In today’s article, we will be taking a look at the U-M-I ProQuest 900 Series Workstation, a 286-class computer. There also seem to of been versions of this machine using the same case simply labeled as NCR or NCR-286. The motherboard components including CPU, video chip, and chipset seem to be mostly the same, only oriented differently. The motherboard in my ProQuest 900 Series may be a later revision as it does include a spot for a 386 socket to be soldered onto the PCB.
The case is a very slimline design fairly similar in proportion to the Tandy 1000RL HD (though a bit taller) leaving only enough room for a single 3 1/2-inch bay in the middle of the case. mine was outfitted with a 1.44MB 3 1/2 inch floppy drive which is the standard drive one would expect to be installed. To the right of the floppy drive are two LED lights for HDD activity and power. Finally, to the far right, we have a nice large oval power button.
On the rear of the case, we have a fan exhaust port on the far left followed by a standard three-prong power cable connector. Next to that, we have what appears to be a small unused cutout of some sort with the I/O starting below it. First, we have a single PS/2 port labeled KBD, which is for a keyboard. Next, we have dual serial ports of different sizes, which is very slightly unusual since in my experience the serial ports are either one or the other but usually not one of each type. Lastly, we have a parallel printer port and a standard VGA port for the built-in video. all in all between the PS/2 and VGA ports we have a fairly modern assortment for a 286-class machine.
Above the I/O and on the right of the case we also have dual expansion ports for adding two discrete cards.
Here we have a look at the inside with the case cover removed. Next to the power supply we have removable sleds for both the floppy drive and the HDD, though my machine was missing the hard drive. From my understanding, these PCs can be quite picky about hard drives and lack any user HDD input in the BIOS setup.
We can also see a riser card labeled NCR-286 which has two 16-bit ISA slots allowing the installation of various cards such as a sound card or network cards if desired.
My machine also had one of those very handy stickers on the inside of the cover outlining the motherboard as well as jumper and switch box settings.
Here is a look at the board with the drive sleds removed.
1) CPU – The CPU is an Intel 12MHz 286. Overall this is a great CPU as far as 286 boards go and should be able to play all of your late 80s and early 90s EGA games without issue as well as some early VGA titles. As far as I can tell the CPU is not upgradeable though there is a jumper for switching to a 16MHz 386 and a solder point for a 386 socket. It may be possible to swap out the crystal oscillators and install a 16MHz 286 but I can’t confirm this.
2) Co-Processor – There is a socket for adding a math Co-Processor though mine is unoccupied. This will help speed up some programs such as CAD design as well as a small handful of games from the time.
3) RAM – the ProQuest comes with a full 1MB of memory on the motherboard. On this board, the memory is located between the ROM chips and the Piezo speaker. Unfortunately, this memory is soldered onto the board as opposed to socketed making swapping out bad RAM somewhat difficult. 1MB should be sufficient for a large number of games that will run well on a 12MHz 286.
4) RAM – The ProQuest does feature four slots for expanding your RAM. I can confirm you can at least expand your system to a total of 2MB via 4x256k memory sticks though you may be able to expand it even greater I can’t confirm this. It has also been reported that this board is very picky about what kind of memory it will accept.
5) VGA video – The board features a Paradise PVGA1A -JK chip as well as 256K of video memory. This was the first SVGA chip from WDC and was considered quite fast for its time. The video memory can be expanded to a full 512K via the sockets next to the soldered-on memory. This chip could be considered a highlight of this machine providing very fast and competent VGA and SVGA output.
6) Switch for enabling and disabling various ports and video modes.
7) Built-in FDD and HDD connectors. The floppy drive controller does support high-density 1.44MB floppy drives. The hard drive controller is IDE but as said before does not support user input in the BIOS for custom drives.
8) Battery – The board uses a barrel-style Lithium battery for the CMOS. Mine was long dead so I removed it. Luckily my board does have pins for using an external battery
9) Power Connector
10) Piezo Speaker – The board does feature a piezo speaker for sound as opposed to a full speaker cone though it does feature a volume control next to the speaker which is nice. You do need to remove the top of the case to change the volume but it’s nice that the option is there at all as this feature is missing on many motherboards.
Overall this is a nice 286-class PC with the Paradise video chip being a particular stand-out feature. The CPU is also quite adequate for a large selection of older games from the 90s and early 90s. Although a full-cone speaker would have been nice it’s good to be able to adjust the volume on it. The case is small and compact and the lack of drive bays could be an issue but the two 16-bit ISA slots and ability to support 1.44mb Floppy drives do make it much more convenient than a PC of slightly smaller size like the Tandy 1000RL (though you do miss out on Tandy video and sound). Throw in a nice Sound Blaster card or Adlib and you have yourself a competent retro PC for EGA and early 90s VGA titles that also won’t take up too much desktop space or break your back to move.
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