Exploring a Mystery Retro PC!

I picked up what I initially thought was a new-in-box retro PC case, but it turned out to be much more -- so let's see what kind of story it has to tell.

Sources:
"Graphics Accelerators," PC Magazine, December 2, 1997.
"Cyrix's 6x86 scoots in cheap," InfoWorld, June 2, 1997.
"Packard Bell Multimedia 830," Maximum PC, January 1999.

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[Bushidounohana]

You hit the nail on the head in terms of what the computer scene was like around the turn of the century. While high-end stuff is fun, this type of box was what was most common in the wild. I worked in tech support for about a decade from ‘98 onwards, and this type of system was almost always what I came across. Like you said, the more exotic stuff is a part of the history, sure, but let us not forget the time as we lived it (especially those of us without bottomless pockets and access). Great work, as always!

[watershipdown]

"Miss out on what computing was actually like decades ago". Couldn't have said it better myself.

[janusu]

I kinda miss the "How's it goin'?" intro. I thought it was a fun little bit of personal flavor for the channel. Your content, as always, continues to be fantastic.

[RyanFinnie]

Haha, small world, that IDE2SD adapter you printed was my design. And yeah, it's for a different board layout which was extremely common online (at least a few years ago), but the telltale difference was the boards took full size SD cards, while yours is microSD.

[PotatoFi]

I love videos about standard, run-of-the mill machines like this, much for the same reason that I don't collect special edition game consoles. I like having the "normal one" of retro gear. And besides, the solid-state storage solution is already going to be a huge performance boost for this machine, at least when reading and writing to storage.

Once exception to my "normal one" rule: it's hard to live with passive matrix laptop displays. :)

[donwilson]

9:20 Yes! Every retro PC build I see these days is absolutely full of high end parts that we would never have had access to back then. We lived with a lot of slowness and restrictions in performance. So glad that this is recognized

[CarletonTorpin]

If this video had two extra hours of MIDI music like the kind at 11:07, I wouldn’t even have noticed that there was no more narration or explanation; I would have just kept being entranced by that funky soundscape! :D

[rockaholictom]

I love how the keyboard and mouse ports literally look like the holes were drilled in the case metal as an afterthought

[volvo]

This was pretty much my first computer build as a kid. Cyrix MII 233 with a cheap video card. Pretty much all the cheap stuff from a computer parts catalog that let me build my first computer.

It's a good thing I didn't really like playing hot new games because it wouldn't play anything good.

Only person I ever knew with a high end computer was my computer tech trade school teacher. Like you said, all these sought after retro parts people race for these days were not common.

[StreamlneJMoose]

Man those Bios screens bring back some memories...

[miketech]

I got way too excited when you found the IBM x86 CPU! Despite being heavily into tech since the ‘90s I still have yet to encounter one of these. I sure wish Free Geek had a location near me!

[ddogg]

That cybersynth rendition of Passport is unironically really dope. I love and share the sentiment that value-oriented vintage machines are underrated in the vintage computer scene. Budget machines can still be tons of fun if you don't try to push them beyond their original boundaries. With emulators, anyone these days can run most vintage software at exceptional speed, so if speed is all you care for, vintage machines aren't for you. The archaeology/anthropology of these machines can be really rewarding

[malus]

Oh my god! This case is identical to the very first PC I had as a kid, back in 1997 exactly! I’ve been looking for this case forever and I’m so glad to see it here on your channel, seeing it brings back so many good memories :)

[WorkshopGreg]

I build hundreds of systems using that same case back in the late 90's when I worked at a computer store in Tigard, Oregon. We purchased most of those cases from Tech Data as I recall. All those components bring back lots of good memories. The hard drive was likely a Western Digital Caviar of the day.

[FastGadgets]

Definitely made it to the end! You tell a good story. As the years go by, preservation of computer history is more and more important. Looks like you got a little gem there!

[GQD]

"Generic" is a word close to my heart. I built so many systems like this from spare parts back in the early 2000's. I bought loads of retired/broken PCs and had so many ISA and PCI cards accumulated over the years, along with plenty of Socket 7 and Slot-1 motherboards, with various CPUs. Bought new cases and PSUs, put them in, and then sold as refurbished. Wasn't a high profit margin on each system, but put a whole bunch of older machines back to work instead of going to the landfill.

I miss having so many PC parts in storage, having the knowledge that whatever I may need, I had somewhere. I had totes full of IDE, floppy, VGA, power cables. Also had 2 bins just full of drives, mostly fully functional, along with another couple bins full of fans of every size I could ever need. Then I got married and had to get rid of everything.

[TobylifeRS]

Awesome machine. I agree with your point that people just focus on weird high end stuff these days like those Tualatin P3 CPUs. Machines like this were the true "family PC" workhorses of the 90s. Thanks for the excellent video as always. I wish I had a place like Free Geek here in Aus! Nothing like that here.

[mduff]

"Miss out on what computing was actually like decades ago". This is also applicable to the car community, where everyone wants to make their 1970 Chevy Chevelle a 454 SS 4 speed, when most people were still driving base model six cylinder Ford Falcons and Dodge Darts. Yeah, V8 options existed, but most of them were not high performance, tire smoking machines.

[envyhatori]

I loved the music part! Now I wish I had this computer myself so I could experience the different songs in all the fantastic soundscapes. It'd be awesome if you shared more of this!

[UKSCIENCEORG]

I completely agree about the comment about basic mundane computers often being overlooked by the retro community. They are more nostalgic to me because they were more common.