Boring Siemens PC with potential ?

[@thetaleteller4692]

Funny how this version of Word starts faster from that ancient PC than a modern version starts from modern one even from an SSD. Both do more or less the same.

[@MKRENB]

Actually it is only fast because it didn't load into a big document directly. But yes, having less features and a simpler gui helps with loadup speed.

[@nickwallette6201]

@@MKRENB Office 2019 takes a good long while to start to en empty document. At least compared to this (4.2) on ancient hardware and a spinning disk.

[@GutnarmEVE]

that's because many components of MS office are already preloaded at startup via the office quicklaunch bar while you're off grabbing your morning coffee. (edit: the small bar in the top right) that pre-loading actually was another point of outrage about MS's deep integration of Internet Explorer into Win95, as it gave them a major boost to their browser's loading time compared to the competition.

[@rodhester2166]

Not sure why but just looking at those old style motherboards is so appealing to me. The layout, the chips, ect. ect.

[@rodhester2166]

@HoboWild Plus they are not all covered up with plastic covers like new motherboards and new automobile engines.

[@catriona_drummond]

Siemens Nixdorf made some beautiful board designs.

[@unixoid]

The PCD-5H was a true classic setup in many german schools in the 90s.

[@the_kombinator]

We had equally robust IBMs here - with a very similar (but not translucent) sliding 5.25 bay covers.

[@BreakingBrick]

Not only there, I knew some financial institutes having these.

[@galier2]

Neptune chipset. This was the high end Intel chipset of that time. The last without EDO support but with complete tags for the cache. Later Pentium chipsets TX (Triton) and VX notably, were significantly faster but only could cache up to 64 MiB which was a real PITA as high end PC's at that time could handle 128 or even 256 MiB (my clientel were steel frame engineers using their machines for CAD with AutoCAD, so I had to know which chipsets were any good). As for the NX (Neptune) it was in my PC of the time. It had a dual Pentium socket, EISA slots and 6 72 pin RAM socket. At one time I had 80 MiB of RAM, 1 IDE drive and 4 SCSI hard disks, a CD player (Plextor) a DVD player (Pioneer), a CD burner (Yamaha) and an external Zip drive. Fantastic machine.

[@mrmii6596]

I happen to have the Siemens PCD-4H, which has basically the exact same case but has a 486 instead. It was used as a POS system for all it's life with a 486sx 25mhz. I upgraded it to a DX2 66 mhz and a sound card. It has been a really reliable and great little gaming PC so far. I also love the look of the system with the sliding door on the front.

[@laszlomarktoth7492]

Last time when I check the internet I so to find BIOS update I found ebay auctions for PCD-4H over 1000 Euro without original keyboard. I really shocked because I also have a keyboard. :-) I bought without RAM and HDD almost 3 euro 24 years ago, this my second bought computer. The configuration 486 DX4 80 MB FP RAM, Floppy, 2 WD Caviar, Teac IDE 6 CD changer, SB 16 value edition ISA sound, 56kbaud modem.

[@the_kombinator]

This is exactly what I use mine for. Mine came as as DX2-66 but I threw in a write-back cache 3v DX4-100 in it (through a VRM) but it bottlenecks at around 75-80 MHz on performance tests. I mean I paid $5 for the VRM and $2 for the CPU, but I can imagine if I did the upgrade in 1994 I'd be extremely distraught at the loss of 20 MHz. Excellent machine, a staple of my collection that I routinely game on.

[@JARVIS1187]

RS78: "Luckily we have a coincell..." Me: waiting for "at least no barrel battery" RS78: "... so no Dallas battery issues!" That was unexpected!

[@catriona_drummond]

Siemens-Nixdorf!

[@BreakingBrick]

Like me, I remember them, too!

[@markarca6360]

Siemens later worked with the Japanese PC manufacturer Fujitsu, and Nixdorf worked with Diebold, a company that produces automated teller machines.

[@XMaximvsPayneX]

i love the look of the oldschool siemens/nixdorf pc's - a slim and still good looking design

[@the_kombinator]

A bit hard to upgrade, my 4H is PACKED and it weighs in at like 15 kilos.

[@MichaelAStanhope]

That machine looks very similar to my Digital (DEC) Venturis 5120. The motherboard is almost identical, just a slightly older version. I hardly ever see Siemens Nixdorf equipment here in the US, have been looking, just to have.

[@austinleong3319]

It also looks very similar to my Digital Celebris. BIOS, ports, case layout, motherboard layout, P75 CPU with glued-on-heatsink are like 90% identical (mine has no fan though). I wonder who the original manufacturer is.

[@sjogosPT]

I love your space. Looks some sort of a Working Space from the 80s/90s. How gorgeous, love it!

[@RetroSpector78]

Glad you like it!

[@pc-sound-legacy]

This were very common in german companys and government agencys. The transparent cover can lock power on/off switch as well as floppy access to prevent unauthorized people from stealing data. Very expensive machines but also very reliable. Thanks to the fact that Siemens Nixdorf went with coin cells instead of leaky barrel battery (even in the older 486 lineup PCD-4H) many of these survive.

[@FrustratedApe]

Thats an LPX motherboard, very popular back then. The UK Government had a lot of these in various depts. I had a Scenic C5 P200MMX as a workbench PC up until 2003, it was a nice piece of kit. I later worked for Siemens/Fujitsu Siemens from 2005-7.

[@brandonupchurch7628]

Minebea is the parent company of NMB if I recall correctly off the top of my head or at least for some reason I'm puttin NMB with Minnebea in my head.

[@BalancedSpirit79]

You have PCI slots, so I personally would love to see an oldschool GPU installed. This system is screaming for a Voodoo2, or maybe an ATI Rage or an Nvidia TNT. You could run some 90s 3D games like Shogo and Quake.

[@olivierpericat9224]

Thank you for this nice video ! I love those Siemens desktops. I used to use these during my military service back in 1997. That was exactly the same : a P5-70 desktop. Actually the RAM is not EDO by default, because the Neptune PCI chipset did not take advantage of the EDO features (that were only available with the next chipset revision : Triton FX).

[@Rangerman9404]

Everything about that PC was screaming late 90's office computer: no sound card, no CD ROM, onboard graphics, and especially the software on it. Be fun to see it live up to its full potential

[@glmm2001]

I have a 486SX Siemens PC myself, but not this model. Previously my dad had another Siemens 286 in a fairly slim case. Very rare in Spain with amazing documentation. We upgraded it with a Pentium Overdrive kit in the late 1990s and still boots but needs replacing the Dallas CMOS battery

[@RJARRRPCGP]

Looks like a typical 1990s PC, especially by the mid/mid-ish 90s. Like my PC with 486 SX 25 MHz, before I popped a CD-ROM drive in, probably in 1999. By 2000, I found a 486 DX to pop in and got more RAM, IIRC, resulting in me having 20 MB of RAM! (maybe I got that RAM in 2001)

[@Stefan_Payne]

God, I miss the LPX Form Factor and really miss it.

[@congobongo1743]

I remember throwing a siemens CRT montior out of home's window when I was a troubled teenager years ago.

[@senilyDeluxe]

I've got a bunch of PCD-4Hs, also from a school. They look identical, they're 486/66 and running Worms 2 they achieve almost the same FPS as my 100 MHz 486. They came in two configurations and I have both: VLB and PCI. The VLB uses an S3 video card and the PCI a Tseng 4000 (PCI version ofcoz). When I got them, they were running Win 3.11 with only VGA drivers... Btw. if you get one with a locked sliding door, just hit the area with the power switch behind it! Also found a PCD-5H in the trash that had a 120MHz CPU in it.

[@the_kombinator]

I have the same! It's not a boring machine at all, I love the build quality.

