Thanks for the video and the wishes, as an italian, our quarantine is already at the 17th day... quality content like this is surely welcome. Stay Home, people!
Lovely look at a lovely machine! Their NetVista series is a favorite indeed, and I've always wanted to find one of these all-in-ones. Actually never realized the name began as a networking software suite, but it makes perfect sense in hindsight.
I actually have one with windows xp on it. Was my first pc my mum brought home from work. Clint, would you like me to send it to you from NZ so you can have some fun and a review?
For some reason every time he says something along the lines of "this machine has earned a permanent place in my office" it makes me feel warm, knowing that an old, mostly forgotten piece of tech finally found a loving home to stay..
As an ex big blue employee, I just loved this video. I loved working for IBM in the 90’s and early 2000’s, while we used to joke that it stood for I’ve Been Mugged, on good days we were the International Band of Magicians. I’m still proud that I spent 4 years at IBM.
COOL! What were the pci slots meant for? I didn't see it in the video, but it didn't seem to be meant for the outside world, unless there were hidden slots on the bottom.
@@fwingebritson one was the the network card. The empty slot was there because we had many clients that had proprietary cards, like a BNC network connection. In the majority of machines it was left empty. Plus it didn't breath well - poor air circulation.
why is there a glossy plastic piece on the back of the otherwise matte case...? uxwbill brought that up in his video of this PC over 4 years ago th-cam.com/video/XSxVII9FiPU/w-d-xo.html
Afaik the fireball plus series drives up to the LM where basically Quantum Viking or 7200rpm Atlas drives with a IDE interface, they perform quite nicely and sound awesome.
The one in my Compaq Presario 5360 had a really nice sound to it but alas, it died and the Barracuda(?) I replaced it with is virtually silent. The computer lost some character.
I remember repairing some of those machines under warranty back in the day! The back panel really wasn't very hard to put back on, that reviewer is just a dolt. They were pretty neat machines provided you did mostly basic office stuff or POS type work with them. I remember deploying several of the ThinkCentre A50 machines at a local dentist office way back when too. Along with the sale of the PC division to Lenovo in 2005. I was at the IBM/Lenovo Think Open event at Disney World in May of 2005. Those were interesting times since I as a manager/rep of a 3rd party repair facility had a lot of questions. I still have my wooden IBM Business Partner plaque hanging up near my home tech bench with 8 different badges on it. Each badges signifying different types of IBM equipment I as a tech was certified to perform warranty support on. :)
@referral madness it kind of is and isnt? It's a platformer with terribly janky controls, and some game mechanics are very questionable, like potions having effects you can't predict - some potions just kill you outright, and only way to learn which is trial and error. However there IS a fun Tomb Raider clone underneath all the jank, with an interesting world and atmosphere, so it entirely depends on your tolerance for jankiness. Just know that it is a relatively punishing game that like to kill you for your mistakes. But if you're okay with those things, it's a surprisingly fun game with a surprisingly deep combat system. Just definitely read the manual.
@referral madness Two months late and your question was more or less answered by shinobody already, but basically, if you like _Tomb Raider_ a lot like I did, you MIGHT tolerate it - the platforming is fine on that front IMO. The combat is atrocious but save-scumming is very easy to do thanks to the included quicksave/quickload hotkey, so you can cheese most of it. There's a demo you can try, anyway - though use dgVoodoo2, or else performance will be erratic and sounds from all the way across the map will play at full volume as if they were right next to you (I don't know why, it just does that). And even then, you may need to temporarily disable it periodically on the full game as some moving platforms don't move at the right speed with it enabled (really need to a file a bug report with dege on VOGONS about that...). Don't play the Dreamcast version (US-only), the platforming physics feel all wonky in that (e.g.: you have a wind-up animation for jumping forward in the PC version, it's slower but nice and weighty; no such thing on DC, you just fling forward instantly), there's no more quicksave to make things more tolerable (understandable given the limits of the DC, but still a step back), combat seems like it's been sped up, and the controls... why would you map digital controls to the analog stick, developers? Also they removed the health-up potion in Level 1 so that's just insult to injury. On the upside, you can haul potions around with you _Tomb Raider_ style, which is a definite improvement.
This brings back so many memories. Sigh, I had a few of these while operating my computer shop at the time. I set up a few of them for my senior citizen clients that were very tech challenged. They were compact and very non threatening. I just thought they were super cool. Still do. Thanks for the bringing back some of the memories.
