Woe is me, wish I still had my PC ...

[The Ruminator]

Hello,

I don't really have a vintage collection yet. (My oldest PC is a circa 1996 NEC laptop that runs Win95.) But I'm hoping to change that as the years go by. :D

I've been into computers and programming since I was about 12 (a long time ago now. :wink: ). The first PC I bought on my own was an IBM PS/2 50Z along with an NEC monitor back in 1988. I loved that PC. I added a math co-processor, a 2nd hard drive and 2nd 3.5" floppy drive. I ended up donating it in 2000 and have regretted it ever since. I mean, it was for a good cause, but I've really missed that PC. I kept all of my original DOS programs, though, so that's a bit of comfort. (sniff, sniff)

Anyway, I think this is a great forum, and I'm looking forward to finding another 286 to begin my new hobby of vintage PC collecting.

 

[Erik]

Welcome to the VC Forum!

I'm sure you'll find a way to replace that old PC and many more.

Enjoy!

Erik

 

[Vlad]

Welcome to the Forum!

I hope you enjoy your time here.

-Vlad

 

[EvanK]

Of course, in time, you'll learn that a 286 is barely the tip of the iceberg for what's "vintage"...

 

[The Ruminator]

Thanks for the welcomes!

Mobilemaster,
I live in NJ, too. Anyway, yeah, I realize there were lots of computers that preceded the 286. One of my brothers put together an Altair. That's another I'm putting on my wish list. My dad still has an Apple II, which I think I can talk him out of. :wink: Years ago, I used a TRS-80 that belonged to my employer. I also liked Wang word processors and word processing typewriters. In terms of the latter, I used to have a really nice Xerox one, but donated it, too. It was in great condition, and I'd invested a lot in various printwheels (the hardware equivalent of multiple typefaces). A Xerox engineer even modified their multilingual printwheel for me so it could print some special language characters I needed. But it's all gone now. *Sigh* But I've learned my lesson! :wink:

Aside from liking computers for their own sake, I'm also into history. Like Erik, I hope to obtain at least a few computers that could be considered historically significant.

I'm also thinking ahead, in that I'm looking at computers of the recent past that I feel were very interesting and will be considered vintage gems 10-20 years from now. For example, I got a Sony VAIO PCV-L630, so-called "Slimtop" for free from my cousin. (From her perspective, I was doing her a favor by taking it off her hands!) Everything works great except the keyboard, on which she spilled some sort of soft drink. I think I can probably clean it up and get it working, though. Anyway, this model came out in 1999, I believe. If you're not familiar with these, they're similar to the Shuttle XPCs, only Sony included a keyboard, mouse and LCD monitor with integrated Harman Kardon speakers, which sound very nice. Also, the motherboard on these VAIOs only offered integrated ATI Rage Pro graphics. Still, IMO, a nice piece of engineering, with 2 USB 1.0 ports, one 4-pin 1394a port, one 6-pin 1394a port, a memory stick port (not a fan of Sony memory sticks, but still ...), a PCMCIA slot, which is very handy, just one PCI expansion slot, though, just like with the Shuttles. My cousin bought it because she didn't want a tower and loved the LCD. She never knew what to do with all the expansion ports, but I've hooked up an old external Zip drive and external CD-RW I had lying around along with a PC Card modem, which works way better than the integrated software modem. Anyway, this thing uses the Intel 440BX chipset and has a PIII 600MHz CPU. I've been putting it through its paces for about 6 months, and it's been a terrific little machine.

Sorry for going on and on, but as you can see, I'm very enthusiastic.

 

[The Ruminator]

P.S. I also got all the original documentation, recovery CDs, and the original box for the Sony. I know it's not vintage yet. But it will be someday. :wink: