IBM Aptiva 2176-C73

"Nibby" (nibby68)
06/06/2018 at 11:19 • Filed to: None

IBM Aptiva 2176-C73
Intel Pentium 200MHz
64MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (was 16MB)
256K cache via COAST module
3.5" floppy drive
8X Hitachi CDR-7930 CD-ROM drive
3.5" IBM IC35L020AVER07-0 20GB 7200RPM hard drive
MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows for Workgroups 3.11 + Windows 95
Dual booting handled by System Commander 7
2MB ATI Mach64 GT onboard video
4MB Matrox Mystique 220 PCI video card
Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 CT4500 ISA sound card (replaced an IBM Mwave modem/sound card combo, gross)
Kingston NE2000 clone ISA network card
Replaced internal fan with a quieter Arctic fan

Some bits, like the floppy drive bezel and the power button, were yellowed.

Retrobright came out nicely.

rear

naked

interesting hard drive location

side view of the guts with plenty of drive bays (for 1996 at least)

lower section

Matrox Mystique 220 4MB PCI video card

Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 CT4500 ISA sound card

Kingston KNE2021LC NE2000 clone ISA network card

Trusty input devices, an IBM Model M and a PS/2 Logitech optical mouse.

BIOS screen

NSSI

ver + mem

defrag

dosshell

Norton Commander

DOOM

Windows for Workgroups 3.11

M U L T I T A S K I N G
U
L
T
I
T
A
S
K I N G

System Commander 7 boot menu

Windows 95 starting up

AIDA32 system info

Programs part I

Programs part II

Microsoft Word 97

Windows 95 can play nice with USB flash drives, as long as it is OSR2 or higher.

bonus GIF

DISCUSSION (24)

itschrome > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 11:23

but why?

404 - User No Longer Available > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 11:31

Ah, the good ol’ Desktstar 60GXP.

Otto-the-Croatian-'Whoops my Volvo is a sedan' > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 11:34

This thing is cleaner than it was at 2 days old. Did you restore it or...?

If so, great job man! And that gif is fantastic. I wish it closed back, too. It would make for a neater loop.

Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST) > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 11:35

I love these retro hardware posts, considering I was too young to really know anything about these things.

I have a burning question. How do you know about all these things and what makes you obsess over them? Where do you get this hardware from and what happens to it after you clean it up?

fintail > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 11:36

1996 vintage indeed. I remember a friend of mine got a new system in the summer of 96, Pentium Pro 200, either 32 or 64GB, it was like $3500, which seemed insane even then.

Nibby > itschrome
06/06/2018 at 11:56

because APTIVA MASTER RACE

Nibby > fintail
06/06/2018 at 11:57

That’s around $5,500 today

Nibby > Otto-the-Croatian-'Whoops my Volvo is a sedan'
06/06/2018 at 11:58

Thanks! I did restore it! I always try to restore machines to the best I can then flip ‘em.

Nibby > 404 - User No Longer Available
06/06/2018 at 11:58

this was before the dreaded 75GXP

Nibby > Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
06/06/2018 at 12:00

Thanks! I did restore it! I always try to restore machines to the best I can then flip ‘em. Usually ebay, sometimes locally but my local craigslist is mostly overpriced macs and shitty overpriced gaming PC builds... and P4 crap for $100. Dude, your 2008 iMac is not worth $400. Get real.

I’ve been tinkering with computers since I was 12 or 13 so it’s been almost 15 years now. If you want to start ask someone if they have an old machine you can tinker with, Basic tools like a screwdriver, screw set, etc. are good enough to start. Familiarize yourself with components

fintail > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 12:03

Where something reasonably top of the line for a consumer machine is less than half that now. Progress, I guess.

And I meant MB, of course. I forget the HDD size.

tpw_rules > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 12:13

Have you seen this site before: http://www.redhill.net.au/a/a-guide.html ? It’s very interesting for those into vintage hardware. It’s a pretty thorough overview (the things that are covered are covered well) on pieces of computer hardware from the dawn of the personal computer through the mid 2000s or so. Guy wrote it from his perspective as a PC builder in that time.

Nibby > tpw_rules
06/06/2018 at 12:39

i love that site

so much good info on it, especially on hard drives

Nibby > fintail
06/06/2018 at 12:40

you can build a really good rig for $1500 total, including monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, epeen

404 - User No Longer Available > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 12:43

Was it? IC35L part numbers was the newer designation, which came with the 60/120GXP. I had a 45GB (the worst of the worst) 75GXP and it was DTLA-307045.

I’m 110% on the part numbers, because I went through so many damn RMAs on that drive.

nermal > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 12:45

Kinja'd!!!

NEEDS MOR MUTTON CHOPS GTFO N00B

Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST) > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 13:10

I’m familiar with the modern components, just not these dated ones. Retro hardware isn’t for me, but I do respect how it all contributes to where we are today with hardware.

I had to bug the hell out of my dad when I was 8 years old (2001!) to get a computer. He went and finally bought one from Fry’s:

Kinja'd!!!

That thing lasted us about 5 years before it got a virus from my sister using Limewire, which caused the hard drive to brick I think (I remember it’d grumble a lot when booting up). I miss XP so much.

I never had the means as a kid to be able to tinker around with hardware, in fact, it never really occurred to me there was something less magical inside the computer case. So a lot of my tinkering happened within the operating system and programs.

fintail > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 13:53

And it probably won’t go obsolete as fast as machines did then, to boot.

Nibby > Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
06/06/2018 at 14:13

oooh I member those early P4 era Pavilions

they were pretty low end and cheaply made but easy to work on

Teh Penguin of Doom > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 15:40

I have the weirdest boner.

There should be a Radwood for computers.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 15:52

Holy crap! Our very first family machine was an Aptiva model almost identical to this (it came with 16MB RAM but we upgraded it to 64MB). Ours had a 2.5GB hard drive and an ATi 3D Rage 2 2mb video card, but otherwise exactly the same!

Nibby > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
06/06/2018 at 16:15

Mine’s the same. I have the original 2.5GB drive and the ATI card is onboard.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nibby
06/06/2018 at 17:48

Your on-board card is different than mine though! :)

Nibby > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
06/06/2018 at 18:29

Same one. 95 identifies mine as a 3D Rage II