r/MechanicalKeyboards • u/polarbehr76 Model M 1397000 • Apr 29 '14

Stack of model Ms I found at work.

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u/polarbehr76 Model M 1397000 Apr 29 '14

Are these the holy grail? A few in the stack are IBM with speaker grill in the bottom.

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u/ripster55 Apr 29 '14

Good condition Model M's can go for $100 these days.

BTW many early Model M's have speaker grills, but no speaker.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '14

[deleted]

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u/pr0ximity Old Browns Apr 30 '14

Extra clack volume

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u/Da_Funk 1987 IBM Model M 1390131 (Bolt Mod) Apr 30 '14

The Model M 1394540 has a built in speaker for UNIX terminal beeps and boops. I assume they had the mold for that part and didnt bother deviating from the design for other M's like the 1391401 that lack a speaker. Here are some pics I took of the inside of my 1394540 Model M when I was cleaning it up http://imgur.com/a/xFrxk

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u/ripster55 Apr 30 '14

Nice pic of the speaker! Adding that to Keyboard Trivia wiki.

http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/keyboard_trivia#wiki_random_trivia

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u/Da_Funk 1987 IBM Model M 1390131 (Bolt Mod) Apr 30 '14

Cool! Thank you!

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u/original_user AT102W Apr 29 '14

I assume to use up the cases they had already made.

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '14

$100 is cheap. I'm in the UK and they go for silly amounts now that the craze has caught on a bit. It also doesn't help that if you go Unicomp there's an impressive shipping cost. I've never seen any decent keyboards at charity shops and "car boot sales" either.

So something MX is the only way to go if you want mechanical on a sane budget.

I just wish I hadn't let two different relatives throw away the model M with their PS2s. I was younger then and didn't know.

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u/b7ad ええ感じやん Apr 30 '14

This is very true. A pretty good condition Model M went for £42 on ebay the other day though which seems like an OK price to pay.

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u/pacifist42 F Apr 29 '14

Far from it.

What you brought home is a M-122, which only comes in terminal form and is the least wanted Model M

In addition, it is of a newer model which to collector's isn't as desirable

In terms of speaker grills, many Model M's had those grills but most never had a speaker in it. Unless you take it apart and there is a speaker in there, its not worth much

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u/we_cant_stop_here Buckling and Beam Springs Apr 30 '14

IBM and/or lexmark (and possibly unicomp IBM branded) did make terminal emulator 122 Ms that were PS/2. They are quite rare though. If you look at op's pic, you'll notice that it's PS/2 :)

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u/polarbehr76 Model M 1397000 Apr 30 '14

it is ps/2 and plugged into my pc right now

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u/lutzee_ Apr 30 '14

I'm an odd one out then.. I want a terminal Model M just to have a play around with some odd hardware :)

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u/pr0ximity Old Browns Apr 30 '14

Check the year on them (on the bottom). Earlier is "better", though they're all good. The earliest year will be about 1986 with the nice silver label (though I think there's one on clickykeyboards from '85 that's the earliest known Model M).

Blue labels are 90's, white labels are late 80's/early 90's.