thought the same and thanks guys. part of me wants to clean up the outside and modernize the inside What do you think? Modern PSU, more modern AT style motherboard? Socket 5? Nothing inside is intresting. Its a 286, motherboard with a 386 cpu and no coprosesor.

Warlord wrote on 2022-03-21, 15:44:

thought the same and thanks guys. part of me wants to clean up the outside and modernize the inside What do you think? Modern PSU, more modern AT style motherboard? Socket 5? Nothing inside is intresting. Its a 286, motherboard with a 386 cpu and no coprosesor.

What do you mean by 286 with 386 cpu?

Yeah, 386sx16 on a 286 chipset or $300 upgrade board you're about to trash? 🤣

Well I managed to pick up some old weather graphics systems from my new job, but I was really only able to put one together in the end.

Both are at style Pentium machines, and after finding a second case for the one on the right, I was able to get one up and running. I’ve salvaged what I can, but the cases two cases you see here are going to get Recycled.

But hey, I ended up with a Matrox Mystique, a p133, 32 MB of EDO, and a somewhat passable on the inside case that has a MHz display.

I can't seem to find anything anymore.. I'm switching jobs though, very probably maybe somethings will land in my lap when my new colleagues learn of my quirky collection 😀

BetaC wrote on 2022-03-21, 17:42:

I’ve salvaged what I can, but the cases two cases you see here are going to get Recycled.

Recycling AT cases? Are you nuts?
Those sell for a premium these days.

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-03-21, 18:18:

BetaC wrote on 2022-03-21, 17:42:

I’ve salvaged what I can, but the cases two cases you see here are going to get Recycled.

Recycling AT cases? Are you nuts?
Those sell for a premium these days.

Or just give 'm away to someone for free...

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-03-21, 18:18:

BetaC wrote on 2022-03-21, 17:42:

I’ve salvaged what I can, but the cases two cases you see here are going to get Recycled.

Recycling AT cases? Are you nuts?
Those sell for a premium these days.

pan069 wrote on 2022-03-21, 20:02:

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-03-21, 18:18:

BetaC wrote on 2022-03-21, 17:42:

I’ve salvaged what I can, but the cases two cases you see here are going to get Recycled.

Recycling AT cases? Are you nuts?
Those sell for a premium these days.

Or just give 'm away to someone for free...

Yes, I agree. These cases do look nice 😀

I was completely unaware of the case market, 🤣.

I've seen empty AT cases sell for 40€ on Ebay.
And yellowed beige ATX cases for 20€.

BetaC wrote on 2022-03-21, 23:35:

I was completely unaware of the case market, 🤣.

It's a thing, yes.
45 € is merely the highest auction I'd know of, BIN are bordering three figures.
Even old ATX ones like the In-Win A500 sell for 50+ in auctions.

I'd say it's rather simple. Cases are bulky and heavy. In Germany at least, you pay quite a premium for shipping anything over 2 kg with the semi-monopolist former federal postal service. Many keep or sell the board, discard the rest.

InWin A500 is the best ATX case ever made. I wish I had one 🤣

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-22, 11:09:

InWin A500 is the best ATX case ever made. I wish I had one 🤣

It probably is the best mini tower.
I had to buy a complete PIII-500 to get mine. Kind of defeats the purpose of buying a case, but what can you do?
(the auction that I archived here was from two years ago and 68 € for the case alone, no PSU, in OK condition. Pretty sure I didn't pay more than 30 for that PIII, few years earlier.)

Still glad I kept my Q500 since 1999...

I don't own any vintage cases at all and I'm very envious of those who do. They are very attractive, especially the Baby AT cases. I don't think I'll ever own one, however. Since I don't collect or own any AT motherboards to fit into one anyways.

I suspect the shortage is due to collectors everywhere hoarding them in their basements.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-22, 12:09:

I don't own any vintage cases at all and I'm very envious of those who do. They are very attractive, especially the Baby AT cases. I don't think I'll ever own one, however. Since I don't collect or own any AT motherboards to fit into one anyways.

Oh, you can perfectly well fit an ATX SS7 board into, say, a 1994 Highscreen 08/15 series AT desktop and then go on to use that as a warez server in a back room of your university, providing Futurama downloads to your friends along with the number to a privileged, free dial-up connection, until you get busted. In theory.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-22, 12:09:

I suspect the shortage is due to collectors everywhere hoarding them in their basements.

