OldSchool Modding

B

Bradish

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 17, 2004
Messages
126
Hello Everyone,

I am picking up again where I left off from a previous mod, so here are some before pics...


The case is a 1987 Compaq Portable III
Orginal Specs:
12 Mhz Proccesor
64 KB Ram
20 MB Hdd
5.25" Floppy Disk Drive
8" Plasma Display

oldschool001.jpg

oldschool002.jpg

oldschool003.jpg

oldschool004.jpg

oldschool005.jpg

And here is the work I have done to date:

The New Specs Will Be:
2.4B P4 Processor
FS-51 Shuttle Motherboard
Geil 512MB PC3200 Ram
120GB WD SE HDD
Lite On Dvd/CD-RW 16x52x32x52
Integrated Video (For Now)
10.4" Nec LCD Screen

Now one of the first things that you may notice is the fact that I have sunk the motherboard into the computer as not to see the I/O ports. This solves alot of previous encountered problems of which I will not elaborate upon.
oldschool005.jpg


One of the improvements in the version of the mod, is this plexiglass covering that will allow me to stack components vertically much easier than before and thus creating more room within the case itself.
oldschool002.jpg


This is about what the plexiglass cover will look like once it is finished, although it still needs to be secured into place.
oldschool007.jpg


So to mount the plexi shield/support I needed to attach it to something for support, so naturally the motherboard was the first to come to mind, and I used extra standoffs to extend threaded pegs up to the plate.
oldschool012.jpg


Then to secure it to the pegs I simply put a nut on either side of the plate and tightened down.
oldschool013.jpg


And after a good bit for refining for cables, components and misc. pieces the plexi shield is done.
oldschool014.jpg


And now you can see where the HDD will sit on the shield. The next update with hopefully include the securing of the HDD as well.
oldschool015.jpg


Thanks for looking, And don't forget to leave comments!
-Brad
 
looking good. ever though of getting a U1 server heatsink. it would he alot thinner than that stock p4 heatsink
 
I remember seeing a mod like this on the Xoxide.com forums months back... :eek:
 
The_Dark_Hacker said:
looking good. ever though of getting a U1 server heatsink. it would he alot thinner than that stock p4 heatsink
Click to expand...
Hmm I havn't seen this U1 heatsink you're talking about. Would you care to link me to one?

Thanks -Brad
 
There's a much better way of mounting that acrylic. Go buy some aluminum round stock (1/4" or so) and tap the ends. That way you wont have those nuts in the way....and if you wanted to try it, you wouldn't have to drill the holes over again at least :D
 
Qtip42 said:
There's a much better way of mounting that acrylic. Go buy some aluminum round stock (1/4" or so) and tap the ends. That way you wont have those nuts in the way....and if you wanted to try it, you wouldn't have to drill the holes over again at least :D
Click to expand...
Excellent idea, however I do not have a tapping kit unfortunatly...
 
Nice, I like the idea of using a sheet of plexi to prevent things from crashing onto the mobo.

The 8" plasma display cant be used? Well I guess it would be really er primative...

Out of curosity, how do those 1U heatsinks manage to do all that cooling while remaining low profile?
 
Update Time!

I finished securing the HDD to the plexi shield, to do this I use 6-32 screws and put them through rubber tubing to maintain pressure pushing the plexi back to resist cracking and so forth, results of overtightening...
oldschool017.jpg

Here it is one the mother board, Although it may appear as if there is no room for the IDE cable, trust me, there is;)
oldschool018.jpg


Thats all for now, although for the next update I am hoping to have the LCD mounted, So stay tuned for more :D

Thanks for the comments!
-Brad
 
Bradish said:
Excellent idea, however I do not have a tapping kit unfortunatly...
Click to expand...


its no problem dude just run to the hardware store and get the sizes you need. They're like $3 each or less. Harbor freight sells a set of them for $25.........but all you need is a drill bit and a tap...........a drill to drill the holes helps too :D
 
looking good this will be a pretty cool project when it is complete.

keep us posted

 
yeah that is a kick ass oldschool case, lets us know how it all turns out at the end!! :D
 
Looking good.. but how come i dont see this update on XFN? You bastard! :p catch ya on aim hehe

*edit* Nvm, i see it. I just didnt scroll down enough :p
 
Well I don't have all the small odds and ends needed for the lcd yet, and so I started to work on the Aluminium box (Don't ask what its for, its complicated to explain, and will be the feature of the next update) and anyway I started to cut my pieces for it made out of Angled Alum, and one got sucked up into the chopsaw (Yes, a chopsaw is the right tool to use, it is made for this gauge of Alum.)

