What an awesome machine! So jealous yiou find that stuff, all the tips near me only allow you to dump stuff.

vetz wrote:

How did you configure the motherboard to run with a 40mhz CPU? I've got the same board in my 386 with a DX33, but I couldn't see were to set the speed to 40mhz.

Hey vetz how much cache does your board have? Mine has 64K which is fine, but I'm thinking that it might be worth upgrading to 128 one day just for fun.

badmojo wrote:

vetz wrote:

How did you configure the motherboard to run with a 40mhz CPU? I've got the same board in my 386 with a DX33, but I couldn't see were to set the speed to 40mhz.

Hey vetz how much cache does your board have? Mine has 64K which is fine, but I'm thinking that it might be worth upgrading to 128 one day just for fun.

Same as yours 😀

awesome machine , I imagine this would be perfect for games like Wing Commander or the Lucasarts/Sierra Adventure games, Wolf3D & Dune2 should also be quite nice on this too.

strange how I never find stuff like this lying around...

badmojo wrote:

I was sure there would be but I can't find one - I've seen them in the past though. […]
Show full quote

vetz wrote:

Do you know if those are available on Ebay?

I was sure there would be but I can't find one - I've seen them in the past though.

What I've started to do though is to simply take the wire from a PC speaker - which already has the right plug on it - and solder a button batter holder onto it. Much cheaper, you can make the wire as long as you like and get the battery well clear of everything else, and you can simply change the battery when it runs out.

This is what I'll be doing going forward.

I couldnt find one either 🙁

I just took a wire from a CD-Audio cable and a coin cell battery holder. Used my wire cutter and some electrical tape with some wire clamps. Doesn't look very well, but does the job 😀

A mostly superficial change for this system. The original case is great quality but it’s huge, heavy, and not exactly the most beautiful thing I’ve laid my eyes on, so I’ve moved it to an AT tower I came across recently. I found this case locally with an acid damaged 486 ISA system in it. The acid had caused some minor damage to the internal metal work and the case cover was scratched, but the plastic looked good and I liked its style so I decided to put in the effort to restore it.

The internal metalwork came up well with some steelwool and anti-rust paint where required. The plastic came up like new with a good scrub in dishwashing liquid and warm water and that was important, because broken or yellowed plastic is impossible to bring back to life in my experience. I don’t bother with cases with bad plastic anymore. Last but not least I changed the MHz display to a 2 digit one, added a fake floppy drive bezel because the second 3.5 bay cover was missing (I’ve always wanted to use one of those), and the front was ready for action.

The scratched case cover took more work however because the scratches were too deep and prominent to repair, so I had to paint the whole thing. I took a drive-bay cover to the local hardware store and asked them to match the colour using a purpose built computer they have, and the result was a paint in just the right shade of beige. I then sanded back the cover, used a roller to paint it, and then dusted it with a lighter coloured spray-paint to give it the right texture and ‘speckled’ look. This is the first time I’ve painted a case but I was pleasantly surprised with the results - I was prepared for disappointment.

All of the 386’s hardware transferred over easily enough but I decided to add a CD-ROM to the system for convenience sake – having to transfer files via a tweener system and floppy disks can be painful. The 386 didn’t take kindly to a CD-ROM however; the ISA IO card simply refused to recognise it. I tried the interfaced on the Sound Blaster Pro 2 (CT1600) I had in this machine but it didn’t like my IDE drive either, it must need a Creative branded drive. After fiddling around for too long I decided to bite the bullet and change the sound card to a Sound Blaster 16 (CT2290), which is a great card with real OPL3 and an IDE interface, and that solved the problem.

I was vaguely concerned that I’d kill one or all of the components in the processing of moving them around but it seems happy in its new home, and the result is a better looking case that takes up far less storage and desk space, so I’m happy.

Gorgeous. This is a nice little gap in my hardware arsenal that I hope to fill some day. There is just something...seductive?...about the AT towers from that era.

Do you also have the before photo? Your case came out so PC authentic ivory that I might be inclined to try this one day.

I have that same case as shown in the World's Fastest 486 link, except the button/LED cover plate is unfortunately black. I like how you selected a CD-ROM with a matching shade of beige.

No I didn't think to take any before photos I'm afraid. I think yours looks OK with the black and most of your beige's match nicely. Nice thread BTW 😀

It's not bad quality, that case. It's reasonably solid and the edges aren't razor sharp (more like dull steak knife). And I like the removable motherboard mounting tray, that made things much easier with a full sized AT board.

One thing I didn't mention regarding the painting was that I was only able to get gloss paint which didn't look right initially, but a gentle going over with some water and a kitchen scourer took the shine of it nicely. A mat finish wouldn't work but next time I'll try harder to get a semi-gloss.

badmojo wrote:

kitchen scourer

Scotch brite?

feipoa wrote:

Scotch brite?

Yes 😜 You gotta be careful with those bad boys because they can leave visible marks - I used a preloved one so it was less abrasive than a new one.

It would have been much easier to just use a semi-gloss.

@ badmojo and feipoa:

For a second there I though you two were talking about make-up 🤣!

Tetrium wrote:

For a second there I though you two were talking about make-up 🤣!

Haha! Me sneaking off to the shed with household cleaning products raises a few eyebrows but I get away with it, my wife's make-up on the other hand... we'd both be worried.

Nice system badmojo. The AT tower case looks great, although I quite like the original style of case too.

I'm slowly collecting parts to finish a 386 system based around a Intel DX-33 (and a co-processor to match). Hoping it turns out as good. 😀

BuuBox wrote:

I'm slowly collecting parts to finish a 386 system based around a Intel DX-33 (and a co-processor to match). Hoping it turns out as good. 😀

I hope you do a thread on it when you're done! Let me know if you need any parts 😀

Total dearth of baby AT cases up this end. 🙁

I've nearly got my 386/33 build ready to rumble, but the only case I have for it is a Pentium-era mid-tower with a 2.5 digit readout. That's my only AT tower case too. I also have a much older proper-AT desktop case, but it doesn't really fit the bill either. 🙁

Fantastic find... a really nice case too!

It pains me to think that there are folk out there that are willing to dump their old retro hardware only to be taken and filled somewhere in Africa... so it's always good to see another 386 survived and revived.

Good job!

Congratulations and thanks for sharing - I think your desktop case is simply fantastic!