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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: CreamyNutButter on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:13:43

Title: 90's style modern PC
Post by: CreamyNutButter on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:13:43: I am a bit too young to really be a 90s kid (I started using PCs when I was 3 years old in 1998), but I like 90s PC games, and I am actually quite fond of the beige, boxy style that others find hideous. I came up with the idea of housing a modern, but cheap gaming PC in a 90's style beige case, using a beige CRT monitor, and a beige mouse and keyboard. The first part I found was the monitor. Some people down the street were moving and I saw two CRTs being left on the porch. I asked if I could have one, and the lady said that I could have the older one. It had a small crack in the front and was missing the stand. I lugged the CRT back to my house and, to my relief, it worked perfectly. The second part I came across was the keyboard. My next door neighbor was getting rid of some old PC stuff and she had an old Dell QuietKey keyboard. I know this is laughable compared a quality mechanical keyboard such as a Model M, but I have very little to spend. I just bought the mouse on eBay, a beige, generic 2-button mouse (called a "Take me Home mouse"). The main component I need to find is a quality beige ATX case. There is one for $40 on Newegg, but it is not worth that much, and perhaps I will find one for free or significantly less if I scrap it from an old PC.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: nubbinator on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:29:34: Not really sure what you're asking, but you can check your local thrift stores and see if they have any. Just keep in mind that not all of them are ATX and many have abysmal airflow and are loud for that little air flow.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:31:34: eBay has an un-ending supply of old PC's working and not in horrible beige. The hard part is finding one which is not hugely over valued by the owner as they usually are.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: ZoGxll on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:38:51: Good luck finding a case, I think this is a neat idea and would love to see it finished. When it comes together you should post some pictures.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: noisyturtle on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:42:46: Dude, you could build a badass Win '95 machine with like a Voodoo TNT or Diamond Monster and throw in some 256 ram. Better yet, just hit the thrift stores and look for an IBM Aptiva machine. You'll be playing Blakestone and Jill of the Jungle in no time!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: tjcaustin on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:45:32: No way, turn the wayback knob one step further. Win3.11 for lyfe.

I spent so much time watching toaster screensavers...
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: sicaine on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:48:29: I realy dont think that those 90's pcs were any beautiful at all :>

But go to a scrapyard?
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: nubbinator on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:51:47: Quote from: tjcaustin on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:45:32
No way, turn the wayback knob one step further. Win3.11 for lyfe.

I spent so much time watching toaster screensavers...

The first computer I ever built either ran Windows 3.0 or 3.1, I can't remember, but oh how I loved that 90MHz IBM 486 DX2.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: SmallFry on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:52:32: First one I ever built was a P4... lol.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: noisyturtle on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:56:04: Quote from: SmallFry on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:52:32
First one I ever built was a P4... lol.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: badcop on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:59:28: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-ATX-Case-with-300-Watt-PS-NEW-in-original-box-Warranty-/200876459766?pt=US_Computer_Cases&hash=item2ec52b86f6

got a psu and everything lol. just make sure its atx, beef up the cooling and you're good to go.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Grim Fandango on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:01:54: This topic makes me feel old...
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: jdcarpe on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:10:42: Quote from: Grim Fandango on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:01:54
This topic makes me feel old...

Me too. First PC I ever built myself was a 486.

It's funny you had this idea. I had a dream one night that I lived in a totalitarian society. I lived in an apartment made from a shipping container. My "computer" was actually only a dumb terminal, that connected to a kick-ass PC in a server room in a nearby shipping container. Everyone had the same type of setup. All the clever hackers built bleeding edge systems and housed them in old, beige cases, so that when the police would raid the server farm, theirs wouldn't get smashed like the modern black and silver cased PCs would.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: nubbinator on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:14:57: Quote from: jdcarpe on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:10:42
Me too. First PC I ever built myself was a 486.

But how fast was it?

I remember having to fuss with jumpers on my 5.25" floppy, 3.5" floppy, and HDDs to get the master/slave setups right and remember how much of a pain SCSI was. I remember how amazing it was when Zip disks and then CDs came out and how I was amazed at how much stuff I could fit on a 3.5" floppy.
Title: Re: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: ZoGxll on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:16:46: Quote from: noisyturtle on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:42:46
You'll be playing Blakestone and Jill of the Jungle in no time!
Whoa, Jill of the Jungle. That brings me back big time, makes me want to get Dosbox running.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: jdcarpe on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:17:05: Quote from: nubbinator on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:14:57
Quote from: jdcarpe on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:10:42
Me too. First PC I ever built myself was a 486.

