I know for a fact that most coolermaster cases still fit a AT board. You'll have to fabricate your own backplate/bracket for the keyboard plug. If you're lucky and its a later generation AT board it will accept power from an ATX supply. If not, you're going to have to either MOD a modern ATX PSU or run an old AT PSU. Either way you will have to mod your on/off switch in your new case to accomodate the old mechanical switch design. Good luck either way.

Thanks for the info Gravitone - I'm happy to create an I/O Backplate with a single hole for the keyboard and I know the mobo won't take the ATX power so the adaptor will sort that side of things. I need to know a bit more about what the modding of the PSU/Case Power Button entails. I'll have a look at some Coolermasters and maybe contact them to confirm the fit (still waiting on NZXT to get back). Is there a Coolermaster case you had in mind when you posted?

I'm not sure if I completely understand the issue about modding a PSU/and its power button, but if you get one of these cheap gadgets:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt … em=130394850023

, then you are good to go with any ATX PSU.

Hi Retro thank for the reply - that adaptor is just the ticket for connecting the ATX PSU to the AT MOBO but I was wondering how I get the power button on a modern ATX case which connects to the pins on an ATX MOBO to work with an AT PSU. My modern power button will have the wrong connection for the old school AT PSU Power Button wire.

hargcore wrote:

Hi Retro thank for the reply - that adaptor is just the ticket for connecting the ATX PSU to the AT MOBO but I was wondering how I get the power button on a modern ATX case which connects to the pins on an ATX MOBO to work with an AT PSU. My modern power button will have the wrong connection for the old school AT PSU Power Button wire.

I need to double-check a few things, just to make certain I understand. Firstly, in your O.P, you said - "I have an ATX PSU and cable adaptor to AT ready." So, you may already have some kind of adaptor similar to that one in the ebay listing mentioned above. Let's say it's different, and the one in the ebay listing is your best choice. In that ebay listing, you see the push button thing, right in the middle of all those wires? All it does is go in if you press it, and go out if you press it again. It's been a while since I actually assembled an ATX based case, but isn't the power button on those cases just a piece of plastic that depresses inward inside the case a few centimetres when you push your finger on it? If that's all it is, then when you push that bit of plastic in (the ATX power button on the ATX case), then it will push in to that push-button mentioned in the ebay listing, and thus will switch on the power to the ATX PSU. I hope I'm not going off on an erroneous tangent here!

That made me laugh! You aren't on an erroneous tangent it's the greenhorn here who is. I haven't got that adaptor I have this one:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/24-pin-20-ATX-Power-Sup … =item518a9df29f

I'll get the one you posted.

I didn't realise the Power Button Off cable on that adaptor was actually a pressable button in itself - It looked like a male connection to some weird port I had never seen the like of.

You've cleared that up for me thanks!

They ebay auction mentions "No power switch" so you might want to take a look around for another one. I have a coolermaster centurion (original)that has the AT holes, and I'm not 100% sure but I think the centurion 5 has them as well.

gravitone wrote:

They ebay auction mentions "No power switch" so you might want to take a look around for another one.

The auction title says "... with switch". It's the correct one to buy. I've bought this exact item from the same seller in the past, and it works 100%. Recommended. 😀

retro games 100 wrote:

gravitone wrote:

They ebay auction mentions "No power switch" so you might want to take a look around for another one.

The auction title says "... with switch". It's the correct one to buy. I've bought this exact item from the same seller in the past, and it works 100%. Recommended. 😀

I can confirm, those are great! Only thing is it won't work in AT cases that use a rocker type switch. Not a problem for you anyway since you won't be using it.

Btw, wouldn't it be easier for him to get one without the button? Not sure if it exists but wouldn't it be possible to create such adapters that have the power_good always on so the PSU turns on as soon as the back switch is hit?
Those AT motherboards don't -need- a hard power switch, all they need is power to flow through it's circuits.

Edit:Why not use the plain ATX2AT adapter and have all switches as if it's a normal ATX board in his case?
There seems no point in getting the adapter with the switch if he's not gonna be using it anyway, right?

and I'm not 100% sure but I think the centurion 5 has them as well.

Yeah, mine has 'em. It's an older production one, but I don't think they changed 'em very much over the years, so I'd assume newer ones are the same.

