The XT originally shipped with a 10Mb full height HDD. at some point someone upgraded to that half height HDD and left themselves room for that 3.5" FDD. IIRC 3.5" floppies only became a "thing" in the IBM-PC world with the PS/2. Upgrading these were common in the mid '80s as the XT was a HUGE investment for a small business, let alone an individual! (I did the exact upgrade on my XT circa 1987.) Nice Find. If you get an HDD running in her, install Lotus 123 r3, dBase IV and WordPerfect 5.1! That would be the ultimate businessman's PC! All you need is a Motorola DynaTAC and you're really rockin' Reagan Era style!
a well-preserved hdd could work after all those years. given how this was a desktop pc with a giant fucking crt on top of it, it's fair to say that most of its time was spent sitting on someone's or on a shelf in goodwill and probably have been moved
I love everything in old computers. The sound of the floppy drives and the amazing IBM keyboard. The fading effect of the lines in green phosphor monitors. The 80's look... just perfect.
great video, i remember my good old times when i was a young boy... dad bought one of these.... they were expensive. i learned how to write programs in basic in that pc. my dad has passed away.... every once in a while when i see something from my time...all the memories come back to me
I remember the pleasure that large power switch at the back right gave me when I flipped it on. It give such great tactile feedback telling you that your machine is indeed powered on.
Nice find! Reminds me that it's time for me to bring out of the spare room my old 286 (a really fast 16mhz system that I built out of unwanted parts I collected in high school). It has some really odd stuff - an 80287 co-processor, 2.5mb system RAM (on the motherboard - can be expanded to 4mb on the motherboard, but I'm not willing to try to find the chips), an "industrial" grade CDC Wren (85mb RLL, defect free - 10ms seek rate, 2mb transfer rate at a 1:1 interleave - exceptional performance for a drive manufactured in 1986), a Seagate ST-277-R-1 (60mb RLL, like the Wren it's defect free, but unlike the Wren it has a more average 28ms seek rate, and a measly 1mb sec transfer rate at a 1:1 interleave), a Data Processing Technology 1mb cached RLL controller (love the night rider status LED's on it), a Sound Blaster 16, and an ATi XL-II SVGA video card. Unlike your XT, my 286 isn't historical (except possibly for that rare DPC RLL controller that would normally be found in a server and the high performance (for it's time of course) CDC Wren HD), but it's sentimental for me as it was my first real high performance computer. ;-)
I too know the joys of finding a retro computer at a charity store. About a years ago I found a working Macintosh SE/30 for $12.50!!! I actually use it to play games and it is tons of fun to mess around with.
Lessermold X I got three Indigo Blue and a SE/30 in the dumpster, there were a few Bondi blue as well but I couldn't reach them I got an IBM PS/2 Model 80 ans 55SX in that same recycling center...
Cool .. the IBM PC-XT :) My first computer was an IBM XT Industrial, with a full-size 10 megabyte hard drive and a full-size 5 1/4" floppy drive, 640 K of memory, an 8088 CPU running at 4.7 MHZ, (a little bit later I found and bought an 8087 math co-processor IC and filled in that empty spot on the MB :) ) and SuperStor version 1.3 which compressed the MS-DOS 5-controlled hard drive to 20 megs. It had a beautiful original IBM PC Keyboard and IBM CGA monitor. I bought that system in 1996 and have been enjoying computers ever since. :)
So jelly on this find. I need one of these in my life. This was my first computer, and it was really old when we got it (for free). I remember learning how dos worked and figuring out how to get games running on it. Great memories. :D
Same experience. I learned DOS commands at home. Came in handy at school because we didn’t have teachers with that much tech skills. Back in the 90’s you called your “computer guy”. I’m sure I saved them a lot of money ! Even learned how to use Lantastic ! My first networking adventure.
There was a time, not so long ago, when i was able to find machines like that in recycling centers and take them home for a couple of bucks (especially when companies renewed all their machines and that was like christmas)... Unfortunately that era has ended and watching this and almost all your videos make me feel quite nostalgic, but it's a pleasant nostalgic mood! Thanks for all the entertainment so far and for the future
Thanks for the great video LGR, incredibly interesting and entertaining. I'm in the process of going to school for IT and if they went over legacy computers with even half the passion and zeal as you do towards them it would be amazing. I learn way more about these old relics from you and although I was never that into computers as a kid I still got all nostalgic when I heard the computer boot up and especially when it whirled down. Keep up the great work.
