Have you ever repacked a computer?

[Keatah]

Have you ever repacked a computer?

 

What is repacking? It's the practice of taking one computer and swapping out the circuitry for another, typically something more capable. An example would be disassembling a TRS-80 Model III and replacing the monitor with a modern day LCD or at least something color, the motherboard with a later model like a CoCo, and all of the necessary support wires and circuits. The end result is you have a Color Computer with a built-in monitor and drives.

 

Could also do something like an Apple II to R-Pi. Gut the II and replace it with an R-Pi, wire up the keyboard and stuff whatever else. But this form is pretty pointless. Here you're just "destroying" an Apple II, unless it came to you "pre-destroyed" in the first place. This second method is just kinda dumb.

 

The most popular is using the housing of a computer that has a keyboard and display and drives all in one housing. Or like one of those vintage terminals. So synonymous with data-processing in the late 1970's. Those are prime candidates for the inherent weight loss that ensues with removing 70's era electronics, the big-ass transformer, the overweight CRT, the likely-non-functioning logic boards, and the wiring harness. Powerful i9s, MiSTers, and R-Pis, easily fit into any 70's or 80's terminal. This is however more like simply modding something vintage to be a case for a modern machine.

[wierd_w]

Sure.  You can do that quite effortlessly with a number of systems in fact.

 

I repacked an IBM Aptiva case from the pentium II Slot-1 era with a modern i5 board for a nurse a few years back, because it was what I had on hand, and she wanted cheap.

Those Aptiva cases were, amusingly, fully ATX form-factor compliant.

 

Lots of people repack vintage 8bit systems with things like raspberry Pis, but I consider that a bit sad. 

[The Usotsuki]

I call it stealthing.

 

A little over 20 years ago I put the guts of a 386 tower inside a 286 desktop case I had.

[+OLD CS1]

At my old computer shop in the 90s, we used to call them "Compaq upgrades."  We would take the Compaq cases and replace the innards with a nice new TX board with a 233MMX.  We started the Pentium IIs just as I was leaving for college.

 

We have a governmental organization that keeps a bunch of old computer cases around.  When they do not have the budget for new computers, but they have budget for upgrades, they get "upgraded."

 

Otherwise, no, I cannot bring myself to gut a "classic" machine and defile it by putting something like a uATX or a RPi into it.  I have some dead systems that I could probably do, but I still get tremors and cold sweats when I consider it.

 

Unless it is a Mac.  I might set the damned thing on fire before I get a chance to "repack" it.

[doctorclu]

Macs are great stylized things for shelving and furniture people have found.  Of the G5 and early intel Mac metal towers many have found alternate uses for them.

 

I used a stack of empty Mac Plus cases to not only be shelve areas, but stacked them as a column to hold up a longer shelf above them.   Also Mac Plus and iMac cases make good aquariums.

 

As for as computer case with something else, there was the time I made a "1090 interface" or something like that.  A beige computer, housing an ST motherboard, and it was the virtual drive for my Atari 800.  I was going for an all beige set-up and used an old beige PC case.   This was like 1999 when I did that.

[oracle_jedi]

I took my original IBM PC-AT right up to a P2.   Shuttle continued to offer AT form factor boards long after everyone else had abandoned them in favour of ATX.

 

Other than that no.  Although I do wish the people behind the recent Commodore PET clones had designed them to fit inside a 64 breadbin case and use the 64's keyboard.  

 

I think it would be sorta cool to show up at the local meet with a stock looking 64 and have it power up to CBM BASIC 4.0 with green on black, and able to run all of the old PET software.

[Keatah]

I would imagine repacking old hard disks, like those huge 10MB externals would be a popular and practical activity. Think Corvus, FirstClassPeripherals' Sider, Percom, or Apple's own ProFile. With today's +20TB drives you could make a huge NAS or JOB. I mean the old mechanisms are worn out from age alone, or so many folks say so.

 

7 hours ago, wierd_w said:

Lots of people repack vintage 8bit systems with things like raspberry Pis, but I consider that a bit sad. 

Not only that - it just doesn't seem right on so many nebulous points. I do sort of consider it "ok" if the innards are so bad that its going to the e-waste pile otherwise.

 

5 hours ago, The Usotsuki said:

I call it stealthing. A little over 20 years ago I put the guts of a 386 tower inside a 286 desktop case I had.

Yes. I remember that term. And I did that with a P90 in a DX2/50 case. It didn't seem right to me. This back in the day.

