Spray-painting PC case interior

[Anonymous No.534427]

Hey diy
I'm doing a computer project where I am building a computer to play vintage games.

Currently working on the case, which was rusty because it had been stored in a humid environment. Today I dismantled the case (even removing rivets) and sanded everything with an electric sander, dremel (for hard to reach places) and by hand.

Tomorrow I'll spray paint the different parts. Do you have any kinds of paint to recommend, and things I should do besides sanding the metal to provide better adhesion?

[Anonymous No.534430]

The different case parts, for a view of the current state of affairs.

It's a vintage PC-AT case, hence the hole for the keyboard port.

[Anonymous No.534453]

>Interior

[Anonymous No.534460]

>>534453
Yes, I want to spray paint the inside of the case because it was starting to rust. Pic related.

[Anonymous No.534484]

Sounds like your prep is right on track so far dude, make sure you throw down a primer before you paint your colour and you'll be sweet.

> vintage game rig

I would be inclined to make some stencils for the old game houses, Epic, Sierra, Microprose etc and maybe make some sort of collage artwork on one of the sides? I don't have an artistic bone in my body so NFI how you'd lay it out, but it seems like it would be a nice homage to the game houses who made some fucking amazing games with not much more than 640k of base memory and an XMS manager. Pic related, one of my favourite games to this day.

[Anonymous No.534515]

Nice to see an old PC getting resurrected - I remember when these first came out - suckers were fast compared to the IBM PC. Spray painting is fine. Prime with an etch primer for long life.

[Anonymous No.534555]

For that authentic vintage case feel, line the interior with rusty razor blades.

[Anonymous No.534556]

>>534555
Not IBM cases bro, only the shit tier Asian cases.

[Anonymous No.534559]

>>534555
HA!
> oldfag detected

>>534556
Don't be so sure, I have plenty of scars on my knuckles from PC XT cases (and the cards full of chips therein). All of them bite when you least expect them to.

[Anonymous No.534564]

>>534427
All I can say is good on you. Old PC's deserve to be resurrected sometimes.
If you have all the parts out and on a table, you might wanna take advantage of that and take some emery paper to the sharp bits so you don't slice yourself. I hear tetanus is painful.
Also, no matter what people say, always use primer with your paint job if you're spray painting. I've had lots of people say it isnt necessary, but if you're redoing the interior, it's gonna face a little more opposition.

[Anonymous No.534580]

Search Youtube for the customspraymods channel - they have a heap of good videos that take you through most types of prep and paint. They focus on cars, but the process is the same. They use spray cans and spray guns.

From my experience, epoxy based spray paints give the hardest finish without going to two-pack paints.

[Anonymous No.534590]

i endorse this project. IRL DOSbox is best DOSbox. what are your hardware/software stats OP?

>>534484
> homage to the greats
i like it. don't forget 3D realms and DEFINITELY don't forget ID software. those fuckers created and defined one of the biggest genres out there.

[Anonymous No.534598]

I'd say just get some rustoleum, or some other kinda exterior spray paint for metal. Also, whatever you do, don't try use any body filler on case refurbs/mods. That shit will just hold the heat inside the box, and bake everything.

[Anonymous No.534600]

You could always bring it somewhere to get powder coated. That would be pretty sweet.

[Anonymous No.534621]

If you have the setup (hardly anybody does) then automotive eurothanes are the way to go. Primer, Base, airbrushing and then clear. I have done a dozen cases that way. But the setup for that is pretty steep.

A high gloss spray paint is really all you need, polishing wouldn't hurt to keep it all smooth (lo tack for dust and to reflect interior lights).

[Anonymous No.534627]

>>534564
>what this bro said.

Prime AND Wetsand! Knock off any nibs, get it down to 200 to 400 grit. Then wash the sucker with soap and water. Dry it. Hit it with Wax and Grease remover, wipe it with a paper towel, then tack rag. At that point you are off to a really really good start for your base coat.

[Anonymous No.534880]

>>534484
>>534515
Yup, I did add a primer, sanded it, and currently am waiting for the real first coat to dry (semi-gloss)

>>534484
>>534590
The stencils are a neat idea, and honestly I was so worried for the internals that I didn't think about the exterior. Probably Sierra, Lucasarts and Westwood amongst others.

>>534555
I laughed. Yes, I remember those damn cheap aluminum cases that bent if you sneezed and cut your fingers if you weren't careful.

>>534564
The edges of the case were all sanded, rounded and painted so they shsouldn't be a hazard now.

>>534580
Thanks for the tip, will do. Haven't decided yet what I'll do with the exterior.

>>534590
I wanted a flexible system that had backwards compatibility for 286/386/486 DOS games while retaining the power to run more recent '90s games on Windows 95/98.

I had the materials to build either a 486-DX2-66, a Pentium 233, or a Pentium II 350. I chose the Pentium II for the reasons stated above. The hard piece to find was a motherboard for P-II that was in AT format so it would fit my small-ish AT case. Had to order it from an obscure seller in eastern Europe. Surprisingly, it works like a charm and supports an ATX psu.

I have various video cards so I guess I'll take the strongest one. The real nice part about this build is that I have collected ISA sound cards over the years and will be able to change them frequently depending on the game. Original Adlib, Sound Blaster (three of the early ones), Pro Audio Spectrum, soon a Gravis Ultrasound, and also an MT-32.

>>534598
Rustoleum it was, thanks for the tip. Waiting for it to dry completely, but it looked nice when I did a little test.

>>534600
Is powder coating expensive? Never heard of that.

(cont.)

[Anonymous No.534882]

>>534621
Ha, that is way too much for what I want. It's awesome, but I prefer to make this vintage build more discreet with monochrome surfaces, as it will probably be located near my television. The polishing part is a neat idea though, I'll have to test it for the exterior of the case to see.

>>534627
Yep, sanded the primer with 200 grit, removed dust with the vacuum cleaner, then washed it with a humid cloth, drying with a soft one.

Wow, thanks for the comments everyone, you have been a great help. Will keep updating.

[Anonymous No.534886]

>>534590
Here's the motherboard I was talking about. It's a hybrid on many levels...

older ISA and PCI support... especially good for sound cards.
has AT and ATX psu support (will buy a recent, silent ATX psu probably)
has an AGP video card slot
has onboard IDE ports (older boards required separate ISA controller cards)
changeable battery (older boards had it soldered)

honestly, I have ISA controller cards and they are a drag to work with. Glad to have found this little hybrid motherboard that offers possibilities from '99 but immense compatibility for real older stuff.

