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5160 dev box?

SuperDave

New Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
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3
What a perfect time to stumble across this place. :)

One of my XT's(?) has a case which was horizontally split, and hinges in the back. The person I acquired it from told me it was his dad's development box from when he was with IBM. The split looks factory-original in its' precision. With that said, the case is a half-inch taller than a stock XT, using the original front bezel, so there's a half-inch opening on the bottom front. The rear plate is very similar in terms of screw locations etc, but taller at the top to accommodate the extra case height. The appearance is otherwise XT-specific, except there are no identifying plates on it anywhere.

Like much of my collection, it was acquired, stored and received little attention since I got it, against the day that my other hobbies waned enough to allow time for this one. :)

I haven't ripped it apart enough to be absolutely_sure it's a genuine IBM, and I don't know enough about the clones to know if such a hinged model was made by someone else. I have found a grand total of one picture of a similar case on the Internet.

Does anybody have any idea if this one's an original IBM? If so, does it have enough intrinsic interest that I should restore it to original and use another case for the resto-mod box I'm planning to build?
 
I recall back in the 80's JDR Microdevices made a case like that. I remember the ad in their
catalog which said sthg like "Check out whats under the hood of this PC...."

I have never seen an IBM machine with a case like that......

Please post some pictures of the case , thats very interesting info.....
 
The flip-top enclosures were very popular at computer shows featuring Taiwanese import gear. I had one that even had the correctly-sized recess for an IBM nameplate--that same nameplate is now on an AT clone cabinet.

You usually can tell the real thing (IBM origin) from the Taiwanese stuff by the finish on the sheet-metal edges. IBM tended to roll sharp edges and used mostly galvanized slotted- or hex-head hardware. Taiwan almost always didn't bother with the edge finishing and used nickel-plated hardware and Phillips or hex head screws. If you look at the thing and see that there are hexagonal brass standoffs in a few positions supporting the PC board, it's for certain Taiwanese. If it uses metric-thread screws anywhere, likewise, it's probably Taiwanese.
 
I had one of those flip-top XT clone cases. The front panel was designed to look very similar to an IBM PC/XT, but the case was slightly taller (perhaps tall enough to fit full-height AT expansion cards; I don't remember for sure).

It would be easy to swap in the front logo plate from a real IBM (many clone cases kept the square recess for it, all the way through the late 486/early Pentium era), but unless the owner was really determined to masquerade it as an IBM, it would be lacking the corresponding IBM model number plate on the back (5150, 5160, etc.).
 
Thanks for the quick replies, guys. Judging from the information you present, I think I can be comfortable that it's a clone - the little fastener and design details match what you're mentioning. I can Dremel it with impunity, then. :)

It's in center back, on the bottom, amongst some other strays which have entered my life over the years:

PICT0565a.jpg
 
Yup, note that the nameplate recess is rectangular. IBM's nameplate is square. Some clones also have square recesses.

Heh. It is stored, stacked on top of a genuine 5160. You'd think I'd have noticed that little detail....
 
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