Critic my build -> 8Mhz, 650kb, 20 Mb hdd..Good enough?
Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - Critic my build -> 8Mhz, 650kb, 20 Mb hdd..Good enough?
I finished studying for a exam and i was about to tide my room, that looks a true mess btw, and i came across with the most old computer i have ever had the chance to disassemble in my life. It was from a friend of mine that was about to throw it away to the garbage, i kept it for whenever i had the chance and patience to disassemble it.
The specs look quite promissing, 8mhz, 20 mb hdd, 640 kb of ram etc from 1987...the problem, was that it didnt boot up anymore, it just kept displaying a weird message about the drives...
I'm going to show you its insides just for the fun of it, sorry about the image spaming and image quality, it was all taken from a webcam.
The cover of the box
It need four 1.5 volts AA batteries, not sure for what...but im gessing...to keep any bios info? :s
The metal cover of the motherboard
No, brown isnt its original color ..this thing is REALLY rusty.
That's what it looks like on the other side
Of the SAME cover o_O
But lets go to the good stuff.
Ok lets start with the motherboard and other periferic components like fan and speaker.
The fan looks quite recent when compared to todays fans :0 and the speaker..omg it makes sounds for what its worth.
The motherboard looks really primitive, huge chips etc, although the power connectors are exactly like the ones we find today in our common pc.
About the pc itself
It's an Amstrad alright. In the upper left corner, you can see 2 sockets, the cpu was placed in the cleaner socket, i just took it out because im going to leave it for the end, (i dont know about you) but the brand was a surprise to me. And another thing..2 sockets? Maybe it was a dual core pc back in 1987 :]
Another glance at the motherboard and fan\speaker
Look at those really old ceramic capacitors, you dont see those around anymore in your pc! Well maybe inside of your power supply you do. Moving forward.
Lets head now towards one of my favorite parts of this oldie, the harddrive
Its a 20 MB harddrive. The platters look the same size from todays 3.5 inch drives platters. You can see that the head wont move in the traditional way, it uses a step-by-step motor in order to make the arm move up and down only. Slooowwwly...
The back of the drive
And its huge and slow motor that kept the platters spinning at i_have_no_ideia rpm.
The proof
Thats right, 20 mb! It has its own hdd led. Gawd, imagine what it would be like taking a 8Gb pen back in time and show it to them. They would burn us to ashes and call us sorcerer's probably.
As for the harddrive pcb
Again, really primitive looking alike chips and periferial components.
The back of the hdd pcb
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409 [...] 016lx6.jpg
Quite uninsteresting :\
And here i think i have my awnser for the booting problem
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/8248/imagem018ob3.jpg
Can you see the burned mark? It's right next to that blue resintence and smd capacitor.
And now
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509 [...] 019pe0.jpg
The harddrive connected via a flatcable very similarly to todays ides cables towards this card. Its called a RLL card. A harddrive controler of some sort.
Quite shinny for a 20 years old card heh?
The cards back
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239 [...] 021zc5.jpg
Shinny and very linear circuitry
Another glance at the card
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239 [...] 022eo5.jpg
Smd technology wasnt very present in these days, although that is not what is happening in this card.
The keyboard
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164 [...] 023ck3.jpg
Huge space bar, hence the word space. And the typical phone looking alike cable that was used on the keyboards from that time, that i totally missed in this pic, sorry.
The Numpad
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155 [...] 024xi1.jpg
The numlock key has its led in itself.
640k yay
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/6805/imagem028pn9.jpg
Was this supose to be a eyecatcher?
The keyboards pcb
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164 [...] 025qy7.jpg
Surprisingly small in my opinion.
The back of the keyboards pcb
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176 [...] 026kz8.jpg
Quite simple with its huge tracks.
The 5¼ inch floppy drive
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520 [...] 029cd5.jpg
If im wrong correct me please, but i think it was unable to store even half the information that the well known 3½-inch floppy drive can.
A look and the 5¼ inch floppy drive pcb
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118 [...] 030qg1.jpg
True, its so primitive it hurts, but you have to give credits for its creator, because overall its a fine piece of engineering.
And about the final component..
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158 [...] 031ab1.jpg
The cpu. Can you recognize the symbol on its top?
Thats right..
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158 [...] 033bd2.jpg
It's a AMD 8086 model at 8mhz. I wasnt couting on this one, i could swear that i was going to find a Intel sample inside.
I know i still have the mouse somewhere, i couldnt find it. If i will, ill show it too.
Anyway, its good to see how much computers technology evolved since then, although despite how much harddrives evolved i think they need to go. Its time that they're replaced by SSD (Solid state drives), too bad you need to sell your car in order to get one these days.
