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Good morning guys and welcome back to the ValorosoIT channel, the channel dedicated to retrocomputers and vintage electronics. If you are interested in these topics, you are invited to subscribe to the channel and activate the notification bell!
Today's purchase is a slightly less vintage computer than usual: it's an IBM PC 300GL. It was sold from about 1997 to 2000. It has a 400 Megahertz Intel Pentium II processor, 512 MB of RAM and 2 GB of hard disk. The seller has already installed Microsoft Windows 2000. Let's unbox this computer first and then try it! Let's see if it works.
The package presents very well: you can see that the seller has dedicated time and care to it. It is generously sized and very rigid. So, in my opinion, we shouldn't have any problems arising from transportation. Let's cross our fingers and try to open the package, come on!
The package also looks good inside: there is different packaging material and this is a very positive thing. The keyboard is detached from the computer and individually packaged.
This keyboard was not part of the initial batch purchased on eBay. The seller contacted me later and said he had one available. It's a little yellowed: I had already seen it from the photos he sent me, but I decided to buy it anyway.
Let's continue our unboxing and see the computer.
You can see that the seller has protected the computer from all sides, so it is really packaged very well. As I always suggest: leave a lot of space between the edge of the computer and the edge of the box, so that even if the box were to take a side impact for example, it would not be transmitted to the computer, which therefore would not be damaged.
I'm quite calm: now we'll finish unpacking it and really see how the computer arrived.
It's also heavy.
Like all IBM computers, it is very heavy, very ferrous, let's say. Even though the front of this computer will be plastic, in reality the weight of the whole machine is very very impressive.
There he is!
It is clear that any judgment on the aesthetics of the computer is purely subjective. But I have to say that I really like the aesthetic. Above we see the sticker, which says Windows NT or Windows 98, which means that the Windows 2000 that the seller installed is evidently a later Windows, not the original one that the computer was supposed to have.
There is a 3.5 floppy disk reader and also a CD reader, which I see is also a burner.
On the back the computer has ports that we can almost also find in modern computers. For example, the parallel port for the printer, the two USB ports (they are definitely not version 3 like now), two serial ports and the PS/2 ports for the keyboard and mouse and a VGA output for the monitor.
As for the power supply, I see that the power supply is adjustable, so now it is selected on 230 Volt, but, evidently, you can move the lever to make it work even in the United States where the mains voltage is 110 Volt.
And here we are at the fateful moment of the test. So, the IBM computer is close to two older brothers: the first is IBM, the second is a Commodore. They are obviously several years older than him. And we have arrived at the moment of testing. So, in the meantime, you point out to me: Why do you always use LCD monitors when you film?
Now there's the CRT, eh, happy, right?
Let's hope it works, and above all let's hope that it can be seen from the cell phone, because with my powerful means, that is, the cell phone for recording videos, you will see everything flicker. But, oh well, in short, let's give it a try with the CRT. I put the microphone close to the computer, so that turning it on, whenever the computer starts, is also an ASMR. Let's try?
And here it is! The computer started. Mythical! Now, honestly... Ah yes, the mouse already works, even though I don't have any drivers installed.
Let's try to do a few things, just to see if the computer works. Meanwhile, the hard disk continues to spin. It is clear that this computer was created for another Windows, not this one, not in Windows 2000.
There's also WordPad. Let's see if the keyboard works... www.valoroso.it, which is my blog, where I publish all the related news... news, obviously we always talk about vintage computers. Maybe new vintage computers that come into my collection, their spec sheets, etc. Come on, the computer seems to be working fine, the mouse works, the keyboard works, the computer turns on, Windows has loaded!
I would say that I can be satisfied with this purchase. I also purchased this IBM computer to publish some more content. Generally, on Instagram, I publish photos and short videos of other computers, therefore of Commodores, when I start a game, when I start a little program. In this case, I can also expand the contents with some program or game related to the IBM world.
Vintage IBM obviously, because we are talking about a computer before the year 2000.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this video too. If you have found inspiration or usefulness in something I said in this video, I urge you to leave me a like, subscribe to the channel, if you haven't already done so, activate the notification bell. And we'll see you in the next video! Bye bye!