My introduction to computing was a huge palette load of IBM XT's, plus parts & software I purchased from Auckland University for next to nothing after they had a major upgrade of lots of their computers many moons ago. I knew less than nothing about computers at the time even though I owned a twin floppy Amstrad. Most were missing one part or another so it was a fun learning curve indeed matching parts till I got 7 or 8 of them up & running. These I was able to sell to friends at Uni as very cheap word processors etc for study.. This learning curve came in handy later on in my life. Your exploits delving into these old machines has stirred up pleasant memories for me. Thank you.
I got given one of these back in the late 90's. I spent many hours as a kid messing around with it and working out how to use everything. I didn't have all of the manuals and had to pretty much work out dos myself. I loved it. My favourite game on it was Where on earth is Carmen Sandiego! When I was in my late teens I got rid of it to make space and I've always regretted it. I've been on the lookout for one ever since. Great video : )
My very first computer looked very similar to this one. Although it was not a 5160, but a 286 (I can't remember which model.) It had the 20 meg hard drive, but the 5 1/2" floppy was single height, not double like the one you have here. Originally it didn't have a 3 1/4" floppy, but I added one eventually. If I'm remembering right, it also had the Hercules monochrome graphics card. Over the years I gradually upgraded the machine, and still in the original case ended up being a 386SX 33 with about 100 MB hard disk, 4 MB ram, VGA graphics (I think it had 512K,) 3 1/4 and 5 1/2" floppy drives, a 2-speed CD-ROM drive, and a sound card! Wow I wish I still had that machine, and all the original parts, but it's long gone. Thanks for the great video, and for taking me back. I remember playing with those IBM diagnostic and learning disks, writing programs in Basic, and messing around with the hardware... those were fun times.
I remember using one of these. I thought it was outdated back when I used it. It's a little too old for my collection :) My old 4meg Packard Bell holds the title of oldest in my collection.
Hi my friend...Very great as usual !!! In 1983 I had an Olivetti M24 (I'm from Italy), Anyway I found recently an IBM XT in the garage of a friend of mine, I cleaned it and it works very fine. It had the original floppy drive (as yours) but also the original HardDisk. I had to say "it had", because the floppy drive "exploded" during the recording of this video attached ... I have still to try to repair it !!!GREAT. IBM XT FLOPPY DRIVE EXPLOSION !!!
Wow I just watched this video, thinking I was done recently. Only to discover its years old! What a find dude! I recently bought an Amstrad PPC512, which is a portable AT compatible. I have to say there’s something very nostalgic about using DOS 3.3, damn I miss those days, when my pc didn’t need an internet connection and Word fit on a couple of floppies!
I used to love the sound of them starting up. Sounds like a helicopter or jet winding up. Those old keyboards were satisfying too. I wish I had one just to play with. Man, the memories...
Dat green monochrome screen. I remember seeing old computers with green monochrome screen at Canadian Tire until about 2009. I almost thought Canadian Tire would never upgrade. Hahaha!
back in 87 my first PC was a 8mhz xt with 640kb of ram and a green monochrom display. i later put a 20mb hd, a nec 20 cpu and a VGA card in it. this video brings back memories :)
This was the first PC I've seen in my life. I worked on it in the first year in college (1986). Now I'm 52 and I still remember that the professor said the same thing when he put the Dos 3.2 disk in there before he turned it on; he said: "I'll tell you why" :)
Oh man. If you'd run Prince of Persia on a 286 with a monochrome monitor you'd totally make my day. That was the first game I ever played on a PC and I played it on a green monochrome monitor. I was in complete awe!
Quite a bit of nostalgia. My dad worked for IBM for years developing and working on computer boards. I was 9 when I got to destr... i mean, solder my first motherboard lol we had one of these bad boys for a while
10 лет назад
I'd wish we'd still have as nice and user friendly instructions nowadays, just as that introduction disc offers. It's treating that PC like it's a puppy, not a machine!
