VOGONS


Looking for a beige case

Topic actions

First post, by Virtue

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi there, This is my first post, so I apologise. 30-something geeky guy here, obsessed with Doom, built my first PC when I was 12 😀

I'm currently building a mid range sleeper PC (i7 6700k, 8gb RAM, GeForce 730, 1tb HDD) and im looking for a suitably 90s beige ATX midi-tower case. Now, I already have 3, one used in an active late model Pentium 4 machine, one in an unused early pentium 4 and a spare one which I can potentially use now. however they all lack that 90s edge you know?

I live in the UK and from my extensive ebay trawl they are really getting hard to find, especially those cases where they transitioned from AT to ATX, Im willing to trade (I have some spare AGP graphics cards, loads or ram, and even a few ISA cards, a Soundblaster 16 in particular) or spend maybe up to £50 getting the right case. I'm tempted to even try modify an AT case to suit my purpose but I have no experience on how to do that, id LOVE one of those front LED panels though!

Sorry for the long post, and this is a really great forum btw 😀

Reply 1 of 36, by SW-SSG

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Virtue wrote:

... however they all lack that 90s edge you know?

What sort of "edge" do we mean, here? Does something like the AOpen HX45 carry this "edge"?

Reply 2 of 36, by Virtue

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
SW-SSG wrote:
Virtue wrote:

... however they all lack that 90s edge you know?

What sort of "edge" do we mean, here? Does something like the AOpen HX45 carry this "edge"?

funny you mention that case... the currently unused pentium 4 machine is in that very case! Because i have the shell style version im worried about airflow using it, although i might consider it if i can get enough cooling somehow.

I also have the AOpen H500A which im currently using.

I kinda want something with more....slats? on the front, either vertically or horizontally.

I'm guessing the HX45 is a well known case?

Reply 4 of 36, by Virtue

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
WildW wrote:

Have you looked at any of the offerings from Evercase? http://www.evercase.co.uk/Cases.htm

I've seen them but theyre a bit too modern looking.

Id preferably want something with an LED speed indicator like this:

Vintage-Desktop-Computer-Retro-PC-Case-AT.jpg

or even get hold of the case I saw one of you guys buy NOS from:

IMG_2588-1500px.jpg

Reply 5 of 36, by Neco

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Virtue wrote:
I've seen them but theyre a bit too modern looking. […]
Show full quote
WildW wrote:

Have you looked at any of the offerings from Evercase? http://www.evercase.co.uk/Cases.htm

I've seen them but theyre a bit too modern looking.

Id preferably want something with an LED speed indicator like this:

Vintage-Desktop-Computer-Retro-PC-Case-AT.jpg

or even get hold of the case I saw one of you guys buy NOS from:

IMG_2588-1500px.jpg

Oh man, I had a mid-tower version of that first one. It was the first AT style tower I ever owned. 😊

Reply 6 of 36, by tayyare

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Virtue wrote:
WildW wrote:

Have you looked at any of the offerings from Evercase? http://www.evercase.co.uk/Cases.htm

I've seen them but theyre a bit too modern looking.

Id preferably want something with an LED speed indicator like this: ...

Unfortunatelly, both of the cases you shown to us are AT cases. To say the truth, I never seen ATX cases with speed indicators before, so even if they exist, they should probably be rare.

LED speed indicators were a thing of 386 / 486 era. They were already a rare species during Pentium times, as far as I can remember, and ATX started with late pentiums.

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000

Reply 7 of 36, by MCGA

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

There's these on Amazon:
Mid tower

Full Tower

Both are AT and look similar to the towers I owned back then with a turbo and LED.

Reply 8 of 36, by tayyare

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
MCGA wrote:
There's these on Amazon: Mid tower […]
Show full quote

There's these on Amazon:
Mid tower

Full Tower

Both are AT and look similar to the towers I owned back then with a turbo and LED.

Virtue asks for an ATX case, both tof these are AT cases

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000

Reply 9 of 36, by Virtue

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
tayyare wrote:
MCGA wrote:
There's these on Amazon: Mid tower […]
Show full quote

There's these on Amazon:
Mid tower

Full Tower

Both are AT and look similar to the towers I owned back then with a turbo and LED.

Virtue asks for an ATX case, both tof these are AT cases

I mean I know its tricky but its been done before: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/vCHNnQ

Reply 10 of 36, by tayyare

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Virtue wrote:

I mean I know its tricky but its been done before: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/vCHNnQ

Wow, very nice workmanship, I loved it!

This is an ATX case though 🤣

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000

Reply 11 of 36, by Virtue

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
tayyare wrote:
Virtue wrote:

I mean I know its tricky but its been done before: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/vCHNnQ

Wow, very nice workmanship, I loved it!

This is an ATX case though 🤣

no he had an old IBM case from 1995 and chopped it all up 😜 this is how it used to look compared to now:

164785.ed3eaa2d141e30be2d14004680d7c8f8.ea5cbf8fef8a330f5b2a7d4d374f1516.1600.jpg

I intend to be less drastic and use the fascia off an old case and line the internals up on an ATX case.

Reply 12 of 36, by MCGA

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
tayyare wrote:

Virtue asks for an ATX case, both tof these are AT cases

I had the X filter enabled in my browser. But it's off now. 😒

Reply 13 of 36, by MCGA

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Virtue wrote:

I mean I know its tricky but its been done before: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/vCHNnQ

I forgot about that guy. I was drooling over the Floppy mod he made.

At least with those AT cases, they're big enough you could get around having to drill too many if any holes to get a modern motherboard in.

Personally, I'm at a point I'm thinking about painting my black Corsair 540 a couple of shades of beige.

*** EDIT sorry, I should have put this and the above post together. **

Reply 14 of 36, by Virtue

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

yeah I'm after a Midi case as I bought a standard ATX MoBo, bigger case, better airflow and also since I intend to have all the legacy devices functional, i picked a motherboard with standard PCI slots still available (yes, they do exist), I chose this board: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z170-HD3P-rev-10. My build is a mid range multimedia/gaming rig so ive gone with a i7 6700k and 8gb of ram (upgradable).

My plan ifi can manage it is to use the fascia off an old 90s AT case and line up the bays with the current case I have, I know it can be done as the bays inside are fully removable so i can play around with the measurements 😀 Or if i really wanted i can try the dremel route, i have access to power tools 😀

Reply 15 of 36, by MCGA

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Just a thought, maybe in a larger AT case even, you could use PCI extenders to take advantage of some of the slots.

But I'd imagine there would need to be enough room for the board and something(wood) that could help support the card in the slot with just an extender.

Dremels are fun! I've used mine to mod an old case and help build a cargo trailer.

Reply 16 of 36, by 0kool

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Virtue wrote:
https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/173353371672_/Vintage-Desktop-Computer-Retro-PC-Case-AT.jpg […]
Show full quote

Vintage-Desktop-Computer-Retro-PC-Case-AT.jpg

Interesting, I have the exact same case, but after taking off the label and founding it to be pearly white underneath I dismissed it as yellowed. Is this it's original color?

Reply 17 of 36, by Virtue

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

That isnt my case 🤣, it was just an image i found online so im not sure

Reply 18 of 36, by tayyare

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Virtue wrote:
tayyare wrote:
Virtue wrote:

I mean I know its tricky but its been done before: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/vCHNnQ

Wow, very nice workmanship, I loved it!

This is an ATX case though 🤣

no he had an old IBM case from 1995 and chopped it all up 😜 this is how it used to look compared to now:

I intend to be less drastic and use the fascia off an old case and line the internals up on an ATX case.

Wow, thats not just chopping up, he created the complete back side from scratch. I'm amazed 😲

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000

Reply 19 of 36, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Virtue wrote:

I mean I know its tricky but its been done before: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/vCHNnQ

That is heresy.