VOGONS


First post, by appiah4

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It's almost impossible to find a decent horizontal AT/ATX beige case for a vintage build, I've been trying for 2 years and it's been a no go.

So a small project I have is to find a cheap but good condition OEM PC with a horizontal full ATX case that has support for full size ISA/PCI cards and mount an AT motherboard in there, make it a reverse sleeper build, so to speak.. So you have something like an ordinary looking HP Duron case but there is a 486 in there, or something.

The problem is, I have no experience with the layout inside any of these. I'm fairly certain the small form factor and particularly tight ones will be an issue but most early P4 era ones should be suitable?

Have you done anything of the kind before and is there any specific case better suited for the purpose?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 1 of 6, by dr.ido

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IBM NetVista A40? I've got a couple in white, I've also seen them in black. Most of them are pretty uninteresting early S478 pentium 4s. One I found has already been upgraded with an AMD AM3 board. I guess you could got the other way.

M8TzFSw.jpg

Reply 2 of 6, by Aragorn

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The primary issue with smaller, neater ATX cases is they tend to be MicroATX.

That netvista for instance is very likely microatx given its dimensions?

Many Full ATX chassis will have all the mounting holes for AT motherboards already and the board will simply bolt right in, but you end up with some wasted space where the IO sheild goes. Theres a few sellers on ebay selling "modern" ATX chassis that are proported to take AT boards. eg:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Full-size- … 6NT7hNXCczaiyiw

that even apprears to have an IO shield with an AT hole for the keyboard.

Reply 4 of 6, by appiah4

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That is exactly what I need, except I don't live in UK or anywhere that seller could ship at a reasonable cost..

I've found one of these for just 10 bucks, with all the hardware (PSU, P4 motherboard/cpu, RAM and drives) and I guess it could make a good home for a mATX Socket 370 build with an ISA sound card as a fast DOS PC. The PSU appears to be ATX and the case looks like it would accomodate any mATX motherboard.

P-201.jpg

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 5 of 6, by shiva2004

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Yes, it will acomodate a mATX motherboard without problem, I used one for some time, it's a very sturdy case and I love how it looks.

You'll have to rewire the front panel connectors, the front USBs cord is very short and and you'll have to either modify the rear i/o shield or dremel the case a bit in this area, apart from that no problem 🤣

Reply 6 of 6, by appiah4

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Any other cases that fit the bill? Any of the newer HP or Siemens computers maybe?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.