There's a couple caveats with most modern cases, though. First of all, the compatibility doesn't include full-length Baby-AT boards... but the 'half-size' ones like the 486SP3 are fine. Secondly, long expansion cards are out. That still leaves you with plenty of options, including most VLB cards, but don't be expecting to fit an AWE32 or GUS MAX or anything like that in there.

Hi Tetrium, I do want to use the front ATX power button to turn the computer on rather than having it turn on and off from the PSU power switch and my understanding is that I'll need to place the AT power button cable on the adapter behind the ATX power switch then when I press that it will in turn press the button on the cable and power on the machine. I am now wondering about the Reset and Turbo buttons though..

Thrashbarg thanks for the warning - I don't think my cards are paticularly big. An SCC-1 and a Hercules ET4000 can't see these being a problem (length-wise at least):
http://personal.inet.fi/peli/militarist/pics/SCC1.JPG
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/med … 00-W32P-VLB.jpg

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

... Secondly, long expansion cards are out. That still leaves you with plenty of options, including most VLB cards, but don't be expecting to fit an AWE32 or GUS MAX or anything like that in there.

Actually, there is a way around this problem. I've done it and it works, although it's "messy". Looking at the photo of the case from the O.P, that metal rectangular shaped thing on right hand side - you can slice through it with a "junior metal hacksaw", and then bend the sliced metal away, so as to make room for large expansion cards. It takes a bit of effort, but I've managed to get full length cards in successfully to cases very similar to this one.

Some modern ATX cases also allow you to remove the harddrive cage!

hargcore wrote:

... I am now wondering about the Reset and Turbo buttons though..

For the reset button, I think you'll be OK. Simply take the PC case's built in reset button cable, and plug it on to the 486 mobo's reset pins. As for the turbo button, I'm not sure about this. That's an on/off state thing, unlike the reset button. Any ideas please people?

Use a jumper?

Or build something that will go in a drive bay. Like taking the cover of a 5 1/4 drive cover, drill a few holes, fit some buttons...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Some modern ATX cases also allow you to remove the harddrive cage!

Yes some do. Hehe, but some don't. Including the ones I had! 😀 Generally speaking, the more expensive the case is, the more likely you can remove the hard drive cage.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Use a jumper?

A jumper would solve the immediate problem of setting the turbo state to On. However, a jumper would not allow the user to set the turbo state to Off (or On again), by using a switch on the case. The user would need to open the case, and remove the jumper, etc..

Yea or leave the case open 24/7 like most of us do 😀

On my 486DX4 100 machine (when I was a kid) I put 2 switches onto the front of the case. 1 switch was for setting the bus speed and the other one for the multi. I could configure the machine from DX2-50 all the way to a DX4-120 (though that setting wasn't stable...)

I am pretty sure the cpu was AMD though and I still remember the BIOS as it had mouse support and it looked like a windows desktop.

It was a good machine, very fast and would fly through Doom and all the extra levels. I believe it was VLB and I was quite surprised to read in this forum that VLB was quite unstable, because I didn't have any issues.

hargcore wrote:

Hi Tetrium, I do want to use the front ATX power button to turn the computer on rather than having it turn on and off from the PSU power switch and my understanding is that I'll need to place the AT power button cable on the adapter behind the ATX power switch then when I press that it will in turn press the button on the cable and power on the machine. I am now wondering about the Reset and Turbo buttons though..

I'm not sure if that's possible with non-ATX AT boards. ATX PSU's turn on once they receive the power_good signal but, since AT boards don't support that, the best I can think of is to have the power_good signal always "on". That would however mean that flipping the PSU powerswitch will turn it on. Dunno if it's possible to have the front button do that with one of the standard adapters.
Otoh, theres nothing from stopping you to somehow wire the power_good signal to a switch on the front.
I just don't know if the PSU will need to have the power_good signal always on (meaning, if it looses the signal, will the PSU shut down?).

Also theres the paperclip trick that RG100 mentioned, but that would also mean it'll power on once you flip the powerswitch.

Ofcourse you could always have the power cable plugged in one of those standard 'boxes' which often have a switch of their own.
Something like this:

Edit:I never leave my case open! ...unless it's one of my testing rigs.
Other then that, some of my other testing hardware don't have a case atall! 😜 They are stored in a kiwi box and put on the bench when I need them 😜