[@meiklman]

Believe it or not, I just bought a PCD-5H in October. It has a Slot-in CD-ROM drive, that doesn't read any CDs, unfortunately :( It has a much newer BIOS installed, though, it's from 29.12.1998. Watching your video I realized that on my PC the whole assembly with the metal "bridge" and the floppy drive and hard disk holders is missing. 😁

[@Geomanb]

Minbea or NMB is a trusted Japanese company, they‘re for example produced fans for Unix machines and now merged with Mitsumi.

[@kofteburger]

I absolutely love those Office 4 splash screens.

[@drzeissler]

You need the original keyboard that will enable the on/off via keyboard- VERY handy!

[@TzOk]

Video RAM is KM416C256, so 16bit x 256kbits times 4 chips, and that gives 2048 kBytes in total.

[@XtremeKremaTor]

Heat sink was glued on wrongly. It supposed to be 90° turned for the fan to be efficient

[@kasimirdenhertog3516]

You’re right, but I don’t think they cared enough. Other boards by Siemens used a different socket orientation, but apparently they glued the heatsinks on the same way and used them on boards with either orientation. The P75 has a TDP of 8W so they probably figured it won’t be a big problem.

[@the_kombinator]

That's why I added a high speed server fan on my 4H's upgraded DX4/100 - there's no way the natural airflow of the case would have kept that cool.

[@sevenedus]

I used to use exactly the same model at work.. about 20 years ago

[@computermaestros]

Bro your content is amazing and you deserve a lot more subscribers!👍

[@athemalive]

Oh, back to the school!

[@endorfun22]

At 9:32 for the monitor, I see it mentions a resolution. I didn't realise things were that high, back in those days.

[@GreenAppelPie]

It would probably be in 256 color. There was always a price to pay for higher resolutions.

[@laptop5126]

this pc was not boring, i had this type @ work back in that time ;)

[@Pillusch]

Nice machine ;) ... just to remind you... there should be another, beefier Siemens PC in your collection which wants to be tested aswell one day :D ... good Video as always ^^

[@RetroSpector78]

It shall be tested soon :)

[@theol1044]

I have the same model. Bought it around 2000 as a more 'modern' replacement for my beloved PCD-4H. At some point, I even tracked down the rare Pentium 166 MMX Overdrive upgrade, but never got around to install it. What I did install however, was an ATAPI CD burner. That thing never successfully burned a single CD, which made me abandon the PC entirely. I still don't know if the coasters were really caused by a faulty burner or if the whole idea maybe was doomed from the start due to the slow CPU and IDE bus. Being a packrat, I still have the PCD-5H stacked upon the PCD-4H in my storage closet.

[@AlexBuB]

Formfactor of the Mainboard is LPX/LPM, if i remeber me correctly

[@bwRavencl]

Had one of those as my second PC at the end of the 90s. Got it upgraded to a Pentium 1 133 Mhz and 32 MB RAM later on.

[@iammrsparkle84]

Wouldn't "SOFT-OFF-PS" be like ACPI before there was ACPI? In 1995, ATX PSUs weren't around, and there is no hard switch going to the front power button on this computer. So the power on signal travelled through the motherboard and connected to the PSU with those funny connectors.

[@TheInsultInvestor]

Entering a password customizes the desktop for you and allows access to personalized files.

[@matthewday7565]

Guess it's moving links to spam... Beware, The RZ1000 IDE controller is flawed, though not quite as badly as a CMD640 - it is worked around in Win95 (as "Dual bad IDE") and some other OS, maybe also worked around by BIOS update, and by most accounts, not an issue in DOS unless something is getting too clever with the I/O

[@MarkTheMorose]

Ah, the Pentium 75, where my adventures in PC land began in 1995, just before Windows 95 came out.

[@gaborszucs8935]

The form factor of this motherboard is called LPX

[@drzeissler]

There is one big issue on these ET4000 chips. They slide the lowres vga-graphics mode (320x200 256colors) always 5-8 mm to the right compared to textmode. that's why I don't use ET4000 for dos-gaming. there are other series of these early siemens machines that use onboard S3 which will be better than ET4000 in most cases.

[@eddiehimself]

The only other mention of Minebea I've heard of is them making guns for the Japanese military.

[@sneedsfeedseed3250]

That monitor looks like a rebadged Dell "15 OEM monitor. Maybe a stand from one of those might work as a suitable replacement.

[@transilvanischervampir666]

Solche Rechner hab ich mal geschenkt bekommen,wurden bei der Sparkasse ausgemustert 🤫 waren aber keine Daten mehr auf der Festplatte🤫

[@MrChaoszone]

your voice sounds like Giorgio Moroder in that Daftpunk song where he explains how he got into electronic music

[@uselessaqua102]

This computer was all over the liberary back then :)

[@michaelwood9866]

I have a old p1 laptop with edo ram....haven't seen a seimens in a long time

[@JVHShack]

It might just be me, but the capacitors next to the P8 and P9 connectors look like they may have domed a tad. I'm just trying to help. :)

[@O.Shawabkeh]

I hope one day you can talk about mechanical keyboards. Which you found the best, rate a couple of them.

[@matthewplehn4271]

nice video!...Keep them coming

[@RetroSpector78]

Thanks! Will do!

[@marksmith9566]

A USB 2 interface card would be a good ad to this computer for datastick, external cd-rom or external hard drive. Some have internal connectors so you could mount the cd-rom in the case.

[@jamesdm]

That is not a username password security. Is a network login.

[@phr3dmcc0y]

that machine looks similar to a dell I used to have a long time ago.

[@the_kombinator]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES I got one of these (a PCD 4H) from Allegro.pl for I don't even remember, something like $125 CAD. I love it. I upgraded it to a DX4/100 with an external VRM and a custom high speed 30mm fan (running at 5V, it's super loud otherwise) 64 Mb of 60ns RAM, I added 256k cache. 4 Gb hard disk with System Commander (DOS 6.22/Win 3.11 and OS/2), Genoa (TSENG 4000) 2Mb VLB video card, NIC (same as 4:13- Etherlink III), Sounblaster, I added a CF card adapter, 4x CDROM, 5.25 floppy, and I use an external ZIP100 drive to get stuff on it. It's a staple of my collection, the robust case and excellent build quality guarantees I keep this for a good, long time. Also, I think it was used by the government, as there's German inventory tags all over it. I don't think it's boring at all.

[@chrisrudi7162]

I always call my PCD-5H a better 486 😂 But I have equipped it well technically... CPU is originally a 75 MHz Pentium, 96 MB RAM, ENERMAX power supply via AT to ATX adapter, Nvidia Vanta 16 MB PCI, SIL3512 SATA card, Ess1688 with wavetable, 3Com Etherlink 3 and 128 GB SSD. Incidentally, it used to run with a 32 GB SD memory card on the onboard IDE. But the PCTech onboard IDE is very problematic, always causes resource conflicts etc. and is very slow in mode 2. Mode 3 also tends to cause CRC errors. So I only use it for the CD-ROM drive. Incidentally, I have the rare BIOS version 4.07 which also recognizes large data storage devices with 32 GB. What annoys me is that you can't deactivate the parallel and serial interfaces or the onboard graphics from Tseng. Even if you set it to Disabled, the devices will still appear in Windows. You don't have to use the other two connections on the power supply, by the way. It works without them.

[@66mhzbrain]

Did you find out what the extra connector on the psu was? I have a 486 and a pentium 2 with something similar, extra power to the motherboard. It's in my head that this was to support the early pci bus which was a bit flakey, but not sure. Nice machine, if it's beige its cool to my eyes😁

[@GutnarmEVE]

99.9% sure that's for software controlled power on/off, seeing as the power button also connects to the mainboard, not the PSU.

[@nevilovermann797]

There is no such thing as a boring Siemens/Nixdorf. I have a couple og XPert Tower and it is the most exciting IBM-compatible I own BY FAR!

[@the_kombinator]

I love my 4H as well.

