Here is a simple IBM XT clone built in late 1987 by DTK and sold in the by a Chicago company named THE, who offered the least expensive IBM clones available.
THE stands for Thompson Harriman Edwards, the three venture capitalists who funded Steve Dukker. The THE logo on the front of the case was copyrighted in 1986 but the company was gone by 1989. Steve Dukker then started a mail-order PC company called PC Brand, which folded in the early 1990s. He then brought cheap eMachines PCs to the U.S market in late 1998. (In only 5 months eMachines became the 4th most popular computer in the U.S. market). So you might think of this as the grandfather of eMachines. I have owned several THE computers before, but all had the same sloping case front as used by IBM in their 5150 and 5160. This example is newer, with a case styled after the IBM 5170 but the same size as the 5160. The front panel has a keyboard lock, reset switch, power led, Turbo led, and hard disk activity led. The system's FCC ID was registered to DTK (Datatech Enterprises) in late 1986. The motherboard is DTK's model PIM-TB10-2, with a 10 MHz 8088 processor made by Siemens. Its memory is fully populated to 640K. The newest chip on the motherboard dates from November 1987. DTK also made the double density floppy drive controller, but not the Hercules-compatible monochrome graphics card with parallel port. The original THE power supply was a 125W model, which someone replaced with a 150W ETronics model in 1992 or later. The only internal component labeled THE is a hard drive cable, but I think this is still in the original configuration, except for the power supply and hard drive added over 30 years ago.I am happy to report that the hard drive and floppy drive are both still working. I was able to boot from A: in order to start a low-level format of the hard drive, which again boots, reads, and writes as designed. The floppy drive is a half-height Mitsubishi MF501B-312U, which I have used to duplicate a couple of diskettes. The hard drive is a slow Seagate 250R drive which formats to 42MB using a Seagate ST-11R controller and 31 sectors per track. (This would have been a reliable 23MB MFM drive with a normal controller). In the last 25 years I have wasted too many hours waiting for a PC to boot and waiting for WIndows to finish loading. While waiting, I remember fondly how these Turbo PCs from the late 1980s let you start working in less than one minute after flipping the big red power switch on the side. In case, you don't have an XT-compatible keyboard, I include one, a Silitek SK-8843U with rubber dome switches and an XT/AT interface selector on the bottom.
I am happy to answer any questions about this system before your purchase. You will receive the exact computer pictured here. I do not include any monitor, mouse, or manuals.
Shipping charges are calculated by with no handling fee. Local pickup in zip code 60438 is free.