[Anonymous No.534906]

Damn that's a fine paint finish for an (assumedly) rattle can job, well played.

>>534880
I'd sell you a nut to get my hands on those SB aound cards if they have the YM3812 chipset. So good for delicious synthing nowdays.

I don't know what your year of manufacture is but but you seem to know the hardware well, so I shouldn't need to warn you, but try to keep your IRQ assignments consistent across your swappable hardware. Last thing you want to do is have to modify autoexec every time you boot after swapping sound cards. Perhaps you could even make a fancy batch file boot loader that lets you select installed hardware and loads a custom autoexec accordingly.

>>534886
> slotcket processor
> all my nostalgia.

It was an interesting time when ISA was starting to drop off the twig. It was so damn handy to have boards that supported ISA, PCI, and even AGP if you chose the right one, I had cards that served me for a good 10 years before the standard finally dropped from consumer hardware (ISA lives on in industrial systems I believe) I had a PIII that ran a 20Mb secondary Winchester drive full of games from my very first machine (PC XT clone from about 1989) via an ISA card, if you needed to add more I/O, BAM, $5 ISA card. Made for some oddball builds in the mid to late 90's. Blistering AGP viddy card with a clapped out ISA drive controller FTW.

> removable battery
Thank fuck for that. Those shitty soldered nicads killed so much hardware, its such a shame. I remove them on sight from any vintage board that I plan to preserve.

[Anonymous No.534912]

>>534886
I did this once, a while back. I went with a K6-II+ at 450mhz, because at the time I was an AMD adherent. I specifically put a really noisy HDD in it, in a really ugly removable 5.25" bay enclosure, and a nice old CDROM with headphone port and volume control.

Memory serves, it's sporting a 32mb Voodoo2 and an ISA soundblaster AWE64. I played on it a few years, now it's sitting in my closet.

[Anonymous No.534998]

>>534886
You could get a socket adapter to go down to a socket 8 or up to a 370, When those things came out I was all butthurt that intel went proprietary diverging the compatibility of amd and intel motherboards. Socket 7 was my favorite because all the motherboards could run Cyrix, AMD or intell.

You should try to find a 66/33 486 if you plan on running dos games. The P2's and P3's sometimes had issues. Have fun configuring extended memory. Play some good old fashioned X-Wing. I ran this on a 386 with one meg of ram and a 40 meg hard drive, the larger missions it got so laggy that I would have to fly out to deep space and wait for half my team to die before coming back. Good times, good times.

[Anonymous No.535488]

OP here.
Will post pics of the second coat later tonight. Turned out pretty good. I started assembling the case back together with pop rivets (as it was).

[Anonymous No.535555]

>>534906
Yes, the OPL2 chipset is what I prefer too. Original Adlib and Sound Blasters (2.0 - CT1350, Pro - CT1330) are in my collection amongst others.

I'll be careful with IRQ assignments but I wouldn't mind creating boot disks. I have 5.25" and 3.5" drives so I might put them to use.

>>534912
In the closet, but not thrown away. Nostalgia comes and goes, at least for my part, so maybe this build will be shelved in a few years, but I don't plan on throwing it away. Feels always come back.

>>534998
I already have that! Socket 370 to Slot 1, just in case I want to downgrade my build for compatibility issues or just for the kick.

Also, I have all I need for a full 486 build so if I grow tired of my P2 someday I'll pop the motherboard in the case and plug the drives on a controller card.

Yes, X-wing will be amongst the first games I'll play; strangely I never got to play them in the past, only got my hands on Rebel Assault.

The case is almost reassembled, at least for the structure. There are two parts missing : the drive bay, and the card slots at the back. I'm planning to spray paint them with metallic gray to add a little contrast in the case. What do you think?

[Anonymous No.535558]

>>534906
> Year of manufacture
I laughed hard. 1983.

> I'd sell you a nut
I have an 1987 Adlib card to spare and wouldn't mind selling it to someone who'll take care of it,in a few months when my build is complete.


Here's a rivet. Never tried the riveting tool before so I'm pretty happy with the result. They're tight. The paint job is not perfect, but I'm happy with it. Better than the rusty gray it was before.

[Anonymous No.535559]

> Rusty case - before
Just to get a better idea in what state the case was before I started.

[Anonymous No.535562]

>>535558
Sweet. Flick me an email at the above address when the time comes, we'll talk it out then.

>>535555
This just looks too boss. I wonder why it never occurred to anyone to respray their cases back in the day..

[Anonymous No.535617]

<brofist>

Nice job OP, nice job. No exaggeration, looks nearly as good as the factory paint on my case.

[Anonymous No.535635]

>>535559
damn i think that looks cool like that

[Anonymous No.535952]

damn, I have yet to find a quality steel case that's able to fit my workstation with only slight modification and doesn't look like complete shit. I miss the quality feeling of steel cases, they don't build them like they used to.

[Anonymous No.535956]

>>534621
>that disgusting fucking orangepeel
>them tacky as 3rd grade pencil case flames
>posting that and giving advice

[Anonymous No.535960]

>>535956
http://www.pcworld.com/article/23577/article.html
The laptop is 15 years old, PC aesthetics have changed A LOT over the years. That looks like a quality paint job, I'd take advice for beginners from that guy any day. Pretty sure when that laptop was painted you weren't even in the 3rd grade.

[Anonymous No.535972]

>>535960
>using age as an insult
>implying orange peel is 'quality' job

Oh man.

Doesn't matter if it's 20 years old. It's a bad paint job.

Orange peel looks like shit. And is the sign of a a shitty paint job.

If you think orange peel is 'quality' maybe you should go back to 3rd grade art class.

[Anonymous No.536011]

>>535972
The laptops's original surface wasn't smooth to begin with, looks a lot more like the original surface of the plastic rather than orange peel.

[Anonymous No.536471]

>>535562
Will do. It may take a while but I wrote it down.

>>535562
>>535617
Thanks.

>>535635
Hehehe.

>>535952
Yep. Disassembling the case without bending its parts was really nice.

>>535956
>>535960
>>535972
>>536011
Gentlemen please!

...
Pic related is what the external case looks like when assembled.