I worked for the largest venture capital company in Boulder, Colorado - joined in 1999 and we built out a 36,000 sq/ft office space. Worked with IBM at the time and they gave us 40 of these to showcase them (as our office was in many architectural magazines and showcases). They weren't powerful but they turned heads at the time for sure as flat panels were very rare still. Very fond memories of the X40 (oh and you DO have the original keyboard, the upgraded ones only came later on the 41). Also that drop down for the DVD drive, at the time, was AWESOME but it was a pain for users to remember it was there.
The whole Windows 98/ME/2000 era is by far my favourite. Tech was so innovative, moving so fast. There were tons of players like S4, SiS, Trident, Chips and Techniques etc etc that don't exist today, so much variety. Such an interesting time 😎
I bought a NetVista X41 off ebay in 2005 for $250 and made it a dedicated MAME station. It had a ATI Rage 128 Ultra GPU which ran Quake 3 surprisingly quite well.
Love it! Been there, done that, and moved on. But, I do love the nostalgia and remembering the beginnings and history. Really, well done and, thanks! :)
Well Nostalgia Nerd, you have lived up to your name with this one! We deployed these at the front desk of the hotel I worked at in 2002-4. In our case, we used them almost exclusively as terminal emulators for the AS/400 backend, which, ironically, was what most of IBM envisioned for the original PC lol. Thanks for this!
@@RheaIR Indeed, as we all know, IBM's higher ups in the big iron division saw the original PC as a slightly more intelligent terminal, which is why you see that rather odd trio of keys on the modern day keyboard - PrtScn/SysRq, Scroll Lock and Pause/Break. The SysRq was literally to call the mainframe for some processing time (if I recall); Scroll Lock was used when terminal commands would just spill their output onto the screen, and you'd need to hit that to stop the flow to read; the Break key was to stop processes from running that you'd started on the behemoth you were attached to.
@5:40 Jim Louderback! So great to see him, he was really a great tech journalist and editorial force in the industry back in the day. God, I miss the old days of PC Magazine!
Before buying all Dell hardware, I bought IBM and it was simply because of their engineering. Sure, I could have and often did build PCs for clients, but that hardly left me for time to build my own. I would always buy them slightly used and upgrade them myself. My Aptiva p90 4x3 desktop lasted me 3 years. It orginally had a p90 and 8mb of ram. By the time I sold it I had upgraded it to a p166 with 32mb of ram. I would dual boot OS/2 4.5 and Win nt 4.0 workstation on it and it was extremely fast for what it was. I later upgraded to Intelistation model with a PIII 866. I do have a ThinkCentre z92p in my garage I have acquired over the years. 23 inch beast!
i do love a nostalgic romp down memory lane on your channel. many of these machines and setups, i cut my teeth on in my schooling and early working life. i do miss the sound of multiple machines running on the bench, doing defrags and what not, installing from the dos command line (or dropping out to dos to do something because its just way more efficient than the windows equivalent of the time!), researching and building some nicely optimized setups for clients, then being a tightarse myself and pushing hardware harder than it was ever designed (like a AMD k6/2-450@600 or 733 celeron running at 1.1ghz with cooling to match, along with a TNT2 running at Ultra speeds :o )... its all just too "easy" these days
Just to drive home how space age this would have looked to an office user in 2001 that year I started a job in a bank and the PC I was given to work on was a beige dell optiplex gs with a Pentium 133 and a 14 inch CRT monitor. It was 'only' 5 years old but the difference between 1996 and 2001 in PC design, specs and aesthetics was incredible. We were still using CRT monitors in my office until 2007 when they finally realised we needed 2 screens for the new workflow software and the desks were not big enough for 2 19 inch CRTs to fit on them.
I worked in an ancient Italian kitchen that was using an old NetVista kiosk as a POS until at least 2017! It was honestly very gross and probably in desperate need of a good cleaning.
I picked one of these up a few years ago. I have 98SE on mine, and while it's not a powerhouse it's definitely one of the most reliable computers I've ever used. Also runs Windows 2000 well, which I'm tempted to put back on it at times, but 98 has better compatibility with games of the era, plus the support for DOS/3.1 stuff is much better. A great little machine to be sure.
I must admit I did get an IBM Aptiva 2144-M51 back in the early 90's just because of the drop down front cover! - That plus pack background image brings back some memories!
I so wish Quantum never got out of the hard drive business. The Fireball line were absolute units and they were so much more reliable than most of what was out there at the time. And they ended up selling that unit to Maxtor, which were terrible and then merged with Seagate, who have continued to be terrible since.