It was interesting to notice that power plugs and jumpers look and are exactly the same as they were twenty years ago!
Ok now im going to burn all this junk or sell it on ebay.
| Quote :
|
1.5ghz in 1998 is unlikely but it would be trully awesome if so 
This may be another understatment but if i remember correctly a professor of mine was able to overclock a intel 8086 from 8 mhz to 12 mhz hurray :0
I still couldnt find the damn mouse..
a 50% OC, not bad for stock passive cooling 
Hmm, why did it have a fan? Its not like it produced much heat. I had a P3 700mhz OEM system that had only a tiny cpu fan for cooling, no case fans.
hehehe, i found one of these lying around the other day 
! yes, if i was a hardcore gamer at the time of purchase i would have probably killed myself, but alas, i wasn't. check it out:
Man that brings back memories. My first PC was an Epson, and it ran at a huge 12.5 MHz. It had 512K ram and a 20 mb HDD and EGA (Yes that's EGA) Video.
After using it for a year I had used 6 mb of the HDD. I couldn't figure out how I was ever going to use 20 mb. Then I started using AutoCAD and that lasted about 2 weeks......
That machine served me faithfully for about a decade. Now I'm lucky if I keep one for 2 years.
A couple of things.
The dual socket. In my computer, the second socket was for a math coprocessor. I ended up using the computer at my company doing AutoCAD and had to have the coprossor installed. I think it was an extra $250.00 (Which was a lot back then.)
The batteries. You are correct. Back then it was common to have standard AA batteries for the BIOS. My computer used a cell similar to what you see today, but was hard to replace. We replaced them with AA batteries. Some came that way.
The processor. It was licenced under Intel. Looking back from now it is kind of strange to think they used to work together.... 
It doesn't boot,how is the PSU? Maybe it's underpowering your system? PSU's are oftenly overlooked these days, but people don't understand the importance of a good quality PSU.
Well it's always fun to look at some old hardware, i would try to get it to work if i where you. But thats just me 
I can imagine your surprise when you found that you had an AMD P8086 cpu in there. WOW!
Altough I'm not an AMD fanboy, I was myself pleasantly surprise to find an AMD 386DX at a staggering 40MHz in a old computer my father ask me to take apart for him. I took it home where I still keep it. I guess it's my moron side speaking 
... 
Anyway, good find!
| Quote : If you're into gaming, the 640k will be plenty for Ultima 4 and Kings Quest III, but I'm pretty sure you'll need a video card upgrade to enjoy those titles in all of their EGA glory. Also, do you plan on overclocking? 8MHz is a bit on the low side for a gaming rig so you'll probably want to mod a heatsink for your processor and try to squeeze out an extra MHz or two. What sort of gamer would you be without access to other gamers?!? You'll definitely want to invest in a Hayes 2400 bps modem... preferably external. With a little work you'll be up to speed in no time! |
For a guy with your face rodney, this "amazing" 8mhz cpu is probably more then you ever dreamed of! That probably isn't too hard on a battery so it'll keep on working long hours in your cave...
Bad joke aside... you made me laugh!
The scary thing is, I still remember when this wouldn't have been considered that bad 
The second CPU socket would more than likely be for an 8087 Math Co-processor.
Anything above a 486DX has one of these built in 
Either your friend's Z28 is an auto, or he simply can't drive stick worth a damn (or doesn't want to risk a blown tranny from powershifting! ).
As mentioned earlier, I think somewhere down the line the facts of your Prof's story were embelished a bit. In 1998 all you had to choose from were K6-2s, Celeron As, and Pentium IIs. The first Pentium III slot 1 didn't come out until February of 1999. So, back in those days, the top of the line overclocks belonged to the Pentium IIs and Celeron As, with 500-550MHz usually being the overclock ceiling.
| Quote : first of all, 5 1/4 Floppies! WOOT WOOT!
|
They worked togheter back then..or sort of.
Btw just for the fun of it
Oh and this inside the drive...what a lame construction here...a resistence soldered directly above the chip pins..
| Quote : It doesn't boot,how is the PSU? Maybe it's underpowering your system? PSU's are oftenly overlooked these days, but people don't understand the importance of a good quality PSU.
|
yeah! go get a Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W, that should do the job...
just don't overclock cause the PSU might not be able to handle the extra current required! LOL!
| Quote : It doesn't boot,how is the PSU? Maybe it's underpowering your system? PSU's are oftenly overlooked these days, but people don't understand the importance of a good quality PSU.
|
yeah! go get a Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W, that should do the job...
just don't overclock cause the PSU might not be able to handle the extra current required! LOL!
I wouldn't go ironical about this oldie power requirement, because..omg, it needed 6 volts (4x1.5volts) in order to keep the bios info :0
Please mind
You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.
