Today, I'd like to share with you one of my computer systems that I find fascinating.
This is a Unisys CWD 4002 and it is my smallest 486 desktop computer.
I've got 486 laptops and tablets kind of thingies that are smaller than this, but as far as desktops go,
this is pretty unusual for when it was released in 1995, I would say.
And yeah, it is the same Unisys that also made mainframes and professional workstations
and all sorts of more expensive kind of stuff like that.
They're a fascinating company and they're worth a video of their own, but anyway as far as the CWD 4002 goes,
it was also sold as the Leo 486, as sort of an OEM thing
and there were other model variations in the CWD line as well,
but as for this one, Unisys said it was made for businesses with space concerns.
I don't mean in the "Elon Musk" sense, I mean like in the "physical area that you put things" sense.
For example, Western Pacific Airlines in their reservation systems,
that was the example that they gave of a company that would use these.
Its dimensions are around 9x11,5x2 inches and it weighs just under eight pounds.
Which is actually pretty substantial for the size of this and it's packed with all sorts of goodies.
It's got a 486DX2, 66 Megahertz, 16 megs of Ram, 335 megs of hard drive space,
svga graphics and a 1.44 meg three and a half inch drive.
They sold it for anywhere from 670 to 1,500 US dollars in 1995.
Mine's sort of a mid-range model, I suppose. I found it on ebay a while back.
There were hundreds, maybe thousands of these that just sort of flooded the surplus markets years ago.
And they're still out there for not that much, really.
And it kind of makes sense, there's nothing terribly special going on spec wise, but it's just the size.
This almost makes a PS4 controller look huge.
I've got classic PC game boxes that are of similar dimensions or even bigger in some cases.
A Packard-Bell Legend 486, which is the computer I had in 1995, is an absolute monster by comparison.
That is really quite impressive.
I mean, it's got all the same basic functionality here, in the 4002,
plus Ethernet, built right into the back of it, sure you don't have like a game port and extra expansion slots.
But you know... it's a trade-off.
As you might guess for weighing 8 pounds, it's actually built pretty sturdily and is meant to hold a crt on top.
But yeah, I don't know, I feel weird doing that, so I stick with an LCD.
And inside that's pretty neat to explore as well.
A whole box just sort of slides apart and in here it's cramped, but pretty impressive.
It's got a proprietary power supply on the right here,
three and a half inch IDE hard drive with a teeny tiny IDE cable, two SIMM slots for RAM,
a spot for a three and a half inch floppy drive, which is the same type you would find on laptops all the time,
and one 16-bit ISA slot for... for whatever you can fit in here, which kind of limits your options.
But as for me, you might imagine my top priority for an upgrade was a sound card.
Since all you have is the internal PC speaker, otherwise.
Nothing against the speaker. It's fun, but, you know, I want a Soundblaster, but it's got to be a shorter one.
I ended up going with one of my Soundblaster 2.0
This is a CT1350B and the installation process is a little different as you might expect for this being so small.
You actually remove and disassemble this entire rear bracket, you slide your card right in there,
then screw it back together, enough making your card a bit clunkier than it is, but it works!
It's a snug fit and it all just kind of goes in there and now it looks like it's part of the machine. I quite like this!
Ohh, much better!
And that's pretty much it for Unisys CWD 4002.
I just think it's super fun. It's a compact design, I think it looks really neat, although I heard some people say:
"oh, it's pretty ugly", but I just find it attractive in a weirdly utilitarian way.
It's more than capable for all sorts of DOS gaming stuff. It's kind of, like, having the footprint of a 486 laptop,
but with a bit of the expandability and stuff like that, that you would expect from a desktop.
Which is a nice little middle ground, if you're someone like me with the Goldilocks complex.
It's a desktop that's happy to be just the way it is.
It's not perfect, it's got some quirks and it's actually pretty limited,
but for me that's exactly what makes computers like this so much fun to play with.
And, hey! If you liked this video then let me know, because I'm trying something a little bit different here.
A little more laid-back and kind of chill for my hardware reviews of sort.
I don't know... Is this a review? It's just me sort of rambling about a computer.
So if you'd like to see other rambles let me know...
or stick around and check out some of my other stuff here in LGR.
And as always, thank you very much for watching.