Dell Dimension 466v Sleeper
I wanted to take a moment to document this computer a little before I start swapping parts and moving things around.
Story Time
A local seller was selling a whitelabel beige box Pentium 166 by Microlex. (post to come) Having followed them on social media for a bit, they often encouraged people to just toss out a bid on things they may want. Try not to be offensively low and prepare yourself to hear “No. Thanks.”, but if you want it, “lets make a deal.” So I did. This Dell Dimension 466v was also in their storage locker, so I offered to take it ‘as is’ for a nominal price on top of what I asked for the Microlex P166. This freed up space, got them cash today, and if it turned out it was a rusty box rocks, then that’d be my box of rocks to deal with. 😄
After getting it home, and opening it up, I found a neat little story. What I was expecting to find was a solid 486DX-2 66Mhz computer to build up as a Windows 3.1 & DOS machine. Instead I found someone’s old sleeper build or perhaps just thriftyness in reusing the Dimension 466v case to make a usable computer in 1998-2000.
| Component | Value |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD K6-2 something |
| Motherboard | FIC-503A |
| RAM | |
| Video Card | ATI Rage Pro |
| Audio | Integrated with AMR port |
It tickles a lot of interesting thoughts:
- Motherboard supports both AT & ATX power supplies. They used the existing AT powersupply of the Dimension 466v.
- Motherboard has an AT keyboard port with PS/2 port on an expansion slot. The Dimension 466v had dual PS/2 ports side by side for keyboard & mouse. This upgrade necessitated modification of the case to allow for the larger AT keyboard port.
- Case LEDs and switches spliced to new connectors.
- Multibooted Windows and OpenSuSE 10, but looks like bad sectors ruined the party. It makes me wonder who the original owner was, and if we’d be friends. :D