[Anonymous No.536472]

>>535562
Will do. It may take a while but I wrote it down.

>>535562
>>535617
Thanks.

>>535635
Hehehe.

>>535952
Yep. Disassembling the case without bending its parts was really nice.

>>535956
>>535960
>>535972
>>536011
Gentlemen please!

...
Pic related is what the external case looks like when assembled (before I started everything)

[Anonymous No.536475]

Tonight I made little progress. Currently waiting for three parts to dry. Painted them metallic gray to differenciate them from the rest of the case :
- HDD/FDD tray
- Motherboard tray
- Card slots (behind)

I think it will add a bit of contrast.
Pic related : the three parts currently drying on their first coat.

After this, the interior of the case will be complete and I'll be able to put the actual PC inside its case.

[Anonymous No.536481]

Now this is another time where I seek your advice.

The case exterior comes in two parts.
1. The front of the case. Plastic.
2. The top and two sides. Metal. One unique piece.

Modern ATX cases generally allow for only one side to be taken apart instead of the entire cover. Should I cut the right side, allowing easier/faster access to the interior? Or do you think it would remove too much strength on the case?

And if I separate it, do you think it should just hold in place with screws, or should I add hinges (attached to the top) for that side to open upwards?

[Anonymous No.536482]

>>534621

>eurothanes

[Anonymous No.536517]

>>536481
keep it old school, keep it in one peice

[Anonymous No.536519]

>>534559
Ah see now that isn't an IBM AT. It's an AT format case but for a clone. IBM cases were so much better quality.

I still run an IBM PS/2 keboard - it's ancient (had it 17+ years) and it hasn't given me any trouble at all. It cost £168 new!

[Anonymous No.536520]

>>536519
dat keyboard sound.

[Anonymous No.536526]

>>534621
wtf are you using a tire for airsupply and a 1970 single action passche? Your airbrushing sucks balls, solvent pop, orange peel, fuzzy graphics ,granny shifting, not double-clutching like you should

[Anonymous No.536545]

OP here.
The three missing parts, spray painted gray tonight have finally dried.

[Anonymous No.536546]

(forgot pic)
OP here.
The three missing parts, spray painted gray tonight have finally dried.

[Anonymous No.536548]

>>536546
And the case interior is now complete.
Will update tomorrow, possibly with build partly inside the case, and potentially exterior shell sanded. Stay tuned, and thanks everyone who has given tips/comments this far.

[Anonymous No.536557]

>>536517
I'd be inclined to agree, but the dude is keen to be able to swap hardware based on game requirements.

Just be mindful OP, if you fuck it, you're boned. It'll be a bitch to replace that lid. Hinges would be nice, but panel lines/gaps could be a problem. I'd leave the cover as is, but maybe replace the case screws with thumb screws to allow easier access than the original screws? I'd be inclined to get some thin-as-you-can-find black foam tape to preserve your paintwork where the lid slides over the chassis. Last thing you want is bare steel showing through in 6 months time.

>>536548
12/10 would give you my shit to restore. I was wondering how the grey/black would look as I read down and caught up with the thread. Spectacular man.

Now, what are you going to do with that boring ol' beige front panel? I'm talking off the top of my head here, no idea if its possible, but I wonder if you can somehow dye the plastic to match the chassis? At minimum you'd want to make some retr0brite to bring it back to a clean colour.

[Anonymous No.536593]

>>536520
Oh yes, wonderful click tactile feedback - Mavis Beacon nignog wouldbe proud!

[Anonymous No.536594]

DO NOT USE SPRAY PAINT. You need to find a paint that can withstand heat of excess of 60c without decomposing and breaching onto the motherboard.

[Anonymous No.536600]

>>535960
>Pretty sure when that laptop was painted you weren't even in the 3rd grade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MvfOj_sLMU

[Anonymous No.536605]

>>536594
i think you're a bit late mang. a decent spray enamel should hold its shit together.

[Anonymous No.536628]

>>536548
Suh-weet dude!

>>536594
Yeah, uh, bit late to the party there chief? Try to keep up, sheesh.

[Anonymous No.536750]

>>535956

I'm an automotive painter, and I did repaint several cases back in the day, from an IBM 5160 or whatever they were called, to an AT tower with professionally painted flames (by a mural painter friend) to a couple Antec value line full towers that got GM Indigo poly and Ford Strawberry metallic, respectively.

Your rude post serves no purpose. Even if I, being a professional, came in here and gave a DIY on how to repaint your case, you think your going to mimick my skills and talent and end up with a show quality result? Hell no!

This is DIY, not Learn to Be a Pro in a Day! His post is exactly what this forum is about. If he wanted a pro job then he'd have to pay for it, which defeats the purpose of DIY.

But you can get near perfect results on the first try in everything you do, right?

[Anonymous No.536827]

>>536750
Funny how there is always an engineer, mathematician, astronomer, mechanic, auto body tech, doctor, dentist, cop, contractor, mason , carpenter , etc etc etc with 20 years experience on diy

[Anonymous No.536864]

>>536827

Not him, but /diy/ is probably the board with the oldest posters on 4chan.

Never seen an astronomer on here though.

[Anonymous No.536888]

>>536864
>>536827
that is what this board is about, if we all were fuckers that dont know anything, it would be dead on a day. Im a mechanical engineer, HVAC contractor i usually post when someone have a problem with their AC, but i ask a lot about blacksmithing since i dont know shit about it, but someone else does.

[Anonymous No.536916]

>>536888
So much this. Ex-mainframe engineer here, there was a /b/ thread last week titled "what was your first computer", and there were verified greybeards (like, literally 40+ year olds, myself included) all over the place. People were going to their garages and unboxing shit they had been storing for 20 years just to take a photo to post for dat nostalgia. Shit was being discussed that no one who had not grown with the technology could discuss. It was fucking glorious to see the wide age range this place serves, and the kind of knowledge that lurks this hive of villainy.

Pic related, my first printer, then my RTTY terminal. Acquired in 1984 and still functional as of its last test a year ago.

People need to take people at face value in these here parts because a lot of us who do actually have tried and true knowledge get the shits real fast when our knowledge is fobbed off by some punk who thinks he is qualified because he can get a LED blinking on an arduino pin. I know of people from specialised tech forums who refuse to come near the place because it's just a waste of their time, and its a damn shame. Their knowledge is priceless.

