Whelp, it has come a time for my sister to run into the need for a computer. Off to the dump I ran and picked up an old relic for her - 90 MHz, 92MB, 2gig, pci/isa cards. But alas I detested the case of which it came, mainly because it blocked the sole ps/2 port mounted upon the motherboard. Out of shear happenstance my sister happened upon a truck load of just random stuff, and in which contained one Sharp 3-Disk, Dual Deck, AM/FM mini-component system. With haste we made for the nearest outlet, located a CD, and immediately set to work to see if this relic of many years ago still functioned. Unfortunately it did not. This is where I stepped in. My sister will go nuts over anything that has one of two traits: blue, and/or shiny - I intend to make this marvel machine both. Luckily for me, the AT/AT motherboard of which consisted the computer intended for this project just barely fits inside, with a little bit of overhang out of the back. This will not prove to be a problem, as the back is merely wood, and a saw makes rather quick work of it. Anyway, enough of the background, onto the actual project, some pictures, and some ideas put forth for your enjoyment. Status thus far: computer part is still in original case, but has had OS fully installed, just needs insertment. The future case has very much been violated (unfortunately, there was naught a taco in the immediate vicinity); it is completely and utterly stripped (other than the PCB of which the buttons are mounted on, as I wish to salvage as much of the face as plausible). The closing function for the tape drives has been re-secured, and the original function control buttons have been saved and put aside, awaiting their reinsertion. Now for some pictures: The future planed case in its current state: The existing case and its components: The bits I've thus far gutted out of the future case: Full on shot of everything: So, as you can see, it will be cramped, but not impossible. My plans for this thing we're only briefly touched upon earlier up, but to get down into the details will be much less permanent, mainly due to the fact that I am not sure of anything as of this moment, only that a computer shall exist inside that ugly black thing! Alright, the mobo will lay on the bottom, slightly sticking out the back. Left wall (when front on) will hold both the hdd and fdd mounted horizontally along the wall (the bottom of the drives will be directly screwed into the wall, with some snazzy covering so the screws don't show). Next, the PSU will be mounted on the underside of the existing CD tray, most likely with its cover off so as to afford me more room (all depends upon how much room I can shave off with the cover removed). As for the glow/flash factor, I'm going to buff up the existing case, and add blue LED's to the top (the actual fold down top is semi-transparent), and to the inside (most likely a ccfl). The cd-rom will most likely be mounted front right (when looking front on) and eject out the side, though if I could get it to eject into the existing cd bay that would be even better. One possibility for the top may be just to completely cut out the existing cd tray, mount the PSU off to the back-right, and cd-rom off to the back-center (as best I could get it by the PSU), and see if there would be enough room for it to eject. Maybe have it on some sort of tilting action, so as it ejects, it also lifts itself out of the bay. Yet another option would be to have it mounted vertically behind the front, and eject out the top, orient it so that the top of the cd-rom tray is pointing forward (luckily, this cd-rom has vertical mounting catches for the cd when it's ejected). But all of this is purely conjecture, as I absolutely hate planning anything out. Alas, it is now 1AM, and I have to be off to bed, as I've got to be up in 6 hours, so this modification shall continue tomorrow after school, and throughout the week in the very limited time I have. Any and all suggestions/comments are more than welcome as ever. Oh, and yes, I do realize that blue is over-used, but my sister likes blue, so blue it is (UV would have been better, or even green, but she wanted blue...) [EDIT] And as a side-note, my sister is the one who came up with the name....[/EDIT]
You have way to much time on your hands (and on a side note just becasue she suggested it doesnt mean that you have to use it)
just the other day i was looking at trying to shove a socket A comp in an old stereo, and possibly trying to incorporate the existing speaker connections, volume knob, making certain existing buttons do other things. so i drag in an old ass stereo, hook up the speakers, and hit the on button. nobody sees the rest of the mobo ports in the back. suddenly, the Windows XP startup music plays. "DOOD...you burned the XP startup music to a !#%@in CD??? thats pretty sad." then the rest of the comp gets hooked up.. ill be interested to see how this turns out
Bloody Update! Whelp, Monday has come, and it has gone. Lots of work has been done, and I can assure you, time is not something I have in excess! I work full-time and I go to school full-time! I'm home and awake for about 2 hours Tuesday through Friday, so as you can imagine it's not exactly as if I can waste much time on something futile. But alas, I digress, as an aforementioned lot of work has been done, I can almost start this baby up! Pictures are to follow, here is a run-up of the events which have happened: mobo has been fitted and mounted utilizing two screws, a plastic riser, a thin plastic sheet cut to size (came with mobo), and a styrofoam semi-circle; tape drives properly setup (so they look right, and in anticipation of the power switch); PSU mounted; reset switch hacked into the front panel PCB of the new case; sound patched from sound card out through front 3.5mm jack. Now, pictures: Mock-up