I've had one of these NetVista AIOs donated to me (exact same model as shown in @6:17) several years ago. It was in fully working order. That thing was built like a tank, really high quality. And it looked great too. Sadly, I had to toss it due to lack of storage space.
Me: "The only thing Windows Me did well was the Defrag." "The sound of the Quantum Fireball is exquisite. Here, let me run Defrag for you." My heart. Oh, my nostalgic, single-greatest-feature heart.
That ScrollPoint mouse was next after Apple's "puck" the worst mouse ever. The blue "scrollbutton" was not exactly nimble or precise - mostly an "all or nothing" kind of deal.
I dumpster dived one of the keyboards for these a few years back and can confirm it is smexy. The curvature on the coloured buttons is a really nice touch.
@@cougarhunter33 These were entry level Aptiva's. And the worst part was they had soldered gpu's and sound cards. For the same price you could get a proper gaming pc. What was even funnier the commercials came back 1 year later with the same fecking models. Which ment people were buying 3 year old hardware for the same price
@@mesicek7 How is it any different than the computers Apple is selling today? You can buy a Mac for $3,000 with literally the same specs you can find in a pre-built Windows PC for $1,000 or less than that if you pick out the parts individually and build it yourself. Selling "brand names" for businesses and "professionals" has always been about providing the same thing that others provide, but with x3 the cost.
@@elimalinsky7069 It was a different era back then. You'd see prebuilt pc ads on every pc mag. Pc stores had like 5-10 different prebuilts to choose from. There was barely any custom pcs. You had small shops that would build you a custom pc but the big ones has prebuilts built in a factory. Companies like Dell, IBM,... And the scam was real. IBM even tried this shit in our country. They bought a 5min tv commercial ad and they were selling a pc witha 3 year old hardware as brand new. Guess they had to get rid of old stock. Was sad how many people got scammed. $1k in 2000 for a 266mhz cpu with 32mb of ram was a scam of the highest order.
@@mesicek7 In my country computers with AMD processors were quite popular, because they were usually cheaper, but underperformed severely against their Intel counterparts up until the arrival of the Athlon around 2000 (IIRC). AMDs were the poor man's choice, basically. I remember that ads and the general public played on the fact that AMD continued the naming scheme of processor families, wheras Intel shiften from a number to a name (i.e. Pentium), so AMD had their 586 and 686 processors, while the general public did not understand what all the fuss was about surrounding the Pentium. 586 is clearly better than 486, and 686 is better still, there's nothing more I need to know. That was the mentality.
I still have the keyboard for the IBM Aptiva (the sliding door model) crammed away in my closet somewhere. The only thing I managed to salvage from that computer after I moved away to uni.
yeahhhhh, Quantum Fireball!, I had one of those back in the day, mine was a 512MB, and it is to the date the only hardrive I remember, that good it was, since then I'm trying to get hold of one in working order, but so far I had no luck, anyway, lovely video mate!.
I remember them being really unreliable drives but they did have a distinctive sound. I think I had a 3GB drive, the last time I used it the thing ran just long enough for me to pull some files off.
I so much miss for 90's design. White cases and all stuff from IBM PC was so cool. Now all black and flat (keyboards). Even IBM sets like think center was amazing. I love they keyboards with blu enter :)
Brilliant video. I recently acquired an IBM NetVista M42, which is a Pentium 4 1.8Ghz tower system. I'm in the process of getting it working again but I've had to source a replacement power switch from Barcelona. The joys of retro PC's! As a side note, if you need a new old stock black IBM ball mouse that would suit that perfectly, let me know and I'll send you one!
This might be perceived as sacrilege to a machine like this, but this looks like an excellent candidate for a retrofit of a modern ITX, mATX, or even laptop board system into its chassis! That would be a pretty cool thing to have on a desk!
Screw the NetVista, I want to see more of that video with the Gateway Profile. That's the first new information I've seen on the Profile II in years. It's even hard to find pictures of the things.
When I was clearing out an old depot of a big company I found one of the last all in one netvistas. Didn’t know what it was so I scavenged everything I wanted and threw it away.
Got to say, this is one of the sexier looking AIOs out there. Too bad these things are so expensive, I could totally see those things being more than enough for the average user.
The X41 was a little bit more "normal", just had a mostly-regular mATX board in it with a full set of ports, most people weren't ready to go fully legacy-free just yet. I think it even had a regular VGA cable going to the internal monitor. The massive external brick and Wilamette P4 nuclear reactor kind of ruins it though, would take a high spec P3 over that any day. They weren't even using DDR memory which was quite a damper on the P4.
That legacy free stuff reminds me how it was probably not the best time back than to be going legacy free when many peripherals where still using some of the old connectors and what not, and some of those things STILL remain today on some computers and if you really need to, you can get addon cards or adapters to connect old devices or modern serial/parallel port stuff for machines and development stuff.
That machine needs Windows 2000. Get it sorted! Always lusted after these back then, they looked so cool. I mean not from a nerdy perspective (no real upgrade path) but can't deny IBM got the design right and ahead of its time in many ways... for a PC, anyway.
I remember when my friends family got their new IBM Aptiva (I think it was a Pentium 75MHz.) with the sliding front hatch/panel, I was almost more fun than using the actual computer! ;) I has a really nice heavy feel to it when you close it as well. It was a so called "Volvodator" (Volvo computer). All Volvo employees in the mid 90's had the option to opt for a computer payed over a three year period (percentage of the employee salary)
I hope you're all keeping well. Stay safe.
Thanks, same to you and yours ❤️
Thanks for the video and the wishes, as an italian, our quarantine is already at the 17th day... quality content like this is surely welcome. Stay Home, people!
im watching your nerdy clips at 1AM instead of gaming. how safe is that?
Im Making music in my DAW due to a turn down in work. I think we will have a flood off new music and babys when its all over...
Take care of yourself from Canada.
Lovely look at a lovely machine! Their NetVista series is a favorite indeed, and I've always wanted to find one of these all-in-ones.
Actually never realized the name began as a networking software suite, but it makes perfect sense in hindsight.
now KISS
Great PC Indeed.
Looks a lot like the one uxwbill did a video of over 4 years ago... th-cam.com/video/XSxVII9FiPU/w-d-xo.html
I actually have one with windows xp on it. Was my first pc my mum brought home from work. Clint, would you like me to send it to you from NZ so you can have some fun and a review?
For some reason every time he says something along the lines of "this machine has earned a permanent place in my office" it makes me feel warm, knowing that an old, mostly forgotten piece of tech finally found a loving home to stay..
As an ex big blue employee, I just loved this video. I loved working for IBM in the 90’s and early 2000’s, while we used to joke that it stood for I’ve Been Mugged, on good days we were the International Band of Magicians. I’m still proud that I spent 4 years at IBM.
as you should be, that's a killer reference on your cv! saying you worked at ibm is pretty bloody prestigious
OMG I was part of a design group for the X41 variations, and EWG (Early Warning Group) for this ... what a flashback!
COOL! What were the pci slots meant for? I didn't see it in the video, but it didn't seem to be meant for the outside world, unless there were hidden slots on the bottom.
@@fwingebritson one was the the network card. The empty slot was there because we had many clients that had proprietary cards, like a BNC network connection. In the majority of machines it was left empty. Plus it didn't breath well - poor air circulation.
why is there a glossy plastic piece on the back of the otherwise matte case...? uxwbill brought that up in his video of this PC over 4 years ago th-cam.com/video/XSxVII9FiPU/w-d-xo.html
13:22 - that little white speck you left behind, haunted me for the rest of the video - could not keep my eyes off it whenever it appeared.
Thank you. I was screaming at him in my head, "Get that last white bit off! Why would you just leave it there?!"
Man IBM was ahead of time with their design just for the dark color theme of their stuff alone. Everyone else was still beige / dull grey / off white
Quantum Fireballs really do sound gorgeous.
Afaik the fireball plus series drives up to the LM where basically Quantum Viking or 7200rpm Atlas drives with a IDE interface, they perform quite nicely and sound awesome.
Yeah, I was wondering if the sound is available on a free soundpack somewhere around ^_^
The one in my Compaq Presario 5360 had a really nice sound to it but alas, it died and the Barracuda(?) I replaced it with is virtually silent. The computer lost some character.
My first hard drive I can remember was a Quantum Fireball P 40GB affair. It did sound quite mechanically nice.
I remember repairing some of those machines under warranty back in the day! The back panel really wasn't very hard to put back on, that reviewer is just a dolt. They were pretty neat machines provided you did mostly basic office stuff or POS type work with them.
