Things I miss on PCs oh and a question...

[MD]

2 x 7 Segment LED displays with CPU speed. With jumpers so you could write your own 2 digit messages (I went for the rather plain HI and LO).

Turbo Button. Run your PC at full speed or 8Mhz.. ooh... (would be a nice over clocking feature nowdays...)

keyboard key locks. Usually pointless as the keys were generally all the same... ^_^; But it at least stopped people from trying to guess your password.

Real on / off switches at the front of the machine. None of this hold the button down for 5 seconds to turn it off or click, click, click, click, wait...

Clicky keyboards. When keyboards were real keyboards...

5.25" Drives. CD-Rs are nice and all but they just feel disposable, even ZIP discs felt of something.

Full height (thats 2xCD-ROM size) hard drives. Just because they looked like something...

Hard drives beeping (rather then clicking). So you knew the machine was accessing that drive.

Anyway still after a USB clicky keyboard, seems like no one makes the anymore, most keyboards now feel like Spectrum +2 keyboards with a bit more travel... are there PS/2 to USB convertors out there for keyboards or did I just dream them? (As I will see if I can go from AT to PS/2 to USB....)

[Ginger Tosser]

This any good?

If not you could try to reverse this connection, it'll look a bit heath robinson, but it might work.

Those full height drives now make great coasters.

[superkully]

Know what you mean about they keyboards, I hunted high and low for a clicky..

Buy a Cherry keyboard. I've one from www.overclockers.co.uk, but they don't seem to sell them any more...

[Papercut]

Yeah, Cherry are one of the few companies still doing clicky keyboards that I could find. Difficult to get hold of, and very expensive. You'd want the G80-3000 with keyclick:

http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/classic-line/keyboard-standard-g80-3000.htm#1

Which stupidly is only available as PS/2.

The company that used to build the classic 'buckling spring' clicky keyboards for IBM are still in business, so you can get the real deal instead:

http://www.pckeyboard.com/

and there are loads of people selling the original IBM branded keyboards too:

http://www.clickykeyboard.com/

My Model M died about 18 months ago after 8 years hard use (and 10 years use by someone else before that), and I've made do with a crappy Dell clone since, but I will definitely buy another Model M soon. The King of Keyboards:

http://www.modelm.org/

All I'd need then is a USB adaptor, can anyone recommend one? As I understand it the adaptor pictured only works for keyboards that support both PS/2 and USB internally.

[Commander Marklar]

Physical case locks

Clicky keyboards. When keyboards were real keyboards...

...and caused proper injury