And cables. I had self built machine that had a usb mother board. The mother board had
USB, but at that time cables from the mother board to chassis was ~ $100.00 each.
I never did get USB for that machine as I/O was from the old system.
Thanks, Scruss. I can’t get the quoting mechanism to work - but I do want an internal A-drive, not external. I’m trying to gradually transition from floppies to USB ports.
I found a place where I am in Phoenix, that has some Dell Optiplexes stashed in their warehouse: 745 and 780, and a bunch of Dimensions, 4400, 4550, 4600, GX 270. They supposedly have A-drives, but they don’t want to pull them out to look at. They’d be $150, which I gather is more than I’d pay online, but it’s easier for me in person. But these guys don’t want to be bothered telling me about the differences between them. A techie I know slightly was going to help be, but he’s suddenly ill.
I searched for “Dimension 4400 floppy” and asked for images, and on the first page I got this:
So, for sure these tower PCs will normally have a floppy drive.
If you’re not afraid of funky, I’d recommend the eBox 3350. Something that looks like this:
It has decent specs for what you need, takes very little space. You can plug in a USB floppy drive and it will automatically work. You can even boot from that if needed. Works great with win98 (tested).
Stay away from earlier models such as the one with CF card in the photo below. That one has problems with win 98. Maybe you can install 95, but I’d recommend the newer model.
If you want something more “modern” you can search the Qbox-1000. That’s an interesting toy that I got Tomb Raider 3 working on quite nicely.
The advantage of these little toys is also that you can buy them relatively cheap from ebay. And you can mount them on the back of a monitor.
Sorry, no, no funky for me. And actually, no, I’m finding that it seems rare for a computer to have both an A-drive for floppy and USB ports.
I’m interested in the two Dell Optiplexes that this store has, 745 and 780, but they don’t want to be bothered to look in their warehouse, and the computer pro that was going to help me is ill. I don’t even know what questions I should be asking them, or how to know if they’d be compatible with the old WP5.1 DOS word processing.
If the local used computer store won’t help you, and the computer pro can’t, I’m not sure there are many people who can help you.
I did some digging around to see what the most recent PC motherboards that included a floppy port might be. It surprised me:
-
ASRock 980DE3/U3S3 is an AMD motherboard supporting DDR3 memory and USB 3 with a single floppy connector on board. Its manual publication date is 2013
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Embedded/Industrial AMD LX800 (Geode) motherboards such as the Axiomtek SBC84622 may still be available as new old stock. I remember Geode-based computers being cleared out as very low cost surplus a decade or more ago, because they are tremendously limited in processing power.
Both of these would be far more expensive than the $150 your local dealer quoted. End-of-life industrial hardware tends to sell for “what can the client afford?” kind of money, as very often they’re the sort of thing keeping a multi-million industrial device going.
Alright, I dig that. Under these circumstances, the best option I can recommend to you is this one:
But you would need someone to tinker with it to make the setup for all your software.
I hope this helps. 
… or, if you are in US and prefer the desktop slimmer version (I would):
… or just search the Dell Optiplex 755 on ebay and pick the exact model you want, making sure it has a floppy. Some of them have card readers.
I found it a bit hilarious to read my retro computing forum messages today, and see a picture of a Dell Optiplex tower. But I suppose if this forum is still around in 20 years, we’ll see them a lot more often.
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I should start off with a big apology. I normal preface these threads by emphasizing that I’m not a techie, with a plea to keep the replies simple - as in the movie Margin Call, as if you were talking to a golden retriever. In my efforts to be clear, I forgot to include that. So much of the replies are over my head.
However, although I’m avoiding Ebay and hoping to buy something in person, then, Enthusiast Guy, I found an Optiplex 450 and 480, and although I can’t persuade this store yet to bring them in from their warehouse, this might be a good bet?
Well, I don’t think you need to apologize, we “techies” also tend to talk “tech” way too often.
I also understand your reluctance on the Ebay so ok.
Short version:
Nope, those Optiplex 450/480 are not good for what you need.
You need a computer with at least 500 Mhz CPU, 1GB of RAM and a HDD of 60 GB or more. Those Dell(s) I recommended are perfect, but you can ask for similar hardware. If you have a link to the website of your local store, or an online store that delivers to you, I can take a look and pick something up.