Great find! My local thrift stores wouldn't even take old computers until recently. They rejected anything coming in due to identity theft and not wanting to be held liable in any way. So most people just ended up scrapping them or giving them to schools. It is sad to think how many of these computers are gone.
Hi Lgr, I love all your videos. I was born in eighty three so a lot of these things landed on the planet the same time I did.Great find. My first computer was an Apple IIE with the Bex, or Bix, the name of the robot voiced speech box isn't coming to me. I wish more blind geeks would drag out there old gear and see if it still works. Yep, husband is a Mac guy so yeah, Apple II will probably be my first old computer find. I hope you can get the c drive working. I'm no gamer but I love the history and all the detail, very neat for blind geeks like me. Happy computing.
Just found one of these in the wild at a yard sale. Paid 40usd. Came with the 5153 (?) Colour Monitor, original keyboard, and original printer. Monitor's CGA gable is missing a prong tho. Got no software to boot it up and it's missing the platters! But a lovely steal at 40.
Gosh, for me that was a step back coming from a Spectravideo to the XT that my father gave me in 1988. Took another 6 years to finally buy my own PC 4x86 and starting to like PCs 😙
I've got a PC XT now too...a PC XT 286! It...has no hard disk and currently doesn't work. But I plan on fixing both those problems! And adding a 3.5 floppy wouldn't hurt either.
Yes, but it definitely has a bit to do with the Hercules card, too. MDA cards don't ghost *quite* as badly. To that end: as ugly as the palettes in CGA were, it was a massive improvement.
IBM used a P39 Phosphor which has way too much persistence for the Refresh Rate (50 Hz). Other monitors from the Monochrome era that I'm more familiar with have persistence similar to a Black and White TV. The irony of the situation was, you could get generic faster monitors, but had to change to CGA to use them so you could use the composite output. Of course if you had a monochrome composite monitor you didn't have to settle for 40 columns like with a color composite monitor.
+John McFerren They did that on purpose, though. There were other green phosphors with shorter persistence (such as P46), but at 50 Hz, if they used a phosphor with shorter persistence, they got headache-inducing flicker instead.
Back in the day, I had an old XT computer, with a 10mb Hard drive. I had a similar issue where the system would boot to the hard drive only about 10% of the time. A friend on a BBS told me about SpinRite from GRC. Back then, it was SpinRite 2. I got a copy and ran it on the hard drive. It took forever to complete, but after that, I NEVER had a problem with the drive again. Not saying it will fix your drive, but if the drive has trouble reading, chances are SpinRite can fix it.
im glad you made a video on this because honestly, i had no clue why you were so excited lol i know so little about old school pc gaming compared to 16 bit era console gaming and late 90s on up pc gaming but its always interesting as hell to learn about pc gaming roots, i swear ive watched your LGR playlist part 1 and 2 maybe like 5 times now ...theres so few channels on pc gaming which is odd, considering were all on computers lol
My XT looks much like this. Same hard drive, but RLL variant for 30 MB. I still have the original ST-412 10MB and Xebec controller that I changed out. I was able to replicate the texture of the black drive face with my floppy. Hope your machine lives for a while longer.
Wow, never thought I'd get to see the day when people wanted an old XT or AT machine! 10 years ago I tossed several XT and ATs in the dumpster. Had a box full of those Seagate 20mb hdds, remember spending much time reformatting and repairing bad sectors. Will take a look and see if I saved any!
Indeed, they've become quite popular with hobbyists and collectors alike, and can go for quite the chunk of change on eBay! The AT remains one of my most sought-after systems period, but I have never come across one. Crazy since they used to be so insanely common. Seems that during the days of them being of little value, lots of people simply threw them away, so now they've become harder to find.
Great review... I don't remember seeing one of those with a 3"1/2 floppy drive in it! I didn't find out about 3"1/2 drives until I saw my first 486, playing a copy of Altered Beast. Good times!
I also got an IBM 5160 from a Goodwill (but many years ago - probably the mid-90s). It included a (fully functional) 20 MB HardCard in addition to the floppy drive. Sadly, I haven't seen a vintage computer of any kind in a thrift store for at least a decade.