I remember deploying several of the ThinkCentre A50 machines at a local dentist office way back when too. Along with the sale of the PC division to Lenovo in 2005. I was at the IBM/Lenovo Think Open event at Disney World in May of 2005. Those were interesting times since I as a manager/rep of a 3rd party repair facility had a lot of questions.
I still have my wooden IBM Business Partner plaque hanging up near my home tech bench with 8 different badges on it. Each badges signifying different types of IBM equipment I as a tech was certified to perform warranty support on. :)
20:30 I had THE SAME sound issues with the intro as a kid, and my PC was decent. So I think you're correct that this isn't a performance issue.
I'm both pleased and sorry to hear this.
@referral madness it kind of is and isnt? It's a platformer with terribly janky controls, and some game mechanics are very questionable, like potions having effects you can't predict - some potions just kill you outright, and only way to learn which is trial and error. However there IS a fun Tomb Raider clone underneath all the jank, with an interesting world and atmosphere, so it entirely depends on your tolerance for jankiness. Just know that it is a relatively punishing game that like to kill you for your mistakes. But if you're okay with those things, it's a surprisingly fun game with a surprisingly deep combat system. Just definitely read the manual.
@referral madness Two months late and your question was more or less answered by shinobody already, but basically, if you like _Tomb Raider_ a lot like I did, you MIGHT tolerate it - the platforming is fine on that front IMO. The combat is atrocious but save-scumming is very easy to do thanks to the included quicksave/quickload hotkey, so you can cheese most of it. There's a demo you can try, anyway - though use dgVoodoo2, or else performance will be erratic and sounds from all the way across the map will play at full volume as if they were right next to you (I don't know why, it just does that). And even then, you may need to temporarily disable it periodically on the full game as some moving platforms don't move at the right speed with it enabled (really need to a file a bug report with dege on VOGONS about that...).
Don't play the Dreamcast version (US-only), the platforming physics feel all wonky in that (e.g.: you have a wind-up animation for jumping forward in the PC version, it's slower but nice and weighty; no such thing on DC, you just fling forward instantly), there's no more quicksave to make things more tolerable (understandable given the limits of the DC, but still a step back), combat seems like it's been sped up, and the controls... why would you map digital controls to the analog stick, developers? Also they removed the health-up potion in Level 1 so that's just insult to injury. On the upside, you can haul potions around with you _Tomb Raider_ style, which is a definite improvement.
This brings back so many memories. Sigh, I had a few of these while operating my computer shop at the time. I set up a few of them for my senior citizen clients that were very tech challenged. They were compact and very non threatening. I just thought they were super cool. Still do. Thanks for the bringing back some of the memories.
11 year old me is looking at this and weeping with envy. Great video!
I worked for the largest venture capital company in Boulder, Colorado - joined in 1999 and we built out a 36,000 sq/ft office space. Worked with IBM at the time and they gave us 40 of these to showcase them (as our office was in many architectural magazines and showcases). They weren't powerful but they turned heads at the time for sure as flat panels were very rare still. Very fond memories of the X40 (oh and you DO have the original keyboard, the upgraded ones only came later on the 41). Also that drop down for the DVD drive, at the time, was AWESOME but it was a pain for users to remember it was there.
The whole Windows 98/ME/2000 era is by far my favourite. Tech was so innovative, moving so fast. There were tons of players like S4, SiS, Trident, Chips and Techniques etc etc that don't exist today, so much variety. Such an interesting time 😎
Move a large CRT monitor up three flights of stairs and you may start to understand why people moved to flat panels lol
I bought a NetVista X41 off ebay in 2005 for $250 and made it a dedicated MAME station. It had a ATI Rage 128 Ultra GPU which ran Quake 3 surprisingly quite well.
2000 is really the golden era of the Decade. Also, Stay Home and stay safe British people.
Humble respect for the heroes at the NHS
@TO NO Snooze. Didn't come to this video for politics.
I remember kitting our office out with those not long after we moved in. Brings back some memories :)
Love it! Been there, done that, and moved on.
But, I do love the nostalgia and remembering the beginnings and history.
Really, well done and, thanks! :)
I love the Design, it's gorgeous af.
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME VIDEOS!!! video is spot on, music is perfect,.... Just takes you back 20 years. Keep up the incredible job!
Well Nostalgia Nerd, you have lived up to your name with this one! We deployed these at the front desk of the hotel I worked at in 2002-4. In our case, we used them almost exclusively as terminal emulators for the AS/400 backend, which, ironically, was what most of IBM envisioned for the original PC lol. Thanks for this!