But how fast was it?

I remember having to fuss with jumpers on my 5.25" floppy, 3.5" floppy, and HDDs to get the master/slave setups right and remember how much of a pain SCSI was. I remember how amazing it was when Zip disks and then CDs came out and how I was amazed at how much stuff I could fit on a 3.5" floppy.

50MHz. DX 50, no DX/2 bs!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: CreamyNutButter on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:33:45: Quote from: noisyturtle on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:42:46
Dude, you could build a badass Win '95 machine with like a Voodoo TNT or Diamond Monster and throw in some 256 ram. Better yet, just hit the thrift stores and look for an IBM Aptiva machine. You'll be playing Blakestone and Jill of the Jungle in no time!

Actually, my plan was to build a modern PC that looks like a 90s machine. I already have a Windows 98/DOS machine with a Rage 128 Pro and 512 of ram. I could post pics of my older machine too, if you are interested.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Lanx on Sun, 05 May 2013, 13:06:24: pc cases were just horrible to work with pre antec, i think the whole color and bling thing started around 2001, the gaudy era.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: davkol on Sun, 05 May 2013, 13:20:11: AT cases were mostly rock-solid. You'd have to mod one to use it with modern ATX mobos.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Sun, 05 May 2013, 13:23:57: This is an old PC case, ATX ready so your sorted on that front only $20 + Postage

http://www.ebay.com/itm/90s-Retro-Generic-Empty-Computer-Tower-ATX-Form-Factor-/151040067503?pt=US_Computer_Cases&hash=item232ab087af
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Hak Foo on Sun, 05 May 2013, 14:05:29: I don't advise of cases where the PSU overlaps the motherboard. Especially on modern builds with robust CPUs, you'll have limited cooler selection and a very good chance of overheating.

I built an Athlon 1200 into such a case, overheated unless you left the case open, because there was nowhere the heatsink could draw air from.

Also, if you get a case that uses drive rails, make sure you get the rails, because they're often impossible to find aftermarket.

An interesting case was used on some of the Gateway 2000 Pentium-era machines. It's ATX, of relatively sensible layout, but it can be used as either a desktop or tower, by unbolting and rotating the drive cage. It's a little shallow-- if you can find a relatively small board that only engages six of the nine ATX mounting points, it would fit nicely. You can *ALMOST* fit a 120mm rear exhaust but should be able to easily fit a 92. Here's a pic of a build in it from long ago.

http://forums.gideontech.com/vps/showphoto.php/photo/3643/cat/500/ppuser/4322
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: daerid on Sun, 05 May 2013, 15:22:39: Quote from: jdcarpe on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:17:05
Quote from: nubbinator on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:14:57
Quote from: jdcarpe on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:10:42
Me too. First PC I ever built myself was a 486.

But how fast was it?

I remember having to fuss with jumpers on my 5.25" floppy, 3.5" floppy, and HDDs to get the master/slave setups right and remember how much of a pain SCSI was. I remember how amazing it was when Zip disks and then CDs came out and how I was amazed at how much stuff I could fit on a 3.5" floppy.

50MHz. DX 50, no DX/2 bs!

I might have you beat. 386 SX 20mhz, here. DOS 5.0/Windows 3.0. This was in...I wanna say... 1990?
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: SmallFry on Sun, 05 May 2013, 15:26:18: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antec-Beige-SOHO-Full-Tower-Server-10-Bay-Case-SX1040-ATX-Board-Form-Factor-/160987570927?pt=US_Computer_Cases&hash=item257b9b62ef
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: dante on Sun, 05 May 2013, 15:27:45: I miss the horizontal desktop cases that the monitor sat on - NOT the vertical.

If you are thinking of doing Win95 there are apps out there that let you do a reduced install that will eliminate a lot of the crap you don't care about for additional speed. Specifically some of the Netscape apps run a lot faster and are more stable once some of the crap is gone (heh heh.)
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: fohat.digs on Sun, 05 May 2013, 16:15:09: I have a nice horizontal desktop PS2 - I think it is a 486 - that I would sell for a reasonable price, but the shipping would be devastating.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Leslieann on Sun, 05 May 2013, 16:54:50: Some of the old cases were nice, I have one with a stainless steel frame. Weighs a ton.