A touch newer than my 5160. Mine is from April 1985. Full 640K of memory, 10MB ST-412, and the same floppy drive. I upgraded the CPU to a V20, changed the hard drive to a Seagate ST-251 40MB, put a VGA card in, and a Sound blaster 2. You have the other bits I don’t have like the IBM software, keyboard and IBM monitor.
Compared to other computers on the market at the time, the IBM PC build design and quality was like the Tiger tank of personal computers. Hence is still in such great shape after passage of decades.
My first PC experience was on this machine back in first grade.The game was oregon trail (or something very similar) at the time the depth and re playability blew me away. Sweet find btw!
I’ve got one too man. I have the lotus office suite for it. They’re so cool haha. It’s got an orange colored monitor. It’s been a while since I’ve turned it on. Like your stuff man. 👍🏻
Maybe the hard drive is just in need of a low-level format to be back in good shape again. That was a common issue with drives which used to move the heads with a stepper motor like the Seagate ST225: after some years of use the stepper doesn't seek the heads in the exact positions it did when the drive was new, so the heads cannot track correctly the magnetic signals on the platter. A low-level format will rewrite all the tracks from scratch, so the heads will be able to read the disk again. Of course all the data will be lost, but I don't think this should be a problem for a computer like this :-)
Wow, that's LOUD! Not even my modern gaming rig makes that much sound on high fan (although when the GPU really fires up, it comes somewhat close). Shows how even "fan" technology has come a long way along with everything else ;).
7 years later, I found one in my work place's dumpster. Thanks LGR for the inspiration.
The XT originally shipped with a 10Mb full height HDD. at some point someone upgraded to that half height HDD and left themselves room for that 3.5" FDD. IIRC 3.5" floppies only became a "thing" in the IBM-PC world with the PS/2. Upgrading these were common in the mid '80s as the XT was a HUGE investment for a small business, let alone an individual! (I did the exact upgrade on my XT circa 1987.) Nice Find. If you get an HDD running in her, install Lotus 123 r3, dBase IV and WordPerfect 5.1! That would be the ultimate businessman's PC! All you need is a Motorola DynaTAC and you're really rockin' Reagan Era style!
That ladies and gentleman is the sound of a ~30 year old hard disk spinning up. A minor miracle.
I really like the old monochrome CRTs. Old but futuristic at the same time?
a well-preserved hdd could work after all those years. given how this was a desktop pc with a giant fucking crt on top of it, it's fair to say that most of its time was spent sitting on someone's or on a shelf in goodwill and probably have been moved
Seriously - I have one almost identical, have to turn the spindle a bit first to get it to start :(
Not like anyone would want to move that beast around a lot.
I see you watch the British Jimquisition
I love everything in old computers. The sound of the floppy drives and the amazing IBM keyboard. The fading effect of the lines in green phosphor monitors. The 80's look... just perfect.
great video, i remember my good old times when i was a young boy... dad bought one of these.... they were expensive. i learned how to write programs in basic in that pc. my dad has passed away.... every once in a while when i see something from my time...all the memories come back to me
3:16
Oh my GODDDDDDDD.
That mechanical keyboard sound is absolutely orgasmic.
The clicky noises of that keyboard make me happy.
Same here, which is why I use that keyboard in all my video intros :)
@@LGR Sorry a bit late but which keyboard is that?
@@josht2675 Sorry, a bit late as well. But that looks like an IBM Model F XT
I remember the pleasure that large power switch at the back right gave me when I flipped it on. It give such great tactile feedback telling you that your machine is indeed powered on.
Your enthusiasm alone is enough to warrant a thumbs up!
