It is Western Design Center 😜
I got a WD90C30 not so long ago and it is very good, the fastest ISA video card I have, sligtly faster than the TVGA8900D I was using earlier in one of my machines.

Haven't picked up anything in a while, but today I rescued this Gateway tower on the hope that it might fit my Gateway/ALR 7200 server board. It's missing the top piece of plastic (big whoop) but is otherwise in great shape. I'll have to dremel out the I/O shield area (there's no shield, the ports are just stamped into the case) unless I get extraordinarily lucky, and almost certainly have to remove the internal 3.5" HDD bays, but if it fits I'm not complaining.

The board extends past the top of the I/O shield area which makes it incompatible with 95% of standard cases. This is the first one I've come across in ages that actually gives me some room up there.

I also snagged this Chicony-built Samsung keyboard. No idea what it came from, but it feels (& sounds) like a buckling spring(!) or some other kind of mechanical mechanism, and it has an AT/XT switch on the bottom, so I figured it was worth grabbing. The cable was cut off but I can fix that easily.

Tiido wrote:

It is Western Design Center :P ...

Wrong, it actually is Western Digital.

They were a much more interesting and varied company before they switched to specializing in HDDs... kind of like how AMD was before they became CPUs-only.

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again?
The painted cover is fine, but all shiny parts inside and outside have corrosion like this.
Or should I just throw the case in the bin?

Baoran wrote:

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again? The painted cover is f […]
Show full quote

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again?
The painted cover is fine, but all shiny parts inside and outside have corrosion like this.
Or should I just throw the case in the bin?

case1.jpg

I know a guy who just did amazing metal restoration work for me on a furniture piece. Let me see what he says about that photo before you toss it.

He said, "if he's going to try to restore it I would say light soap and a very fine stainless steel wire brush...and test it in an unseen area first..."

he also said "be gentle" not too hard.

SW-SSG wrote:

Tiido wrote:

It is Western Design Center 😜 ...

Wrong, it actually is Western Digital.

They were a much more interesting and varied company before they switched to specializing in HDDs... kind of like how AMD was before they became CPUs-only.

Oh wow, now I know. Somehow I remember that logo being of WDC, who made the 65x line CPUs and I assumed they were doing these chips too (but seems they only do CPUs). And WDC's logo is completely different too...

liqmat wrote:

I know a guy who just did amazing metal restoration work for me on a furniture piece. Let me see what he says about that photo b […]
Show full quote

Baoran wrote:

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again? The painted cover is f […]
Show full quote

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again?
The painted cover is fine, but all shiny parts inside and outside have corrosion like this.
Or should I just throw the case in the bin?

case1.jpg

I know a guy who just did amazing metal restoration work for me on a furniture piece. Let me see what he says about that photo before you toss it.

He said, "if he's going to try to restore it I would say light soap and a very fine stainless steel wire brush...and test it in an unseen area first..."

he also said "be gentle" not too hard.

Something like this? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WIRE-BRUSH-SET-SMA … PC/323513080554

Would a dremel with polish tip do anything? I might be able to borrow one.

I would not dremel anything to start. start slow and easy in a small area by hand. as far as the type of brush I would experiment on another piece of metal and see. luckily i haven't had to deal with something quite that oxidized yet.

Maybe try and get hold of some of that super-fine wire wool used by wood restorers (works great on metals too)

Baoran wrote:

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again? The painted cover is f […]
Show full quote

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again?
The painted cover is fine, but all shiny parts inside and outside have corrosion like this.
Or should I just throw the case in the bin?

case1.jpg

Sand blasting and recoating (electroplating - hard, or painting - easier) is the only realiable way. Maybe some auto repair shop can help you with that.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote:

Maybe try and get hold of some of that super-fine wire wool used by wood restorers (works great on metals too)

#000 or #0000 grade is pretty fine. If the steel was originally galvanized, you might have to apply another finish (maybe clearcoat) when you're done.