[@virgilwalker683]

just because you don't have a cd rom, doesn't mean it wasn't common to put on software using floppy disk's. They had to use disk's to install windows 95. That machine looks like it was reformatted and OS installed, but i am willing to bet you, before it was reformatted that there was a plenty of software originally installed on that machine. Normally windows 95 came with bundled software, so that is telling me, that machine was reformatted.

[@RetroSpector78]

Not sure. Think it was just an office pc. There were lots of word documents still on it. In an office setting I guess all you needed was msoffice. It was indeed a basic win95 install done using disks.

[@Phil-D83]

K6-2/2+/3/3+ 400mhz might work

[@theol1044]

No. Not on a Socket 5.

[@compugamesarg]

greetings from argentina** Great video, very nice pc, will it be able to play mp3 files with that 75mhz pentium processor?

[@the_kombinator]

Considering I was able to play them on a DX4-120, I'd say yes.

[@compugamesarg]

I never saw one of those dx4 120mhz. The 100mhz did not run these files well.I appreciate your interest.

[@notathome13]

The screen looks like a rebadged Samsung sync master 14 or 15” screen.

[@dykodesigns]

This computer is all work and no play. It screams “I want a multimedia upgrade”. Mitsumi Newtronics would nowerdays be called Oldtronics.

[@the_kombinator]

That one might be - my own 4H is entirely dedicated to mid 90s games (Win 3.11/DOS)

[@ah8982-de]

Nice machine, but can it run Turrican? 😎

[@MateuszCHUDY]

Hi, can you remind model of monitor? I had one when I was a kid and want to recreate my childhood setup.

[@cyberjack]

32mb of ram was a massive amount back in day .. think mine had 8mb

[@the_kombinator]

My 4H has 64 ;)

[@dcfuksurmom]

Obviously you are going to use it for retro gaming, but just for shits and giggles I want to see how Linux would run on this. I was able to get Debian 11 and Tiny Core Linux to boot on a Pentium 2 with 128MB of RAM, would be interesting to see if it could boot on a Pentium 75MHz and 32MB of RAM, I would think at the very least Tiny Core Linux could do it, as its designed with ancient hardware like this in mind.

[@Stefan_Payne]

pretty old Chipset, Intel Neptune (=i430NX). Way before the Triton...

[@douro20]

And with two chips sourced from LSI Logic.

[@nezbek]

I have pcd-4gsx/25 for sale

[@veritac]

Not the most interesting, but the most solid build for personal use I could imagine.

[@veritac]

Toshiba memory assembled in Germany, NEC SEC ROM?s, UK made power supply and even Swiss made battery.

[@andycristea]

Do you want to sell the PCD-5T since you have this one now? 😁

[@OLQS_YON]

Hello!😁

[@GreenAppelPie]

A pentium class seems like way overkill for Win95, it ran fine on a 486

[@O.Shawabkeh]

Yep, it ran perfectly well on 486SX/25Mhz. I remember mostly how the installation was way too slow though.

[@O.Shawabkeh]

@HoboWild then how I'd convince you that I played and completed Diablo on that PC :) with 16mb ram, some Cirrus Logic graphics. It was quite a slide show, but totally playable once you turned off music. Win95 was definitely slow for startup, but can't forget how slow it was to install it on a quad-cd drive, around hour and half, or a quarter. Tomb Raider was a no-go, unfortunately. Around 0.25/fps.

[@kevinwetsch5209]

Yeah what good is that password when you can just press cancel to get past it.

[@TheInsultInvestor]

Entering a password customizes the desktop for you and allows access to personalized files.

[@kevinwetsch5209]

@@TheInsultInvestor yes it does, but I was talking more about security.

[@IkarusKommt]

The password is for the network, not a local machine which would make no sense to have.

[@the_kombinator]

It's not meant for security, it's meant to mount drives and make resources available. Don't put one in, don't get the access. Seems pretty secure to me.

[@porkkanaraaste6692]

Do not hit space bar before a question mark, man. Makes the whole title look... Very amateurish. No issue with the content of the video, though.