[Anonymous No.536927]

as far as paint goes, you can get some amazingly good and long lasting paint for metal from an autoshop or parts dealer. Made for metal, resists the elements, lots of colors, and cheap at the amount you need. Also good for you to get touchup paint for those annoying dings and scratches on your vehicle.

[Anonymous No.536969]

>>536916
Not mainframe engineer although I started programming on ICL1902 and PDP8 but first proper job was on CBM Pet and Apple II repairing at chip level. Damn I miss those 6502 systems.

[Anonymous No.536980]

>>536969
Ahh, another! Started out on PDP8's, rolled up PDP11's, got out of the game when the bank I was working for started scrapping them for servers and decided to go fix audio equipment instead. Best move I made.

> CBM Pet
I loved them so much I took a few with me when I left. They were literally throwing them out of a second story window into dumpsters when they upgraded to Maple terminals. Horrible the fate some of this gear met. Turned this one into the RTTY terminal that replaced the teletype (also taken for that thread the other night). Indeed, nothing like a motherboard you can buy any chip for at your local radioshack.

You may have your thread back now OP.

[Anonymous No.537009]

>>536969
>>536980
You two would probably get on with my dad. He's a project manager for an NHS contractor now but started out in the late 60s as a PDP operator and later VAX/VMS programmer

Me? I can barely manage windows XP

[Anonymous No.537129]

>>536980
Ah the 4016! I used to upgrade those to 32k by soldering in an extra line of ram, then commodore started drilling holes in the motherboard to stop that. Then figured out how to piggyback the new ram on the original chips while bending an address leg out and running a wire from that leg to the motherboard!

Also used to blow new boot roms with customised text so show the company name etc.

[Anonymous No.537136]

>>536980
Really? I remember a time in the late 80s where I considered retraining as a plumber coz they earned £20 an hour more than computer engineers.

Yeah, wish I'd kept some of the early stuff but I junked it all. I had aZX80 I bought as a kit - serial number 000012! Sold it a month after I bought it because I got bored.

Play with Picaxe chips n stuff now as a hobby.

[Anonymous No.537963]

OP here.

>>536557
Yeah. Not certain if I'm ready to take the risk. Finding a replacement cover will certainly be difficult if I fuck it up. Also, the panel it is made to slide in from the back only, so it wouldn't close properly if I cut it.

Thumb screws are a very nice idea that would help a lot. Didn't think about it so thanks! It's a good tradeoff and will help change components quickly.

>12/10 would give you my shit to restore
I laughed. Thank you. I'm very satisfied with the gray

I'm planning on keeping the same simple color palette for the exterior; black for the top and sides, and metallic gray for the front. The power buttons are black so they will keep their contrast.

(cont.)

[Anonymous No.537965]

OP here.
>>536594
>>536605
>>536628
As others said, you're a bit late! However it's a Pentium 2 si I doubt it will heat that much. But IF it does, there's high-temperature paint available at my hardware store (for engines are barbecues) and I'll just repaint the piece holding the motherboard. (pic related)

>>536628
Thanks !

[Anonymous No.537966]

OP here.
Here's the current status of the build.

It has a temporary PSU (until I receive a black, modular one), 1.2 and 1.44mb disk drives, a 30gb disk drive and a variety of sound cards.
(cont.)

[Anonymous No.537969]

>>537968
Because this thread is the shit.

[Anonymous No.537970]

One of the problems with AT cases is ventilation. I've added a PCI slot fan to the build in hopes it will draw much of the heat outside of the case once it's closed. (pic related)

I'm contemplating adding a second fan in the PC speaker's place in the front. Any opinions on this?

[Anonymous No.537973]

>>537970
A front chassis fan would be nice, but there is not a lot of airflow possible through those narrow slots on the front bezel, and if this machine is to live closer than 2 feet from the floor/on the floor, those narrow slits will fill with dust in no time. I don't recall ever seeing chassis fans in any pre-PIII machines anyway.

Heat rises, so If you put the slot fan as high in the slot bay as you can, it and your new PSU's fresh and clean fan should be enough to draw air through and out (hold a lit candle *near* the front of the case, around the drive bays and the slits in the bezel. If the flame pulls towards the gaps you have good airflow). If you're not happy with airflow, you may be able to find a higher flow fan to replace the PSU fan with (look at Antec, Coolmaster etc), or you can put a second fan on the front of the PSU case to up the airflow.

[Anonymous No.538126]

>>534484
>>534590
motherfucking infocom

[Anonymous No.538130]

>>534880
>I chose the Pentium II for the reasons stated above
i built a similar dos box around an original pentium for the same purpose/same reasons as you. one of the problems i ran into playing old dos games designed for the at is that their coding often used the processor frequency for timing in certain events. in other words certain things, certain sequences ran way too fast to be playable.

>Is powder coating expensive? Never heard of that
it is an electrostatically applied hard finish for metals, often used on industrial equipment. much harder than paint, very expensive to do

[Anonymous No.538136]

>>536864
>Never seen an astronomer on here though.
professional astronomer here. ask me anything cosmos related.

[Anonymous No.538183]

>>534886

I had that exact board for a build I made for a friend of mine, we put it in an old 286 case.

It blew minds, we even left the 5.25 drive for effect

[Anonymous No.538201]

OP should get one of these

http://www.slashgear.com/ide-to-sd-card-adapter-is-an-ingenious-idea-but-not-a-new-one-249171/

[Anonymous No.538206]

>>538130
>>one of the problems i ran into playing old dos games designed for the at is that their coding often used the processor frequency for timing in certain events.
This is correct. Much older DOS games won't work at the right speed if you run them on a machine that based on anything faster than a 486DX4.

[Anonymous No.538215]

>>538136
Given recent advances in adaptive optics, and so on, could we build a telescope large enough to take "satellite" photos of an exoplanet?

[Anonymous No.538238]

>>538136
I'm looking to buy a barlow lens (2x) to a telescope. ( KONUS 114mm Konusmotor Electronic 500-Newton Telescope http://www.amazon.com/KONUS-Konusmotor-Electronic-500-Newton-Telescope/dp/B001EC3Z6O )
I have some doubts about which lens to buy. Could you recommend me a price-range or a brand? Around 75€ would be enough or to much? I have seen them from 10€ to lying eight.

Another question. My gf is starting next year astrophysics. Will she have easily a job after she finish her career? Will it be hard?

