defining 'vintage'

________________________________ From: David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> Yes, that's actually why I typically take in older PCs (old enough that they don't have all that functionality integrated on the motherboard).? That, and occasionally I get a 286, 386 or 486 which I can use for hobby projects (less and less these days, though). C: Remember 486s can be used for imaging w/ImageDisk. ?No one should rule out the more interesting vanilla pc clones. If it was made before 85, it's a win in my book. The earlier you go the rarer they are. Most people know that you can tell the age of the mobo by looking at the dates on the chips. For instance 8427 means it was manufactured in the 27th week of 1984. Of course you need to know how to distinguish part codes from date codes. 8253 naturally could be a date code, but statistically it's bound to be a programmable timer, present on every pc or even pseudo pc in existence I would have to guess. ?I spied a hacked up (literally) 5160 on display in some guy's window (he was relocating). I got that and other stuff for 25$ (probably could have payed less, but I needed some part of that "haul" for something and wasn't in the mood to haggle). Also obtained an Advanced Micro Technology "AT junior". Sadly mine was made after IBM forced them to drop the use of _that_ name, and also stop using a diminutive Charlie Chan in their ads (turns out more then one vendor was doing that) and externally it is rebadged the AMT junior. But the BIOS screen loads up as "AT junior". So for me, it was a score. Fun. And illustrative of a lesser known nugget of peecee history. You gotta be in the know to recognize some stuff.