Review and benchmark of the "PC Magazine Editor's choice" desktop from 1997. Unit was new old stock, files backed up from original HDD as shipped from factory are available here (some corrupted files): archive.org/details/ibm300pl.7z
My first computer , I learnt about PC hardware with this computer . I bought it in 2003 second hand , but mine didn't have front bay for microphone input . I still have it and I'm planning to resurrect it one day
@@AnalogThinker it does. But you have done an amazing job, cramming that info in 5 minutes. Very well done. You have talent for this. Great docu for a cool IBM product!
Another excellent video!!! I couldn't believe how much info you fit into that one! Very well edited! Just as a note, for that era of Intel-based PC, my favourite OS was Windows 98SE ! Much more stable than Win 95 and had far better hardware support... I guess it would be cheating a little if you wanted to stick with just the original shipped OS, but using Win 95 these days is just too painful for me! :) Your video also answers a question I have always had - does a hard drive deteriorate just sitting / not being used? Apparently yes! Wonder what the HDD failure mode is? Perhaps just decaying magnetic signature, or an actual mechanical failure? Sadly I also recently learned that 30-yr old floppy disks become brittle and disintegrate leaving magnetic media all over the head of a floppy drive (which then ruins more floppies!), so I'm afraid that moving to images running off of flash-based media is the way to go for retro-PC'ing...
I agree, a Win98 SE would definitely be a better option! As for the HDD, yes they decay overtime, this one worked fine out of the box and minutes after minutes more sectors wouldn't read, until every single sector would make the disk click, and finally disk wouldn't even be recognized by the system. For some reason I couldn't read S.M.A.R.T. data either, and the official manufacturer's maintenance tool is throwing me an unrecoverable error with a nice "Contact us for immediate service".
Hi, what is the french magazine (name and number) that you are quoting? I see that they have tested some Olivetti computers from that era. I’m interested in them since I have one of these new M24’s and trying to restore it to the original specs. I will appreciate your answer! BTW really nice and interesting video, keep up good work!
Haha thanks! Good eye, it is from PC Expert, issue from November 1997. Check page 127 ;) You can find this magazine scanned and available at this link: www.abandonware-magazines.org/affiche_mag.php?mag=140&num=2725&album=oui
@@AnalogThinker Thanks a lot! That's the first time I see some info on my new M24. It's is still not the very exact model I have but it is better than nothing.
Haha that's why we like actual retro hardware! Riven and Myst, what an amazing serie! I also played those on our Compaq stations in the Library... The first machines proudly labelled "Multimedia" that had a CDROM and a Sound card!