Nice find! Reminds me that it's time for me to bring out of the spare room my old 286 (a really fast 16mhz system that I built out of unwanted parts I collected in high school). It has some really odd stuff - an 80287 co-processor, 2.5mb system RAM (on the motherboard - can be expanded to 4mb on the motherboard, but I'm not willing to try to find the chips), an "industrial" grade CDC Wren (85mb RLL, defect free - 10ms seek rate, 2mb transfer rate at a 1:1 interleave - exceptional performance for a drive manufactured in 1986), a Seagate ST-277-R-1 (60mb RLL, like the Wren it's defect free, but unlike the Wren it has a more average 28ms seek rate, and a measly 1mb sec transfer rate at a 1:1 interleave), a Data Processing Technology 1mb cached RLL controller (love the night rider status LED's on it), a Sound Blaster 16, and an ATi XL-II SVGA video card. Unlike your XT, my 286 isn't historical (except possibly for that rare DPC RLL controller that would normally be found in a server and the high performance (for it's time of course) CDC Wren HD), but it's sentimental for me as it was my first real high performance computer. ;-)
I too know the joys of finding a retro computer at a charity store. About a years ago I found a working Macintosh SE/30 for $12.50!!! I actually use it to play games and it is tons of fun to mess around with.
I got a 2001 iMac "Bondi Blue" for $20 CAN!
***** i got a rev a bondi blue imac for free
Lessermold X I got three Indigo Blue and a SE/30 in the dumpster, there were a few Bondi blue as well but I couldn't reach them
I got an IBM PS/2 Model 80 ans 55SX in that same recycling center...
Cool .. the IBM PC-XT :)
My first computer was an IBM XT Industrial, with a full-size 10 megabyte hard drive and a full-size 5 1/4" floppy drive, 640 K of memory, an 8088 CPU running at 4.7 MHZ, (a little bit later I found and bought an 8087 math co-processor IC and filled in that empty spot on the MB :) ) and SuperStor version 1.3 which compressed the MS-DOS 5-controlled hard drive to 20 megs. It had a beautiful original IBM PC Keyboard and IBM CGA monitor. I bought that system in 1996 and have been enjoying computers ever since. :)
I love how the keyboard sounds
So jelly on this find. I need one of these in my life. This was my first computer, and it was really old when we got it (for free). I remember learning how dos worked and figuring out how to get games running on it. Great memories. :D
Same experience. I learned DOS commands at home. Came in handy at school because we didn’t have teachers with that much tech skills. Back in the 90’s you called your “computer guy”. I’m sure I saved them a lot of money ! Even learned how to use Lantastic ! My first networking adventure.
I love how the manuals of that thing come in binders.
As someone only born in 1995, this is awesome to see. It's really amazing how far computers have come in the relatively short span they've existed.
That power down sound is like you're turning off the world, basically. Pretty epic. :)
10:05 That symphonic master piece though...
Im 14 and love watching your videos to see how far computers have come and seeing this, it's very surprising
I had an XT with a gigantic 10MB external hard drive. This brings back some memories. Thanks for sharing.
There was a time, not so long ago, when i was able to find machines like that in recycling centers and take them home for a couple of bucks (especially when companies renewed all their machines and that was like christmas)...
Unfortunately that era has ended and watching this and almost all your videos make me feel quite nostalgic, but it's a pleasant nostalgic mood!
Thanks for all the entertainment so far and for the future
Thanks for the great video LGR, incredibly interesting and entertaining. I'm in the process of going to school for IT and if they went over legacy computers with even half the passion and zeal as you do towards them it would be amazing. I learn way more about these old relics from you and although I was never that into computers as a kid I still got all nostalgic when I heard the computer boot up and especially when it whirled down. Keep up the great work.
Good review. Pretty interesting to see stuff like this. I never really got to mess with any older pc stuff.
You get to mess with lots of old food stuff, though... :P
wow its WE
I got to get my aunts old Dos computer.
It gives me nostalgia i never had. XD
This is awesome! Glad to see a video of this computer in action after seeing it mentioned in that Thrift shopping video!
My introduction to computing was a huge palette load of IBM XT's, plus parts & software I purchased from Auckland University for next to nothing after they had a major upgrade of lots of their computers many moons ago. I knew less than nothing about computers at the time even though I owned a twin floppy Amstrad. Most were missing one part or another so it was a fun learning curve indeed matching parts till I got 7 or 8 of them up & running. These I was able to sell to friends at Uni as very cheap word processors etc for study.. This learning curve came in handy later on in my life. Your exploits delving into these old machines has stirred up pleasant memories for me. Thank you.