But, I’d strongly advise you to follow this path instead:
- get the cheapest laptop you can find for 100-200$ (I can help picking one);
For example, I was able to find this where I live, for 150$:
1.6 Ghz Celeron, 2 cores
4 GB of RAM
120 GB SSD
- get an external USB Floppy (25$ or so);
- move whatever you can recover from your existing floppies to your laptop drive;
- get a small external drive of 1TB for 70$ or so:
- make backups of all your important files on that external drive, while also keeping a copy on the laptop. Ideally, you would also get some backups on some CD’s or DVD’s, but at least start with this
- give up on WordPerfect altogether (pretty please!). Microsoft Word is able to open and manage wordperfect documents without problems;
It will cost you at most 300$, but you’d sincerely have a contemporary computer, that you can always plug in to your existing monitor with a cable and maybe an adapter, so at any point in your life, you can adapt it to a “desktop” setup.
And you can always take it with you anywhere.
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Now, the long boring version (that you can even skip, lots of tech talk here):
Let me recap a bit what I understood as the requirements. You need to run Corel 11, Word Perfect 5.1 and some older version of Microsoft Office on the “same computer”.
These three pieces of software are somewhat from different eras, so I googled the requirements for each:
Corel 11 seems to be able to run on either of Windows XP/Vista/7/8 operating systems, and this link (CorelDraw 11 Free Download For Windows 7, 8, 10 | Get Into Pc) says the minimum requirements are:
Memory (RAM): 128MB of RAM required.
Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
Processor: 200MHz Intel Pentium Processor
Hard Disk Space: 300MB of free space required.
Please note these are MINIMUM requirements, you can do above that with no problem.
WordPerfect 5.1 was released for the DOS operating system in november 1989, so it will most likely run on DOS 4.0 upwards. That’s the cheapest of all, it will run on anything, so that should be ok.
Since you mentioned that the Office should simply be “older”, I chose Office 2010 since it runs on Windows XP.
Why did I chose Windows XP? Because you are looking for a computer with a floppy drive, so I am trying to get closer back in time for that.
Windows XP (SP3) itself has the following requirements:
a 233 MHz processor, 64 MB of RAM, 1.5 GB of available hard drive space, and an SVGA-capable video card
… and Microsoft Office 2010 is the most “expensive” in terms of requirements. It needs:
500 MHz or faster processor
Memory 256 MB RAM; 512 MB recommended for graphics features and
certain advanced functionality
3.0 GB available disk space
Display 1024x576 or higher resolution monitor
Are you dizzy yet? No worries, let me help you get simple overall requirements:
You need a CPU of minimum 500 Mhz
RAM: 1 Gb (because from my experience, that’s where Windows XP’s RAM sweet spot is)
A hard disk of 60 Gb or more
These are the specifications I found for the Dell Optiplex 450:
Dell Optiplex 450/L 486DX 66MHz Desktop Computer
486DX2/66 MHz Processor
270MB Hard Drive - no operating system
16MB Memory
1.44 Floppy Drive
3 ea ISA Slots
If the requirements I found are correct, this computer will only be good for WordPerfect, so NO. I expect the 480 won’t be much better in terms of specs.
If you go to a shop anyway, you can ask for what you need.
But I doubt, that there is something which covers everything.
Everything has a disadvantage. (Lightweight vs. internal drive and low cost).
If you really want an internal floppy drive, you might have trouble with a modern PC.
Another issue is the operating system.
Keep in mind that Windows 11 usually don’t run DOS software (unless within an emulator like DOSBOX). And modern hardware needs a modern operating system, and that usually doesn’t support old and new hardware (non USB floppy).
An old PC has other issues (maybe don’t support USB) and modern software.
And what about the operating system there? You would need Windows XP or similar.
The question is also what do you want to pay. (Operating systems usually cost as well).
Here, we all like vintage PCs, but for daily work we all have modern hardware as well.
Another option would be a dual system with 2 operating systems. Or 2 systems.
I also would recommend a modern PC or Win XP PC.
