Might have another folder in the near future
I was working on the house this afternoon(still 
) and a buddy of mine called up and asked me to come over to see what he'd been given. This guy is a Mac nut and doesn't know beans about x86 machines and that is what had been given to him. I went over there and the first thing I saw was this very large, wide server case sitting on his bench. I looked inside and it's a server sized AT case(really nice one) with a pentium 133 and a couple of simms for ram (how quaint;D ). So I told him that it wasn't worth messing with because it's too old and slow, so he started talking buying a G3 or G4 board and psu (wants to have something fast enough to run OS 10.2, which he would have to acquire) and grafting it into the box. I came back saying to him that we could build him an x86 machine for cheaper than that and he surprised me by seriously considering it. It would be cheaper to build the x86 box than to get all that Mac crap on ebay anyways. So I'm checking on how much it will cost to build him a nice inexpensive x86 rig out of it.
Of course, he will have to fold for Team 93 as payment for building it.;)
The case itself looks like it will be fairly easy to mod to an ATX setup. It looks to be about 1 1/2-2 inches wider than my Antec/Chieftec cases and somewheres between my SX1040 and SX1240 cases in height. The backplane panel is removable by 2 screws, as is the psu mounting plate and he has some sheet aluminum and tools to work it with, so modding the backplane panel shouldn't be too hard. This case also came with 2-92 mm Sunon case fans in the lower front, drawing through a removable wire mesh filter and the case is also mounted on casters.
I just priced out a cheap nforce2 system for around 450 bones, less a vid card. The old board has a pci matrox millenium card in it, so if it still works that is what we'll use. He doesn't game so the vid card isn't a problem.
This is what I priced out at newegg:
Tbred XP1800 oem
SK7, Panaflo 80 X 25 H1A
Western Digital 80 gig JB
Lite-On 52X32X52 burner
2X256 PC2700 Corsair XMS C2
Enlight 360 watt ATX psu
Shuttle AN35N nforce2 Ultra 400 mobo
Mitsumi keyboard(remember, he's been stricly Mac, doesn't even have a keyboard that fits x86 rigs)
Microsoft optical mouse
I might try and sell him my A7N8X deluxe 1.04 for the same price as the Shuttle board, put some money back in my pocket that is just sitting around here at the house. He also want WinXP, so that will cost him another 90 bux or so too.
I'll drop by his place tomorrow and give him a parts breakdown and see when he wants to do it.
I'll try to remember to bring my digital camera tomorrow so I can take some pics of this case. It"s real neat for an old case, with plenty of room and drive bays and a hinged side plate for easy access. It also has a full height, 5 1/4" SCSI hard drive (3 GB) that is a freaking monster! Also, the power switch is an industry standard size rocker switch, so getting a replacement momentary contact switch should be no problem.
) and a buddy of mine called up and asked me to come over to see what he'd been given. This guy is a Mac nut and doesn't know beans about x86 machines and that is what had been given to him. I went over there and the first thing I saw was this very large, wide server case sitting on his bench. I looked inside and it's a server sized AT case(really nice one) with a pentium 133 and a couple of simms for ram (how quaint;D ). So I told him that it wasn't worth messing with because it's too old and slow, so he started talking buying a G3 or G4 board and psu (wants to have something fast enough to run OS 10.2, which he would have to acquire) and grafting it into the box. I came back saying to him that we could build him an x86 machine for cheaper than that and he surprised me by seriously considering it. It would be cheaper to build the x86 box than to get all that Mac crap on ebay anyways. So I'm checking on how much it will cost to build him a nice inexpensive x86 rig out of it. Of course, he will have to fold for Team 93 as payment for building it.;)The case itself looks like it will be fairly easy to mod to an ATX setup. It looks to be about 1 1/2-2 inches wider than my Antec/Chieftec cases and somewheres between my SX1040 and SX1240 cases in height. The backplane panel is removable by 2 screws, as is the psu mounting plate and he has some sheet aluminum and tools to work it with, so modding the backplane panel shouldn't be too hard. This case also came with 2-92 mm Sunon case fans in the lower front, drawing through a removable wire mesh filter and the case is also mounted on casters.
I just priced out a cheap nforce2 system for around 450 bones, less a vid card. The old board has a pci matrox millenium card in it, so if it still works that is what we'll use. He doesn't game so the vid card isn't a problem.
This is what I priced out at newegg:
Tbred XP1800 oem
SK7, Panaflo 80 X 25 H1A
Western Digital 80 gig JB
Lite-On 52X32X52 burner
2X256 PC2700 Corsair XMS C2
Enlight 360 watt ATX psu
Shuttle AN35N nforce2 Ultra 400 mobo
Mitsumi keyboard(remember, he's been stricly Mac, doesn't even have a keyboard that fits x86 rigs)
Microsoft optical mouse
I might try and sell him my A7N8X deluxe 1.04 for the same price as the Shuttle board, put some money back in my pocket that is just sitting around here at the house. He also want WinXP, so that will cost him another 90 bux or so too.
I'll drop by his place tomorrow and give him a parts breakdown and see when he wants to do it.
I'll try to remember to bring my digital camera tomorrow so I can take some pics of this case. It"s real neat for an old case, with plenty of room and drive bays and a hinged side plate for easy access. It also has a full height, 5 1/4" SCSI hard drive (3 GB) that is a freaking monster! Also, the power switch is an industry standard size rocker switch, so getting a replacement momentary contact switch should be no problem.
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The enlight is a bit weak on the 12v line - look at the powmax 400 at newegg, it's less 3.3 but more 12.
I talked to him today about lunch time and he seems like he will probably do it in the near future. I think he will go for my A7N8X for the same price as the Shuttle board; he likes the idea of having firewire ports on the rig, just like a Mac.;) He presently is in negotiations with a Company that makes 4 wheelers to pick up their distributorship in the area, so he will hold off committing to build this box until he meets with them in 2 weeks. If he does get the distributorship, he will definitely need an x86 machine or 2 for his company. I should know more the next time I'm in from work in a couple of weeks.:)
Damn, I forgot to bring my camera over to his shop today so I could take some pics of that old server case.