If you want an older styling, I highly recommend a Supermicro tower. You can get used ones at a decent price and while older styled, are much more modern inside. Otherwise, like others have said, you may have to make it fit ATX, or have trouble with component fit. We use MUCH larger heatsinks today than we used to and need more air flow. Back then processor heat was sub 100watt and a video card that might push 10. Today we have processors breaking 100, and video cards pushing 200 watts on up to nearly 300. Those old cases can't cope with it without a LOT of modifications, and some may destroy the look you were after.

AOPEN and Inwin also had/has some older style towers that were/are more modern.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: rowdy on Sun, 05 May 2013, 19:04:34: I recently threw out about 30 old PCs - mini-towers, full towers, desktop cases, servers, mobos, printers, monitors, cables and other stuff :))

Put it all out for hard rubbish.

Nothing happened that night. The next night all but two printer, one scanner, a few cables and the monitors had disappeared.

By the next day all that was left was one printer, the scanner and a few cables.

By the time the collection was scheduled, there was nothing left.

I kept all the old keyboards though.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Hak Foo on Sun, 05 May 2013, 23:55:08: The Antec SX1000/Chieftech Dragon is definitely iconic of early 2000s builds. You can pretty easily mount a 120mm exhaust, or do an "inverted" build by removing and swapping the top and bottom panels-- drilling out rivets required.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Internetlad on Mon, 13 May 2013, 16:21:43: Neat idea, but to be honest, making sure everything is compatible is the biggest issue. As somebody noted earlier old cases have pretty ass airflow, either being almost completely open with vents on all possible sides, or completely closed with a crazy loud 80mm fan on the back.

Finding an old ATX case wouldn't be hard, but you might have to monkey with switches for power since some older machines had the power switch hooked right up to the PSU (not hard to make or buy a power switch, though. Power supplies seemed to be mounted in the strangest ways, like 4 screws couldn't hold it so you needed mounting rails and a huge piece of metal holding it up, and trying to get it in and out required the removal of every single panel on the computer and a pry bar.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Mon, 13 May 2013, 16:28:48: Quote from: Internetlad on Mon, 13 May 2013, 16:21:43
Neat idea, but to be honest, making sure everything is compatible is the biggest issue. As somebody noted earlier old cases have pretty ass airflow, either being almost completely open with vents on all possible sides, or completely closed with a crazy loud 80mm fan on the back.

Finding an old ATX case wouldn't be hard, but you might have to monkey with switches for power since some older machines had the power switch hooked right up to the PSU (not hard to make or buy a power switch, though. Power supplies seemed to be mounted in the strangest ways, like 4 screws couldn't hold it so you needed mounting rails and a huge piece of metal holding it up, and trying to get it in and out required the removal of every single panel on the computer and Gorden Freeman.
FTFY

But in all seriousness, I quite like the idea! Good Luck, Post Pictures!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Internetlad on Mon, 13 May 2013, 16:40:14: Quote from: Tym on Mon, 13 May 2013, 16:28:48
Power supplies seemed to be mounted in the strangest ways, like 4 screws couldn't hold it so you needed mounting rails and a huge piece of metal holding it up, and trying to get it in and out required the removal of every single panel on the computer and Gorden Freeman.

Please, he's way too busy to work on old power supplies himself.
http://www.destructoid.com/crowbar-delivered-to-cern-s-gordon-freeman-hilarity-and-a-contest-ensue-112187.phtml
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: dndlmx on Mon, 13 May 2013, 22:09:41: I've entertained the idea of building a "sleeper" in the past. But I'm super OCD, the parts would need to match somewhat. I don't think I've seen beige LCD monitors around.

Is this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121011) the case you're referring to OP?
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: dndlmx on Tue, 14 May 2013, 02:36:48: Edit: derp, disregard.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Leslieann on Tue, 14 May 2013, 16:28:43: If I really wanted something that screamed retro and cool.

I would start with a an old Mac G4 cube, while they actually sold from 2000-2001, it's immediately identifiable, readily available, and just modern enough you could use a flat screen for that retro futuristic look. Put a modern ITX board (perhaps an AMD with 7660 incorporated). You could even one up Apple and fit a more modern power brick inside along with an SSD. As for the screen take an old Apple screen and swap the internals with a more modern one if it's too old. With the right cooling, the whole thing could be completely silent and modern. You could also go Intel internals, a small video card and actually run OSX. There is even tutorials on how to get the touch sensor working.

