Installing a proprietary AT motherboard into an ATX case \ VOGONS

Installing a proprietary AT motherboard into an ATX case

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First post, by Ultris

Posted on 2016-12-01, 15:15

Ultris Offline

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So I have a proprietary Socket 7 motherboard from an Acer Aspire tower circa 1996. It's my only Pentium-era motherboard and I would like to use it for older games. But the Acer Aspire case is both incredibly ugly and fragile. In this regard, I'd like to transfer the motherboard to a much needed beige-box case. The only problem is, like I said, it's proprietary. Instead of having only a few I/O ports with a vast abundance of ISA/PCI slots, there are many onboard ports, which stretch all the way down the motherboard.

I don't want to modify the motherboard like crazy, I want to keep it intact. I am willing to do some rewiring and soldering as long as it's reversible. Is this possible?

This may sound blasphemous to purists or collectors, but it's my only AT Socket 7 motherboard. I'm sure there are some people who won't bash me for this. 😀

Reply 1 of 5, by Deksor

Posted on 2016-12-01, 15:56

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Why not trying to install headers just like the ones that are used for serial and parallel brackets ?

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Reply 2 of 5, by chinny22

Posted on 2016-12-01, 16:05

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Hard to say without seeing the motherboard and case, but I would think its easier to mod the case then the motherboard.
Its far from blasphemous though, been some quite nicely done AT mods here in the past. Smaller bits of hardware store nicely vs large heavy cases.

Reply 3 of 5, by Ultris

Posted on 2016-12-01, 17:03

Ultris Offline

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Deksor wrote:
Why not trying to install headers just like the ones that are used for serial and parallel brackets ?

This seems like the best option. So essentially I would use a bunch of brackets for PS/2, Serial, VGA and Audio. I have dead motherboards that I can desolder certain ports from, and I have a lot of spare video cards and various brackets that I could mount the ports to. It uses a daughter card for ISA/PCI so any video/sound cards that I use will have to be adapted as well.

Reply 4 of 5, by meljor

Posted on 2016-12-01, 20:54

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Just make a case that fits or modify a case. I wouldn't do that to the motherboard, way to much hassle.

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Reply 5 of 5, by beastlike

Posted on 2016-12-01, 22:09

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I'd imagine when they made those old computer cases, they used to punch those port shapes out with a 10-ton punch press or some such device.

Here's a couple options:

1. For a guaranteed perfect fit, you could cut out a rectangular sheet from the original chassis which contains all the ports, and make your own I/O shield out of this piece. I like an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel for this job. It requires a little finishing, but it won't bend the steel like snips will.

2. You could have your own i/o shield made with laser-cut steel - if i'm doing my math right, online at this store http://lasergist.com/ you could do something at 12"x3" at a 1mm thick for like $13. That's thicker than I'd probably want, but maybe there's other shops out there that will do the same thing with 20+ga cold-rolled steel for cheap.

With either of these options, you'd have to mod ur new case. Personally, I'd rather keep the motherboard in tact instead of going through the effort of de-soldering and resoldering leads to all the individual ports, and then still having to work out how you're going to rig each of those ports. But there's definitely pros and cons to each way. Angle grinders are messy. Modding can be tricky.

Could you post pics of the mb and/or the old case?

Good luck!

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