aries-mu wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:16:

Well bro, what he said here above and this: […]
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Namrok wrote on 2023-09-24, 01:55:

I am a simple man. I would be perfectly happy with something like the Thermaltake V100 if it came in beige. A slightly more retro inspired plastic molded faceplate would be a nice bonus. I don't need to necessarily go back to the days of terrible airflow, no cable management and awkward build interiors. I mostly just want the color beige back, and that would get me 75% of the way to what I want.

It's mind boggling to me that there is not a single case manufacturer that offers anything in the color beige. Literally every color under the sun except that.

Well bro, what he said here above and this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXQordTlHHA[*]
https://www.icintracom.biz/case-industriale-p … -4he-beige.html
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811153018

hope this helps

It doesn't. The case from the youtube video is out of stock, the newegg link is out of stock, and the Italian wholesaler I don't think would even sell to me, plus it's a rackmount.

leileilol wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:21:

it's a 5150-themed sbc that showed obvious DOSBox use (an earlier version prior to 44khz defaults) and native linux source ports (leading to false hope of being a PC emulation king), but it had an odd ambition to have games distributed on floppy-shaped SD cards as a gimmick because that's "retro" or something.

That's kinda neat and obviously didn't happen. But it def seems they had the idea of selling an 'ecosystem' for more profit when I think you'd see more success just selling a bunch of shells that fit some common SBC formfactors and leaving the enthusiast community to configure things as they please.

And obviously what I'm talking about could be done with just about any light weight mini PC. I have a BeeLink with a Ryzen 6600H in it that'd do DOSBox and PCEm pretty well if I ever set it up for exclusive use of those. I just think it'd be more fun for something smaller and using cheaper parts as a 'side project with aesthetics'.

Obviously the big issue is there's only a few 80s and 90s game console shapes needed to cover a very large audience but you could poll one hundred 90s PC Gamers on what their PC looked like and get fifty or more different answers.

A Pi4 is much more flexible these days with Box86/64 (NOTE THE 86 AFTER BOX MEANS ITS NOT PCEM) handling windows 9x things sorta okay with Wine so it's more sensibly feasible to put retro PC dressing on ARM SBCs, however the performance's right around a tbird-with-a-geforce-3ti level, and the pixel clock's gotta be limited to prevent its default obsession from the slow 4k preference.

Problem with 3D printing is most of them are still to low res for them to look good, resin 3D printed would give the best results but until they get more years of refinement it would look just as good to make it out of paper meche.

leileilol wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:38:

A Pi4 is much more flexible these days with Box86/64 (NOTE THE 86 AFTER BOX MEANS ITS NOT PCEM) handling windows 9x things sorta okay with Wine so it's more sensibly feasible to put retro PC dressing on ARM SBCs, however the performance's right around a tbird-with-a-geforce-3ti level, and the pixel clock's gotta be limited to prevent its default obsession from the slow 4k preference.

That's faster than I would have imagined . Is that on a stock Pi 4 ? Also, I did not realize that Wine could be run on non x86(/64) archs .

aries-mu wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:16:

darry wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:10:

Speaking of mini stuff, there's a crapton of relatively powerful modern mini PC on Amazon around the 200$ mark. If any of these has a working IOMMU, an exposed PCIE bus and/or a TPM header, there might be everything needed to expand on of these with old PCI and /or ISA cards as an option.

PCI passthrough is unbelievably compatible. As an example, I have a DOS/Windows 98SE VM to which I have a PCIE IEEE1394 card passed through . Vintage DOS firewire drivers recognize the card and allow 100% functional use of an IEEE1394 enclosed external optical drive from DOS.

Interesting... could you please share a little more details about what exactly is this? Thanks

Basically running DOS in a QEMU VM under Linux with PCI passthrough . The TPM header was in reference to this : https://hackaday.com/2023/03/23/isa-over-tpm-to-your-pc/

I have plans for this Asus Rog Z11 mini-maxi-itx case. It stamds taller, possibly then any otjer case I own. To me it's striking. A sort of slim princess tower of power. The plans I have don't involve an itx motherboard (more another time). Even if.I didn't use it I'd wsnt 1 anyway, even if just to store my junk mail. Plastic, glass, steel, and aluminum. All moshed together very stylishly. And I want a big fuddy duddy beige box to clutter up my room? I'll pass.

I do have an Inwin A500 that needs a new paint job. It too is likeable. If for no other reason the slide out mobo tray. 30 - 40$ for one dem? Sure. 200$??? I'll pass.

darry wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:51:

. Is that on a stock Pi 4 ?

Stock, not OC'd, fan'd Pi4b 4GB.

There was a point where I could run 3DMark2001SE on it and got 4266 with the default settings. (I never run 99 or 2000)

Great idea!

Let's open another "How about..." thread! 😁

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2023-09-24, 03:17:

Great idea!

Let's open another "How about..." thread! 😁

I don't see the harm in it. Even if it's a bit of a pipedream, I don't see the need to discourage it. It's not like the forum is flooded with these types of threads. I appreciate OP's enthusiasm and desire to keep a niche hobby going.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-09-24, 04:01:

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2023-09-24, 03:17:

Great idea!

Let's open another "How about..." thread! 😁

I don't see the harm in it. Even if it's a bit of a pipedream, I don't see the need to discourage it. It's not like the forum is flooded with these types of threads. I appreciate OP's enthusiasm and desire to keep a niche hobby going.

Me neither. I have nothing against those who like to dream of something that will never happen. It sounds weird, but all in all it's ok.

aries-mu wrote on 2023-09-23, 12:33:

Would you buy those?

I've two 90's АТ-cases (with their original AT-PSUs) stored in the basement that I was recently thinking of throwing out to free up some space, but I accidentally discovered by looking at prices on retro hardware listings that they've become more "valuable" than some newer ones. Yet there doesn't seem to be much demand for such antiques. So, nope, I don't need to buy any brand new old AT-cases.

darry wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:53:

Basically running DOS in a QEMU VM under Linux with PCI passthrough . The TPM header was in reference to this : https://hackaday.com/2023/03/23/isa-over-tpm-to-your-pc/

Oh interesting. I didn't know QEMU.
I understand the basics of what you did. You used QEMU (which I guess is a Linux equivalent of VMWare) to create an appropriate machine and installed DOS in it.

What I fail to understand is what's that PCI passthrough and FireWire things and what do you use them for...

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-24, 06:46:

aries-mu wrote on 2023-09-23, 12:33:

Would you buy those?

I've two 90's АТ-cases (with their original AT-PSUs) stored in the basement that I was recently thinking of throwing out to free up some space, but I accidentally discovered by looking at prices on retro hardware listings that they've become more "valuable" than some newer ones. Yet there doesn't seem to be much demand for such antiques. So, nope, I don't need to buy any brand new old AT-cases.

mmm.... now I'm curious!!! Photos please? 🤩

jakethompson1 wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:00:

Evercase: http://www.evercase.co.uk/index.php?route=pro … gory&path=63_89

The ECE4252 in all beige looks pretty decent imho, other than the weird looking power button. It's been discontinued though, and the other two color combinations look pretty meh. Pity.

I'm not in the market but they'e got some nice desktops too.

There was a chinese owned computer store.up the road. Closed up around 5 years ago (followed by the buffet that had the most sumptuous potato skins on earth). They had many beige cases for sale as I recall. Some black. About 5 years ago I started buying cases on sale from newegg. I sorrow over most of them, all sold, as the newer cases aren't as creative as I see it. Everything is glass and rgb fans. Some nice cases still and I'm not knocking the use of rgb or glass. It's just sometimes the plain old steel and plastic is fine. Gamers Nexus made fun of the Rosewill Gungnir X when it came out. But it's stylish and I'll probably keep it forever. Probably one of the very last cases made without glass. And takes a 12" x 13" mobo. But not necessarily in conjunction with a dvd drive. Intel with their idiotic heatsink placement.

There was a shop on ebay selling lovely Desktop ATX cases. I picked up two of them as they were very reasonably priced (think i paid £30) Shame they don't sell them any more.

elszgensa wrote on 2023-09-24, 10:56:

jakethompson1 wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:00:

Evercase: http://www.evercase.co.uk/index.php?route=pro … gory&path=63_89

The ECE4252 in all beige looks pretty decent imho, other than the weird looking power button. It's been discontinued though, and the other two color combinations look pretty meh. Pity.

I'm not in the market but they'e got some nice desktops too.

I have that case and Its a fantastic modern/retro case. The build quality is really solid.

Bancho wrote on 2023-09-24, 12:35:

[summary][/summary]There was a shop on ebay selling lovely Desktop ATX cases. I picked up two of them as they were very reasonab […]
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[summary][/summary]There was a shop on ebay selling lovely Desktop ATX cases. I picked up two of them as they were very reasonably priced (think i paid £30) Shame they don't sell them any more.

Details

elszgensa wrote on 2023-09-24, 10:56:

jakethompson1 wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:00:

Evercase: http://www.evercase.co.uk/index.php?route=pro … gory&path=63_89

The ECE4252 in all beige looks pretty decent imho, other than the weird looking power button. It's been discontinued though, and the other two color combinations look pretty meh. Pity.

I'm not in the market but they'e got some nice desktops too.

I have that case and Its a fantastic modern/retro case. The build quality is really solid.

Details

Ooooh wow! Really good cases!

aries-mu wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:16:

I understand now. Well, still, I'd push industry to re-purpose pre-existing case frames, which they are already building, just modifying the front bezel, and the rear end somehow... Instead of making a new one from scratch.

Agreed. It would be nice to have some vintage-ish options. If it could be done affordably off existing platforms, that would be a better route than custom engineering from scratch.

Although given that modern cases don't even have drive bays anymore, that might be a challenge in how many frames could reasonably replicate what we'd expect from a retro case.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-09-25, 20:48:

aries-mu wrote on 2023-09-24, 02:16:

I understand now. Well, still, I'd push industry to re-purpose pre-existing case frames, which they are already building, just modifying the front bezel, and the rear end somehow... Instead of making a new one from scratch.

Agreed. It would be nice to have some vintage-ish options. If it could be done affordably off existing platforms, that would be a better route than custom engineering from scratch.

Although given that modern cases don't even have drive bays anymore, that might be a challenge in how many frames could reasonably replicate what we'd expect from a retro case.

Well, all we'd need are 2 or 3 current cases with drive bays. There are a few. They can be converted into almost perfect replicas of the above cases just by modifying the front bezel.
The back would be more challenging, if one wanted to be able to make it compatible also for AT mobos. Unless, somehow, the ATX plate could be re-designed... or maybe the case could come with a set of extender cables for all the back ports of the AT mobo, which would then be screwed into an ad-hoc redesigned ATX back plate... If needed, cutting away an area of the back of existing cases to make room to plug such extensions onto the back-connectors of an AT mobo would still be a minor modification for 'retro' versions of such modern cases. It would not require any re-engineering...

aries-mu wrote on 2023-09-25, 20:57:

Well, all we'd need are 2 or 3 current cases with drive bays. There are a few. They can be converted into almost perfect replicas of the above cases just by modifying the front bezel.
The back would be more challenging, if one wanted to be able to make it compatible also for AT mobos. Unless, somehow, the ATX plate could be re-designed... or maybe the case could come with a set of extender cables for all the back ports of the AT mobo, which would then be screwed into an ad-hoc redesigned ATX back plate... If needed, cutting away an area of the back of existing cases to make room to plug such extensions onto the back-connectors of an AT mobo would still be a minor modification for 'retro' versions of such modern cases. It would not require any re-engineering...

Re: ATX I/O shield models for 3D printing