The dumpster IBM computer - Update!
Hey all!
If anyone remembers a long time ago when I found an old IBM PC down by my apartment's dumpster, waterlogged, no HDD and no CD/DVD-ROM drive at all...
I got it working completely now!
Recently at a GoodWill thrift store, I found a DVD-ROM drive there for $4.99 CAD! So, I got it, brought it home, and tested it. Working!
So, this meant I could finally test the HDD (80 GB, also found by the dumpster), and install an OS onto the HDD if it worked! I'll get back to this later.
Choosing an OS.. took a bit of thinking. I didn't know what to choose! I wanted something light, but also somewhat modern if I would be able to find a wireless/ethernet/dial-up card for the PC so it can go online and be decently fast. Windows XP? Hmm.... nah.. it's light on system resource requirements, yeah, but it's a bit outdated and not officially supported by Microsoft anymore. Windows Vista.. HELL NAH! Vista sux, first of all; it's buggy, aimed more for newer systems (with only 512 MB of DDR2 ram, it'd be slow af), and for it's age seems a bit too ahead of it's time. And again, not officially supported by Microsoft. So.. Windows 7? My system makes the system requirements, drivers won't be too hard, and it's modern and still supported. So, I chose Windows 7. Ready to install! Well, first, we gotta see if the hard drive works.
Ok, so I have legit Windows 7 Home Premium 32- and 64-bit disks on hand, so that's also a plus that I'm not using pirated software (which I don't really care too deeply about, but still!). My system is x64-x86 compatable, but just so that the Pentium III doesn't fry itself, I used Windows 7 32-bit. So I put it into the DVD-ROM drive and power up my PC. Set the BIOS to boot from DVD (and the disk drive works! Ejects a bit slow, but that's easy to fix), and restart.
15-45 seconds of waiting................
...
"Press any key to boot from CD/DVD..." I see on screen! It works! It boots! So, I press Space.
DVD-ROM drive sounds like a jet engine...
Hey, Windows is loading files! Can't wait to see the animation for the Windows logo on startup.. will it be laggy? Will it be smooth? PS: my graphics card is an ATi Radeon 9600 PRO
Windows logo animation
Wow! Not too bad!
Ok, now to see if the Hard Drive works.
I chose "custom" install.
And hey, the Hard Drive works! Noice!
And then I install, reboot, all that good stuff, and successful installation!
So yeah, I essentially got a semi-decent PC!
Total cost for everything:
2xIDE cables - $10 CAD
DVD-ROM drive - $5 CAD
Power cable - $3 CAD
Graphics card - $8 CAD
Main PC components; power supply, motherboard, heatsink, etc - FREE
For a grand total of: $26 CAD!
Thanks for reading this wall of text by,
Alixnator
Comments
Sweet, nice find! What model is it? I love IBM PCs.
Honestly, I have no idea. I think it's one of the IBM Netvista models from the 1990's.
Can you post pics of the machine? Great find as well, I might add.
I found out what model it is! It's an IBM 6578 in black. When I found it, only the FDD was still there. Every other drive (CD-ROM, HDD) that was once in there was stripped.
Pentium 3 doesn't have x64 support.
What is the speed of your CPU? Upgrades for it should be dirt cheap.
My Pentium III CPU is clocked at 1.00 GHz.