Whenever you type something with the keyboard, it sounds exactly like your intro.
Same exact keyboard I use for the intro, so yes :)
The fact that the old hard drive in there spins at all is impressive in its own right. The HD for my old Tandy 1000 SX died many years ago. :(
I got given one of these back in the late 90's. I spent many hours as a kid messing around with it and working out how to use everything. I didn't have all of the manuals and had to pretty much work out dos myself. I loved it. My favourite game on it was Where on earth is Carmen Sandiego! When I was in my late teens I got rid of it to make space and I've always regretted it. I've been on the lookout for one ever since. Great video : )
I love how passionate you are about computers
My very first computer looked very similar to this one. Although it was not a 5160, but a 286 (I can't remember which model.) It had the 20 meg hard drive, but the 5 1/2" floppy was single height, not double like the one you have here. Originally it didn't have a 3 1/4" floppy, but I added one eventually. If I'm remembering right, it also had the Hercules monochrome graphics card. Over the years I gradually upgraded the machine, and still in the original case ended up being a 386SX 33 with about 100 MB hard disk, 4 MB ram, VGA graphics (I think it had 512K,) 3 1/4 and 5 1/2" floppy drives, a 2-speed CD-ROM drive, and a sound card! Wow I wish I still had that machine, and all the original parts, but it's long gone. Thanks for the great video, and for taking me back. I remember playing with those IBM diagnostic and learning disks, writing programs in Basic, and messing around with the hardware... those were fun times.
I remember using one of these. I thought it was outdated back when I used it. It's a little too old for my collection :) My old 4meg Packard Bell holds the title of oldest in my collection.
I'm jealous of the keyboard! Those are upwards of $100 on ebay.
Beautiful just beautiful. Im just now catching up on all the thrift videos and found this from that. Love those thrift vids.
In 2022 this is such an entertaining presentation of 1983. Thanks for this.
Hi my friend...Very great as usual !!! In 1983 I had an Olivetti M24 (I'm from Italy), Anyway I found recently an IBM XT in the garage of a friend of mine, I cleaned it and it works very fine. It had the original floppy drive (as yours) but also the original HardDisk. I had to say "it had", because the floppy drive "exploded" during the recording of this video attached ... I have still to try to repair it !!!GREAT. IBM XT FLOPPY DRIVE EXPLOSION !!!
Dude, that's actually a phosphor display! I've never seen one that legit before XD
Indeed, I've done an entire video on it here: LGR - Oddware - IBM 5151 Monochrome CRT & Hercules Cards
That startup noise alone makes this video worthwhile. :)
This model was my parents first computer!! A lot of flashback to playing Star Wars Xwing
No idea why I love that strong ghosting so much on a green phosphorous screen.
It's a "downside" yet also a fun feature, yeah!
I love what constituted digital showmanship and presentation circa 1983.
The clicking of that keyboard is orgasmically good
Wow I just watched this video, thinking I was done recently. Only to discover its years old! What a find dude! I recently bought an Amstrad PPC512, which is a portable AT compatible. I have to say there’s something very nostalgic about using DOS 3.3, damn I miss those days, when my pc didn’t need an internet connection and Word fit on a couple of floppies!
My first PC!
I can remember the young Silvio playing Prince of Persia and Stunts having a lot of fun!
Thanks for this nostalgic moment!
my first pc was a 486 dx2 @ 66MHz with 8MB of ram. I built it myself in an XT case. I love this case design and must get one.
Gotta love the Monteverdi tune @10:17!
Love old IBM machines! Thanks!
I just love that enthusiasm you have on each of your videos. I really hope you get the AT anytime soon.
I used to love the sound of them starting up. Sounds like a helicopter or jet winding up. Those old keyboards were satisfying too. I wish I had one just to play with. Man, the memories...
I think you are in luck, 4 years ago I saw the price tag of an IBM 5150 in a second-hand electronic store, it was $899.99.
Nice video Clint, congratulations on the happy purchase!
Dat green monochrome screen. I remember seeing old computers with green monochrome screen at Canadian Tire until about 2009. I almost thought Canadian Tire would never upgrade. Hahaha!
