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Working 1993 Pionex 486DX2-66 20MB RAM 5ISA 2VESA Computer AT Desktop Tower

vintageestatefinds

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
118
Location
Simpsonville, SC
Hey, I've made a post about this computer before but I have it in fully working order now with no errors. Figured I'd list it here rather than Ebay for a while since I've gotten a lot of help from the forum to get it functioning again.


This is a vintage 1993 Pionex 486 DX2-66 mhz computer made in the US. It originally cost around $2,000 then (per the original owner) and was upgraded from Windows 3.x to Windows 95 version 4.00.950. It has a turbo button, two floppy drives, and a CD-ROM installed. Turbo LED is lit up unpressed and not lit when pressed.

The CMOS battery has been replaced with a brand new one. The CD-ROM has been upgraded to a 24X Hitachi CDR-8330. The sound card has been upgraded to a NOS Creative SoundBlaster 16 CT4170. SCANDISK has been performed on the hard drive and no bad sectors or other problems were found with it.

Specs :
Motherboard : Biostar 1433/50 AEA-V Ver 5.1
2 Floppy Drives : B: 1 Chinon 1.2MB FR-506 5.25'' and A: 1 Chinon 1.44 MB FZ-357 3.5''
C: Caviar 1210 HDD 216.2 MB
D: Hitachi CDR-8330 CD ROM
Creative SoundBlaster 16 CT4170 sound card
5 ISA slots (3 unused), 2 VESA local bus slots (1 unused)
8 RAM slots : 4* 1 MB RAM sticks, 4* 4MB : 20MB total RAM (64MB max possible)
Full Yes Industrial S3 805 EAAJ2 VESA video card
Cardinal 020-0490 modem card
IODE 3292U Hard Disk/Floppy Controller
486DX2-66 Processor
Numeric Processor
Bestec BPS-2004-U 200W Power Supply
384KB Shadow RAM
256KB Cache RAM
11/11/92 AMIBIOS Date

Requires 5 pin din keyboard and serial port mouse.

I have only been able to find one Pionex very similar to this one sold and it was in 2012. Pictures of it are further down on the page: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pionex-Inte...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557. It had no hard drive installed and had a slower processor.

I'm asking $250 but will consider offers. I have a standing offer of $175 plus shipping but I'd have to ship it from SC to California so I'd rather not risk it getting damaged in transit, or for that matter having to pack the large, heavy thing. Local pickup would be welcome; I'm located in Simpsonville, SC. Here's a video of it booting : https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=AGkIak7pbjs&video_referrer=watch.
 

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Item is now sold. In case anyone else picks up a Pionex and thinks it's worthless based on the little information around on them, this unit sold for $250 plus shipping to a corporation. At least some of these machines still have some value.
 
Item is now sold. In case anyone else picks up a Pionex and thinks it's worthless based on the little information around on them, this unit sold for $250 plus shipping to a corporation. At least some of these machines still have some value.
Nice little machine, but bear in mind that the tech behind this is common-as-dirt 486 parts. The fact that this particular model sold for a price that is much higher than average is most likely due to their need of that specific PC rather than this being indicative of the going rate for a similar unit overall.

There are ebay sellers that make their living off of selling highly-priced, working units to businesses, and occasionally, some of us individual sellers will luck up as well.

Glad you made your money, and glad to see this little unit being put back to work!
 
Yeah, I had an offer on it a few months ago before I got it working from a different corporation. Owner said the FAA still uses some old expensive equipment and they needed a 66 mhz computer. Reminds me of a documentary I saw not too long ago, maybe 60 minutes, talking about how a lot of US government equipment is outdated nowadays. Apparently the business that ended up buying it works with the national security branch of the government. In any case it's nice to know there's still a market for some of these old machines, if not by collectors then potentially some organization. I think a lot of people just throw them away though. I know I was told a couple times to throw this one away and that it was worthless, haha.

I only found one other that was almost exactly the same as mine and it went for something less than $250 + $17.84 shipping in 2012 since a best offer was accepted. Hard drive was removed from the system and had less memory and a slower processor than mine. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pionex-Inte...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
 
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