Cost Cutter Hardware solutions
Subject: IBM PS/2 models 20, 25, 30
by: Joseph Hochstuhl

        The IBM PS/2 series computer is a fine machine, but can
        quickly become a pain when attempting to put a non-IBM
        Hard Drive into it.

        I recently had the dubious honor of upgrading several
        older IBM PS/2 Model 25's to IDE Hard Drives. The school
        district we were working for was running low on their
        funds (aren't all schools?) and needing an affordable way
        to upgrade these 6 IBM's that were donated to them.

        Of course, the old story when dealing with proprietary
        equipment is that you spend an arm and a leg on
        components that would be much more cost effective had
        they been Industry standard. For a mere 40 megabyte IDE
        drive, IBM dealers wanted $ 345.00 for "Genuine IBM
        parts". So for all 6 it cost would have been 2,070.00
        for parts only.

        Now these particular models of IBM's provided no power
        take-off cable. The power was supplied thru the bus and
        via the ribbon cable which of course, rendered industry
        standard drives unusable.

        However, like in any other field, there is always more
        than one way to skin a cat. A company that resides in
        Silicon Valley, California has made a career out of
        developing conversion components for proprietory
        machines. They have a IDE host adapter card that converts
        the older IBM expansion bus into a IDE port and supplies
        a 5 pin power take-off from the bus adapter.

        And with this adapter you can proceed to install an
        Industry Standard Hard drive. Be aware, however, that the
        floppy drive controller connection that comes on this
        adapter is supplied with the original IBM configuration
        (complete with power pins), so DO NOT plug an industry
        standard Floppy drive into it. The purpose for this
        connection is that there is no way to disable the
        controller on that motherboard, so you must run the
        original IBM floppy from this port and simply leave the
        on-board controller connections not connected. The
        adapter's built-in BIOS will take control after the
        initial p.o.s.t. fails to find any valid devices on the
        regular ports.

        In this manner you have taken a job whose parts alone
        would have been $ 2,070.00 and converted it to $ 1,092.00.
        From here profits are a little bit easier to manage.

        These adapter cards are available thru most well informed
        Industry Standard dealers, and you'll be asking for an
        IBM IDE host adapter W/ floppy & power. They come in both 8
        and 16 bit versions.

                                             - J. H.