Micromation Z-Plus Microcomputer System

On the one hand, the Micromation Z-Plus Microcomputer System - sold in the UK via Rostronics - was a fairly standard computer of the day, with a Zilog Z80 CPU, 64K of memory, S-100 bus, Digital Research's CP/M and Microsoft BASIC.

On the other hand though it's worthy of a mention simply because it was perhaps the ultimate in "computer as furniture", raising the bar compared to Smoke Signal Broadcasting's "[=ads_032|stylish leather-grained cabinet]" or the many S-100 boxes of the time that feature some sort of wooden box construction. 

In this case, the computer itself came in a 29" by 10" box with walnut veneer sides, which unfortunately were "very easily scratched [when] removing it from its home"[source: "Bench test: The Micromation Z-Plus", Personal Computer World, December 1979, p. 42-47]. 

This in turn, along with all the other components like disk drives and the monitor, was supplied in a custom-made teak desk - apparently retrofitted after the original 19" rack-mounted version was found to be unpopular. 

The downside of this furniture-based arrangement was that, whilst it may look nice at first, it would require various forms of actual woodwork in order to expand the system, for instance cutting out extra holes with a jigsaw in order to run cables for extra disk drives and so on.

All the additional furniture put it towards the more expensive end of the micro spectrum, turning in at £3,750 - or about [[3750|1979]] in [[now]] money, with a 20M hard-disk system costing the same again (with £50 change) - a total of [[7500|1979]] now. 

In the mid-2010s it was still possible - in certain parts of the UK or Ireland - to buy a house for that sort of money[source: money.uk.msn.com/mortgages-and-homes/homes-that-cost-less-than-%C2%A325000 (dead link)]. 

It might be a mostly-derelict house, but it would still be somewhere to actually live.