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I want to build a powerfull 5150 IBM PC ...

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fragment

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hey i want to hear advices for what i need to make a super 5150 ibm pc ... what i mean ... i want a list of hardware tips/fixes etc ... best ... compatible with 5150 model. such as how can i afford more power supply using a hard disk on 5150 ... how can i do it? or what gfx card can i use best / can i use ethernet 8bit with it? ... what better can i do ...

i dont have any old hardware but i am planning to buy sth very old! years i want it ... its time ... but i want it as powered as it can ... to do things with this ...

thank you any advice or tip i will appreciate it ...
 
fragment said:
i guess you didnt read my question well ... ibm 5150 is not a XT System ...
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It depends on the model. The only thing seperating the model B 5150's from the XTs is just the memory posibilities, the casette port (or lack of one), some minor system I/O changes only used by the BIOS, and the number of expansion slots. In any other way, the model B 5150 and the 5160 (XT) are equal.

The model A 5150 just has an earlier BIOS and less RAM than the model B, as it only takes 16K RAM-chips on the motherboard (the model B takes 64K RAM-chips just like the XT).

Model A 5150s were only sold in the US before the XT came out in the spring of 1983. This means that they only sold it for a little more than one year (late 1981/early 1982 till early 1983). This makes model A 5150s quite rare, and you would need quite some amout of luck to obtain one for a reasonable price.
 
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per said:
It depends on the model. The only thing seperating the model B 5150's from the XTs is just the memory posibilities, the casette port (or lack of one), some minor system I/O changes only used by the BIOS, and the number of expansion slots. In any other way, the model B 5150 and the 5160 (XT) are equal.

The model A 5150 just has an earlier BIOS and less RAM than the model B, as it only takes 16K RAM-chips on the motherboard (the model B takes 64K RAM-chips just like the XT).

Model A 5150s were only sold in the US before the XT came out in the spring of 1983. This means that they only sold it for a little more than one year (late 1981/early 1982 till early 1983). This makes model A 5150s quite rare, and you would need quite some amout of luck to obtain one for a reasonable price.
Click to expand...

thanks a lot lot !!! i will investigate it
 
By the way, if you want to expand the 5150, you should look for a model B, as it's BIOS supports external BIOS add-on modules (like the ones you find on EGA cards, VGA cards and hard drive controllers). You would of course want a RAM add-on, and a hard drive (search for the XT-IDE projects here on the forums), and problably some additional card for external I/O (like an 8-bit ethernet card or a serial card). You may replace the floppy disk controller with a HD-compatible controller and connect a 3.5" drive too. If we add a graphics card on top of this (MDA/CGA/EGA/8-bit compatible VGA), then you soon see that all the 5 bus-slots are filled. If you now want even more cards to be installed (you problably don't need more unless you have special requirements for usage); you should have choosen an XT (5160) instead of a 5150.
 
The main limitation with the 5150 PC is how much you can do with only 5 slots. Usually just getting it up to par with a late-model XT clone (640K RAM, hard drive, serial, parallel & joystick ports, clock/calendar) will take up all of the slots, leaving no room left for extra goodies like a network card, sound card, or processor upgrade card. This will also require replacing the original IBM cards with highly integrated multifunction cards like the AST Six Pack or Chaplet 7-Plus. If you can forego the serial and/or parallel ports, then maybe that would open up a free slot for use with a network card.
 
What about replacing the 8088 with a 8088-2 or a NEC V20 and replace the crystal oscillator that feeds 8284 clock generator to obtain 8 MHz? Will the RAM and other chips support the clock boost?
 
i guess you didnt read my question well ... ibm 5150 is not a XT System ... ibm5150.net specs , doesnt help too
thanks ... a lot
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The XT, the 5160, is the 5150's younger, bigger, better brother and they do share quite more than they don't. Many of the cards you can use in the XT, you can use in the original PC.
 
It should be possible to just barely squeeze all the cards you could ever possibly need into a 5150. Here is a photo of the inside of my own 5150:

Picture%20101.jpg


From left to right:

1. Sound Blaster 2.0

2. AST Rampage/Compact flash adapter - the rampage provides 640k convention + 1.3mb EMS. Because this card has no ports on the back, I was able to remove the back panel and slip in an IDE to compact flash adapter.

3. XT-IDE adapter - connected to the CF to IDE converter in slot 2

4. 16-bit multi I/O - provides floppy, 2x serial, parallel and game port all on one card. Software extensions are used to provide high density floppy support if needed (I use dual 360k fullheight drives)

5. Paradise 8-bit VGA

The only thing I'm missing at the moment is an ethernet adapter because there are no more slots. However, you can buy ethernet adapters that interface with the parallel port.
 
dorkbert said:
Are the old PC parallel ports true bi-directional? I would think a parallel port ethernet adopter requires it to be.
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The original IBM parallel adapter (either built into the MDA or as a standalone card) most likely isn't, but aftermarket cards can be. With a NEC V20 processor installed to support Iomega's "Guest" driver, I had no problem using a Zip-100 drive with the parallel port of the "7-Plus" 8-bit multifunction card on my 5150 PC.
 
per said:
In any other way, the model B 5150 and the 5160 (XT) are equal.
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The 5150 has a 63 Watt power supply, the 5160 has a 150 Watt power supply. Putting a hard drive in a 5150 might burn out it's power supply. I think it's better to start with a 5160, but if a person really wanted the ultimate 5150, they should get the expansion unit to put hard drives into.

Sean
 
Both the standard IBM parallel printer adapter card as well as that on the IBM MDA can easily be modifed to be bidirectional. Just a cut and a jumper, mostly. This also holds true for most of the discretely-implmented (not LSI) clone parallel port adapters.

The port essentially becomes a PS/2-style parallel port.
 
hello
I also have the hobby of "pimping" my PC. It is pc-xt (at the moment , do not own a 5150). With a SCSI adapter you get many oppertunities - cdrom, dat-tape (?), harddisk, and so on. The cpu upgrade cards are interesting as well - I my self are about to mount a "make it 486" (TI) in my SOTA 286 card connectet to my PC-XT :eek:)
/cimonvg
 
Cimonvg said:
I my self are about to mount a "make it 486" (TI) in my SOTA 286 card connectet to my PC-XT :eek:)
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Did you ever happen to see that Simpson's episode where Bart "stacks" a bunch of megaphones, resulting in a sort of sonic boom? In my experience, coupling CPU accelerators is, unfortunately, nothing at all like that. :)

I once tried something similar with a "286 Express" accelerator in a Tandy 1000 SX. While the Norton SI score for the 286 Express alone was 2.6, it jumped to an awe-inspiring 4.6 when paired with a Make-it 486. I wouldn't be at all surprised if your results are similar. ;)
 
fragment said:
expansion unit u mean? photos? ebay links?
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The IBM 5161 expansion unit allow for an additional 7 cards slots in a seperate chassis. Its only supported by the third revision of the PC BIOS and first revision of the XT BIOS.

Getting one is difficult due to two points:
1. It's rare to find one complete with both interface cards and cable intact.
2. You have to have deep pockets if you're going to afford one (in other words; it's usually quite expensive when one shows up).
 
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