Case Mod - In Progress Commodore P.E.T. 2011 - Problems!

Commodore P.E.T. 2011

This is a dream come true

Ever since I first saw a Commodore PET on eBay, I have wanted one. The only thing that has stopped me is MONEY.

Usually only working Commodore PET's come up for sale and then sell for an easy $200 to $300.

THIS TIME I GOT LUCKY!

I finally found a non-working one for just $53!!

Here are the new specs:

AMD Phenom X6 1090T
MSI 870A-G54
MSI R6850 Cyclone
16GB DDR3-1333
64GB SSD
640GB WD Black
650 Watt XFX PSU
Slim DVD


Here's the best part, looking inside





I guess that's me









This slot is already here



Ahhh Yes! Perfect!



I opened the back of the CRT to remove it





The inside is stamped June 20, 1980



Now it's empty

 

I really need a motherboard tray and backplate, so I'll cannibalize this Antec three hundred



Like this:



I'll be needing a USB hub and headphone jack



And the power button too



It dawned on me that I'll have to have the back appear like any modern PC if I want it all to fit in. It's in the back so no one will see it anyway.



I'll obviously still have to clean it up





At the start I realized a few of the parts I wanted all had 6's in them, so in keeping with the 6's:

6 cores
6 gigs
650 watts
64GB
640GB (6Gbps)
6850

870A-G54: This part was actually unintentional, but really funny. (8+7+5+4=24, 2+4=6)

 

I got my processor and board



And I'm modifying my Big Shuriken heatsink



With this awesome 3000rpm beast of a fan



Like this





In a mock up, it appears that my RAM will still fit fine



With the lid closed there's still about three inches of clearance



I bought the MSI Radeon 6850 1GB because the PCB doesn't have an overly large heatshield





Here it is in my dead board



And the lid closesd just fine! :banana:



The best part is having the power connection on the top of the card

 

One thing I had to do was clean the 20 years of filth out of the inside and then riveting the motherboard tray to the frame





Now on to the power supply



The only place I have room for this is where the monitor used to be





But first, I'll have to measure out a place to cut the back of the vent. I want to retain as much of the old backplate as I can



I'll also be thinking of a clean way to add some much needed 21st century ports



To here:



I cleaned up the back edges and painted it all black just as it originally came



I'm not going to have any pretty lights inside the case either so drowning out all the color is important too



I added the AMD 1090T and the 6GB of RAM to the board





And then I secured the 64GB Micro Center SSD and the 640GB Western Digital hard drive to the drive cage



The only place where I'll have room for the drive cage is here in the monitor next to the Power Supply



On to the monitor backplane. I sanded off the rust and then covered the "High Voltage" sticker. This is one of those original pieces I want to preserve



Then I added a thick coat of flat black paint. This will make it match the IO back panel and tie the whole rear together



Once it dried I peeled off the protective tape



This is how it looks before I cut out the PSU spot



My 7-inch Kodak Pulse digital photo frame arrived. I'm using it in the place of a LCD screen. I'd rather have it play images of the build or even Commodore wallpaper instead of a little screen I really can't use anyway



There is just a slight gap around the edges that I will fill later

 

I've been costing out this project and this is how it looks thus far:

Proc...................$200
Mobo..................$65
RAM...................$72
Video.................$190
SSD...................$100
HD.....................$70
PSU....................$95
Frame.................$80
Ext DVD.............Already had it
Card reader.........$16
2.5 to 3.5............$12
Pwr Button..........$3
Heatsink/fan........$55
Windows 7 Pro.....$40!!

Total: $998

These prices are face value and do not account for taxes/shipping fees

 

I got my Silverstone 3.5 inch bay today



Tonight I'll cut out an area right here for it



I got this USB 3.0 extension cable that I'll be adding next to the Power button



For the 3.0 cable I'll route it under the motherboard tray



And out the other side. I'll run the cable outside the back and plug it into the motherboard, just like they do for most 3.0 cases these days



I'm also getting rid of these slot covers



And replacing them with something a little better for ventilation



The open slots will be occupied by the video card and a USB 2.0 PCI card

 

*Flash back* I had that dread sensation when I saw the title .. School... When the PET's arrived, then were promptly nicked that weekend.
Excellent Mod crack on ..

 

Im pretty sure its 30 YEARS not 20 years of filth. I was born in 1980 so i should know its 30 years

great build by the way brings back memories

 

I know it's a small thing, but why, when you're investing so much time, money, effort to this project, did the masking off of this sticker went all wobbly?



I think it's the attention to detail which can really make or break any project.

And don't get me started about the use of a digi-frame for the screen! The next thing you'll be telling us you're not wiring up the keyboard to work!

 

WOW I've never seen such a thing! That's bloody awesome.

 

OUCH! You set him straight.

JK Though awesome project. I too hope that you wire that keyboard up to work.

 

I spent ages at my friends house on his dads PET, that brings back memories.

 

I'm absolutely not wiring the keyboard to work. It will stay for aesthetics only. There are way too many keys on there that don't mean anything for modern systems.

And I'm not set on the frame just yet. I do have a 7 inch screen laying around

 

Shame IMO, I think you'll find the PET keyboard has less keys than a modern keyboard, not more. A bit of re-mapping, even some relabelling...

 

It's time to mount my media bay



And I'll definitely I need some Quicksteel





Now to look at the USB 3.0 port



And the power button





I really need a fan in the back, so I move the High Voltage sticker



And carefully line up my hole saw





And that's what 80mm looks like





I'm still not sure about the grill though

 

I thought it would be a good idea to test the system so I'd know to return something before I was ready to install it



My processor and RAM are showing up OK



And my fan is going near 2800rpms. The amount of air I can feel around the base of the board is tremendous. The nearby RAM and Northbridge are getting a lot of cool air from out of the bottom of the heatsink

 

That fan is a monster! I'm not sure I'd want one of those again. My C64 'portable' was a friggen back breaker.

Lots of room for an optical drive in the top.

 

I'll be using a slim external DVD drive, internally.....

 

Nice build! Shame your not putting a real montior in it, usefullness aside, nor attempting to use the original keyboard or mount a modern one in its place. Personally, I think both of those are things that would put it a step above modding it to accomadate a modern PC.

But thats just my $0.02 and its a nice build regardless.

 

Using the keyboard seems pointless because I would not want to use it anyway. The height and angle of the keyboard would wear me out using it. Plus, the system will be pushed back against the wall on my desk and the keyboard will be out of reach

The monitor I'm still on the fence. I actually do have a 7 inch LCD that I can integrate, but I'm just not sure about the resolution and how useable it will actually be. I would probably connect an internal USB to VGA adapter for the mnonitor. That way no cables would have to run outside to connect to the DVI to VGA input.