website/content/museum/act-qi-300.md at bfb34266c8a47f9f8f5675ab4df6783842b0c3b9

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yann64andClaude Opus 5.5 b274874139 All machines linked to their forum thread (full comment import)

1,289 discussions, 9,527 archived comments; pages no longer carry the comments themselves.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ

2026-10-13 17:26:43 +02:00

3.5 KiB

Raw Blame History

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title

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ACT QI-300

Computers

Professional Computer

United Kingdom

1988

Intel 80386SX

name

image

company

company_name

specs

tabs

forum_thread

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QI-300

/media/museum/photos/apricot_qi300_system_s1.jpg

/companies/act

ACT

label	value
NAME	QI-300

label	value
MANUFACTURER	ACT

label	value
TYPE	Professional Computer

label	value
ORIGIN	United Kingdom

label	value
YEAR	1988

label	value
END OF PRODUCTION	Late 1989

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BUILT IN LANGUAGE	None

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KEYBOARD	IBM AT standard layout

label	value
CPU	Intel 80386SX

label	value
SPEED	16 MHz

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CO-PROCESSOR	Socket for a 80387SX math coprocessor

label	value
RAM	1Mb to 5Mb

label	value
ROM	Unknown

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TEXT MODES	40 or 80 columns x 25 lines

label	value
GRAPHIC MODES	on-board VGA

label	value
SOUND	Built-in speaker

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SIZE / WEIGHT	Unknown

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I/O PORTS	On-board ethernet, serial & parallel ports

label	value
BUILT IN MEDIA	3.5'' FDD, 30 to 50 MB RLL hard disk drive

label	value
OS	MS-DOS and Windows 3

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POWER SUPPLY	Built-in power supply unit

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PERIPHERALS	4 x 16-bit MCA expansion slots

label	value
PRICE	£3,200 (QI-600)

links

969

title	url	text
Apricot PC list	http://www.osemidlands.co.uk/support/insight/insight/en/products/timeline/timeline.htm	Full list of Apricots PC compatible products (From the Xen-i onwards)

995

url	date
https://web.archive.org/web/20221128005132/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=995	2022-11-28

The QI-300 was the last machine that showed Apricot's unique design style before ACT was bought by Mitsubishi and moved into standard looking boxes.

It also had several unique features, including a security system based on an infra-red 'key card' that users had to point at the PC and activate to allow it to boot up. This was also the first PC to offer IBM's MCA expansion bus.

The QI-300 was followed by the Qi 600 (80386DX-25) and the Qi 900 (80486DX)

Thanks to Charles Verrier for this information.

Christopher Davies adds:
I used to maintain these computers many years ago. They were very IBM like inside and sported a 40 MB tape drive on the left hand side. The MCA I am sure was brown in colour. A very smart machine. They seamed very popular in tire replacement places meaning they got very grimy and dirty.

Warlord0 recalls:
Ooh man glory days. I used to work for an Apricot reseller and put in a lot of Qi and Xen/Xen-S machines. The Qi was revolutionary. It had an MCA card that could be installed to work with an infra-red security card that would encrypt the hard drive!

Apricot were light years ahead of their time. Wireless keyboard and mouse, trackballs, calculators in the keyboard. This stuff was brilliant British design. Sadly the buy out by Mitsubishi killed them off.

I do remember the motherboards being released to the public being so poor in quality due to their "bleeding edge" design that many upgrades were done by soldering wires between chips post production.

But they hold a special place in my heart. Gotta love 'em.

We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.

3.5 KiB Raw Blame History

3.5 KiB

Raw Blame History