My custom cube was based on this very idea, but I didn't want to pay what some people were asking for a clean Cube case at the time, only to rip it apart, so I made my own box out of aluminum and oak.

We left beige boxes because they were boring. The Cube was small, easy on the eyes, and quiet.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: rowdy on Tue, 14 May 2013, 17:02:09: Or an 80s style modern PC?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Upgrade-your-original-1984-Macintosh-to-run-OS-X-S/
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: dndlmx on Tue, 14 May 2013, 17:15:22: ;D
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: digi on Wed, 15 May 2013, 00:06:35: My first PC, cost the family $3k at the time:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Leading-Edge-DC-2010-E-Phoenix-8088-MS-DOS-Complete-Computer-System-/221219063515?pt=US_Vintage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item3381af06db (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Leading-Edge-DC-2010-E-Phoenix-8088-MS-DOS-Complete-Computer-System-/221219063515?pt=US_Vintage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item3381af06db)

Gogo Kings Quest I & Tetris.

Who remembers parking the heads on the MFM Hard Drive before you moved the computer? :eek:
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Lanx on Wed, 15 May 2013, 14:47:48: honest to betsy i just had a dream about my old high school computer lab. At that time our school got funding for 30 pentium 200's

except our desks were weird, it was like this

(http://www.armstore.com/RetroFlatDownView1.jpg)

so if you looked at the classroom you had 30 students just looking down, also remember this was in the late 90's so these were huge 14in crt monsters.

man i remember that classroom, i loved it so much, me and other geeks took it over cuz our computer teacher was really far behind, i mean he was teaching us python on these things, when we could have been learning visual basic 1.0, oh he also encouraged us all to pirate, and said, wow so many copies of windows 95, does anyone need this at home? just bring back the disk tomorrow. (or was it floppies? was win95 9 disks?)
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Masterchief79 on Tue, 21 May 2013, 08:50:53: A modern PC in a vintage-looking case is actually a nice idea. I have some old Pentium I and Pentium MMX server cases with a special coating, to keep electronic radiation inside the case (all black, looks really cool). Of course there's no way an ATX board goes in there. Stuff for an interesting modding project though... my PC atm is just lying on the floor without a case, on the mainboard packaging, with an 3770K and HD7970 Crossfire (all watercooled), i can add a picture when I'm home. :D

I actually like the idea of stuffing all of that into an mini-ITX case even better. Your idea is a nice one for a modding project though, especially building all of that out of really old stuff. I got about 35 AGP cards and a lot of old boards and CPUs lying around.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: wcass on Sat, 25 May 2013, 21:09:04: the oldest thing on my shelf is a Tyan S1564D Tomcat IV fully populated with two Pentium 233 and 8 sticks of RAM.

i wanted to find a picture of it on the internets and found this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/review-socket-7-pci-motherboards,46-19.html

and this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tyan-Tomcat-IVD-S1564D-Motherboard-/310384914723?pt=Motherboards&hash=item484461f123

damn! i think i need to post this on ebay.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: samwisekoi on Sat, 25 May 2013, 21:29:47: Quote from: Masterchief79 on Tue, 21 May 2013, 08:50:53
A modern PC in a vintage-looking case is actually a nice idea. I have some old Pentium I and Pentium MMX server cases with a special coating, to keep electronic radiation inside the case (all black, looks really cool). Of course there's no way an ATX board goes in there. Stuff for an interesting modding project though... my PC atm is just lying on the floor without a case, on the mainboard packaging, with an 3770K and HD7970 Crossfire (all watercooled), i can add a picture when I'm home. :D

I actually like the idea of stuffing all of that into an mini-ITX case even better. Your idea is a nice one for a modding project though, especially building all of that out of really old stuff. I got about 35 AGP cards and a lot of old boards and CPUs lying around.

Do it the other way around. Get an old 'AT' size case, then drop an i7 ITX mobo, SSD, SATA III disk, and an SFX power supply in it. You would have plenty of room for a Corsair H2O cooler on exhaust and a 120 in for positive pressure.

Slap a 1280 non-widescreen LCD in a monitor case, add a beige mouse and keyboard, and there you are!

You could even put a slot-load DVD burner behind a 5.25" floppy face plate.

