ATARI PC3! (8086 processor) To buy or not to buy?

[mons2b]

Guys,

 

Theres a cheap Atari PC3 available to me. Should I buy it? Comes complete.

 

JW

NEW ZEALAND

[Rybags]

I would.

 

Historical value of course. Pretty worthless so far as productivity goes.

[dinosaur]

I would.

 

Historical value of course. Pretty worthless so far as productivity goes.

 

Maybe he could set it up to run SIO2PC?

 

Wouldn't that be a hoot!

[jens]

Or running a small FTP or HTTP server on it.

Would be doable with DOS or a small Linux.

[Rybags]

Actually, I'd probably rip the guts out of it and just put a modern motherboard in.

 

But, I'd imagine the resident motherboard is some bastardized proprietry layout, much like many of todays badged POC desktops.

[mons2b]

I would.

 

Historical value of course. Pretty worthless so far as productivity goes.

 

I was meaning because its still an Atari . Was not planning serious use.

[dinosaur]

I would.

 

Historical value of course. Pretty worthless so far as productivity goes.

 

I was meaning because its still an Atari . Was not planning serious use.

 

If it just costs pocket change,grab it!

[Bumzyman]

There was one of these on ebay a little while back, as I recall it went for ~$150 or so.

[Curt Vendel]

Actually, yes the layout is non-standard, I wouldn't call it bastardized. I give Atari credit on their line of PC's, they weren't generic grey market crap, they did their own designs and actually put a lot of value-add into the units, just look at the PC-1 alone, it had every single port built in, including CGA/EGA output too. Standard PC users would've had to buy multifunction cards, video card, floppy card to get all of the features that the PC-1 came with.

 

The PC3 is a real odd ball, as it had an 8088, from its number designation I thought it might has an 80186 or 80286, nice thing is you can always setup GEM on the machine, put in an NE2000 lan card and set it up to be a cool DOS box.

 

 

Curt

 

Actually, I'd probably rip the guts out of it and just put a modern motherboard in.

 

But, I'd imagine the resident motherboard is some bastardized proprietry layout, much like many of todays badged POC desktops.

[scotty]

I dont have a "real" Atari PC like the one you are talking about, but My modern PC is in a full tower SuperMicro case, that has a 1" Atari bubble sticker on the case, and when I boot, a huge Atari logo shows up where the Energy Star logo usually is.

[jaybird3rd]

I agree with Curt. One of my first DOS computers was an Atari PC-4 (I've still got it, too). Atari did a very nice job with all their PC-compatibles, and I'd definitely pick up the PC-3, but the internal components and layout that Atari chose are very non-standard.

 

I couldn't find an easy way to install a modern motherboard in my PC-4 without extensively modifying the case, but I have considered making it into a "souped-up" XE desktop by installing a 130XE motherboard and XF551 mech inside it.