It did kinda remind me of something you would see as a POS machine or front of house computer for bookings, etc. :)
@@RheaIR Indeed, as we all know, IBM's higher ups in the big iron division saw the original PC as a slightly more intelligent terminal, which is why you see that rather odd trio of keys on the modern day keyboard - PrtScn/SysRq, Scroll Lock and Pause/Break.
The SysRq was literally to call the mainframe for some processing time (if I recall); Scroll Lock was used when terminal commands would just spill their output onto the screen, and you'd need to hit that to stop the flow to read; the Break key was to stop processes from running that you'd started on the behemoth you were attached to.
Man you really sent me back! Thanks for making this video, I really appreciate it.
Aaaah Thief 2. My alltime favorite.
@5:40 Jim Louderback! So great to see him, he was really a great tech journalist and editorial force in the industry back in the day. God, I miss the old days of PC Magazine!
Seeing those benchmarks run takes me back. IBMs X series was always the coolest stuff.
Thanks for the distraction. It really means a lot to me right now.
Your videos are full of quirky knowledge, it is crazy! Well done! :D
Fun fact: I am typing this on the same shown keyboard branded by lenovo.
Im doing the same, but branded by IBM
I have one hooked up to my daily driver, a Lenovo S30 workstation.
Me too :)
We have one of those Lenovo branded keyboards on our test bench at work
Fun fact: I am typing this on a Lenovo Thinkpad 420s with a keyboard branded by lenovo.
*Not having a cannon in your table pointed directly to your face 18 hours per day*
"Something that I never understand myself"
XD
Lovely video
I stand here, right here, and I'm supposed to say something. I say, "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo."
No, no, this isn't right.
@@Nostalgianerd Is it over?
Before buying all Dell hardware, I bought IBM and it was simply because of their engineering. Sure, I could have and often did build PCs for clients, but that hardly left me for time to build my own. I would always buy them slightly used and upgrade them myself. My Aptiva p90 4x3 desktop lasted me 3 years. It orginally had a p90 and 8mb of ram. By the time I sold it I had upgraded it to a p166 with 32mb of ram. I would dual boot OS/2 4.5 and Win nt 4.0 workstation on it and it was extremely fast for what it was. I later upgraded to Intelistation model with a PIII 866. I do have a ThinkCentre z92p in my garage I have acquired over the years. 23 inch beast!
I remember how excited I felt the first time is saw that wallpaper on my first Windows Me boot.
The hard drive noise reminded of my Amiga with an HD
i do love a nostalgic romp down memory lane on your channel. many of these machines and setups, i cut my teeth on in my schooling and early working life. i do miss the sound of multiple machines running on the bench, doing defrags and what not, installing from the dos command line (or dropping out to dos to do something because its just way more efficient than the windows equivalent of the time!), researching and building some nicely optimized setups for clients, then being a tightarse myself and pushing hardware harder than it was ever designed (like a AMD k6/2-450@600 or 733 celeron running at 1.1ghz with cooling to match, along with a TNT2 running at Ultra speeds :o )... its all just too "easy" these days
I always appreciate the quality of your presentation.
It's really funny: depending on how you look at it, it looks cool and stylish, or simply like a POS machine.
Ohh, this makes me happy. I've been expecting this one ever since the twitter tease. :)
I hope it lives up to your expectations sir.
@@Nostalgianerd It most certainly did. Excellent nostalgic geeky content as always. :)
Just to drive home how space age this would have looked to an office user in 2001 that year I started a job in a bank and the PC I was given to work on was a beige dell optiplex gs with a Pentium 133 and a 14 inch CRT monitor. It was 'only' 5 years old but the difference between 1996 and 2001 in PC design, specs and aesthetics was incredible. We were still using CRT monitors in my office until 2007 when they finally realised we needed 2 screens for the new workflow software and the desks were not big enough for 2 19 inch CRTs to fit on them.
Can't beat the sound of old mechanical drives I miss playing up link and hearing my old 80gb drive buzzing away in the background
I worked in an ancient Italian kitchen that was using an old NetVista kiosk as a POS until at least 2017! It was honestly very gross and probably in desperate need of a good cleaning.
Another great episode nerd! Thank you!
my childhood computer was an Aptiva. lots of memories on that machine.
Great video, I just watched the Gentlemen, thought you were really as Ray 😂
It's cool to see these around still. Even in POS. What a cool little machine
I loved windows XP. The world was simpler, I was simpler and the games were games and not money sinks. Happy times!