- Ron I samwisekoi
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: daerid on Sat, 25 May 2013, 21:41:27: ^^^^^

(http://i.imgur.com/TzVgHiK.jpg)
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Masterchief79 on Sun, 26 May 2013, 04:02:56: Yep, nice idea, too, don't have the money for such a project atm (it's all being wasted on old keyboards).
Here are the pics of my setup if anyone is interested:
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Sun, 26 May 2013, 04:05:23: Quote from: Masterchief79 on Sun, 26 May 2013, 04:02:56
Yep, nice idea, too, don't have the money for such a project atm (it's all being wasted on old keyboards).
Here are the pics of my setup if anyone is interested:

The hell is up with your resolution bru? (Guessing Bru is the shortened version of Bruder)
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Masterchief79 on Sun, 26 May 2013, 04:11:20: It's a 1920x1080 TV, I usually just use it as a PC monitor and didn't change the gfx settings in GTA4 yet.
"Bru" :D
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: ninjadoc on Thu, 04 July 2013, 09:11:16: I actually have several in my basement. I kept the good ones and trashed the thin ones. I have a few power supplies too. I'm going to make a retro PC so I would need to see what I'm going to use. I'm in traveling distance to you too. I live in Cincinnati so no whipping. PM me your email address and I can send you some pictures. Wife has talked me into cleaning out the basement! :'(
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: fohat.digs on Thu, 04 July 2013, 11:17:09: Quote from: ninjadoc on Thu, 04 July 2013, 09:11:16
Wife has talked me into cleaning out the basement!

Oh, no!

I have an old PS2 (I think it's a 486) desktop (horizontal) that I would sell cheap, but shipping would be murder.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: samwisekoi on Thu, 04 July 2013, 16:29:30: Quote from: fohat.digs on Thu, 04 July 2013, 11:17:09
Quote from: ninjadoc on Thu, 04 July 2013, 09:11:16
Wife has talked me into cleaning out the basement!

Oh, no!

I have an old PS2 (I think it's a 486) desktop (horizontal) that I would sell cheap, but shipping would be murder.

Let's talk!

Can you post a photo or two? I'd really like to slide a slot-load BD-ROM behind a full-height 5.25 floppy faceplate.

- Ron I samwisekoi
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: fohat.digs on Thu, 04 July 2013, 16:47:07: This thing is heavy. Shipping will be as much or more than price. I live near Atlanta.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: samwisekoi on Thu, 04 July 2013, 18:16:34: Wow. Thanks!

The details. High-capacity 1.44 Megabyte floppy (yes folks, more than a Megabyte of storage!) PS/2 connectors with filler panels in the larger AT-connector holes. RS-232 serial port in both DB-9 and DB-25 sizes indicated by the square-wave emblem for a DIGITAL signal. And a whole add-in card for the Centronics printer port.

I bet that supports all 256 VGA colors, too! And probably has MORE THAN 640k of memory.

Shipping aside, I honestly couldn't case-mod it into a mATX power-house. I mean I could certainly do it physically, but it would be a sacrilege. Can't do it.

Thanks for dragging it out and taking the photos. I hope you got some enjoyment out of it.

Very best,

- Ron I samwisekoi
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: rowdy on Thu, 04 July 2013, 18:58:01: Heh not necessarily a separate card for parallel interface. Some I have come across had a header on the mobo and a short ribbon cable leading to a back plate.

I threw out a box full of ISA cards a while back. Remember those? Precursor to PCI bus :))
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: smknjoe on Thu, 04 July 2013, 19:27:19: To the OP and other interested parties - there have been a few projects similar to this that may give you some ideas.

It's from the 80's but still cool to me (it was my first PC) Commodore Vic20/64 - http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how-tos/build_it_modern_commodore_64
or you could do something like this with a RaspberryPi and Commodore http://hackaday.com/2012/07/09/refurbing-a-c64-with-a-raspberry-pi/

If you really want to do it on the cheap and with little effort call up a few local PC repair shops or PC recycling centers and you could probably find some turn of the century PCs for close to nothing.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Hak Foo on Thu, 04 July 2013, 19:58:36: The card in slot 1 isn't parallel; it's probably SCSI. Note the unconventional way to bolt down MCA cards.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: aj-kun on Thu, 04 July 2013, 20:08:12: here's one I've completed last year prior to getting my silverstone case....
(http://i.imgur.com/9oozA.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/wBPtB.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/A2gwd.jpg)
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: smknjoe on Thu, 04 July 2013, 21:04:33: This place used to have alot of old PCs that they would sell for less than the advertised price. Here is an example. http://www.directron.com/used32ghzp4.html

I really don't think anyone ever thought the beige cases from the 90's were cool. As matter of fact it was quite popular to mod and paint cases and keyboards. Directron even had case modding contests up until about 10 years ago.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: fohat.digs on Thu, 04 July 2013, 22:19:14: I love beige.

