Hardware

I tend to change hardware a lot — with certain exceptions. My fickleness has tapered a little, but I still like to experiment with new-old machines. For reference, or just to show off, this is the hardware I’m using now. These will change from time to time, and I’ll try to keep updating this page, rather than adding posts.

There’s generally no note of operating systems, because everything is probably running some shade of Ubuntu, Crux or Arch, and that can change from day to day. Oh, and one last thing — I am exceptionally uninventive when it comes to machine names: I christen each one with the serial number off the bottom. Boring, huh?


IBM Thinkpad iSeries 1200: 1161-41j

550Mhz Celeron (Coppermine) 192Mb PC100 4Mb Silicon Motion, Inc. SM712 LynxEM+ Japanese keyboard 20Gb 5400rpm Hitachi hard drive HTS548040M9AT00 LG CRN8241B 24x CDROM 2x USB 1.1 ports, one side and one rear 800×600 SVGA LCD Intel 8440MX AC’97 Audio

I got this machine at the outrageous price of roughly $100 at a secondhand store in Japan — and I’m completely in love with it. In contrast to the above machine, this one is almost completely stock. The only change is the hard drive — the original was a 5Gb 4200rpm Travelstar that sounded like a dental drill any time the power was applied. Blech!

The LCD is really the only downside — 800×600 is almost annoying these days. I would love a proper 1024×768 screen, but this machine is such a doll as it is that I’m not at all inclined to change it out. All the buttons, the pointer stick, the mouse button cluster and the keys are in perfect shape — even the key labels in hiragana and katakana are still there. This is a beautiful machine as it is, and doesn’t need me micromanaging it to make it work well.

I’d also recommend one of these machines, although it’s probably not for everyone any more. For day-to-day use, most people will probably find the porthole screen a major inconvenience. And without a proper operating system, a 550Mhz machine (and a Celeron, at that) is going to drag. It’s definitely not too slow, although it would be if it were not properly looked after.


Fujitsu FMV-5120NU2/W: FMV-5120

120Mhz Pentium (classic) 16Mb PC66 Chips and Technologies F65550 video card Intel 430MX chipset 106-key Japanese keyboard Samsung MP0402H 40Gb 5400rpm hard drive Texas Instruments PCI1130 CardBus Bridge 800×600 LCD SoundBlaster Pro-compatible audio

I ran into the little brother of this machine and used it for about a year as an extremely low-end test bed. That one was quickly eclipsed when I found this in a recycling shop for a measly US$10.

I can’t speak for everyone, but it’s exceptionally rare for me to discover a machine in this kind of condition after so long a period of time, and in an ordinary secondhand shop. If I were qualified to make the assessment, I would eagerly call this museum quality. Perfect screen condition, no dead pixels, no scratches or scrapes, all the port doors intact, internal clock keeps perfect time, and a power cord in similar condition. It didn’t have a hard drive, but the mounting tray and screws were still sealed in plastic. I can only wonder if it was a display unit, or if it just got amazingly lucky and spent the last decade in a closet, untouched.

Physical condition aside, there’s nothing much that can be said; it’s a snapshot of business-class technology from 1996. I only wish it had a CD drive instead of a floppy — who knows, maybe if I keep my eyes open, one will appear in a secondhand shop in the same magical fashion.

I give this one the same recommendation as its older, now-disassembled cousin: I don’t think I would. It takes a special person to appreciate the act of reaching back more than a decade in technological history. If you can count yourself in that small bracket, then by all means, see if you can find one like it. If not, don’t.