Oh dear. I may have difficulties to explain to some muggle the subtle difference between "hoarder" and "connaisseur/collector" but the heap is nowhere near that.
Also, don't ever just hoard this one:

That might be the best full height AT desktop out there, at least a common one. Very cleand design for ca. 1990 and really tinker friendly.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-22, 12:27:

That might be the best full height AT desktop out there, at least a common one. Very cleand design for ca. 1990 and really tinker friendly.

Ah. The Moretec case... IMO it's pretty horrible. Thin sheet metal, hard to fit the 3,5" FDD each time when you remove the top cover. I had several over the years (and I still have one machine in this case). And I don't like them at all. Moretec also had slightly different design of this case which is a bit better.
The three desktops above it are much better - simply because they have split design with top cover on hinges. A must for 286/386 desktop case if you ask me 😁

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-22, 12:09:

I don't own any vintage cases at all and I'm very envious of those who do. They are very attractive, especially the Baby AT cases. I don't think I'll ever own one, however. Since I don't collect or own any AT motherboards to fit into one anyways.

I suspect the shortage is due to collectors everywhere hoarding them in their basements.

aDiH4cw.jpeg

Seeing this photo now, it feels like seeing a Pamela Anderson poster 20 years ago... 😀 Am I getting old, or what...?

HanJammer wrote on 2022-03-22, 12:33:

Ah. The Moretec case... IMO it's pretty horrible. Thin sheet metal, hard to fit the 3,5" FDD each time when you remove the top cover. I had several over the years (and I still have one machine in this case). And I don't like them at all. Moretec also had slightly different design of this case which is a bit better.

It has a name?!? Wow.
It's not perfect but at least it doesn't look like China's revenge for colonialism like most of the era. It's an exterior, design matters.
Yes, there's the minor FDD issue to fumble in the cover and the major one that you'd have to remove it to fix the 5.25 units 😜
But, the cover is self-contained and doesn't really need to be screwed shut to work and stay in place. So, instant access to all the front installations and nice for mainboard operations.
Metal thickness is neither a bug nor a feature - I've a mini tower which truly is top notch, but weight about as much as a T-34/76. Also, utter pain to get the cover right, takes forever.

HanJammer wrote on 2022-03-22, 12:33:

The three desktops above it are much better - simply because they have split design with top cover on hinges. A must for 286/386 desktop case if you ask me 😁

- that's why I wrote "common one" - those with hinges, almost unobtainable by now, in comparison.

bearking wrote on 2022-03-22, 12:38:

Seeing this photo now, it feels like seeing a Pamela Anderson poster 20 years ago... 😀 Am I getting old, or what...?

Naaaaah. Old is what you would feel seeing a recent Pamela Anderson poster today!

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-22, 11:09:

InWin A500 is the best ATX case ever made. I wish I had one 🤣

My vote would go to the AOpen H600A 😀
I'm not a huge fan of the InWin A500, even though they definitely have their place as these were kinda the first ATX cases that became common (during the Slot 1 era).

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-22, 12:09:

I don't own any vintage cases at all and I'm very envious of those who do. They are very attractive, especially the Baby AT cases. I don't think I'll ever own one, however. Since I don't collect or own any AT motherboards to fit into one anyways.

I suspect the shortage is due to collectors everywhere hoarding them in their basements.

aDiH4cw.jpeg

No, the shortage is a multiple of factors.
- Age is one as back then not many people were purposefully keeping their old hardware. Older computers were really seen as junk, paperweights, trash, obsolete (as in why-would-you-use-smoke-signals-if-you-can-just-use-ur-modern-phone? obsolete).
- They are incompatible with ATX, so people tended to get rid of them as they are useless without an AT motherboard (unless you made a flower pot out of one or something)
- They are big! They are called minitowers but they sure as heck won't fit into any cupboard that easily! 😜
- To a lesser extend: They are mostly just metal, and thus could be send to the old iron guy where PCBs were considered more to be chemical waste.
- Recyclemania started to happen
- They are just clone junk, nobody wants that old junk it's Acorns and Amigas, ZX Spectrums, old Macs and Ataris that are interesting, this is booooring clone hardware! There's already millions of those, why keep it? You can always just get another one on eeebay, these will never get rare!
- Because of their physical dimensions, these are not easy or cheap to package and send to someone by post. Most (non-new) cases I got later I had to pick up myself as it would often be people who would want cheapz for it, but pick up yourself or tomorrow it's going to the dump.

Be thankful for the collectors for not tossing these out, or you'd need to smelt metal and then forge one yourself as your only option to get one today 😜
I can even give myself as an example. I don't have this many AT cases but I can assure you every single AT minitower I got would have gone to the eternal hunting fields if I hadn't dumpsterdived them and cycled 15km home with one tied to the back of my bike 😜