On a modern PC you can also do other stuff.
Please ask yourself if you really need an internal floppy. Why not backup everything and use a modern PC. I think an old PC you can’t use for another decades. And there are other issues, like security, or weak points like leaking batteries. Very old hardware and software is more expensive.
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WordPerfect files can be read by later computers.
There are also converters (to WORD) around.
So I would focus on COREL 11. That might also have issues running on both older and newer computers now or soon.
Corel files can probably also converted but depends on how many files you have and in what format.
If you want to use exactly the same you can use an emulator.
Or do you also have an old printer?
It’s not difficult to use an emulator or use a modern computer and adapt everything.
Also keep in mind that Windows XP etc needs to be activated by Microsoft (either online or by phone) and is not supported anymore.
I wonder how urgent and serious this is asking this in May.
Well, I don’t think you need to apologize, we “techies” also tend to talk “tech” way too often. I also understand your reluctance on the Ebay so ok.
Short version:
Nope, those Optiplex 450/480 are not good for what you need.
You need a computer with at least 500 Mhz CPU, 1GB of RAM and a HDD of 60 GB or more. Those Dell(s) I recommended are perfect, but you can ask for similar hardware. If you have a link to the website of your local store, or an online store that delivers to you, I can take a look and pick something up.
But, I’d strongly advise you to follow this path instead:
get the cheapest laptop you can find for 100-200$ (I can help picking one).
(Funny, I just tried to put that in italics, and I get the feeling it’s not working, but this site also doesn’t seem to allow the standard option of a preview.)
But WHY would the 745/780 not be good? I don’t know the meaning of the specs you’re offering, but this is only used for word-processing, so required relatively little storage, and not hooked up to the internet, even.
I don’t like laptops, though. I find them annoying. Also, I’m pretty sure I’d be constantly knocking them off the desk.
I’m guessing you’re on mobile. The preview button is bottom right, looks like an LCD monitor.
Pretty much because aside from Word Perfect 5.1, you won’t be able to run Corel Draw or Office on it. My impression was you aim to find a computer that does all that.
However, I think if you speak with the guys at the store, they’ll certainly be able to help.
Just tell them what software you need to run and they should be able to advise you.
I used Corel Draw on an AMD 486DX/4-100 in the 90s, as well as Office with Word 2.0 and 6.0 (I think maybe 6.0 was the last 16-bit version of Office, although by then I think we would have been running it on NT 3.51), so probably it would work. 
Corel 11? I believe that was the requirement. Sorry, I didn’t carry through the whole context when I replied.
No, not mobile. I’m too low-tech for mobile.
Yes, Mainframetom, I was told I should get Windows 10, not 11.
To my mind, I’d expect the computer to be cheap, because a “normal” person wouldn’t want something that old.
You also noted that I was asking in May originally. In May, I was told my computer might imploded any moment, and I was frantic. The local repair shop attended to some heat paste. (Is that right? I’d never heard of heat paste before.) So far, although there are a few more glitches, it’s still functioning.
And I had NO IDEA when I began asking that it would be so complex - all the separate issues of operating system and drive and bits, all of it over my head. I naively thought that if I could just find a computer from the right time period, when it would have both the USB ports and A-drive, then I’d have nothing else to think about.
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Yes, in the last 30 or 40 years there was “some” progress and it’s complex for someone who hasn’t dealt with it much the last years.
Yes there’s a heat paste, but usually modern PCs use air or water cooling.
And new operating systems aren’t recommended at first due to bugs and incompatibility.
You have to learn and read for every new software anyway.
I or we gave our advice and we can’t help much more.
It’s up to you to decide what you want.
I recommend to ask another shop if possible to compare and then buy who you trust more.
And if you’re not happy you might give it back or re-sell it. Especially if they gave wrong advice and it doesn’t work.
Implosion is rather rare. Usually you can measure the temperature.
If you want more advice you should clearly tell what you want or better tell the shop keeper.
As said there’s always pro and cons. And nothing is perfect, especially not when cheap.
If you don’t want to learn much new stuff you also can buy the same computer model that you
have.
I wonder what computer you currently have, please tell us the details, is it DOS or windows? What version?