IBM IntelliStation M Pro 9229

Advantages: No-one ever got fired for buying IBM
Disadvantages: I can't hear you over the fans....

...Just to the right of my right leg is sat one of these boxes. About 3 years ago I was offered it for a very very nice £90, no monitor or keyboard. 'A bargain I thought'. '£90 for a nice middle level server, SCSI and dual processor potential, can't go wrong with that' and guess what, (at least pretend to be surprised !) it's still working. If you have read some of my other reviews on computer hardware, you may figure out I like stuff that's a little old but I figure that if it has either a HP or an IBM badge on the front, it is usually worth buying. My 6889 came with 128mb and a 9gb drive, since then I've upgraded it to 1GB using standard 256mb DIMMs (a tip, throw away the IBM DIMM, it doesnt like other manufacturers and besides, they cost a fortune !), the 9gb has gone and been replaced by a 17GB SCSI and a 140GB IDE RAID and the gfx... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: no
Disadvantages: ok

...the I needed to go away and get a VGA cable to hook it up and that's what I did. Since I have alot of things around my TV (lots of computers things and electricity) I didnt want any sort of crosstalk (disturbance on the cable from other electrical devices- its quite rare now but not unheard of) I made sure that i got a double shielded wire, the best one of these that i could find was the Belkin PRO series. This basically means that it has 2x the amount of protective sheath around the cable so that nothing can get through and distort the signal. Belkin are one of the leaders in computer products, they make everything from routers to cables and I have a few of their products and they have never gone wrong for me, so I trust them and their products. I went to my local computer shop and got this cable for the very reasonable price of £3... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good extra features. Can play CD's from keyboard
Disadvantages: Price?

...Now here’s an opinion that nearly didn’t get written, mainly because I’m too busy using the damned thing to write about it. I’m talking about my IBM Rapid Access Keyboard. I have been using this for about 18 months now, and if I remember correctly it cost me about £30 from PCW, the shop whose name I can’t bring myself to say in full! Since keyboards can be had for a fiver upwards, what’s so special about it? Well, nothing from the “Immense Bowel Movement”* is ever going to be cheap, but it does carry some extra features, which set it part from the “fiver jobs”. *Some “IBMers” have their own pet theories. “I Bin Moved” is one heartfelt cry, whilst German employees have been known to call it “Ich Bin Müde” – I am tired. Firstly... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful