First post, by 133MHz
- Rank
- Oldbie
Last Sunday I was at a friend's house helping him out with some stuff. I stayed past midnight so I asked him for a ride home, so he, his brother and me hopped in the car. About a block away I shouted
Me: Stop the car!
Friend: (stopping) What happened?
Me: I think I saw an old computer lying around garbage bags on that house.
Friend: 🤣
Yes, I did get out of the car to check and yes, it was an old PC so I picked it up and brought it home. It doesn't matter where I am or what time it is or anything, I just can't resist! 🤣
Upon arriving home I put it away for later checking. When I got some free time I had a look at it:
It's a Mitac branded desktop style Baby AT case from around 1997 according to the plastic markings on the inside and it seems fairly complete by the looks of it. Not bad! Older systems are getting increasingly scarce to find while more modern systems are making their way to landfills - the latest system I picked up from the garbage had a working LGA775 motherboard! 😳
Anyway I'm really happy for having scored this one. I've always really liked desktop style cases, but the only ones I have are a proprietary clone XT one and an enormous, butt-ugly ATX one that used to house a P3. A small, neat Baby AT desktop style case has always been on my wish list and I finally got one! Also it's Mitac branded, the computers I used at my primary school were on desktop style Mitac cases too so there's even a bit of nostalgia involved. 😊
What sorts of mysteries could be hiding on the inside? What kind of system might I find?
Answer: A crapload of dirt! Actually it looks like it got dirty and wet, like it was left exposed to the elements and rain got into it, but amazingly nothing looks rusted, just incredibly dirty.
The CPU is a 200 MHz Pentium MMX and the sticker on it tells us this PC was built around mid-1998. Time to take it apart!
- VX Pro based Socket 7 motherboard with a 200MHz MMX Pentium
- Unknown amount of EDO DRAM
- Cirrus Logic GD5446 based PCI video card
- C-Media CMI8738 based PCI sound card
- TRENDnet RTL8139D based PCI network card
- Conexant HSFi based PCI modem card
- Sony CD-ROM drive
- Maxtor 20 GB hard drive
- Alps Electric 3.5" floppy drive
- Mitac 150W PSU
Haven't tested any of these yet - I've put them aside for the time being so I can concentrate on the case itself. Judging by the manufacturing dates of the hard drive, CD-ROM drive and the cards it's clear that this system received a couple of upgrades on 2002-2003. It seems like everything might be good, just in need of cleaning.
I've already noticed something I don't like: the HDD activity LED is yellow. That's a pet peeve of mine - power LED must be green/blue, HDD LED must be red and Turbo LED must be yellow. I'm definitely replacing that LED with a red one. 🙄
Time for a good scrubbing. I hope it cleans up well.
I've always said it and I'll say it again: Cif and a scouring pad really does miracles on textured plastics as commonly used in old computers and video game consoles. It takes a fair bit of elbow grease to remove the deeper scuff marks but it works and I swear by it.
Letting out to dry in the sun:
Back together!
I'm really impressed with how it turned out, I wasn't expecting it to look this good after all the abuse it went through. Only some light scuff marks remain on the top of the case but those are going to be covered by the monitor anyway. The only thing preventing it from being perfect is that one of the plastic feet is missing and they're taller than the usual ones, so I'll have to cannibalize a whole set from another case in order to fix it. For a case that's designed to take a CRT monitor on top, those things are important.
The case's good, now it's time to plan the build. No turbo button and speed display rules out 486 and earlier for me (besides I've already done such builds). I've been itching for a nice P1 build for quite some time (since a friend came over, he tried to play Blood on my 5x86 rig and it ran a bit slow). I was going to use yet another generic AT tower case but now I think this case should be the one for it. Its overall footprint is smaller than a similar tower case which is good news for my small spare desk, and besides it looks very period accurate (maybe because it is period accurate! 😁).
I have lots of Socket 7 hardware lying around which I need to go through in order to find the best overall components, no doubt I'll be asking you guys for opinions and advice on component choices. 😉
I'm eager to get a nice P1 system running on this case. Being used to tower cases on my home computers, there's something charming about desktop cases for me, probably because I saw them at school so I associate them with my childhood. Now that I think of it, they weren't really intended for school children, I remember having to look up at the screen since it ended so high up on top of the case and putting up with neck pains because of it. Maybe now that I've grown up they'll become usable. 😜