 

I could see a 5150 with an i9 and 128GB RAM, provided all the loose ends are tidied up and everything is made to look nice.

 

4 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

At my old computer shop in the 90s, we used to call them "Compaq upgrades."  We would take the Compaq cases and replace the innards with a nice new TX board with a 233MMX.  We started the Pentium IIs just as I was leaving for college.

 

We have a governmental organization that keeps a bunch of old computer cases around.  When they do not have the budget for new computers, but they have budget for upgrades, they get "upgraded."

In a way a PC upgrade is a PC upgrade. And one case I had ranged from a PII 266 to PIII 1.4GHz. It also served as a P4 3.4GHz for a while till I put it back to PIII. (I didn't care much for P4).

 

4 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Otherwise, no, I cannot bring myself to gut a "classic" machine and defile it by putting something like a uATX or a RPi into it.  I have some dead systems that I could probably do, but I still get tremors and cold sweats when I consider it.

Sumguy on youtube did this to an Apple II and it just looked terrible and functionality just went down the tubes. It was just so tacky and misplaced. IMHO the tasteful way to do it would be to incorporate the R-Pi on a card or as an accessory peripheral and build it into the existing classic system. R-Pis can be mounted in several spots in some like the A2 or TRS-80 Model III. The R-Pi becomes an add-on and not a replacement.

 

4 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Unless it is a Mac.  I might set the damned thing on fire before I get a chance to "repack" it.

That's a good thing to do.

 

2 hours ago, doctorclu said:

Macs are great stylized things for shelving and furniture people have found.  Of the G5 and early intel Mac metal towers many have found alternate uses for them.

 

I used a stack of empty Mac Plus cases to not only be shelve areas, but stacked them as a column to hold up a longer shelf above them.   Also Mac Plus and iMac cases make good aquariums.

The bench looks nice and top-quality. And was actually made, the rest are conceptual renders. I don't think I would want any furniture made from a computer. When I'm done working with my stuff I don't want to see it! No CD-ROM cupholders. No Macrariums. No flower pots or box gardens. I just don't wanna see it! I cannot see it - for if I did I'd immediately start thinking of the next thing I have to do, then it spirals out of control into an all-night project (scanning and archiving and buffing up my emulator configs). So no!

 

2 hours ago, doctorclu said:

As for as computer case with something else, there was the time I made a "1090 interface" or something like that.  A beige computer, housing an ST motherboard, and it was the virtual drive for my Atari 800.  I was going for an all beige set-up and used an old beige PC case.   This was like 1999 when I did that.

I think that classic computers are nicely supplemented by modern mini-PCs. For their emulator ability, storage capacity, and general disk image-making & manipulation tools. We all agree there. I think it's tasteful to take an R-Pi or mini-PC and have it color-match the vintage system or have a styling cue related to the brand of whatever vintage machine it supplements.

 

External MicroBuffers are styled as such to sit on a stack of two Disk II drives. A small half-height box of the same color essentially. Enough room in there for massive storage. And simple labels can cover the touch-sensitive buttons - which would then serve as Power on/off, Reset, and something else maybe. Have a whole stack of these. So what to do with them?

 

I did a small Shuttle computer for someone. Smaller than XPC (forget the model number). It's all black and minimalistic in flair. I put a single Atari chrome badge on it and its looks stellar. The main purpose of the machine was to of course run Altirra and Stella. And it boots into it by default as fast as possible. In no way was it meant to "be an Atari" or look like it came from nutari or anything.

[Keatah]

I would imagine repacking old hard disks, like those huge 10MB externals would be a popular and practical activity. Think Corvus, FirstClassPeripherals' Sider, Percom, or Apple's own ProFile. With today's +20TB drives you could make a huge NAS or JOB. I mean the old mechanisms are worn out from age alone, or so many folks say so.

 

9 hours ago, wierd_w said:

Lots of people repack vintage 8bit systems with things like raspberry Pis, but I consider that a bit sad. 

Not only that - it just doesn't seem right on so many nebulous points. I do sort of consider it "ok" if the innards are so bad that its going to the e-waste pile otherwise.

 

8 hours ago, The Usotsuki said:

I call it stealthing. A little over 20 years ago I put the guts of a 386 tower inside a 286 desktop case I had.

Yes. I remember that term. And I did that with a P90 in a DX2/50 case. It didn't seem right to me. This back in the day.

