have a metro? I always wanted one. I rented them a bunch when I had a job involving 1200 to 1500 miles weekly. Manual brakes and manual steering on a 3 cyl engine. It was easy to chirp those little tires when you had a stick shift.

But I live in New England where there are probably the worst drivers in the world and with the salt and chemicals those things are rust traps.. Very cool car though.
 
Google provides limited information for these ROMBA capture cards from 1990 so could be fairly rare.
One is for PC the other Atari ST.
The video capture cards were also available for the Amstrad, Spectrum and Amiga too. Made in Scotland the company started producing hardware/software from around 1986.
I did find a YouTube review for the ST variant from a couple of years ago.
I have no memory of how i acquired them, possibly from part of a job lot purchase in the early 2000's. I have software and manuals but unsure if all present for each device.
Thanks for looking. 😊👍
Talking of Metro's, I had an MG Metro 1984 A reg here in the UK. White and black with red styling and graphics. Nippy and cheap on fuel. 😁
 

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I always Like those MG's that had the keyhold into the front bumper for the manual crank start decades after any american car had one. I mean that, if you can have it, why not?
 
You have a metro? I always wanted one. I rented them a bunch when I had a job involving 1200 to 1500 miles weekly. Manual brakes and manual steering on a 3 cyl engine. It was easy to chirp those little tires when you had a stick shift.

But I live in New England where there are probably the worst drivers in the world and with the salt and chemicals those things are rust traps.. Very cool car though.
Mine is a convertible, one of the first run as well. One of 3000, handmade in Canada. Can tell by the 5 digit odo and the shovel headlights, and the slightly different top mechanism.

Runs & drives like a dream, even if it's an automatic. 59.5mpg average around town. I just wish it had a backseat, thinking about getting a hatch one of these days. The brakes are vacuum power boosted, by the way.
 
I used to be on a lot of high mileage forums in the 1990s. I remember hearing stories of guys getting 79 point something miles per gallon on thier Metros (modified of course). Take that into account and the 1973 Honda CVCC civic and explain to me why "HYBRIDS" today get less gas mileage than those fully gasoline engines.
 
I always Like those MG's that had the keyhold into the front bumper for the manual crank start decades after any american car had one. I mean that, if you can have it, why not?
Must be a British thing. Land Rover up to at least the series IIa (1971ish) had a place for a hand crank.
 
I used to be on a lot of high mileage forums in the 1990s. I remember hearing stories of guys getting 79 point something miles per gallon on thier Metros (modified of course). Take that into account and the 1973 Honda CVCC civic and explain to me why "HYBRIDS" today get less gas mileage than those fully gasoline engines.
The considerable weight of required safety equipment, compulsory standard consumer equipment, and the ever-increasing stranglehold of vehicle emissions standards. CVCC even in it's time was a very special thing - Honda was already exempt from most emissions due to being an import (don't get me started on this topic) and CVCC was able to meet the very relaxed requirements they had without a catalyst, dramatically increasing the performance of their engines.

This is to put it extremely simply, but is a good general picture of the scene.
 
The considerable weight of required safety equipment, compulsory standard consumer equipment, and the ever-increasing stranglehold of vehicle emissions standards.

The curb weight of the original Honda Civic was under 1,400 pounds and the Metro was around 1,900. There are *very* few cars that compete with those vehicles in sheer lightness so the root cause of their great gas mileage is pretty obvious.

I love tiny cars myself, but gotta be honest, the five-foot tall grills and three+ ton curb weight of today's pickup trucks wouldn't make me feel very comfortable actually choosing a 1973 CVCC as my daily driver today. Even if it was a perfectly preserved example (70's Hondas were notorious for rusting to powder in three years) you're going to be street pizza if you're hit by any modern vehicle.

Take that into account and the 1973 Honda CVCC civic and explain to me why "HYBRIDS" today get less gas mileage than those fully gasoline engines.

Where hybrids shine, especially plug-in hybrids, is city driving, where they *can* beat cars like the Metro. Look at the MPG ratings for hybrids and you'll see that unlike any other sort of car their city mileage is usually *better* than highway. Being able to turn off the engine when stopped and using battery power for low speeds and acceleration is enough to counter their heavier weight. So while the cheapest option for a long highway commute might well be a Geo Metro a Prius would make a better taxi cab.
 
The curb weight of the original Honda Civic was under 1,400 pounds and the Metro was around 1,900. There are *very* few cars that compete with those vehicles in sheer lightness so the root cause of their great gas mileage is pretty obvious.

I love tiny cars myself, but gotta be honest, the five-foot tall grills and three+ ton curb weight of today's pickup trucks wouldn't make me feel very comfortable actually choosing a 1973 CVCC as my daily driver today. Even if it was a perfectly preserved example (70's Hondas were notorious for rusting to powder in three years) you're going to be street pizza if you're hit by any modern vehicle.

Where hybrids shine, especially plug-in hybrids, is city driving, where they *can* beat cars like the Metro. Look at the MPG ratings for hybrids and you'll see that unlike any other sort of car their city mileage is usually *better* than highway. Being able to turn off the engine when stopped and using battery power for low speeds and acceleration is enough to counter their heavier weight. So while the cheapest option for a long highway commute might well be a Geo Metro a Prius would make a better taxi cab.
Actually, if you look at my confirmed mileage figure above of 59.5 MPG city, I think my automatic (with no overdrive) Metro still beats out your average hybrid. Because mine is a convertible it actually only weighs 1600 pounds without me in it, at least that was the shipping weight declared during transit after it was shipped to the dealership.

