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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: EverythingIBM on Sun, 20 June 2010, 23:09:13
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So.... I have yet another netvista (the last one I got was just a pain in the ass so I threw it out). However, I ended up getting ANOTHER one (for free of course), and now this one had exploded capacitors, so, I guess that's why it had the RAM removed and whatnot. I didn't want to boot it on (wouldn't work without RAM anyhow), just took the mobo out. The thermal paste was all cracked and old on that note.
The case and PSU still are good though, so, what should I do with the case? Should I find another netvista mobo, should I put a different mobo in, etc. Or throw it out in the dump so a nerd can find it and get all excited, bring it home, and find out there's no motherboard lol.
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I just looked at a picture of a NetVista motherboard... Looks suspiciously like standard m-ATX... You could probably fit a decent computer in there.
How does it connect to the inbuilt monitor? Does it have a dedicated video card for it?
EDIT: Which NetVista is it? I think the motherboard I saw was for one of the desktop/tower ones.
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Inbuilt monitor what?
AIO NetVistas are uncommon beasts. Those use modified mATX, the LCD driving stuff is on the mobo so you can't use any one. Additionally a lot of ports are not included, instead pin headers connect in their places.
Desktop and tower cases should be pretty normal with the exception of power supplies (typically because the fan is mounted differently in them, but the footprint on the back of the case is usually normal. depth front-to-back is the problem)
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Earlier on, I was in a small 'local' computer store with my aunt and cousin, my cousin got a new laptop but the wifi was ****ed and they went to replace the wifi card. In the waiting area they had a huge palette of refurbished Pentium 4-era IBM Thinkcentres... there were some that used a really small chasis with a proprietary motherboard and others were a desktop chassis with what looked like a mATX motherboard.
So there I was, looking at it, wondering if it was in fact mATX or not, and my curiosity got the better of me. None of the store employees were around, so noticing the case open buttons, I pressed down on them and opened up the case. It was in fact a mATX case. The fun happened when the lid had to go on... It was one of those designs of case where the top part angles into the bottom part and slides in (I've seen the same design on HP and other brand computers). Problem was, no matter how hard I tried, I could not get the thing to go back on properly. After some futile attempts, my relatives were doing some serious face-palming, so I kinda got it about 95% closed and said I'd call it a day. But sitting there, waiting, it kinda annoyed me, so I decided to play around with it a bit more, this time pressing in the case open buttons at the side. This time, I succeeded in getting the thing to slide closed fully, but whatever way I had done it, the buttons were now stuck behind the side of the chassis, which would probably make the case quite hard to open again.
The moral of the story - never let me near old computers.
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Ahaha lol. Yeah I think I know that particular case style...the really tiny one. More commonly seen branded as ThinkCentre than NetVista.
I'm surprised that takes a standard mobo. The PSU is definitely custom form factor and if it failed you'd be on the hunt for a new case for sure.
P4 isn't old, it's just...mature.
I don't like "easy to open" cases. Just use these:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Cross_slot_screw.jpg)
and I'll be happy. What's nice is that if you use a bit driver, you can skip the bit entirely. The head of these screws fits the bit holder.
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The motherboard looks like this:
(http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sell/SSProfiles/12001426/Images/6/89P8010__1.jpg)
It's a flat white netvista.
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That looks like a standard mATX motherboard to me. You could probably fit my desktop into that case...
Ahaha lol. Yeah I think I know that particular case style...the really tiny one. More commonly seen branded as ThinkCentre than NetVista.
I'm surprised that takes a standard mobo. The PSU is definitely custom form factor and if it failed you'd be on the hunt for a new case for sure.
No, there were two styles of case there - there was the compact one that you speak about, and a bulkier one which used standard parts... The latter being my new-found arch nemesis.
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There's a step between...
(http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/images/IBMNV8303-21U.jpg)
and
(http://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.com/products/ibm-black-netvista.jpg)
???
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ThinkCentre, not Netvista.
Small -
(http://www.computermegamall.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/9/2/9210-35U_1.jpg)
Big -
(http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/58596_8141.gif)
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Failsauce.
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So a "mATX" mobo will fit in there? Great! I guess I can use the case for some future project then on building a custom computer.
I have one of those small thinkcentres. It's really nice for being compact (but weighs so much for its size). They're convenient to open up, but I had to tweak the cable management since I didn't like how the cords were laid out. The PSU is custom made, and, I don't really like that... if it breaks good-bye-thinkcentre.
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Yes, the bigger one uses a standard mATX motherboard and a standard ATX PSU, and has space for full-height expansion cards.