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Little Voodoo (cardboard) Box [P1] + 486 with small DIY AT case

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First post, by adalbert

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Hello, here is my "wonderful" setup i would like to describe.

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It is a J-TX 98B "superTX" mainboard, with SiS 5598 chipset. Integrated graphics (disabled due to poor DOS compatibility and performance issues), and integrated sound with great compatibility - CMI8330 (uses ISA bus).

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Currently I'm using it with:
Pentium MMX 200,
64MB SDRAM,
S3 Trio,
Voodoo1 4MB,
Realtek PCI network card,
2GB CF card,
Pico-ATX type power supply (12V), with self-made -5V voltage coverter.

It has Windows 95 OSR2 installed. I think that it's overall a nice representation of mid-1997 gaming PC, using a very small form factor.

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Internal power supply is connected to external power-brick, which is rated at 60W, and that's plenty of power - the power usage is very low.

You can see that the video cards are connected with PCI riser cables, so they can be in horizontal position. And a very small PCI network card is plugged underneath.
These cards are isolated with a sheet of polystyrene, to avoid shorts.

Here you can see that setup with its wings unfolded 😜

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That case made of box is actually kind of a prototype, because I want to construct a proper miniature case using sheets of plastic and 3D printed parts. Here is a visualisation I made some time ago, and scale compared to typical AT case. It will also contain slim/laptop type FDD and CD drive.

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I already managed to create an open-type ATX case with CD, FDD and HDD (2.5"), and I will need to think how to attach some sides to it, so it can be used in both horizontal and vertical positions.

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Last edited by adalbert on 2016-05-22, 10:33. Edited 1 time in total.

Repair/electronic stuff videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/adalbertfix
ISA Wi-fi + USB in T3200SXC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX30t3lYezs
GUI programming for Windows 3.11 (the easy way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6L272OApVg

Reply 3 of 7, by adalbert

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All right, I didn't make anything new with that Voodoo box, but I'm actually working on a similar project, and that is a small AT tower-style case, which actually can accept regular PCI and ISA cards without using additional risers. I am making it out of 3mm HIPS polystyrene (cut by hand) + some 3d printed parts (some construction elements and mainboard standoffs). Currently it holds a small Zida 4DPS mainboard. Here is how it looks like. I need to make a CD-rom holder (slim laptop style), a holder for PSU, a front panel with switches and maybe old-school LED display showing CPU speed.
I think that such small tower-style case might be better than "voodoo box", because it actually takes less place on the desk 😉

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Repair/electronic stuff videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/adalbertfix
ISA Wi-fi + USB in T3200SXC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX30t3lYezs
GUI programming for Windows 3.11 (the easy way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6L272OApVg

Reply 5 of 7, by adalbert

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I am using this: http://aliexpress.com/item/NEWEST-DC-12V-Pico … 64-a63c3e199661

and a self-made ATX to AT adapter. That PSU is rated at 160W but I have seen different ratings for each rail - some sites say it gives 5A for +5V rail, some say it gives 8A.
Actually that PSU is enough for K6-2, Voodoo2 and S3 PCI graphics. With something more powerful it can automatically shutdown, but with ATX mainboard and video card using 3.3V from AGP, it can give more power.
I didn't have any problems with it, but I would like to build some kind of crowbar overvoltage protection, just to be safe.

http://pl.aliexpress.com/item/X1-ATX-180-12V- … 1947462351.html - here is another power supply I have used and that one is actually pretty powerful. I used it with P3 1.4GHz, GF4 Ti and CD/DVD/HDD(2.5").

Repair/electronic stuff videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/adalbertfix
ISA Wi-fi + USB in T3200SXC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX30t3lYezs
GUI programming for Windows 3.11 (the easy way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6L272OApVg

Reply 7 of 7, by adalbert

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I think that there is, probably both over current and overvoltage - because once I mistakenly plugged in 18 volt power supply, instead of 12 volt, and it just didn't let the PC turn on, no smoke or explosions. I think that actually happened with the larger PSU, not that tiny one - but I'm not sure. Probably both have some sort of protection, but I just would like to make additional protection circuit with a thyristor and ordinary fuse, so it will never let excessive voltage hit the precious vintage hardware, no matter what happens. 😜

//update:
that smaller one also has built-in protection - I just tried to run 486 with Voodoo2 SLI and it shut down after about two minutes 😉 definitely too much power. But I guess that it can realistically provide 8 amps @ 5 volts rail.

Repair/electronic stuff videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/adalbertfix
ISA Wi-fi + USB in T3200SXC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX30t3lYezs
GUI programming for Windows 3.11 (the easy way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6L272OApVg

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