Baoran wrote:

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again? The painted cover is f […]
Show full quote

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again?
The painted cover is fine, but all shiny parts inside and outside have corrosion like this.
Or should I just throw the case in the bin?

case1.jpg

I would just sand it down with fine grit sand paper then spray paint it with an appropriate mettallic paint.

It might be an aluminum case and not steel one because it is rather light if it makes difference in how I should deal with it with it.

Baoran wrote:

It might be an aluminum case and not steel one because it is rather light if it makes difference in how I should deal with it with it.

It's not aliminum, I'm sure it's zinc plated steel. The zinc plating göne bad.

xjas wrote:

Haven't picked up anything in a while, but today I rescued this Gateway tower on the hope that it might fit my Gateway/ALR 7200 server board. It's missing the top piece of plastic (big whoop) but is otherwise in great shape. I'll have to dremel out the I/O shield area (there's no shield, the ports are just stamped into the case) unless I get extraordinarily lucky, and almost certainly have to remove the internal 3.5" HDD bays, but if it fits I'm not complaining.

It must be the season for getting rid of that specific era Gateway. I recently got two, one of which I intend to house a PPro board (rather anachronistically). The other one is fully functional and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.

mmm gateways! I wish I could land a Gateway 2000 again for not $494047583

tayyare wrote:

Baoran wrote:

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again? The painted cover is f […]
Show full quote

Is there anything that can be done about all this corrosion on this AT case to make it more shiny again?
The painted cover is fine, but all shiny parts inside and outside have corrosion like this.
Or should I just throw the case in the bin?

case1.jpg

Sand blasting and recoating (electroplating - hard, or painting - easier) is the only realiable way. Maybe some auto repair shop can help you with that.

Agree with this advise.
Drilling and sanding etc. of oxidized zinc plated stuff presents a potential hazard to your health - at least that is what I seem to remember.
It's a nice case and worth having it restored in a professional way imo.

Remember kids, safety first.

End of year clear outs = Christmas for me

Didn't get a pic of before but stripped out a pair of faulty HP 3135 Micro Towers

Grabbed the SATA DVD-RW, 500GB HDD, USB Card reader, chipset heatsinks from both and a PSU from one of them, also grabbed the 90mm case fans for one of my cases only to find I need 80mm

More interesting is from another site where I scored 4 servers in total

DL140 G2 Single 2.8GHz CPU, 1GB RAM (unracked not in pic)
DL360 G4 Single 3.40Ghz CPU, 3GB Ram
DL360 G5 Fails to POST (unracked not in pic, probably BECASUE its dead)

Could only get one of the Dell 1950's as the other is acting as a shelf, Still grabbed its CPU+Heatsink, RAM, PSU from it. Didn't bother with the HDD's as only 80GB
Annoying thing is the one I got fails to post due to a controller error, probably fixable but wish I checked if the other worked and used the faulty one for parts.

No plans yet they'll join my other post P3 era servers in long term storage

chinny22 wrote:

End of year clear outs = Christmas for me […]
Show full quote

End of year clear outs = Christmas for me

Didn't get a pic of before but stripped out a pair of faulty HP 3135 Micro Towers

Grabbed the SATA DVD-RW, 500GB HDD, USB Card reader, chipset heatsinks from both and a PSU from one of them, also grabbed the 90mm case fans for one of my cases only to find I need 80mm

More interesting is from another site where I scored 4 servers in total

DL140 G2 Single 2.8GHz CPU, 1GB RAM (unracked not in pic)
DL360 G4 Single 3.40Ghz CPU, 3GB Ram
DL360 G5 Fails to POST (unracked not in pic, probably BECASUE its dead)

Could only get one of the Dell 1950's as the other is acting as a shelf, Still grabbed its CPU+Heatsink, RAM, PSU from it. Didn't bother with the HDD's as only 80GB
Annoying thing is the one I got fails to post due to a controller error, probably fixable but wish I checked if the other worked and used the faulty one for parts.

No plans yet they'll join my other post P3 era servers in long term storage

What does the big red dial in the yellow shroud on the wall do? 😀

My best guess is it opens a time portal, but please correct me if I'm wrong.