I remember that too!
back in 87 my first PC was a 8mhz xt with 640kb of ram and a green monochrom display. i later put a 20mb hd, a nec 20 cpu and a VGA card in it.
this video brings back memories :)
This was the first PC I've seen in my life. I worked on it in the first year in college (1986). Now I'm 52 and I still remember that the professor said the same thing when he put the Dos 3.2 disk in there before he turned it on; he said: "I'll tell you why" :)
Oh man. If you'd run Prince of Persia on a 286 with a monochrome monitor you'd totally make my day. That was the first game I ever played on a PC and I played it on a green monochrome monitor. I was in complete awe!
Quite a bit of nostalgia. My dad worked for IBM for years developing and working on computer boards. I was 9 when I got to destr... i mean, solder my first motherboard lol we had one of these bad boys for a while
I'd wish we'd still have as nice and user friendly instructions nowadays, just as that introduction disc offers. It's treating that PC like it's a puppy, not a machine!
Great find! My local thrift stores wouldn't even take old computers until recently. They rejected anything coming in due to identity theft and not wanting to be held liable in any way. So most people just ended up scrapping them or giving them to schools. It is sad to think how many of these computers are gone.
Always love green text on a black screen and that ghosting!
Awesome. the 'whirring' up and down is my favourite memory of these machines, of which I had something similar - definitely had the ST225 though!
Fun memories of playing Kings Quest I and Elite on one of these.
Thanks man :)
XT users were the first OCers ever, with that keyboard Turbo button! ;D
Love me some old tech, appreciate this. Thanks.
I love the sound of the IBM keyboard!
What a beauty man. I would take care of it even more than my current computer.
Hi Lgr, I love all your videos. I was born in eighty three so a lot of these things landed on the planet the same time I did.Great find. My first computer was an Apple IIE with the Bex, or Bix, the name of the robot voiced speech box isn't coming to me. I wish more blind geeks would drag out there old gear and see if it still works. Yep, husband is a Mac guy so yeah, Apple II will probably be my first old computer find. I hope you can get the c drive working. I'm no gamer but I love the history and all the detail, very neat for blind geeks like me. Happy computing.
Just found one of these in the wild at a yard sale. Paid 40usd. Came with the 5153 (?) Colour Monitor, original keyboard, and original printer. Monitor's CGA gable is missing a prong tho. Got no software to boot it up and it's missing the platters! But a lovely steal at 40.
Quite the magnificent old beast.
Gosh, for me that was a step back coming from a Spectravideo to the XT that my father gave me in 1988. Took another 6 years to finally buy my own PC 4x86 and starting to like PCs 😙
I've got a PC XT now too...a PC XT 286!
It...has no hard disk and currently doesn't work. But I plan on fixing both those problems! And adding a 3.5 floppy wouldn't hurt either.
I really like these old IBM computers too.
The persistence on that display is hilariously bad.
So bad it's downright endearing, I love it!
Is that normal for screens of that time period?
Yes, but it definitely has a bit to do with the Hercules card, too. MDA cards don't ghost *quite* as badly. To that end: as ugly as the palettes in CGA were, it was a massive improvement.
IBM used a P39 Phosphor which has way too much persistence for the Refresh Rate (50 Hz). Other monitors from the Monochrome era that I'm more familiar with have persistence similar to a Black and White TV. The irony of the situation was, you could get generic faster monitors, but had to change to CGA to use them so you could use the composite output. Of course if you had a monochrome composite monitor you didn't have to settle for 40 columns like with a color composite monitor.
+John McFerren They did that on purpose, though. There were other green phosphors with shorter persistence (such as P46), but at 50 Hz, if they used a phosphor with shorter persistence, they got headache-inducing flicker instead.
I really love the sound from that keyboard for some reason
Back in the day, I had an old XT computer, with a 10mb Hard drive. I had a similar issue where the system would boot to the hard drive only about 10% of the time. A friend on a BBS told me about SpinRite from GRC. Back then, it was SpinRite 2. I got a copy and ran it on the hard drive. It took forever to complete, but after that, I NEVER had a problem with the drive again. Not saying it will fix your drive, but if the drive has trouble reading, chances are SpinRite can fix it.
