Mini 486 system
You seem to think all hi end stuff is the latest to brag about when you realize even old stuff had the same dimension and properties as new hardware.
This is a 486 in a very small package. I think a 486 is a great computer. Maybe not so in these days of 1 TB harddrives and 2+ GHz quad-core CPU speeds but back in the day you could do almost anything with a 486 and 8 to 32 MB ram. Linux was no problem to run, it was more important to have lots of memory because otherwise virtual memory would trash your harddrive whenever you ran X. Windows 3.11 ran great on a 486, sadly not Windows 95 which was a huge disappointment on anything else than a Pentium 1 for me at least.
So I should perhaps write something about the computer in the picture, it is currently running MS-DOS and Windows 3.11. I do not think Windows 3.11 was that horrible as I wanted to believe it was, actually it was a pleasant and uncluttered experience. But as most old school MS-DOS users know you mostly do not use Windows 3.11 a lot, instead you spend most of your time in DOS. DOS in combination with Norton Commander is a powerful environment. You are flexible and can shuffle files around the system in no time and you have the power to edit text files easily together with lots of other tasks. So why run Windows 3.11 at all? As you can see this computer is so tiny there is no space for a CD-rom so I run a very old version of CuteFTP in Windows 3.11 and transfer ZIP/RAR archive from my main workstation acting as a local FTP-server. Works great and Windows 3.11 even detected my 3Com network card during installation of the OS. Anyway Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS 6.22 totally rocks, everything went downhill for MS after that (maybe not).
So let’s open the second part of this article with some hardware specifications of the computer in the above picture:
- CPU: Cyrix 486 clone clocked at 80 MHz
- Graphics board: Integrated, I think 256 or 512 KB memory
- Memory: 16 MB in two 72 pin modules
- Soundcard: Soundblaster AWE 32 (or 64)
- Network card: 3Com ISA
- Harddrive: Seagate 420 MB
It is actually very impressive to see how tight everything sits inside of the shell. They even managed to offer two 16-bit ISA slots, however due to the small size of the case only half size ISA cards can fit into the system making it more difficult to find old school soundcards that will fit. There is space for one full size 3.5 inch IDE harddrive and one 3.5 inch floppy drive. The outer shell is made of aluminum and mounts with two thumbscrews, and just like new modern mini computers have these tiny 40 mm annoying fans this little 486 system have one for the PSU. You would think the CPU gets really hot being sandwiched deep under the floppy drive but I kid you now it does not get hot at all, I actually opened it up after a heavy gaming session with Doom and it was cool to touch.
So it is kind of neat to have a 486 system in the closet ready to be used anytime I would want to since it takes so little space. Speed wise, especially in games you can tell there are faster 486 based computers, I remember my 486 DX2 66 MHz which had PCI slots, back then PCI slots in a 486 system was hi-end and not that usual but that definitely speed up Doom a lot. There are a lot of other cool old school applications you definitely should check out. Of course Cubic Player is very nice, also Inertia Player is a nice old school module player and Electronic Arts classic Deluxe Paint 2 paint program is a nice paint package used even in the 90′ies by game companies.