PACOMP and Comtech: the story of a forgotten German computer brand

Some old computers catch your attention because of their processor, graphics card or unusual motherboard. With this machine, however, the most interesting thing at first was something completely different. There is a small comtech, logo on the front panel, while a manufacturer’s label on the underside of the case reads PACOMP – Assembled in Germany. Two different names on one computer. A coincidence, a later case replacement, or were the two brands somehow connected?

This little mystery led me to investigate a company that has now practically disappeared from memory. It turned out that PACOMP and Comtech are actually two chapters of the same story – the story of a German computer retailer and manufacturer that was a fairly significant player in the 1990s.

Comtech was not a small local retailer

The company Comtech Computersysteme GmbH was founded in Germany in 1985. Over the following years it built an extensive network of computer stores and became one of the notable specialist PC retailers on the German market.

A contemporary Heise article from 1996 describes the structure of the group very well. Alongside the ComTech retail network there was also Pacomp, which was responsible for purchasing and manufacturing. When Comtech took over ninety German branches of the bankrupt Escom chain in the summer of 1996, ComTech itself already had more than one hundred stores of its own. So this was not a small PC assembler working in the back room of a shop, but a fairly large computer group.

This also explains why the PACOMP brand appears on period systems. It was not an unrelated company randomly attached to Comtech. It was the group’s own brand and manufacturing arm, under which complete computers, monitors and other hardware were sold.

PACOMP: its own computers for the German market

In the mid-1990s, period materials feature systems called Pacomp Hyperspeed. Today their configurations read like a wonderful catalogue of the PC world of the time. In September 1997, for example, a Hyperspeed was offered with a Cyrix 6x86MX PR200 processor, 16 MB of EDO RAM, a 1.2 GB hard drive, a 16× CD-ROM drive and a Terratec sound card. Prices started at 1,666 German marks.

A few months earlier the company also offered a Hyperspeed with an IBM 6×86 PR200+ processor, 16 MB of memory, a 2 GB hard drive and Matrox Mystique graphics. An interesting detail is that even at this time the 15″ and 17″ monitors on offer were still explicitly branded Pacomp.

Configurations naturally changed quickly according to what Intel, AMD, Cyrix, IBM, ATI or Matrox were offering at the time. The defining feature was not one particular platform, but rather that Comtech assembled complete computers from commonly available components and sold them as its own systems. That is why identifying a particular model today can be more difficult than with a branded Dell, IBM or Compaq.

1997: PACOMP becomes comtech

A fundamental change came in 1997. After taking over part of the Escom network, the group began consolidating its activities under a single name. The November issue of Funkamateur described it quite unambiguously: the ComTech and Escom 2001 retail groups were merged under the common name comtech and the Pacomp brand was also to be renamed comtech.

This brings us back to the computer that started the whole investigation. The front of the case already carries the new comtech logo, while the underside of the chassis still has the label PACOMP – Assembled in Germany. Historically, that combination therefore makes very good sense. The chassis or manufacturing designation may originate from Pacomp’s production system, while the computer was already being sold outwardly under the unified comtech brand.

This still does not mean that we know the exact factory designation of our particular machine.So far I have not been able to match the number on the surviving label to a specific period brochure. But the relationship between the two brands is no longer a mystery.

Comtech at the end of the 1990s

The end of the 1990s was an exceptionally dynamic period for the PC market. Processor frequencies rose every few months, 3D accelerators changed rapidly and an ordinary home computer could become visibly outdated within a single year. Comtech adapted to this pace and offered systems based on both Intel and AMD platforms.

For our investigation, it is interesting that period Comtech systems regularly used components from brands that also appear in the surviving computer from around 1999–2000 – for example ATI, fast IDE CD-ROM drives or SDRAM. The range also included more powerful graphics options aimed at gamers.

This matters mainly because, when restoring an old computer, it is easy to create a system that may be powerful but does not make much historical sense. With Comtech, on the other hand, we can compare the hardware we find with what the company was actually offering at the same time.

From computer stores to Mobilcom

Meanwhile, Comtech continued to grow and look for strong partners. In 1997 the company also worked with IBM, and after taking over the Escom branches the number of retail locations increased significantly. By the end of the 1990s it was becoming increasingly connected with the telecommunications company Mobilcom, and in 1999 it was integrated into the Mobilcom group.

From today’s perspective this may seem a little strange, but around the turn of the millennium computers, the internet and telecommunications were rapidly converging. A combination of a large PC retailer and a telecommunications company therefore made considerably more sense then than it does today.

The first end of Comtech

The beginning of the new millennium was less successful. Mobilcom itself ran into difficulties and in 2002 announced the closure of dozens of Comtech branches. The main part of the group was subsequently taken over by Trend-e-pak.

Even that did not save the company. 13 March 2003, Comtech Computersysteme GmbH and Comtech 2001 Computersysteme GmbH filed for insolvency. This closed the original chapter of Comtech, which had grown since the mid-1980s into one of Germany’s notable computer retail chains.

The Comtech name came back once more

The brand did not disappear completely. In 2004 the name comtech, together with the comtech.de domain, was reused for a new online shop. It was no longer a continuation of the original model of a large network of company-owned PC stores as we knew it from the 1990s.

The new Comtech continued for many years as an online electronics retailer. In 2019, however, it too ended up insolvent and ceased operations at the end of November. Today both the original Comtech and its later online reincarnation are part of the past.

Why I enjoy this story

Comtech and PACOMP do not have the same name recognition today as IBM, Compaq, Dell or Gateway. That is precisely why I find their history interesting. They were part of an era when personal computers in Europe were rapidly changing from expensive work tools into ordinary household equipment, and when a large part of the market consisted of locally assembled computers built from components by various manufacturers.

A surviving label on the underside of one beige case thus ended up opening the door to an almost forgotten brand. And the computer in which I found that label deserves a follow-up of its own.

Next time: a specific Comtech with an AMD K6-III

In the next part I will look directly inside the machine I found. Its foundation is a Tekram P5M3-A+ motherboard with Super Socket 7 and an AMD K6-III/400 processor. We will go through the original components, the ATI graphics card, memory and drives, as well as the question of what to add while keeping the computer faithful to the period around 1999. One of the options is a 3dfx Voodoo3 together with a Sound Blaster Live!.

And perhaps by then I will also manage to find what I am still looking for: a period brochure or magazine advertisement showing a photograph of this exact case.

Sources and further reading

My research was based primarily on contemporary reports and digitised magazines. The following sources are particularly interesting: