I enjoyed reading your story Nick. I think you have echoed the experience of a lot of forum members. Unfortunately, a lot of our old equipment doesn't usually survive a move or two. This is how I lost my original 286-12 machine from the 80's, an 8086, your exact case, and a few other goodies. I still have my original AMD 486 X5-133 case from Jan 1997 though (shown in the World's Fastest 486 thread on my signature).

I've attached the only photo I can find of your case that I once had. I wasn't taking a picture of the case though; I thought the cat looked strange sitting on it. I did not buy this case new, instead, the university in the year 2000 was upgrading a lot of their lab computers, so I salvaged this one. It had an Intel DX2-66 in it when I got it.

EDIT1: I just realised that my case isn't quite the same as yours. Mine only has two 5.25" bays, whereas yours has three.

EDIT2: Cat is still alive, but is damn old now (15).

Those powerstip boxes were pretty popular back in the day, I remember a couple people that had them. They are still pretty awesome looking today if you ask me. Very nice setup!

Fantastic post mate, and a very familiar story. Sourcing the bits can be very difficult indeed, and very expensive if you're not patient. 4 years though wow, you have more patients than me!

The problem for me has been that once I achieved my goal, I wanted more. Now I have a shed full of old bits; cases, CRT. I hope you're not likewise inflicted.

Thanks all! Yes this case was VERY common back then so I was a bit over confidant thinking it would be an easy find.

The problem for me has been that once I achieved my goal, I wanted more. Now I have a shed full of old bits; cases, CRT. I hope you're not likewise inflicted.

Yes.. I thought it wouldn't be an issue but now that this build is wrapping up, which I thought would have satisfied my hunger, I am now beginning to think of the PC that eventually replaced it, 🤣. There was a 1-2 year gap when I didn't have a PC then I got my older brother into it and we built one each, Circa 97-98.. Its blurry In my mind but I remember, AMD K62 3D now - viper v550 video. I also remember the viper v770. Again, Good Times. Games that we played were Rogue Squadron 3-D, Recoil, Shogo and Incoming....

Ok maybe one more build... 😉

-Nick

That's the thing. You'll eventually want to rebuild all of your favorite computers accurately down to having the video card and sound quirks you can recall.

This is the part where Jorpho jumps in and says "why? life's too short play your games"