Thanks.

[Anonymous No.538624]

OP here.
>>537969
Thank you. This is a honour. I looked at this other project and yes, it is awesome and unique. True to /diy/. I guess you'll be surprised if I tell you that this is my first thread on this board?

>>537973
Yeah, those narrow slots do not allow much air to pass. I tried holding a cotton rope close to them and saw the tiny hairs move pretty fast towards the case. I guess my airflow will be sufficient with the PSU and slot fan behind.

As you suggested I moved the fan as high as possible, and it is now resting on top of the video card. Thanks for the tip.

>>538126
Infocom you say? One of the first games I tested on this build was Simon the Sorcerer.

(cont.)

[Anonymous No.538626]

>>538130
>>538206
Yep, I'm well aware of speed of issues, and while doing some test runs, I noticed them immediately. I downclocked the PII to 250mhz to help a bit.

My main concern right now is sound. Some games work perfectly, but others just output garbage containing vaguely the music it's supposed to play. I'll have to either slow down my CPU (with software) or introduce delays for ISA card communication (in the bios).

>>538183
I'm effectively happy with my purchase of this board. It offers options from recent boards (connectors, advanced bios settings, ATX power, etc) while retaining compatibility with pretty old hardware.

I tested my 5.25 drive yesterday; Installed the game Night Shift from Lucasarts. Had to invert the drive order in the bios as there seemed to be a master/slave confusion.

..

Screwed the parallel and serial ports on the case, in addition to a PS2 port (still not working) and a USB port (still untested).

[Anonymous No.538629]

So guys (and possibly /diy/ gals) This is the last time we all see this beige case colour.

Like the interior of the case, I'll sand and spray-paint the case cover and front panel. Semi-gloss black for the case, metallic gray for the front panel.

Checked the paint cans, and they're supposed to adhere to plastic and not melt it away.

I'll be back soon. Again, thanks everyone for the support, tips and help. Without you this project would not be where it is now.

[Anonymous No.538649]

>>534555
Compaq Deskpro master race reporting innnGGGAAARRGGHHH!

[Anonymous No.539099]

>>538649
Hehehe.

[Anonymous No.539101]

OP reporting.

Entering final phase. Metallic cover currently drying its first coat. Sanding it produced so much dust I had to take a shower before painting it.

<< Before

[Anonymous No.539103]

>>539101
<< Sanded

[Anonymous No.539105]

>>539103
<< Drying

[Anonymous No.539110]

>>538649
I remember my dad had an old deskpro laying around when I was growing up, and I was hacking around on it.
I ended up with a several stitches and a scar across the inside of my wrist, which everyone thinks was a failed suicide attempt.
Damn you, Compaq, DAMN YOU.

[Anonymous No.539124]

>>539110
>I ended up with a several stitches and a scar across the inside of my wrist, which everyone thinks was a failed suicide attempt.

I am in no way surprised by this. DeskPros were suicide machines.

[Anonymous No.539590]

OP here.
Case cover and front are painted, currently drying.
I might have to re-paint the cover tomorrow, because unlike the other parts, I see "lines" in the paint coming from the sanding paper I used. Sigh.

[Anonymous No.539592]

Here's what the sanded front cover looked like before being painted black (+ metallic gray as a second coat)

[Anonymous No.539603]

Has anyone here ever done a completely diy case? I'm kinda lost trying to find a plastic fab service.

Polite sage.

[Anonymous No.539620]

>>538130
>>538206
>>538626

http://www.hpaa.com/moslo/

[Anonymous No.539722]

>>539603
I've seen som cases made of hardwood that were done from scratch. They were pretty nice.

[Anonymous No.539738]

Update.
The front cover (plastic) is done and turned out pretty nice. Will reassemble later/tomorrow.

[Anonymous No.539739]

However as I said earlier, I had problems with the sanding paper I used with my electric sander. It made deep scratches in the first coat of paint and I have to do everything again.

[Anonymous No.539740]

>>539603
I'm sorry that this thread doesn't live up to your standards, Anon.

>>539620
Yes! That will certainly help.
My configuration approval "benchmark" is Day of the Tentacle, and to date, it has not played music right even once. That fucker is speed-sensitive like I have never seen. The game itself plays fine. But the music it outputs is a garbled mess of noise and stuck notes.

I was hoping that the case would be the hardest part of this build, but it seems jumper and bios settings will take the cake.

[Anonymous No.539772]

Reporting. It's 4:48 AM here.
I reinstalled the plastic front panel on the PC. The power and reset buttons are connected to the mobo.

[Anonymous No.539778]

There are quite a few connectors I can't simply plug in the motherboard...
- Turbo LED (possibly no turbo function)
- Turbo Button (possibly no turbo function)
- Power LED (this one surprises me.)
- Keyboard Lock

There is a 5-pin connection available for the K/Lock, however my front panel's keyboard lock only has two wires. I'll try to find more documentation on this.

[Anonymous No.539779]

<< Current build status.

Also, I'm considering taking the face plates off my drives (5.25, 3.5, CD-ROM) and spray-paint them black to go with the case.

Any comments and ideas welcome. Thanks!
That's it for tonight. I'm off to bed.

[Anonymous No.539782]

>>539778
There should be a power LED header on the mainboard?

If you can tap power from somewhere you should be able to run the turbo display at least, it will switch between "Hi" and "Lo" (or whatever its jumped for) but obviously make no change.

Also, in >>534886 it appears there is indeed a keylock header (bottom corner of board, first five pins on the bottom row of pins) but functionally it doesn't matter if that's connected or not.

Whats the make/model of the mainboard?

> Also, I'm considering taking the face plates off my drives (5.25, 3.5, CD-ROM) and spray-paint them black to go with the case.

Mad if you don't. You'll likely need to break the eject button off the fascia of the CDROM to paint it all, if it has melted over posts and holes in the button plastic, just knock the tops off with a blade, this will give tonnes of surface area to glue down with later and make sure the buttons align correctly when you reassemble.

When you paint the fascias/buttons for the CD and 3.5" drives, fill in the button holes with blu-tack or something before you paint. If you get paint in those holes AND on the buttons, the added thickness of the paint may cause the buttons to bind.

[Anonymous No.539788]

dont forget the standoffs

[Anonymous No.539825]

>>539779
>Also, I'm considering taking the face plates off my drives (5.25, 3.5, CD-ROM) and spray-paint them black to go with the case.