I picked one of these up a few years ago. I have 98SE on mine, and while it's not a powerhouse it's definitely one of the most reliable computers I've ever used. Also runs Windows 2000 well, which I'm tempted to put back on it at times, but 98 has better compatibility with games of the era, plus the support for DOS/3.1 stuff is much better. A great little machine to be sure.
I must admit I did get an IBM Aptiva 2144-M51 back in the early 90's just because of the drop down front cover! - That plus pack background image brings back some memories!
14:50 so THAT'S what ASMR feels like!
Ah, yes. The music had just stopped..
Had an IBM Netvista S42 with an IBM TFT 18" Screen back in the days, a very elegant and reliable working combination.
I so wish Quantum never got out of the hard drive business. The Fireball line were absolute units and they were so much more reliable than most of what was out there at the time. And they ended up selling that unit to Maxtor, which were terrible and then merged with Seagate, who have continued to be terrible since.
I've had one of these NetVista AIOs donated to me (exact same model as shown in @6:17) several years ago. It was in fully working order. That thing was built like a tank, really high quality. And it looked great too.
Sadly, I had to toss it due to lack of storage space.
Thief II - The Metal Age just got 20 years old! And still going strong.
Me: "The only thing Windows Me did well was the Defrag."
"The sound of the Quantum Fireball is exquisite. Here, let me run Defrag for you."
My heart. Oh, my nostalgic, single-greatest-feature heart.
Get a small air compressor nerd, it's 10x more powerful than the cans, and will pay for itself once you've been through 10 cans or so ;)
I have several of the all in one netvistas. Wonderful machines.
I got myself an M42, cant wait to restore and upgrade it❤
15:00 There's something soothing about that sound that I kind of miss.
That ScrollPoint mouse was next after Apple's "puck" the worst mouse ever. The blue "scrollbutton" was not exactly nimble or precise - mostly an "all or nothing" kind of deal.
16:38 General Kenobi!
Old windows brings a tear to my eye.
OMG that screen right there is such a 2000 computer vibe
I dumpster dived one of the keyboards for these a few years back and can confirm it is smexy. The curvature on the coloured buttons is a really nice touch.
My dad got me one of these from his work, I played WoW on it. It wasn't a good experience, but it worked.
Anyone remember when they were selling IBM Aptiva's on tv? Late 90s - almost 2 year old hardware and they were selling it for $1k
Not bad, I paid $3200 for my top of the line Aptiva 2159.
@@cougarhunter33 These were entry level Aptiva's. And the worst part was they had soldered gpu's and sound cards. For the same price you could get a proper gaming pc. What was even funnier the commercials came back 1 year later with the same fecking models. Which ment people were buying 3 year old hardware for the same price
@@mesicek7 How is it any different than the computers Apple is selling today?
You can buy a Mac for $3,000 with literally the same specs you can find in a pre-built Windows PC for $1,000 or less than that if you pick out the parts individually and build it yourself.
Selling "brand names" for businesses and "professionals" has always been about providing the same thing that others provide, but with x3 the cost.
@@elimalinsky7069 It was a different era back then. You'd see prebuilt pc ads on every pc mag. Pc stores had like 5-10 different prebuilts to choose from. There was barely any custom pcs. You had small shops that would build you a custom pc but the big ones has prebuilts built in a factory. Companies like Dell, IBM,... And the scam was real. IBM even tried this shit in our country. They bought a 5min tv commercial ad and they were selling a pc witha 3 year old hardware as brand new. Guess they had to get rid of old stock. Was sad how many people got scammed. $1k in 2000 for a 266mhz cpu with 32mb of ram was a scam of the highest order.
@@mesicek7 In my country computers with AMD processors were quite popular, because they were usually cheaper, but underperformed severely against their Intel counterparts up until the arrival of the Athlon around 2000 (IIRC). AMDs were the poor man's choice, basically.
I remember that ads and the general public played on the fact that AMD continued the naming scheme of processor families, wheras Intel shiften from a number to a name (i.e. Pentium), so AMD had their 586 and 686 processors, while the general public did not understand what all the fuss was about surrounding the Pentium. 586 is clearly better than 486, and 686 is better still, there's nothing more I need to know. That was the mentality.
what a cool looking little machine.
We need ASMR of that disk. I've got one in my G3 (original hard disk wasn't going too well), and it's absolutely musical.
This as such a sexy machine that this nerd really lusted for way back when. can't believe that was twenty years ago already!!!
