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IBM PC 300 PL
by davidbuttery
Even though they haven't been in the PC system business for some years now, having sold that part of the company to Chinese outfit Lenovo way back in 2005, we old-timers still tend to think of IBM as representing the basic idea of what a PC should be. After all, the very phrase "Personal Computer" (in this context, at least) is ... their own and dates back not far short of three decades. Although I use a much more modern PC in my everyday computing, I still keep an IBM 300 PL as a backup, and despite its age it can still come in handy in an emergency. Actually, I fully expect it to survive several hundred years yet, to be retrieved and puzzled over by future archaeologists...
The IBM is a pretty large machine; you'd never mistake it for one of the slimline PCs you see so often nowadays. Depending on your point of view, this gives it either a reassuring air of solidity and presence or a rather excessive bulk that takes up far too much desk space. I tend towards the first view, especially since its desktop format (as opposed to tower) means that you can place a monitor on top of it. Given the 300 PL's age, it's hardly surprising that it was designed to take a big heavy CRT unit, which means that there's little chance of breaking the case by accident. Actually, it feels as though it would be quite hard to break it on purpose either!
Oddly, despite the big, roomy case - which is a bit of a pain to get open, but which once that's done is quite easy to work inside - this computer isn't quite as expandable as it might be. For example, though it has an AGP slot for a graphics card, it accepts only what are known as a "low profile" cards, which are about half the height of standard ones. This quite severely limits your choice of upgrades in this department, an important consideration given that the card fitted as standard was the pretty dire S3 Savage4. However, I managed to find a suitable version of the nVidia GeForce 2 without all that much fuss, and that's a very nice fit with this class of PC. You also get three PCI slots (the traditional sort, not PCI Express) for soundcards and the like, and (thankfully) two USB ports, though these are the older, slower v1.1 type.
One thing that hasn't been upgraded since the computer was new (1999!) is the processor, an Intel Pentium III running at 533 MHz. This chip is in the Slot 1 format, which is more expensive to upgrade than the alternative socket-based P3 CPUs, but I believe that it is possible to install anything up to an 866 MHz unit on the provided motherboard as a like-for-like swap. It's fast enough to deal with a lightweight Linux distribution, and will also handle XP if you have a bit of patience. The RAM was originally a pretty mean 128 MB, and that I *have* changed, increasing it to 768 MB, which is quite adequate. There are only two memory slots, and the maximum installed RAM is 1 GB, so any version of Windows after XP might be a bit of a squeeze.
As you would expect with a PC of this vintage, there is a floppy drive, which I like playing with for the purely childish reason that disks click into it with such a wonderful "thunk" noise. The optical disc on the 300 PL was originally a pretty basic CD-ROM, but I've upgraded that to a DVD drive. This was slightly tricky, though by no means impossible, because various strengthening metal struts inside the case get in the way when you're doing the changeover. As far as the hard disk is concerned, it originally came with a 20 GB unit, of IBM manufacture of course, and again that's straightforward but not entirely trivial to swap for another drive - though you'll need an IDE drive, remember, not the modern SATA type!
Of course, the actual experience of using a PC depends a great deal on the software, and that isn't really relevant to this review beyond my previous mention about what might actually work. What is nice is the big round power button, the basic but reassuring startup sequence (complete with nice big blue "IBM" text logo) and, of course, being able to look at the thing's front panel and see the words "IBM Personal Computer" staring back at me. The old phrase "IBM clone" is hardly relevant any more, but it's rather satisfying to know that this isn't one. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the real thing. Over-engineered perhaps, but it can still do a job if your requirements are modest. They'll only be a few quid - plus substantial postage if you can't collect - but sadly there aren't many around now. Rather a loss, I feel.
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Apple Power Mac G4 Cube
by beaninabun
Some technical details:
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-PowerMac G4 1.25 Ghz
-256MB RAM
-80GB hard drive
-Combo Drive (CD,DVD reading and writing)
-2 USB 1.1
-2 FireWire 400
-2 USB ports adjusted on the keyboard
-Audio Out
1.) ... review:
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The apple Power Mac G4 is a very powerful computer system for a very low price and is the fastest Mac which is booting under Mac OS 9.
If you want you can also upgrade from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X booting system .
1.1.) speed:
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If you compare the Power Mac G4 to the PowerMac G5 it might be not the fastest computer system , but it is great computer for
playing games and some other applications like Adobe Photoshop CS3.
1.2.) memory:
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Unfortunately the Power Mac G4 only comes with a 256MB memory this might be not enough for newer applications.
If you want you can upgrade the memory up to 2GB.
1.3.) hard drive:
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The hard drive is with 80GB really great and if you want you can also upgrade the mass storage device.
1.4.) drives:
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The Power Mac G4 is equipped with a combo drive , which allows you to read DVD`s and CD`s.
You can also write CD`s but unfortunately no DVDs.
1.5.) connections:
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The Power Mac G4 1,25 is only equipped with Fire Wire 400 and two USB 1.1 connections. If you have enough money you can also upgrade your USB 1.1 to USB 2.0
1.6.) operating system:
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The Power Mac G4 comes with the new operating system Mac OS 10.4 Tiger.
The operating system also includes iMovie, iDVD, iTunes iPhoto, GarageBand, iChat, QuickTime, Safari, DVD Player and much more.
2.) Personal Opinion:
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The computer system is very loud and gets annoying after some time. If you want to use this computer for graphic applications I would not recommend it. It is great if you run office on it, surf the web or if you play some games. All in all it is a good product.
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Compaq Deskpro EN
by firebane
I have had this computer for sometime now, and for an older computer this thing runs very well still. Despite having problems with Windows, this computer still runs fast with an install of the latest version of Windows, much more then what this thing was meant to run! This computer is also very fast for its price, ... meaning you get performance, reliability, and value in one nice easy package.
But for a negative the horizontal style is not near as good as the vertical style casing.
And the inside of the computer is very hard to open up and work on, and it is very hard to upgrade. And the outside of the casing is not all that fashionable.
<>Motherboard<>
The motherboard is a high quality Intel based chipset. That comes standard with a decent CPU.
And a FSB(Front Side Bus) of 133Mhz
<>Harddisk<>
Comes with a decent sized harddisk around 10gigs, which is more then enough to store all your data.
<>RAM<>
The ram works on PC133, it can old up to 512mb, but not a single 512mb chip of ram :(
<>CDROM<>
The computer I got came with a 48 times CDROM, but you can upgrade to a DVDROM.
<>Floppy Drive<>
I think all this computer come standard with 1.44mb floppies.
<>Keyboard & Mouse<>
The keyboard lasted me a nice long time, and when you type on is was nice and quite, but the mouse, on the other hand, was low quality and stop working almost right away.
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