Do eeeeeettttt

[Anonymous No.540095]

OP here.
Received the new powersupply tonight. When I saw its size I grew a bit concerned. For a moment I doubted that it would fit in the case. It was one of the smallest ones that was :
- Fully modular (better aeration and no extra wires)
- Black
- Had a large and silent fan.

Picture related for size comparison between old and new PSUs.

Also, I resanded (with softer sanding paper) and repainted the metal case tonight. Lines were visible, as shown here earlier:
>>539739

I had some spare plates for empty drive bays, and painted them at the same time.

[Anonymous No.540096]

>>539782
Yes, power led connectors are pretty usual, but I couldn't find it. Will continue my search. Are these LEDs 12V anyway? Could simply connect it on on of the PSU's connectors.

The motherboard is an Acorp 6LX-EX68. I already searched but couldn't find a manual for this one.

>>539782
>>539825
Will do eventually when I've settled which drives are going in the build (I have multiple 5.25 and 3.5 drives to choose from)

<< Space between the 5.25 drive and the new PSU is getting tight. Good thing it's modular.

[Anonymous No.540098]

>>539788
For the mobo? Yes, I've already ordered some new, plastic ones so they're all the same height. Currently I'm using a mix of plastic and metal ones, of different heights and the mobo is a bit uncomfortable. Temporary though.

I've also ordered a good number of thumb screws as >>536557 had suggested earlier.

<< The new empty drive bay plates, that will match the colour of FDDs and CD-ROM drives once I've settled. (Most probably black to contrast the gray case front)

Will update later when the main part of the case has dried.

[Anonymous No.540101]

Ah, also, I removed the slot fan since my new PSU has a fan pointing downward right above the video card and near the CPU. The fan is 14cm wide, almost silent at low temperatures, and pushes more air out than the slot fan did. I'll take temperature readings once I'm able to close the case, just to be certain.

[Anonymous No.540117]

Cover has finished drying and is now installed on the PC.

Things left to do :
- Check if ventilation is sufficient with only psu fan.
- Find a way to connect the power led and turbo button, even if only to show fake speeds.
- Find the wiring diagram for the k/lock (10 pins) and how to connect it to a 2-pin connector.
- Find a key for the k/lock lock on the case.
- Choose definitive floppy drives to use and spray-paint their plates.
- Decide if empty drive bay plates should be black or gray. (thinking black, like the drives)
- Decide if I add logos on the side of the case (discussed earlier in thread)
- Receive standoffs and thumb screws, replace where necessary.
- Receive round IDE cable, replace flat one.
- Anything else that /diy/ bros might think I've missed.

[Anonymous No.540119]

Other angle.
I'm off for tonight. See you later!

[Anonymous No.540914]

In the meantime, for those interested, my available ISA sound cards I'll eventually make comparative recordings from.

Not shown is an 1988 Creative C/MS card (also known as a Game Blaster) that I'll receive most likely tomorrow. It even comes with the original box, manual and software. Pretty hyped for that one.

Cards I'd love to test but haven't yet got my hands on : IBM Music Feature Card (1987), Adlib Gold (1991) and Gravis Ultrasound (1992). The IBM MFC and Adlib Gold are nearly impossible to find. The Gravis Ultrasound is available but very expensive.

[Anonymous No.540918]

>>540914
And as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I have three Adlib cards.
Two are the 1987 version (one from 1987, the other from 1989) and the other is the 1990 revision.

[Anonymous No.540992]

Started working on the Turbo LED and Turbo button display. Figured I'll be able to use the 12v rail to output a +5v for use with the power LED and Turbo LED + displays.

Tested with a fan speed reducer (like those bundled with computer fans - they use a simple resistor to downgrade the voltage, thus reducing the RPM of the fan. Plugged the Turbo LED in that adaptor and it lit perfectly. It outputs something around 5 or 6 volts because it was made to reduce speed to 50%.

Now, the fun part will be setting the display for the low and high positions for the turbo button. Each light of the display is independant, and controlled with a jumper. The largest (using all lights) it can display is "188".

One hundred or nothing.
0 to 9 tens.
0 to 9 ones.

Normally that would mean a total of 16 independant lights. But as you see in the picture, there are only 15 connectors for the "low" and 16 on the "high".

I'm pretty sure that the board is wired in a way that the hundreds are only available in the "high" position, explaining the extra jumper on the lower left near "huns".

[Anonymous No.540995]

>>540992
Other odd thing I don't fully understand is the wiring diagram...

It's written on the board :
1 A 2 3 1 C 2 3 1 E 2 3 1 G 2
from left to right on each row, excluding the supposed 100's jumper.

I see patterns, but I don't quite understand what they mean in reality. I guess I'll have to try each of them separately.

[Anonymous No.541036]

>>540914
This is making me want to break out my old games PC and see what sound card it has... Curious choice on the modern look and LCD. I'd prefer a CRT for the low-res stuff.

[Anonymous No.541056]

>>540995
> http://www.amsky.com/~cirkuit/comptips/speddisp.html

Any good?

[Anonymous No.541141]

>>540914
>>540918
It's seriously so cool to see parts from so long ago! I'm on only on this board because derping around but this is really cool dude.

[Anonymous No.541324]

>>534886
Use a Slotkey adapter and you can slap in a fat coppermine pentium 3 with dedicated l2 cache. That sombich uses off-die aka SLOW shit.

>yfw I have an abit with slotkey'd p3 1ghz coppermine that i never use

[Anonymous No.541434]

>>541036
Yeah I prefer CRTs too, mainly for the texture it gives and the "smoothing" it adds to the pixels while giving an impression of detail. However, this build will be hooked on my television set in the living room, to serve as a retro PC gaming platform.

...
Yesterday night I managed to hook the display to a pair of AA batteries. Easier to work with and less risk of blowing something with an incorrect voltage.

The display lit up and wrote "HI" no matter what state was the turbo button in.
(cont.)

[Anonymous No.541440]

Tinkering with the jumpers, I managed to have the display write "38" (pic related) but it didn't change if I pressed the turbo button. As it turned out...

