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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Unit21 on November 13, 2003, 03:47:41 PM
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I have a dream... :-)
... the dream of towerizing an Amiga 2000 mobo in a PC-tower.
However, since I don't own either,
I would very much appreciate it if someone here could measure their Amiga 2000 mobo
and tell me the size of it....
Thanks in advance!
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Considering that the A500 mobo adheres to AT spec (in terms of dimensions and screwholes), I'm pretty sure the A2000 mobo will as well.
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I doubt many cases would take it it is very large. :-)
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Ask nasa :-)
Lol, just joking.
My a2000 was huge, its too "square" to fit in a PC case IIRC.
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The official AT size is 12inches times 13.8inches or roughly 30cm times 35cm.
I sort of have a feeling that it is alot bigger....
Can anyone confirm that the A2000 mobo is AT-sized??
Why couldn't they just make it ATX... or mini-ITX even. Would have saved me alot of Googling... :-)
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LinchpiN wrote:
Ask nasa :-)
No ask doomy you'll get a professional answer :-P
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@mikeymike
WTF ??????
An A500 is as far from AT as one could get.
AT only offers a hole for the KBD-connector, the A500 will need a full row.
AT is deeper than wide, the A500 is wider than deep.
AT offers 8 slots, in a right angle to the mobo, the A500 has 2, inline
with the mobo ....
Back to the topic:
Yes an A2000 can fit in a big-tower, but it does require some work.
(had mine converted for several years)
You may have to move the PSU, to keep the video-slot accesible, and
you may need to sacrifiy some of the 5.25" drive-bays (depending on the case).
The board is 42cm wide (thats a bit more than full-size AT),and 36 cm
deep (standard AT-size).
Another problem will be the slots, as the Z2-slots have various ports
below them,and as the Turbo- and Video-slot use non-standard
(plain) brackets.
I simply removed the backside of the tower, and replaced it with the
one from the A2000.
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@Kronos
Given these sizes the mobo may fit in a midi-sized PC-cabinet. Colorcase has some that are 50 cm tall and over 40 cm deep.
Do you know of any other things I should consider before I start this project. I have cut PC-cabinet metal before... ;-)
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@unit
Well maybe it would fit, but where would you place your drives and the PSU ?
Most PSUs are to wide to have them side by side with the mobo, so
you would need to be moved to the top of the case.
The A2000 would also kill ALL 5.25" bays in such a case, unless it
is a ultrawide model with atleast 5cm room left ofthe bays.
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The A2000 mobo is huge!
I doubt it fits a atx tower.
I remember i had my A1200 mobo in an old desktop A2000 case and it looked so tiny! :-o
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At one time, there was a custom tower case for the A2000 called the Bomac Tower. It weighed a ton, being made of heavy guage steel. All you did was remove the outer case (top only) of the 2000, remove the drive bay, and bolt the rest into place. The back of the 2000 was the back of the tower, as it had a big cutout like someone else suggested. It came with extenders for the joystick cables and scsi LEDs. The floppy drives were remounted in regular drive bays. If I recall, there were 2 3.5" bays and 3 5"bays.
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At the moment I'm actually working on an A2000 tower. I started it a month ago.
The motherboard is huge! You will at least need a tower with 5 5.25 bays, and then only one of them will be usable. I havent decided what tower to get yet since I'm in no hurry to finish this project. I would really really like to get a Lian Li with a front door even though no 5.25 bays could probably be used then :) But the thought of cutting up a 200 dollar case is frightening.
Anyways if you want to take a look I made a small site about it, but in the future it wont be updated since I'm putting it in my main site.
http://spotnick.servebeer.com/~cv/a2000t/
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Hmmm....
Back in the days when I had my A2000 towered, I used to have it in a
rather leight-weight standard (cheap) beige box, and only the lowest
of 5 (or was it 6 ??) drive-bays was blocked.
It's layout was somewhat similar to the older version of the RBM Towerhawk
(the one with the slide-down door). Main difference was that the power-switch
(a real one since it was pre-ATX-case) was below the 5.25-bays right of the
3.5 bays, while the RBM has it at the top.
Now fitting an A2000 in the RBM-case would mean that you would loose
either 2 or 3 of the 5.25-bays.
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I have a tower A2000 that a good friend gave me. It must have been made for an A2000. All the holes lined up, also it has cables for the mouse, joystick, and keyboard that run from the front to ake them to the back. You would have to have a large AT tower, maybe 3ft. and be ready to do alot of cutting on the back for the ports. I did something like it with a LPX board, into an AT tower. I cut everything south of the PSU out and used some tin to fill it in. It was a monster but it looked ok and worked
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@Unit21
Vesalia, sells the original A4000T for 55 EURO.
I don't remember the size but it is very big.
Ciao
PS- it is no more on theyr site but try to contact them by mail.
I've purchased one last year (76 EURO incl ship. here in Italy)
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Maybe track down an old HP NetServer 4d/66LM.
These things are big enough to sit on!
(http://www.turunen.nu/pic_frontl.jpg)
(http://www.turunen.nu/pic_back.jpg)
(Pics from here (http://www.turunen.nu/computer.html))
Here's a peek inside the EIGHTx5.25" Bay side-
(http://www.turunen.nu/pic_hard.jpg)
I have one of these sitting in another room incase I ever get an A3000 to re-build with practical Drive space!!!!!