Ahh winME my old friend. Loved you so much. Except when antivirus vouldnt boot and OS crahsed.
So smooth and colorfull
I still have the keyboard for the IBM Aptiva (the sliding door model) crammed away in my closet somewhere. The only thing I managed to salvage from that computer after I moved away to uni.
yeahhhhh, Quantum Fireball!, I had one of those back in the day, mine was a 512MB, and it is to the date the only hardrive I remember, that good it was, since then I'm trying to get hold of one in working order, but so far I had no luck, anyway, lovely video mate!.
I remember them being really unreliable drives but they did have a distinctive sound. I think I had a 3GB drive, the last time I used it the thing ran just long enough for me to pull some files off.
Thumbsd up at the defrag point - soothing :)
I so much miss for 90's design. White cases and all stuff from IBM PC was so cool. Now all black and flat (keyboards). Even IBM sets like think center was amazing. I love they keyboards with blu enter :)
0:39 "I work for IBM, but don't let that fool you. I'm really an okay guy..."
Speaking of beige, can you get modern but old school looking beige atx cases? I wouldn't mind bringing beige back
Golden era PC gaming terminal, oh my.
I like my old PCs to be big, bulky, and beige, and I can't say I love the look of the X40, but there is an odd charm to it looking at it now.
Oh man, I loved those Quantum Fireball drives
That computer needs some Tech YES Lovin'
Brilliant video. I recently acquired an IBM NetVista M42, which is a Pentium 4 1.8Ghz tower system. I'm in the process of getting it working again but I've had to source a replacement power switch from Barcelona. The joys of retro PC's! As a side note, if you need a new old stock black IBM ball mouse that would suit that perfectly, let me know and I'll send you one!
This might be perceived as sacrilege to a machine like this, but this looks like an excellent candidate for a retrofit of a modern ITX, mATX, or even laptop board system into its chassis! That would be a pretty cool thing to have on a desk!
I always love this PC
Reminds me stylistically of my Aptiva 2159S
IBM 5100 is iconic too.
When I see this, I'm glad those times are over.
Ah yes, the music that is a quantum Fireball. really bringing back memories man.
Someone wanted the X40 with Celerons. Got 3 or 4 of them forgotten on a shelve in our town halls basement.
Homie shows the box for Descent 3 and then performs a switcharoo
Screw the NetVista, I want to see more of that video with the Gateway Profile. That's the first new information I've seen on the Profile II in years. It's even hard to find pictures of the things.
When I was clearing out an old depot of a big company I found one of the last all in one netvistas. Didn’t know what it was so I scavenged everything I wanted and threw it away.
14:37
I love that wallpaper so much I made it my GMail background Image.
Got to say, this is one of the sexier looking AIOs out there.
Too bad these things are so expensive, I could totally see those things being more than enough for the average user.
Continuity error: The sticker that was peeled off at 13:10 is still there/back at 22:36. ;)
So nice design.
Does anybody know what the name of the song in the background is? @7:45
The X41 was a little bit more "normal", just had a mostly-regular mATX board in it with a full set of ports, most people weren't ready to go fully legacy-free just yet. I think it even had a regular VGA cable going to the internal monitor. The massive external brick and Wilamette P4 nuclear reactor kind of ruins it though, would take a high spec P3 over that any day. They weren't even using DDR memory which was quite a damper on the P4.
That legacy free stuff reminds me how it was probably not the best time back than to be going legacy free when many peripherals where still using some of the old connectors and what not, and some of those things STILL remain today on some computers and if you really need to, you can get addon cards or adapters to connect old devices or modern serial/parallel port stuff for machines and development stuff.
Allow me to upsell you on a half height PCI expansion card with a pair of COM ports sir - some IBM salesperson, probably
That machine needs Windows 2000. Get it sorted!
Always lusted after these back then, they looked so cool. I mean not from a nerdy perspective (no real upgrade path) but can't deny IBM got the design right and ahead of its time in many ways... for a PC, anyway.
I remember when my friends family got their new IBM Aptiva (I think it was a Pentium 75MHz.) with the sliding front hatch/panel, I was almost more fun than using the actual computer! ;) I has a really nice heavy feel to it when you close it as well. It was a so called "Volvodator" (Volvo computer). All Volvo employees in the mid 90's had the option to opt for a computer payed over a three year period (percentage of the employee salary)
beautiful!
0:42 is a clip from Terminator Rampage, a classic terminator fps.