I also consider it important that cases are generally square, with a flat top at minimum, so that you can stack stuff on top.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: rowdy on Thu, 04 July 2013, 22:36:41: Quote from: fohat.digs on Thu, 04 July 2013, 22:19:14
I also consider it important that cases are generally square, with a flat top at minimum, so that you can stack stuff on top.

This, in particular!

Those rounded cases or those with protrusions on top, or every the power button or USB ports on top - no thanks!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Hak Foo on Thu, 04 July 2013, 23:39:08: I notice the trend is definitely towards sacrificing a usable top. New cases tend to have mesh tops or a fan mounted there, and once you've given up "I can stack stuff on there", why not put the power and front ports there too so you can use it easily even if you put the case on the floor.

I think they need to make a case with optional feet-- 1cm tall for desk use, 6cm or so tall for floor usage, to clear the carpet stuffing up any bottom-mount intakes or getting stuffed in the side panels as you bolt them on.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: rowdy on Fri, 05 July 2013, 00:02:19: I don't like putting computers on the floor mainly due to dust, but also due to static.

And being kicked.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Jack Karneval on Sat, 06 July 2013, 20:46:17: Back when I originally built my gaming PC (now 2 years ago almost) I had all the parts to put it together except for the case I wanted. So being the genius that I am, I remembered that I had my old computer case from way back when still in the closet. So I proceeded to stick my Core i5 2500k, 8gb RAM, dual Radeon 6950 graphics cards into this old vanilla PC case from the mid-2000s creating the ultimate sleeper PC.... it was pretty gnarly ^-^

Here's a picture of it.... the best part was when I threw in a whole bunch of 80mm fans with multi-colored LEDs on them.... LOL
[attach=1]
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: ninjadoc on Sat, 27 July 2013, 00:40:12: Quote from: ZoGxll on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:16:46
Quote from: noisyturtle on Fri, 03 May 2013, 13:42:46
You'll be playing Blakestone and Jill of the Jungle in no time!
Whoa, Jill of the Jungle. That brings me back big time, makes me want to get Dosbox running.
Commander Keen and the original Duke Nukem!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Thimplum on Sat, 27 July 2013, 09:14:40: Quote from: jdcarpe on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:10:42
Quote from: Grim Fandango on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:01:54
This topic makes me feel old...
Me too. First PC I ever built myself was a 486.

Meh. First PC I built was an i5/550 ti.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 09:19:18: Quote from: Thimplum on Sat, 27 July 2013, 09:14:40
Quote from: jdcarpe on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:10:42
Quote from: Grim Fandango on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:01:54
This topic makes me feel old...
Me too. First PC I ever built myself was a 486.

Meh. First PC I built was an i5/550 ti.

I don't see your point?
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: fohat.digs on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:08:54: Pimp my wares again.

I have a very nice PS/2 486 that I would sell cheap, but shipping will be a killer.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:25:18: Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 09:19:18
Quote from: Thimplum on Sat, 27 July 2013, 09:14:40
Quote from: jdcarpe on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:10:42
Quote from: Grim Fandango on Fri, 03 May 2013, 14:01:54
This topic makes me feel old...
Me too. First PC I ever built myself was a 486.

Meh. First PC I built was an i5/550 ti.

I don't see your point?

he is 11 ;)
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:32:53: Yeah i had gathered that, just pointless comment, but i dont think I could explain that to someone with 18 posts per day :P

Also why do you have a pony as an avatar?
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:35:11: Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:32:53
Yeah i had gathered that, just pointless comment, but i dont think I could explain that to someone with 18 posts per day :P

Also why do you have a pony as an avatar?

18 please....you better look again.......

and I don't have a pony that's uncle si from duck dynasty, I am going to vote for him for President in 2016
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Thimplum on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:36:49: Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:32:53
Yeah i had gathered that, just pointless comment, but i dont think I could explain that to someone with 18 posts per day :P

Also why do you have a pony as an avatar?

A) I am not 11.

B) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Little_Pony:_Friendship_Is_Magic_fandom

C) I was saying that I'm a lot newer to this stuff than all the other people on this board. Yes, it was a bit pointless.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:41:20: Quote from: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:35:11
Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:32:53
Yeah i had gathered that, just pointless comment, but i dont think I could explain that to someone with 18 posts per day :P

Also why do you have a pony as
an avatar?

18 please....you better look again.......

and I don't have a pony that's uncle si from duck dynasty, I am going to vote for him for President in 2016
19 wow...

And not you dumbass, I meant brony boy up there... I have only watched a little duck dynasty and its not really my cup of tea, but each to their own.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:42:34: Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:41:20
Quote from: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:35:11
Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:32:53
Yeah i had gathered that, just pointless comment, but i dont think I could explain that to someone with 18 posts per day :P

Also why do you have a pony as
an avatar?

18 please....you better look again.......

and I don't have a pony that's uncle si from duck dynasty, I am going to vote for him for President in 2016
19 wow...

And not you dumbass, I meant brony boy up there... I have only watched a little duck dynasty and its not really my cup of tea, but each to their own.

But...shotguns....bro they would so help us when the zombies come......I love you TYM ;)
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:46:51: My american tele selection includes Sons of Guns, oh and property wars. Good programs.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:49:09: Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:46:51
My american tele selection includes Sons of Guns, oh and property wars. Good programs.

Sons of Guns...those guys are awesome...but I only get to watch actual current TV when on vacation we only have netflix at home. :(
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:55:17: Quote from: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:49:09
Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:46:51
My american tele selection includes Sons of Guns, oh and property wars. Good programs.

Sons of Guns...those guys are awesome...but I only get to watch actual current TV when on vacation we only have netflix at home. :(

:(
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Thimplum on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:58:00: Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:55:17
Quote from: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:49:09
Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:46:51
My american tele selection includes Sons of Guns, oh and property wars. Good programs.

Sons of Guns...those guys are awesome...but I only get to watch actual current TV when on vacation we only have netflix at home. :(

:(

HEY!

A minute ago, you had 1234 posts!

You've made it through kindergarten!

I kid, I kid...
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:00:13: Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:55:17
Quote from: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:49:09
Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 11:46:51
My american tele selection includes Sons of Guns, oh and property wars. Good programs.

Sons of Guns...those guys are awesome...but I only get to watch actual current TV when on vacation we only have netflix at home. :(

:(

but at least I don't have to watch commercials!!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:04:46: Oh Christ american commercials are horrendous. I love the regulations we have to stop them being as frequent or as long as yours.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: SpAmRaY on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:07:20: Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:04:46
Oh Christ american commercials are horrendous. I love the regulations we have to stop them being as frequent or as long as yours.

:eek: What!!....I really gotta go on a real vacation someday and check the other side of the ocean out.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:12:09: I think its like a maximum if 12 minutes of adverts per hour of tele and they only have 3 adbreaks per hour show, then there is the BBC, no adverts what so ever!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Thimplum on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:33:20: Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:12:09
I think its like a maximum if 12 minutes of adverts per hour of tele and they only have 3 adbreaks per hour show, then there is the BBC, no adverts what so ever!

Lucky...
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: asura on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:56:40: Quote from: Thimplum on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:33:20
Lucky...

...no...

Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:04:46
regulations
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Thimplum on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:57:48: Quote from: asura on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:56:40
Quote from: Thimplum on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:33:20
Lucky...

...no...

Quote from: Tym on Sat, 27 July 2013, 12:04:46
regulations

Are you an advertiser?
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Lu_e on Sat, 27 July 2013, 13:07:19: This thread needs better pictures! I like these sleeper pc's

Ads are pretty ridiculous in the US, yes. You bet your ass commercials are also more frequent towards the end of long shows as well... because they know you want to see the end!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: fohat.digs on Sat, 27 July 2013, 13:28:49: Quote from: Lu_e on Sat, 27 July 2013, 13:07:19
Ads are pretty ridiculous in the US, yes.

Don't lose perspective, shows exist to cause people to watch ads. Ads are content, shows are filler.

Like a jet pilot once corrected me: the bolts don't hold the engines to the plane - the bolts hold the plane to the engines!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Lu_e on Sat, 27 July 2013, 16:19:23: People don't tune-in to view ads (usually), but for the characters etc on the show.

[Militarily speaking] Jets aren't flown for the fact of their engines being useful (usually), but for their weapons etc. capability.