Honestly, I have very little regard for my own safety. My newest vehicle was built in 1997 and it's the only one with more than one airbag. I don't even particularly like that Civic, I bought it for my brother who wound up never driving it. You will see me in my Yugo or Metro long before you see me even accepting a ride in someone's new SUV.
 
Actually, if you look at my confirmed mileage figure above of 59.5 MPG city, I think my automatic (with no overdrive) Metro still beats out your average hybrid. Because mine is a convertible it actually only weighs 1600 pounds without me in it, at least that was the shipping weight declared during transit after it was shipped to the dealership.

Extreme hypermile-ers have claimed north of 100 MPG in the older first and second gen Priuses... not that I would recommend driving like they do, and the off-the-shelf 2023 Prius L Eco (which is a normal non-plug-in model) is EPA rated for 58, which means a light foot could easily push that into the 60's. (There are websites out there where hybrid owners compete for bragging rights and this model already has people claiming north of 70 MPG.) This is with a curb weight of about 3000 pounds even and modern safety equipment, so... yeah, is what it is.

(I personally knew someone that had one of the first plug-in models and they'd claim they'd literally go months without having to put gas into it but, yeah, obviously that doesn't count. That said, though, the *effective* MPG in terms of dollar cost per city mile was the equivalent of well over 100MPG.)

I used to drive a Gen 1 VW Cabriolet, which was a puny car by most standards, but those Metro convertibles were the one thing on the road that made me feel like I was driving a Cadillac by comparison. ;) It didn't get particularly great gas mileage, to be honest, though; it got around 30 MPG regardless of whether it was city or highway. I assume the latter was because it wasn't the most aerodynamic thing in the world with the top down, and the former was because the car had the very torquey engine from the original Golf GTI, which encouraged surprisingly... spirited, driving behavior. Fastest antique baby carriage in town.
 
Extreme hypermile-ers have claimed north of 100 MPG in the older first and second gen Priuses... not that I would recommend driving like they do, and the off-the-shelf 2023 Prius L Eco (which is a normal non-plug-in model) is EPA rated for 58, which means a light foot could easily push that into the 60's. (There are websites out there where hybrid owners compete for bragging rights and this model already has people claiming north of 70 MPG.) This is with a curb weight of about 3000 pounds even and modern safety equipment, so... yeah, is what it is.

(I personally knew someone that had one of the first plug-in models and they'd claim they'd literally go months without having to put gas into it but, yeah, obviously that doesn't count. That said, though, the *effective* MPG in terms of dollar cost per city mile was the equivalent of well over 100MPG.)

I used to drive a Gen 1 VW Cabriolet, which was a puny car by most standards, but those Metro convertibles were the one thing on the road that made me feel like I was driving a Cadillac by comparison. ;) It didn't get particularly great gas mileage, to be honest, though; it got around 30 MPG regardless of whether it was city or highway. I assume the latter was because it wasn't the most aerodynamic thing in the world with the top down, and the former was because the car had the very torquey engine from the original Golf GTI, which encouraged surprisingly... spirited, driving behavior. Fastest antique baby carriage in town.
Back when I worked at Pfizer (sometime between 98 and 2001. A co-worker bought a honda Insight, First gen hybrid. It was a pretty interesting car. We went over all the details. That thing got him in the 70s' MPG on certain occasions. I remember he bent the hood by closing it early on (it was all alluminum) they had to give him another new painted hood as it was a known issue.
 
Extreme hypermile-ers have claimed north of 100 MPG in the older first and second gen Priuses... not that I would recommend driving like they do, and the off-the-shelf 2023 Prius L Eco (which is a normal non-plug-in model) is EPA rated for 58, which means a light foot could easily push that into the 60's. (There are websites out there where hybrid owners compete for bragging rights and this model already has people claiming north of 70 MPG.) This is with a curb weight of about 3000 pounds even and modern safety equipment, so... yeah, is what it is.

(I personally knew someone that had one of the first plug-in models and they'd claim they'd literally go months without having to put gas into it but, yeah, obviously that doesn't count. That said, though, the *effective* MPG in terms of dollar cost per city mile was the equivalent of well over 100MPG.)

I used to drive a Gen 1 VW Cabriolet, which was a puny car by most standards, but those Metro convertibles were the one thing on the road that made me feel like I was driving a Cadillac by comparison. ;) It didn't get particularly great gas mileage, to be honest, though; it got around 30 MPG regardless of whether it was city or highway. I assume the latter was because it wasn't the most aerodynamic thing in the world with the top down, and the former was because the car had the very torquey engine from the original Golf GTI, which encouraged surprisingly... spirited, driving behavior. Fastest antique baby carriage in town.
Oh I by no means claim it is the most efficient car in the world, not even the most efficient Metro. It's just what I get, and I don't drive it kindly. It spends plenty of time wide open, and driven this way it does make the appearance of being sportier than it really is with the lame 54 horsepower and 3 speed slushbox. I've had that sucker up to 87mph before with the top up.

All that said, I don't think I could be convinced to drive a modern hybrid or EV for free. Giving it to me you'd probably see it up for auction a couple days later, I don't like the way they drive. Or maybe it's just the dozens I've had the displeasure of servicing during my time in the automotive industry.
 
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