image of the PSU in its future location. PSU mounted and fitted into case to show clearances. Cut it close on that one! Literally just millimeters to spare! Couldn't have asked for a better fit! Arrows show where the screw holes went, mounting it like this means I can't remove the inner circle for when the cd-rom is ejected, but that's all right, at least it's mounted. The audio patch cable. Alright, let’s start with how I mounted the mobo. Along the bottom of the case there was a ridge to which the existing PCB mounted along with a few other things, as well there was also another elevated support, but that’s irrelevant. What I basically did was mark my holes, drill, and then utilizing two long screws, attach the mobo directly to this ridge inside the case. "Won't this short out the mobo?" Normally, yes, but installed with this mobo was one of those old-school OEM plastic sheets, I have that between the mobo and the metal. In the front on the left (when looking from front on) is a plastic riser (utilized mainly in older mobo mounts - pictures can be provided if necessary), and in the right is a semi-circle of styrofoam, as that's all's I could find that was the right height. The plastic riser has had its lower mount cut off, allowing for the correct height. The PSU was drilled and directly mounted to the top, as pictured above. I made sure not to drill directly in the path of any wires/fans, so there shouldn't be any problem there, and it seems solid sitting up there (with literally only mm to spare between it and the video card). Definitely the most interesting bit has to of been the audio patch through utilizing the existing 3.5mm jack on the front. The jack will switch between allowing sound to go through it, to cutting off sound to an external source, and providing it to the thing plugged into it. I just simply grabbed an old 3.5mm to RCA jack converter, loped off the RCA jack bit, striped the cable, plugged the 3.5mm end into the audio jack for the system, and using a multimeter, figured out what wires would be in use when something was plugged into it. I have tested this, and it does work. I would have used the auto switching capability of the jack, but the system will have powered speakers, so I didn't feel it necessary. As also stated, the reset switch was mounted up to the front panel PCB. I cut the traces, and soldered it up to the "Stop" button. Why stop? Because my sister stated that it would be funny to "stop it when it's going nuts!" Oi. Anyway, that’s about all's for now, the only other thing of mention is that the power switch will be connected up to the right tape bay's stop button And as always, any and all comments and suggestions are more than welcome. [EDIT] Ah, yes, forgot to mention: drilling three holes at 12:30AM is lots of fun in an apartment building that has very little insulation... Had to go into the bathroom to drill the holes for the PSU as it's the best insulated room in my apartment, and there's nobody above, below, or beside it [/EDIT]
That Sharp's not a relic, it's a marvel of mid 90's technology... atleast mine still works well for me...
Heh, it's a relic of days gone by. Oh, if you're interested, this beast was manufactured in '95. Old ehh? Well, at least they're from the same decade.... Anyway, moddage! Obtained a glue gun, and had some free time today before work (got to go to work in a couple hours, and I'm not even showered yet, and it's like noon!). Things done since last update: FDD/HDD mounted, front panel worked on (new switches), front display working, activity and power indicator LED's mounted, cd-rom eject rewired, in the process of mounting up the cd-rom right now, and as well, affixed the old tape deck buttons (just made them stay in their default position, instead of drooping down). Onto the pictures! HDD mounted up on left (from front) side panel, it's held on via two counter-sunk bolts that go onto the bottom mounting holes on the drive. FDD mounted up on right (from front) side panel, again it's held on by two counter-sunk bolts. Image of the counter-sunk bolts from the outside of the left (from front) side panel. View from back with all the new kit mounted. This I'll explain a bit later, but it's an image of the front panel, how many buttons I have to work with, and how I routed the wires for the front LCD display (yes, I got it working). Image of the molex connector I mounted up for the LCD screen, all's I do is just plug in a spare molex and the LCD lights up. Figured that would be cleaner than having another inline molex with the 5v split off. Getting onto the details: the only thing I'll really cover is going to be the LCD mount up, and how I did the molex. Simply put, I got an old inline molex 5v lead, touched the wires up to the existing leads on the display, and found a pattern I enjoyed (it says something like a backwards F and an L, as well it displays the "X-Bass" logo). I then proceeded to solder up the cables, and run them through to the front of the board. For the molex header, I found an old 5 1/4" drive lying around, so I ripped it apart, and got the molex out. It's just hot-glued into place with the wires soldered properly on. The cd-rom eject switch is also relocated, it comes out the audio out port on the drive, to which I have a customized audio cable that plugs in there then runs to the front panel. The button it's wired up to on the front panel is the "CD1" button, which would have normally selected the first cd in the original drive. I found this rather fitting given it's new purpose. As well, right now I'm attempting to figure out how I will secure the cd-rom onto the destined position, I'm having a little trouble, as there’s nothing to mount it to! Hopefully it will be done today though, so stay tuned and expect another update today! As ever, all comments/suggestions are more than welcome!