The ads wouldn't be seen without the show. I'm all for how advertising works, but it IS abused.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: tp4tissue on Mon, 29 July 2013, 05:07:31: Quote from: Lu_e on Sat, 27 July 2013, 16:19:23
People don't tune-in to view ads (usually), but for the characters etc on the show.

[Militarily speaking] Jets aren't flown for the fact of their engines being useful (usually), but for their weapons etc. capability.

The ads wouldn't be seen without the show. I'm all for how advertising works, but it IS abused.

ads make the world go round. if people suddenly stopped buying, or more specifically stopped buying on credit.. dat der' is a recession or worse.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: compgeke on Tue, 30 July 2013, 04:18:30: Anyways...

90s enough? I mean come on, this was a badass computer for the mid 90s! It's a whopping 33 MHz 486 SX, came stock with 4 megs ram, 170 meg hard drive and a CD drive! What more could you want from a Packard HBell? It even has real cache!
(http://goput.it/zr2.jpg)
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: rowdy on Tue, 30 July 2013, 05:18:16: Quote from: compgeke on Tue, 30 July 2013, 04:18:30
Anyways...

90s enough? I mean come on, this was a badass computer for the mid 90s! It's a whopping 33 MHz 486 SX, came stock with 4 megs ram, 170 meg hard drive and a CD drive! What more could you want from a Packard HBell? It even has real cache!
Show Image
(http://goput.it/zr2.jpg)

Luxury!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: tipo33 on Tue, 30 July 2013, 05:32:44: man I miss those turbo buttons. :p
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: rowdy on Tue, 30 July 2013, 05:53:22: Quote from: tipo33 on Tue, 30 July 2013, 05:32:44
man I miss those turbo buttons. :p

When a whole 2MHz would make a world of difference!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: jcrouse on Tue, 30 July 2013, 06:22:37: The biggest thing I remember, vividly, was setting yp the autoexec.bat and config.sys manually. I'll never forget 220/5/1. Trying to get 600k of base memory was a challenge. Enter himem.sys and the loadhigh= statement. It really got interesting with mscdex.exe when the cd rom interface was a propriatary one on the sound card as opposed to a standard ide interface. I had a Gateway 486-66 with a mitsumi cd-rom like that. We would run WFW 3.11 but had bootable floppies to boot into MS-DOS for gaming so we had enough available base memory. Popular games for me were Indycar Racing II by Papyrus and Descent by Interplay. I launched Descent a few months ago on a DOS machine I threw together and the graphics were so bad it was hilarious. Made me wonder how I ever flew through all those mine shafts.
Papyrus came out with a special edition of ICRII that used a Rendition video card that really set the standard for graphics. After that, the Voodoo cards followed and I moved on to the first Tomb Raider. The graphics were stunning. I can still see Laura in all her glory.
My friend and I would use 28,800 modems and direct dial connections and play ICRII for hours, while speaking on the speaker phones, no Ventrilo or in-game chat in those days.

Sorry, got a little off track reminiscing there.

John
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: fohat.digs on Tue, 30 July 2013, 07:57:40: I took a computer class in 1984.

One of my instructors bought an AT-clone with 384K of RAM.

The instructors were sitting around the coffee machine talking about it, and one of them said "384K, that is obscene!"
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: jcrouse on Tue, 30 July 2013, 08:05:40: Quote from: fohat.digs on Tue, 30 July 2013, 07:57:40
I took a computer class in 1984.

One of my instructors bought an AT-clone with 384K of RAM.

The instructors were sitting around the coffee machine talking about it, and one of them said "384K, that is obscene!"
I remember buying 8mb of ram for running Autocad on the above mentioned 486-66 DX2 and it eas $50 per mb. 8 mb was $400.
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: microsoft windows on Thu, 01 August 2013, 18:01:44: You might be able to find a classic beige ATX case on Newegg or someplace. They still sold a couple last I checked. Then you can get a CRT monitor off of Craigslist and you're good to go!
Title: Re: 90's style modern PC
Post by: Findecanor on Fri, 02 August 2013, 14:42:23: Quote from: rowdy on Tue, 14 May 2013, 17:02:09
Or an 80s style modern PC?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Upgrade-your-original-1984-Macintosh-to-run-OS-X-S/
I like the Quadra Mini (http://hanabusa1.blog29.fc2.com/blog-entry-44.html) Macintosh case mod. I'm thinking that one could do the same with a G4 Mac Mini used as an Amiga system, with a case styled as an Amiga 3000 running AmigaOS 4 or MorphOS for PowerPC.