12:54 The hard drive's whirring down reminds me of a commercial jet airplane powering down the turbines. Cool!
OMG, memories from the early 80's....wish I could go back in time.
This was the first computer I can remember using. Totally awesome! Thanks for sharing man
recall my analog electronics teacher had arranged a XT machine for all of us, early 90's
im glad you made a video on this because honestly, i had no clue why you were so excited lol i know so little about old school pc gaming compared to 16 bit era console gaming and late 90s on up pc gaming but its always interesting as hell to learn about pc gaming roots, i swear ive watched your LGR playlist part 1 and 2 maybe like 5 times now ...theres so few channels on pc gaming which is odd, considering were all on computers lol
Awww, I haven't seen a vintage computer at a thrift store in ages...those were the days (late 90s/early 00s).
My XT looks much like this. Same hard drive, but RLL variant for 30 MB. I still have the original ST-412 10MB and Xebec controller that I changed out. I was able to replicate the texture of the black drive face with my floppy. Hope your machine lives for a while longer.
XT-IDE CF can run alongside the old ST225 too, so once installed you wont need to lose that great noise. Great find.
Really happy for you clint, keep these videos coming!
Wow, never thought I'd get to see the day when people wanted an old XT or AT machine! 10 years ago I tossed several XT and ATs in the dumpster. Had a box full of those Seagate 20mb hdds, remember spending much time reformatting and repairing bad sectors. Will take a look and see if I saved any!
Indeed, they've become quite popular with hobbyists and collectors alike, and can go for quite the chunk of change on eBay! The AT remains one of my most sought-after systems period, but I have never come across one. Crazy since they used to be so insanely common. Seems that during the days of them being of little value, lots of people simply threw them away, so now they've become harder to find.
HOW COULD YOU?
Great review... I don't remember seeing one of those with a 3"1/2 floppy drive in it! I didn't find out about 3"1/2 drives until I saw my first 486, playing a copy of Altered Beast. Good times!
It sounds like a spaceship on startup! Love it
I'd just like to say, that PC looks awesome!
I also got an IBM 5160 from a Goodwill (but many years ago - probably the mid-90s). It included a (fully functional) 20 MB HardCard in addition to the floppy drive.
Sadly, I haven't seen a vintage computer of any kind in a thrift store for at least a decade.
Nice Lotus 1-2-3... Glad you finally showed it on cam! ;)
A touch newer than my 5160. Mine is from April 1985. Full 640K of memory, 10MB ST-412, and the same floppy drive. I upgraded the CPU to a V20, changed the hard drive to a Seagate ST-251 40MB, put a VGA card in, and a Sound blaster 2. You have the other bits I don’t have like the IBM software, keyboard and IBM monitor.
I watched you buy it, now I'm watching you review it... Its like the Red Baron episode all over again :D
Compared to other computers on the market at the time, the IBM PC build design and quality was like the Tiger tank of personal computers. Hence is still in such great shape after passage of decades.
My first PC experience was on this machine back in first grade.The game was oregon trail (or something very similar) at the time the depth and re playability blew me away.
Sweet find btw!
I’ve got one too man. I have the lotus office suite for it. They’re so cool haha. It’s got an orange colored monitor. It’s been a while since I’ve turned it on. Like your stuff man. 👍🏻
Maybe the hard drive is just in need of a low-level format to be back in good shape again. That was a common issue with drives which used to move the heads with a stepper motor like the Seagate ST225: after some years of use the stepper doesn't seek the heads in the exact positions it did when the drive was new, so the heads cannot track correctly the magnetic signals on the platter. A low-level format will rewrite all the tracks from scratch, so the heads will be able to read the disk again.
Of course all the data will be lost, but I don't think this should be a problem for a computer like this :-)
Ohhhh my God! That sound after turning on! It brings memories! :D :D :D
Damn. The sound of that keyboard though... It's beautiful
Wow, that's LOUD! Not even my modern gaming rig makes that much sound on high fan (although when the GPU really fires up, it comes somewhat close). Shows how even "fan" technology has come a long way along with everything else ;).
Congrats on the purchase!
ohhh i was waiting for this video since the thrift episode! neat!