A lone A3000T motherboard - where to get a case?

[Amiga_CDTV]

Hello.

After a find from eBay, I now have a loose working motherboard of an Amiga 3000T. The board (which is a Rev 6.1, A/W 313194, FAB 313193, pic here) have had battery damage but was fixed by the previous owner and there is now a new battery installed and the affected area is restored. There are Kickstart 3.1 ROMs installed and there is 2 Mb of chip-RAM and 12 Mb of Fast-RAM (I had suitable zip-rams at hand).

I have built an adapter to use the board with a modern ATX power supply (pic, the jumper is used to switch on the PSU). I have booted the board several times and everything seems to be working.

Also for testing purposes I built a small thingy with the needed power- and hdd- leds and a reset key (pic, jumper is for testing the keybd/mouse lock).

I found a good re-make of the schematics here.

I have now collected almost all the cables and parts I need for a basic setup (still looking for an external SCSI terminator, the board is missing the terminator-resistor packs) and now the big question (pun intended) remains: where can I get a case to house the board? I am not expecting to find an original case (still, if anyone here does have an extra 3000T case for parts, I am interested!) but thinking of getting some very large ATX case where to board could be made to fit.

Any ideas on how to proceed from here?

[Amiga_CDTV]

@Kawazu: I knew somebody was going to suggest something like that

Just for reference on the size of the board: attached is a picture of an old Pentium-something -age half-ATX (or whatever that size was called) motherboard next to the A3000T's motherboard. Yes, it's that huge!

I have two or three ATX cases at home but they are all way too small to house the A3000T board.

I have been looking on eBay for some full-tower PC cases. Fitting the PSU might be a problem. I have seen mentioned that the original A3000T PSU is rated only about 135W so some modern Small Form Factor -pc PSU (with enough wattage) might be an easier fit than a normal-sized ATX PSU.

What I am worried is that if I buy a huge case and then find out that the board won't fit inside well (or needs heavy modifications on thick metal parts) I would be in serious trouble with space! :razz: Not to mention that some of cases I have seen on eBay are just hideous! I just couldn't bear to have an AMIGA inside some ugly PC case!

[Amiga_CDTV]

@salax54: thanks, that was an awesome build-story.

What do you guys think about this one? Quite cheap (even with postages) and certainly enough height (But really, how needs TEN 5,25" slots?!!). Looking at the insides I am still worried if the board fits there in width. There seems to be a little space between the case and the 5,25" mounting bracket but I doubt the ZIP RAMs on the top-right corner of the board would fit "under" the bracket. Of course the bracked could be cut slightly if that's needed (I can live with less than ten 5,25" slots!). The front of the case (at least on the first picture) remainds me of the Commodore's A4000T.

[Amiga_CDTV]

I tried contacting the person on the link above (when it had just been posted) but somehow the sale never got anywhere.

I put a wanted-to-buy -ad on the marketplace -forum (here).

I am still looking. Either original case (preferred) or something else that would house this enormous motherboard.

[Amiga_CDTV]

I am happy to report that this project has finally gone forward!

I got bored of looking old server cases from eBay (and the postages would have been astronomical). So I checked out my nearest PC- superstore, and bought the biggest possible ATX- case, the model I chose was a NZXT Switch 810.

Although being a VERY large case, the motherboard only just fits in width! I had to drill new holes for the motherboard stands and cut some metal out of the rear panel. With a help from a friend from work, the board is now installed in the case, and the system has been quickly tested - and it works!

Pictures available here.

Some more work is needed around the rear connectors (I have a piece of white, easily cuttable plastic sheet of which I'll do a plate to cover the rear panel connectors) and cables need to be routed but it's already looking like a real computer! The PSU can be fitted at the bottom (doesn't quite fit the opening in the case but fits inside the case). I didn't even try to make the Zorro slots really usable (or to fit the slots on the rear panel) but at the moment I don't have any Zorro boards for this machine, anyway. If I someday decide to expand the system I have to come up with something.

The case came with four 140mm fans, I'll see how to put those (and I think I'll need only two or three for this system anyway).

One must be real crazy to have a hobby like this...

[Amiga_CDTV]

To update this thread; I have now managed to buy an original case, and I am building my A3000T machine! Awesome! This is indeed a really hefty case.

The original PSU that came with the machine is not working (5V and 12V rails are working, but the PWR_OK/FAIL -signal from the PSU stays low, keeping the motherboard in a reset-state). It looks like there is a bit of corrosion in several solderpoints of the PSU's PCB so I am not too optimistic about getting it working.