>>541056
I read your message today and yes, you're absolutely right! Thank you for finding this diagram, as it made me realize that the jumpers had four possible positions...
- OFF (always)
- ON (button depressed)
- ON (button pressed)
- ON (always)

... that correspond to...
- OFF = No jumper
- ON (normal) = Letter + 1
- ON (turbo) = Letter + 2
- ON (both) = Letter + 3

So I made myself a diagram of the two states I wanted (normal=66, turbo=133) and which lights always stay on, which ones only light at 66, and which ones only light at 133.
(cont...)

[Anonymous No.541442]

So after calculating the positions that stayed the same, changed, and were never lit I came with this diagram :

1s
A3 - F1 - B2 - G3 - E1 - C3 - D3 (will write 6 or 3 at turbo)

10s
A3 - F1 - B2 - G3 - E1 - C3 - D3 (will write 6 or 3 at turbo)

100s
A2 (will write nothing, or 1 at turbo)*

* the two lights are combined here, so only one jumper is needed to light up the entire "1" on the left.

Pic is the jumper settings to alternate between 66 and 133.
(cont.)

[Anonymous No.541445]

Now, there are two things I also needed to do.

1. There is definitely no power LED connector on the mobo. Weird, but honestly I re-checked and it's simply not there.
2. I wanted to have the turbo light alternate depending on the turbo button's position.
- Pressed = Turbo (133) = LED on.
- Depressed = Normal (66) = LED off.

So... to power the front panel I needed some continuous voltage. That current allows me to power three things: the LED display, the turbo LED and the power LED. But first, I had to transform the potentially dangerous 12v current into something manageable for the LEDS, around 5v.

I was left with two choices.
Either use the +5v rail on molex connectors (but I had to cut, solder and tinker with the new PSU's cables) or transform the 12v into something around 5v.

I chose to do the latter, and used two objects to convert the current. A molex to fan connector, and a fan speed reducer (that uses a resistor). Pic related.
(cont.)

[Anonymous No.541447]

The fan speed reducer gizmo, that I got from Noctua (I think) with fans, is a simple resistor.

I sanded down the connector around the three pins (only two used), and used a CD-ROM audio cable (4 pins, only two used) to bring current to the front panel.

So.
1. The display needs continuous current, and is hooked to the turbo button.
2. The power LED needs continuous current.
3. The turbo LED needs current that passes through the turbo button, in order to light only when pressed.

Here's a schema of what I experimented with.
(cont.)

[Anonymous No.541449]

And here's the result.

Noteworthy, is the three connectors that would normally be hooked to the motherboard : turbo, turbo led, power led. Now these three are connected manually to the front panel. To tidy everything up, I taped everything together.

(I was out of black electric tape, but that will do for now)

Notice that now, only one cable carries the power from the PSU to the front panel.
(cont.)

[Anonymous No.541450]

>>541449
Here's the result of this... convoluted adventure with the front panel :

"Normal" mode.
Display shows 66mhz
Turbo LED is off.

[Anonymous No.541451]

>>541450
"Turbo" mode.
Display shows 133mhz
Turbo LED is on.

[Anonymous No.541455]

>>541449
Replace with cable ties, skip any kind of tape. Over time it will undo and leave sticky munge all over the cables. Thread through and bundle it all up in some large diameter heat shrink for flawless victory.

>>541450
>>541451
..so good man, so fucking good. It has been amazing watching this build happen. Congratulations man. Now you need to learn how to airbrush ;)

Out of interest (dude who wanted to buy your spare SFX card here) where did you source your parts? You have a hell of an inventory there, is this stuff you have held onto over the years or have you been trawling eBay etc?

> TFW you throw out all our old XT/ISA hardware because the place you're moving to is half the size of your old place, and you can't afford the storage.

[Anonymous No.541461]

>>541141
Thanks! Want to see something cool I received today? It's a Creative Music System (sometimes called a Game Blaster) and it came out in 1988. Sounds super electonic and super retro.

>>541324
So you're telling me that with a Pentium III this build would actually be SLOWER than with the underclocked Pentium II I'm currently using?

I have no face btw.

>>541056
I know I said thanks already. But really, THANK YOU. I had been searching for this schema for a while yesterday and found nothing.

[Anonymous No.541467]

>>541451

Is that Micro-Bytes in Montreal? I used to buy cheap diskettes there like 20 years ago, when they were near Union Square.

[Anonymous No.541470]

>>541451

Is that Micro-Bytes in Montreal? I used to buy cheap diskettes there like 20 years ago, when they were near Union Square.

I gotta agree about the tape. Electrical tape, or Scotch tape is OK, but masking tape becomes a gooey mess after a couple of years.

[Anonymous No.541472]

>>541455
Thanks for the comments! I'm pretty happy so far with the results.

The cable ties are a good point. I simply didn't have some handy so I ordered a bunch online. Until they are received, tape will work temporarily. I'll keep the heat shrink for my next build.

My parts come from multiple sources.
1. Old computers people gave me over the years, that I disassembled.
2. Parts I had in my older computers
3. Parts I found by chance in local classifieds.
4. Parts I extensively searched for, on eBay mainly.
5. Parts I found at local thrift stores where they didn't know what to do with them and sold them at ridiculous prices.

I'm already living in a place too small for all the electronics and computer parts I have... I keep everything organized in plastic bins, on shelves like these. They are everywhere, and most are unseen in this pic.

[Anonymous No.541476]

>>541461
> THANK YOU.
No problem. I ended up googling "1 A 2 3 1 C 2 3 1 E 2 3 1 G 2 LED jumpers", would not have gotten there if you had not been so thorough with your investigation/info.

>>541472
Hmm, I need to broaden my search then it seems, I have a bunch of synths I'd love to make and not enough sound engines for them. Having said that, parts of this vintage are kind of thin on the ground here in ausfailia, I'd likely end up having to buy from the US anyway.

> inb4rageoverdestroyingclassichardware

Cards would be left intact and interfaced to via their ISA bus. I'm not one of "those guys".

[Anonymous No.541477]

>>541467
>>541470
Yes, it would be likely that it's the one in Montreal. My uncle lived there when he bought this case in the late 80's. I remember playing Halloween Harry with my cousin, possibly in a PC built in this particular case. Before I sanded the case, I took pictures of the stickers and there was one behind, that said "Ali Computers", providing information on a merchant in Ottawa. My guess is that Micro-Bytes (small-ish in the 80s) ordered some of their cases from other, larger "bulk" electronic merchants elsewhere.

