PC Builders

This page lists PC builders I've encountered in my collection along with a bit of info where I can find it and links to the PCs I have from that PC builder.

Arche Technologies

Website: Formerly http://www.arche.co.nz
Fate: Acquired by Insite Technology Ltd / Conbrio Technology (https://www.conbriostore.co.nz/) in 2016.

From their History Section: "Once upon a time (1988) there was a large corporation called the Kunnan Group. This group owned, amongst other things, a company called Arche Technologies. Arche had offices and factories in a number of countries, France, America, Taiwan, Australia and more."

"In 1989 Arche Technologies NZ Ltd was established selling only Arche branded product to the dealer channel. The company was very successful until 1993 when the Arche original product became uncompetitive and the Kunnan group came under financial pressure and moved out of the computer industry."

"Arche New Zealand at this stage had eight employees and saw the opportunity to establish a full assembly facility to control quality and provide the flexibility needed to meet the diverse requirements of the New Zealand market. Relationships with the top computer hardware suppliers in Asia and USA were established (many of these still exist today) and the company has never looked back."

Computers with this badge:

artec-700 - Rebuilt from a 166MHz Pentium to a 700MHz Celeron

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)

Website: Formerly http://www.digital.com and http://www.dec.com
Fate: Acquired by Compaq in 1998, all PC products discontinued.

Once the second-largest computer company in the world behind IBM, they were big. But they were never well known for PCs and failed to sell them in large enough quantities to offset declining revenue in other divisions during the 90s. Through-out the 90s the company sold off various divisions (storage, networking, printers, semiconductors, terminals) to try and stay afloat before what remained was picked up by Compaq in 1998 in what was the largest merger in the industry at that point. All remaining Digital-branded PCs were discontinued by Compaq by April 1999. For more information, see Wikipedia.

Support files and manuals for most Digital PC products and Alpha systems capable of running Windows NT can be found in my mirror of the old Compaq Legacy Support for Digital PC Products Website.

PC-compatible computers in the collection:

Magnum

This badge has been encountered on one PC so far. I'm not sure if "Magnum" is the model of the PC, or the name of the builder. Either way I can find no information on it.

Computers with this badge: tasman - a fairly decent 286

R

This badge has been encountered on one PC so far in very faded condition. It appears to be either an R or TR. Printed on paper, it doesn't look expensive - might not be a PC brand but some label someone put on there long ago.

Computers with this badge: R - a high-end 133Mhz Pentium

Tandon Corporation

Formerly known as Tandon Magnetics Corp, they originally manufactured floppy drive heads and 5.25" floppy drives including those used in IBM PCs with hard drives added to the product line in the mid 80s. Tandon sold their storage products business to Western Digital (this is how Western Digital got into making hard drives) and switched to manufacturing PCs. For more information, see the Wikipedia article

I currently have only one Tandon machine, a Tandon Targa

TDL Computers

Website: None
Fate: Placed in Liquidation, 28 March 1996

TDL Computers was a trading name for Turtle Distribution Ltd which was incorporated in March 1991 and liquidated in March 1996. Its last registered office was Unit 5f Mahuru St, Newmarket, Auckland. No other information on this company appears to be available online. Possibly it was just a small local PC store that never had any online presence.

TMC

Website: Formerly http://tmc.co.nz/
Fate: Rebranded as Playtech: https://www.playtech.co.nz/

TMC was a major NZ PC builder in the 90s affiliated with Taiwan Mycomp Co Ltd. Other similar companies with the same logo existed (and still exist) elsewhere in the world. TMC New Zealand morphed into Playtech in the early 2000s when Taiwan Mycomp Co Ltd went out of business.

Total Peripherals

Website: Formerly http://tpg.co.nz
Fate: Acquired/changed industry

Total Peripherals Group was an Australian PC builder which had offices across New Zealand too. In the early 2000s the Australian company morphed into an ISP and telecommunications company which is still around today (https://www.tpg.com.au/).

The New Zealand business was apparently acquired by Insite Technology Ltd / Conbrio Technology (https://www.conbriostore.co.nz/) at some point in the 2000s. The TPG NZ website seems to have been last updated sometime in 2004 with the website largely static until the domain registration expired in early 2015.