 

I could see a 5150 with an i9 and 128GB RAM, provided all the loose ends are tidied up and everything is made to look nice.

 

6 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

At my old computer shop in the 90s, we used to call them "Compaq upgrades."  We would take the Compaq cases and replace the innards with a nice new TX board with a 233MMX.  We started the Pentium IIs just as I was leaving for college.

 

We have a governmental organization that keeps a bunch of old computer cases around.  When they do not have the budget for new computers, but they have budget for upgrades, they get "upgraded."

In a way a PC upgrade is a PC upgrade. And one case I had ranged from a PII 266 to PIII 1.4GHz. It also served as a P4 3.4GHz for a while till I put it back to PIII. (I didn't care much for P4).

 

6 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Otherwise, no, I cannot bring myself to gut a "classic" machine and defile it by putting something like a uATX or a RPi into it.  I have some dead systems that I could probably do, but I still get tremors and cold sweats when I consider it.

Sumguy on youtube did this to an Apple II and it just looked terrible and functionality just went down the tubes. It was just so tacky and misplaced. IMHO the tasteful way to do it would be to incorporate the R-Pi on a card or as an accessory peripheral and build it into the existing classic system. R-Pis can be mounted in several spots in some like the A2 or TRS-80 Model III. The R-Pi becomes an add-on and not a replacement.

 

6 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Unless it is a Mac.  I might set the damned thing on fire before I get a chance to "repack" it.

That's a good thing to do.

 

4 hours ago, doctorclu said:

Macs are great stylized things for shelving and furniture people have found.  Of the G5 and early intel Mac metal towers many have found alternate uses for them.

 

I used a stack of empty Mac Plus cases to not only be shelve areas, but stacked them as a column to hold up a longer shelf above them.   Also Mac Plus and iMac cases make good aquariums.

The bench looks nice and top-quality. And was actually made, the rest are conceptual renders. I don't think I would want any furniture made from a computer. When I'm done working with my stuff I don't want to see it! No CD-ROM cupholders. No Macrariums. No flower pots or box gardens. I just don't wanna see it! I cannot see it - for if I did I'd immediately start thinking of the next thing I have to do, then it spirals out of control into an all-night project (scanning and archiving and buffing up my emulator configs). So no!

 

4 hours ago, doctorclu said:

As for as computer case with something else, there was the time I made a "1090 interface" or something like that.  A beige computer, housing an ST motherboard, and it was the virtual drive for my Atari 800.  I was going for an all beige set-up and used an old beige PC case.   This was like 1999 when I did that.

I think that classic computers are nicely supplemented by modern mini-PCs. For their emulator ability, storage capacity, and general disk image-making & manipulation tools. We all agree there. I think it's tasteful to take an R-Pi or mini-PC and have it color-match the vintage system or have a styling cue related to the brand of whatever vintage machine it supplements.

 

External MicroBuffers are styled as such to sit on a stack of two Disk II drives. A small half-height box of the same color essentially. Enough room in there for massive storage. And simple labels can cover the touch-sensitive buttons - which would then serve as Power on/off, Reset, and something else maybe. Have a whole stack of these. So what to do with them?

 

I did a small Shuttle computer for someone. Smaller than XPC (forget the model number). It's all black and minimalistic in flair. I put a single Atari chrome badge on it and it looks stellar. The main purpose of the machine was to of course run Altirra and Stella. And it boots into it by default as fast as possible. In no way was it meant to "be an Atari" or look like it came from nutari or anything. The practicality and reliability factors are through the roof. I suppose it's in the same category as the new vcs 800, but about 10x more powerful.

[CatPix]

I haven't repacked any old PC per se. Once I kept an old case for my new computer rig, but since it was all off the shelves parts I hardly call it repacking.

I got a Soviet PC case on eBay some time ago, I'm not sure if I wanna do a sleeper machine with it or an emulation machine. Either way since it's non-standard It will need a bit of physical hacking.

 

[Bruce Tomlin]

Here's one of the more... famous... ones?

[wierd_w]

Repacking hard disks?

Reminds me of some silliness you could get up to if you managed to get your hands on old vintage SCSI enclosures.  These days, those things are made of solid gold, but for awhile they were ewaste.
One could in theory convert them from SCSI chain enclosures to E-SATA chain enclosures fairly simply, and then pack them to the gills with M.2 style solid state disks.

Something like this SUN scsi enclosure

https://www.ebay.com/itm/262947293472