Heres what a finished piece looks like, and the 'chopsaw modded' piece...
oldschool020.jpg


So for anyone planning on working with this combination of materials and tools, make sure everything is secured well, because it isn't fun having a chunk of Aluminium fly at you;)

And no, the chopsaw suffered no damage from it.

-Brad
 
Qtip42 said:
There's a much better way of mounting that acrylic. Go buy some aluminum round stock (1/4" or so) and tap the ends. That way you wont have those nuts in the way....and if you wanted to try it, you wouldn't have to drill the holes over again at least :D
Click to expand...
Bought a tapping set this afternoon ($51), and already having some fun with it...

On a side note, I have the lcd mounted, but not all the way in which to validate an update;)

-Brad
 
good to see you weren't killed by flying aluminum, hope to see this thing in its finished state
 
Woohoo... Update Time:)

I have now mounted the LCD panel onto the monitor casing, by using a simular method as the motherboard plate by taking the threaded rod and then tighening it to the plate with nuts, giving it a counterpulling force that keeps the rods straight and strong.
oldschool022.jpg


Here is a picture with the front cover on. You might be wondering if it indeed does cut some of the screen off, and it does at the bottom, but I will be using the PowerStrip Program to overcome this. You can also see the old hole that was used for a power button, and I think that I will be re-using this hole for the power switch as well, however there are a few indented symbols above it that will need to be taken care of with some filler...
oldschool021.jpg


The angle aluminium part of this project is holding me up abit, and so it may be a little longer before we see any progress made on that, but I do have some parts (not all I need though:() arriving tommorow (Go Newegg!) so there should a picture update of one sort or another.

Thanks for looking, And as always please leave me a comment, or question:)
-Brad
 
Bradish said:
Excellent idea, however I do not have a tapping kit unfortunatly...
Click to expand...

I thought about this, the aluminum rods will probably look better. If you want to know, tapping kits normally look like an oversized nut with the hole kind of looking like a clover.

NM next time I will read the whole thread before I open my mouth
 
Ozone77 said:
I thought about this, the aluminum rods will probably look better. If you want to know, tapping kits normally look like an oversized nut with the hole kind of looking like a clover. Dunno if HomeDepot/Lowes will carry a size this small, but Sears might (more expensive tho) or any local hardware store.
Click to expand...
Haha Next time you should read all the posts;) Look Below

Bradish said:
Bought a tapping set this afternoon ($51), and already having some fun with it...
Click to expand...

But don't worry, I'll forgive ya:p
 
Oh, about the Heatsink, if you do go for the 1U, I would swap the thin fan with a regular/silent one. Since you have enough room for the standard HSF there should be no room issue.

That plexi got me thinking, it looks like an excellent idea for almost any system, all that (hot) air pushed by the fan is not re-circulated but rather diverted to somewhat cool the rest of the components (well the components COULD be hotter than the hot air). The important part is that the fan is constantly sucking in new, cold(er) air. I will definitelly think about that if I ever get the courage to mod my system (I am always too buisy playing)
 
Well as you can see my pictures are down. If someone could help me out with a bit of hosting that would be great:)...

Thanks,
-Brad
 
Wrathh said:
How much space do you need and for how long?
Click to expand...
I could make do with 30Megs and 2.5GB of B/W for around a month... Although I should probably just do the sensible thing and break down and buy some reliable hosting:p...
 
Well as many of you may have noticed, all of my hosting went down, however thanks to Rob at rob@xserverdev.com I now have some solid dependable hosting I can count on. He is currently having a great sale on his hosting packages, so make sure to check them out! (Seen Here)

But I did recieve a few parts in the mail, so there should be another update in the next few days;)

(And yes i realise that the first 5 or so pics are down, but I'll take care of those later)

-Brad
 
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