9 Jul
2014
9 Jul
'14
12:27 a.m.
I have a machine running OS/2 Warp Connect, DOS 6.22,
and Windows 3.11 on a 233MHz Pentium with 32MB of RAM, a Sound Blaster 16, and an
IDE-to-CF adapter with 2GB CF media. I even use it for MIDI sequencing
occasionally, with good old Cakewalk 3. Has 5.25" and 3.5" floppy drives, as
well as a 52X CD burner. An absolute pleasure to use, as
Win3.11 pops up in about 3 seconds, and OS/2 Warp is rock solid.
A couple of months ago I needed a machine with a real serial port for driving a 5-bit
teletype and was trawling through the stash and fired up my old Digital VP575. I was
really surprised how usable it was with Windows/98. I can't remember how much RAM it
has, but its only P166 with MMX CPU. More surprisingly when I plugged it into the VGA port
on the TV it set a sensible resolution which was weird as the TV is widescreen...
... I didn't use that machine in the end as the serial port won't do 50baud, so I
ended up using a Compaq M700. I can't remember the chip speed in that 750Mhz I think,
but it has XP which is such a resource hog, it was really slow compared with the VP575.
However surprisingly, despite being the next generation of mother board its serial port
will do 50 Baud, so despite it taking eons to boot that was what I used.....
Dave
G4UGM