OK, I'm stuck again (can't go into depth, will try to at work, but as said, I have to be at work in like 10 minutes!!!) STUPID THING!!!!
Alright, another large update. Now, as I stated earlier, I attempted to log on at work to explain what happened, but unfortunately the rerouting service I utilize to avoid the site blocker at work wouldn't even allow me to view threads. So alas I was unable to do much of any posting. Getting to the point though, I had measured up everything, and estimated that the cd-rom would fit without much hustle. Oh how wrong I was. It would seem that the cd-rom came to lay rest upon the CPU fan, and the heatsink. This created a serious problem! Luckily, I noticed the thickness of the gap, and the thickness of the covering lid as pictured below: This lead me onto a thought: why don't I just make the hole larger (gently) and ease the drive through, so that it will fit within the case? Whelp, this proved most satisfactory, as at 1AM I was sitting out on my deck, with the top in hand, and a pair of pliers in the other gently snapping away at the brittle plastic, opening it enough to get the drive though. Here's a picture of the hole with the cd-rom mounted up before: And here it is after: See? Much better! Now, the new clearance: Mod's done since last update: cd-rom mounted, everything wired up, case put back together, system successfully booted in current configuration. Not much as you can see, but even still, I got the friggin cd-rom mounted! Final shots: System is up and running without a hitch... Well, almost. It does have one problem, the cd-rom does not support digital audio extraction. Normally, this would not be a problem, I could just jack a cable from the drive to the audio card, but unfortunately, this is not possible as I've taken the liberty to utilize that port for the re-wired eject switch. Not only that, but the drive doesn't have enough power to push up the lid, and it won't remain open! And even when it does remain open, you hit eject again to have it reinsert, and it doesn't latch and so it still thinks the drawer is out! GAH!!! So, will have to replace, but now that I've got everything mounted, and everything worked out, it shouldn't be much of a problem. Things of note: left tape drive bay holds the LED power indicator, it's green; right tape drive bay holds activity LED; the bits holding the cd-rom in place are actually metal bits gutted originally out of the audio system; was not able to mount the power switch anywhere, will still look for someplace, most likely it will be within the top bay area. Project Tally: Cost for everything: $0.00 Time put into it thus far: 20+ Things eviscerated: 1 Amount of times I've cut myself: 3 Whelp, it is mostly done, and I can't think of much more to put here except: comments and suggestions are welcome! [EDIT]Yes, I do realize that two pictures do not work, fixing ASAP, ran out of room on host[/EDIT] [EDIT2]Alright, back on track, pictures fixed[/EDIT2]
You should be shot for digging up a computer corpse like that Is that EDO I can see? 72 Pin EDO! an AT Keyboard socket You should feel bad!... Anyway, I see you got 2000 running on it, *impressed*. What are the specs of the machine, are you planning to get another CD-ROM?
hmm.. that case looks like a house that has been hitreally hard by an earthquake.. but I'm sure it will look nice in the end.
Well, it looks like this project is now dead... Seems in shipment to my sisters (in her lap) that the cd-rom shifted... As you know, things inside there are quite tight, and it would appear that one of the little connectors sliped into the CPU fan... To make a long story short, the CPU is burnt out, and I have no way of replacing it. The dreams over. I really liked this project...
Damn man, that sucks. I always like the unorthadox nature of your projects, so it's sad to hear this one's dead. Oh well man, it's a sign: Mod on! -Fyber
how about just buying a new cpu? and didn't you notice the strange sound when you turned it on? what about the automatic shutdown that is implemented in every BIOS?
It didn't make a sound when it died. I've tried another CPU, and I don't have a heat-sink that will fit, and the board still didn't turn on (probably indicating that something else went). This board is so old it doesn't have a temp sensor, thusly no auto shut-off.
I have several pc's with only slightly better specs and am interested in which os you used on them? as I find windows slow on such low spec pcs and im not good with linux (broke my SuSE distro by launching real player!)
well kipman... that's the strange thing about old computers.. they are slow! I don't think if would change that fact much, even if you change os. I don't know what os you are running, but if you change to an older verson of windows, I am sure it will help. (like if you're running windows 98, try windows 95). but from what i can see, your specs doesn't seem too bad why do you want to keep that old one alive? my 50 cent...
