Hardware Wanted

This was my second computer (after C64), but now it's a hard-to-find perhaps somebody in Europe wants to ged rid of it?

The model number should be 2168:

75MHz P54C-Pentium or faster;
8MB RAM-expandable to 128;
500mb harddisk
and 1mb Trident Framebuffer 'GFX' - upgradeable to 2MB)

Mainboard layout:
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/I/IBM-CORPORATION-Pentium-APTIVA-2144-2168-TYPE-H-2.html

Thanks!!

never seen this b4, it looks like just an ordinary x86 IBM PC.

It was indeed just an ordinary pc, but with some IBM customizations.

Do u have any particular use for it?

No, it's just about playning around and feeling nostalgica.

My first PC was also an Aptiva - the older 486 model though.
I don't know where it ended up - there's a system with no skins in my parents' garage that I suspect might be it. I think it might even have gotten 16M of RAM in it at some point.

@bri3d: then you upgraded it - 16 MB for 486 was really a lot.

I was crazy about my Aptiva-I totally maxed it out. In the end, it was more expensive than simply buying a new PC.
I inserted 128MB ram; Ethernet; FireGL 1000 Pro PCI; bigger Harddrive and installed Windows NT.

Later I donated it to some person. He thought, switching the PSU from 220 to 110 volts could be a good idea

Finally the search came to an end - I got one: Model 2168-931 (75 MHz Pentium, 8 MB RAM, 0KB 2nd level cache, 540 MB Harddrive, 1 MB Onboard GFX RAM)

Now upgraded it to Pentium 166 (max possible), 64 MB EDO RAM, 256 KB Cache, 2 MB GFX RAM, 8 GB IDE, Ethernet. Runs the original Win31 configuration now + NT4 dual boot.

I remember those guys . When I chose my first Pentium PC I was between the Aptiva and a Hewlett Packard that was very similar. At the end I bought the HP but I am sure I would have been equally happy with the IBM. I do not remember why I chose one instead of the other, I think that I took my decission because the HP was a modular computer, almost without screws. It was very nice, but I sold it to a guy that decided to pay a lot of money for it, even when the computer was three or four years.

I see the cat has good taste

Ah, but you haven't really maxed it out yet. It's possible to upgrade to a pentium 200 overdrive processor with MMX. I know because I once tried to upgrade the same Aptiva to the max configuration possible. Found the 200 overdrive CPU, one stick of cache (but not the second). Memory was also at 64 Mb, tried to find 32 Mb memory sticks, but also failed to find some at a reasonable price. Naturally, I used it to run OS/2.

The case was incredibly heavy, and the sliding door that covered the floppy disk and the CD-rom a cool feature. Spent a lot of time cleaning the case to make sure that the door slided downwards at the correct speed.

@[[C|-|E]]: then you made the right decision - since the Aptiva series came after PS/1 and thus is rather low end. E. g. the "Opti Viper-M" chipset they used in there is rather slowish ...
Your HP was the better machine.

@SAQ Cat:"Peecee?! get away with it - me chose octane!"

@twix: Hey cool - another Aptiva Geek in here do you still own it?
Yes, the P200MMX Overdrive...of course I'd love to get one - but now they became very rare - could not find any in Germany, so I stick to the Pentium-S 166, which is the fastest one natively supported by the mainboard, as you already know
And cache... I wonder what people at OPTi and IBM were smoking these days... asynchronous 2nd level cache!? these are very hard to get...

Was there anything else ?

I had a Z-Pro of about the same vintage ... small case, same little handle-ish thing at the top front, similar style (without the sliding door), same square on-off button.. Dual Pentium Pro, wonderful computer.

hamei: yes - this was IBMs "corporate computer style" in the mid 90ies. Especially the white square power button has been on ervery machine and the IBM logo inside this oval thingie was typical. Of course it appeared in different variations before and after this time...

EDIT: wow! I didn't know they used this design for their professinal line, too!

image source: http://pcinbits.com/picture/mp/33880/7625/37/0/IBM%20IntelliStation

It was a nice computer ... I liked it. Dual Pentium Pros that you could overclock to 240, Adaptec 2940 onboard, could go to a gig of memory, nice Matrox G400 graphics, OS/2, the case looks better than the photos, understated ... they really woke up with a pair of Pentium Pro Overdrive cpu's at 333 mhz ... that was a honkin' big socket Wish I still had it

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/pc-desktops/ibm ... 9/details/

Seems to me the mainboard was the same as the PC server 325, which could run OS/390 with an addin board ? Kjaer probably knows ....

@Geoman,

No I don't own the Aptiva anymore. It fell down some stairs during transport and was damaged beyond repair. I salvaged the CPU, memory, cache, and other parts, but the frame itself was warped. So to the scrapyard it went. Too bad, since I got the computer for free when I purchased two Compaq Ipaq computers from somebody in the city where I live. The guy worked for Cisco, and he had a pretty impressive network installation at home. Enough hardware for a small business. Anyway, he sold me the two Ipaq's (60 Euros total) and then threw in the Aptiva and a Pentium 75 computer in for free. I wanted to use the Aptiva for a mod, but soon gave up that idea since the case was so different.

I still have the COAST cache chip. (256 Kb, asynchronous). If you can put it to use in your Aptiva, I'll be happy to send it to you. Don't know whether it will fit your particular board thigh, IBM made an alarming number of different versions.

That's a pity :'( to lose this nice machine

Yes, these boards are very picky concerning the caches...

(E-Mail sent

There it is:

Thanks to Twix I now have got a perfectly working cache module inside the Aptiva:

That looks really neat and clean!

The riser-board makes the difference
The Aptiva is well designed, indeed

Btw. Alliance still produces the cache-chips:
http://www.alliancememory.com/products/fastasync1.htm