IBM Personal System/2 Model 30 Unboxing - Tech Retrospective

The Personal System/2 or PS/2 is IBM's 3rd gen personal computer system, that started shipping in 1987, and replaced the XT and AT systems. Today we unbox a full IBM PS/2 Model 30 system with all the accessories! Also included was an IBM 8504 monochrome monitor.

Get Social:

[Kryptos.]

I just found the starter kit in my garage. My Grandfather worked for IBM for 40 years. Has crates full of user manuals diagnostics and various pieces. The thing is taped shut so I don’t know that it’s ever ever been opened.

[vnceigz]

Ah, memories of high-school. (Ugh, when did I get so old? 😒) Is this from the Computer Reset fire-sale? Seeing that large warehouse full of perfectly good stuff (many still new, in box) in danger of going to the dump is depressing. It's good if as much stuff can be salvaged as possible, even if it is old. In fact, lots of old stuff is still wanted, some for historical or nostalgia reasons, others simply because people couldn't afford them when they were new and would love to get them now.

[alextirrellRI]

I'm definitely interested in networking on these things.
I grew up with PS/2's in elementary school--they were all networked and every student and teacher had their own account to access specific programs. It was incredible to me at the time. I think they were running Novell. At one point the servers went down and since they would all netboot they were practically unusable. Smart me brought in a DOS disk and got us some very basic word processing.
Also--I don't think that's a SCSI card--I think it's what the external 5.25 plugs into. Very curious on what's going on there. It is indeed huge. Maybe a controller or something in there, but then I wonder what that card in the PS/2 looks like.

[t.kapourniotis]

My first computer. Owned a used one in the early 90s. Was lovely but at the same time frustrating because of the MCGA. It wouldn't support EGA graphics so I could play the nice late-80s games only in CGA mode! And at the same time, also because of the 8MHz CPU, it was quite limited for playing vga games, even though MCGA supported VGA (mostly!). Not great for gaming! I did manage to install windows 3.1 I think, though.

[freds]

Is is the 30/286?
Most were microchannel architecture and required a "reference disk" to setup the "pnp bios" of its era.

[sayanchowdhury]

My best favorite 💕💕💕💕💕💕 company ibm computer

[psalmx]

I remember my dad purchased almost the same setup in ~1985 except with a color monitor. I still have it minus the monitor. Last I checked still worked we did have to replace the 20 meg hard drive after the original died. Also still have the original invoice. Almost $3000 after options. No hard drive came standard. Also have a hand scanner. Networking was not standard on the ps2 line.

[dariengoheen]

IBM beat Sony to the punch on the naming.

[Roxasofmalice]

Oh, just noticed the name. I wonder then how Newsmakers Cards will be.