I’m trying out this new 32 bit thing

I’ve never regarded IBM PCs or their clones as something to get particularly excited about. The modular architecture being its defining feature, they were always just beige or black uninventive boxes that needed extra hardware, such as keyboards or audio cards, to even be able to play music, a demo, or a game. My MSX computers’ architecture was just as modular, and they did play games out of the box.

My new IBM ThinkCenter S50 (front). I already know where the stickers will be going.

As time moved on, PCs exchanged some of their modularity for inherent capabilities. Sound and graphics moved to the motherboard itself and games became playable as long as you knew how to configure your IRQs for your joystick. PCs quickly became more powerful and this demanded new standards. Upgrading individual components became limited to what a motherboard supported. Replacing a motherboard often required replacing everything.

IBM ThinkCenter S50 (back)

This meant that at some point in the recent past I found myself with floppies, CD/DVD-ROMs and hard disks that I could not read from any more. After trying my luck with USB solutions, I went looking for a PC that could. I found an IBM ThinkCentre S50 from 2005 that projected a sobering robustness. It made me confident enough to purchase it from a seller who asked me not to ask any difficult technical questions about it.

IBM ThinkCenter S50 (internal)

As luck would have it, this person lived in a flat a rainy fifteen-minute walk from my home, so, armed with an umbrella and a water tight backpack, I simply went to his place to fetch it. Upon returning home, I put it on a table. The case itself opened like a car hood. There were two buttons to press at the sides, and then I could fold it out of the way.

The floppy drive, DVD player and hard disk appeared attached to a platform held in place by two satisfyingly big and purple slides. By sliding those, the platform could be moved away entirely as well, allowing me to replace the 40 GB hard disk with an 80 GB one from my attic with ease. So much ease in fact, that, given enough healthy IDE hard disks, I can install, and keep, any OS the system supports and use each when I want, just by swapping them.

Slide down to unlock

Only one of the SIMM slots was populated, so I got at most 1 GB RAM.

I removed some dust from the internal fan blades and from the air exhausts in the front. Then I could do nothing but close it again and wait for the arrival of the USB to PS/2 and VGA to USB-C dongles that I had ordered. Time has moved on from VGA and PS/2 connections as well.

The plan is to just try to boot the machine from the installed hard disk to see if it will. When I briefly plugged in the power cable, the ThinkCenter powered on automatically. I heard the fans spin, saw the floppy drive and hard disk LEDs light up and I could open and close the DVD tray. I suppose the PSU is working.

To be continued.