Yup, the tape will go as soon as I receive the cable ties. I have many cables that were tied with masking tape and yes, they are disgusting to work with. Once in a while I just grab a wet towel with soap and scrub the glue off.

[Anonymous No.541481]

>>541476
The parts I found on the Internet mainly came from eastern Europe, or the US sadly. The Game Blaster surprisingly came from Canada, but that's about it. Shipping overseas is not cheap, and if I lived in Australia that would cost me.

Who would destroy perfectly functional hardware, instead of just ordering the equivalent components and using them without the hassle of destroying/de-soldering/breaking/ripping? I know in many occasions I used parts for projects, but most of the time they came from broken or useless electronics. Meh. Interfacing for the win. At least it leaves the cards intact if you want to share them between multiple projects.

[Anonymous No.541485]

>>541481
A lot of functional C64's have met an early demise from chiptuners pulling their SID chips, same for Sega master systems with the YM6212 and a lot of older soundcards for the OPL2. I don't think there are any original speak-and-spells out there for the same reason. Too bendable. Arguably it's only nostalgia that see's us wish to preserve clearly obsolete tech, but I figure if it has survived 20+ years, it deserves a more graceful retirement than being gutted for one component. At least C64 SID chips are mostly in sockets, you don't risk wrecking the board to extract them.

Sadly there is no real modern equivalents that I have encountered, most modern sound synthesis is done via a micro controller with wavetable ROM. They are fun to circuit bend, but you are limited to the sound samples already written to the ROM. The advantage of older chips is they are true synths on a chip, they have oscillators, LFO's, analogue mixing, all the fun stuff that makes a unique and solid sound.

[Anonymous No.542185]

>>541485
I tend to break apart things that were already broken or unusable in some way, so that I don't destroy things needlessly. I prefer repairing to buying new, and I guess that most people on diy feel in a similar way.

[Anonymous No.542368]

>>536526

lel

[Anonymous No.542631]

Hey, OP here.
Received motherboard standoffs and thumbscrews today. Had little problems installing the standoffs, because they were longer than the old ones, roughly 1mm more.

Pic is the temporary setup I had with plastic clip-on risers that didn't hold the motherboard tightly.

[Anonymous No.542632]

>>542631
As you can see, I was missing quite a few, so I quickly replaced them with the new ones.

Different shape for these ones : female to female, so you need two screws to hold them in place. Advantageous though, because they stay in place and don't "slide" in place.

[Anonymous No.542635]

>>542632
However, since the standoffs are higher, it caused a problem with one of my RAM sticks because of its height. It squeezes against the floppy disk drive tray, bending the motherboard. I removed it. I guess that standoffs for AT cases were not the same height as the ones for ATX cases now.

I'll test those for a while to see if I run in any other issues, but otherwise I'll keep them as they are.

[Anonymous No.542639]

>>542635
Also installed a PCI network card to run some tests in MS-DOS... maybe I'll be able to use internet with Arachne (web browser).

Also installed the thumb screws and they're really easy to unscrew to open the case.

That's it for tonight I guess. Still wondering if I do some decals or dremel logos on the side panel. I kind of like the simplicity of the case's texture right now as it is.

[Anonymous No.544217]

Bump

[Anonymous No.544589]

OP here.
Sorry for the less regular news. I'm back to work for this week before 3 weeks vacation starting Friday.

I received a black 5.25 drive today, but the front panel, made of plastic, is crumbling in pieces. Any idea if someone, somewhere, sells replacement front bezels for these drives? I know they exist for 3.5 drives...

Pic related. Not my drive, but same model and colour; and you can see that the plastic is cracking on the left.

[Anonymous No.544791]

update ur bios

[Anonymous No.545208]

>>544791
Will do. But I searched and the company that made my mobo was bankrupt many years ago so I don't have any hopes up.

[fllaw No.545229]

Why don't you just hit the beige one with vinyl dye?

[Anonymous No.545583]

>>545229
I didn't want to touch a working 5.25 drive because they are expensive to replace if I fuck something up.

I'll spray-paint or dye a 3.5 drive any day though (and I'll do it soon for mine).

[Anonymous No.545617]

You should see if that board can take a pentium 3 1.0ghz.
so fast...

[Anonymous No.545723]

>>545208

i used wget to download 10 gigs of old bios and driver software from a site a while back give me the model i might have the last file for it

[Anonymous No.545785]

>>545723
>>540096
Acorp 6LX/EX68
Thanks for the help bro. Very appreciated.

>>545617
yeah.. I already have trouble with the P2 because it's too fast for some games/soundcards to cope... using a P3 will not help ! But yeah, I have a socket 370 -> Slot 1 adapter if I ever feel the need for a P3.

[Anonymous No.545817]

>>545785

http://bios.rom.by/Acorp/index.htm

I don't have it but this site does, it's in russian but the file I got looks legit (so far)
3/2/99, ver. 1B

I'll be dumping this site too and merging with my existing files soon

[Anonymous No.545825]

>>545817
>>538629

I just saw this screen shot, you are already running this BIOS revision let me do more digging

[Anonymous No.545832]

>>545825

Good (bad) News!

It looks like it's the latest BIOS I can't find anything newer using the manufacturer data, BIOS strings, or model

[Anonymous No.546653]

>>545817
>>545825
>>545832
Good news IMO, if I'm already at the latest Bios revision, means less problems down the road. Again, thanks for looking.

[Anonymous No.547778]

OP here.
I'm letting this thread die. When I get around to recording sound card outputs, I'll drop by and start a new one.

Day of the Tentacle, it seems, is the worse benchmark I could find to test the ISA Bus speed adjustment because even at correct speeds, it requires a patch to run on newer machines and not output garbage. However, tinkering with this game (and bios settings) made me realize that there is a lot of interference between the mobo and (some) sound cards, resulting in a lot of noise coming from the PC when no music is playing. I don't know if there are ways to "shield" a sound card from the rest of the peripherals, but I'll try to shed some light on this with my friend google.

BTW, I got my hands on a Disney Sound Source last week. It's a kind of external sound card that used the LPT1 printer port to communicate with the PC. Can't wait to test it out.

Again, thanks to everyone who helped. I love this board. I'll be back with new adventures, soon. And youtube videos of my recordings when I have them.

Thank you,
Ben

[Anonymous No.547975]

Thanks for sharing OP, great to see this one progress.

Best of luck with your project!