A1200 Tower Project

[stevieu]

Hey all,

well I've posted this a few times elsewhere, but have still not got round to doing anything about it :-) (damn procrastination).

I was wondering if anyone could give me/point me towards some advice/hints on housing my other A1200 mobo in a PC tower.

I will be looking to house a Mediator LT4 with a PPC card in this set-up (both are lying about doing nothing right now), so obviously this will cause problems with the backplate being correctly aligned with PCI cards installed (again) and also, what's the best way to mount the motherboard in the tower? (stand-offs) etc.

I would be hoping to house it in something sleek and modern and not too pricey. I choose not to buy a ready-modified A1200 tower like the DBox, as I like the DIY side of things, also (when pointed in the right direction haha). I already have a PPC equipped A1200 housed in a Power Tower, so would like this to be more personal to me.

Decision making isn't one of my strongest points, so this is why I seek advice & boot up the a** ;-)

Any help would be much appreciated or experiences from others who have achieved this :-)

Cheers.

Steve

[amigakit]

To use both a Mediator 1200 PCI busboard and a BPPC you require a custom A1200 backplate- the EZ Z4 tower would be a great option for you. Here is a pic of the custom backplate:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/ez-z4-tower-back.jpg

To use it with the Mediator 1200LT4 as opposed to the Mediator 1200TX you will also need an AT to ATX convertor.

[stevieu]

Thanks for the reply.

I was considering getting an EZ Z4 Tower quite some time ago, but decided against it. I want this A1200T to do away with the beige and match the décor of this room (something black & silver would be ideal) :-)

I know I'm going to run into problems with the backplate, so I'm not sure what the best option there is (I'm not so great at metal cutting, but would give it a go if the tower was a cheap deal) ;-) It all depends on the tower I manage to find and how I could use/make a backplate for it?

I have the AT-ATX power supply issue sorted out, so it's mostly finding something to house the lot in *ponders*

Thanks for the suggestion :-)

Steve

[amigakit]

If it is of any help, apart from our new stock, we have 1x DBox 1200 that we have previously used for demonstration stock at Amiga shows.  It has a few marks on it but we can sell it off at a lower cost to relect this.

[stevieu]

Thanks for the very kind offer.

It would very much depend on the price, as I was not planning on going too overboard with this tower, but just wanted something a little more modern to fit in with my room :-)

If all else fails, I shall have to look into getting a custom backplate made somehow.

Darn, it only seems five minutes since I housed my original A1200 in the Power Tower. Feeling all nostalgic, yet again!

Steve

[orb85750]

Could you let us know what your cost of the entire system (including mobo) is expected to be?  Or perhaps that's a question we should direct to AmigaKit?  

[stevieu]

@orb85750

Well, I'm not entirely sure.

I've had this PPC card (603e 160mhz/040 25mhz) and Mediator lying about for a long time, since I bought another PPC card (with a 060) on ebay (which works with my BVision) and wanted to stick them in a modern tower, just to be different from the other A1200T I have :-) Then to decide what to do...

This tower will house;

A1200 (rev 1A or another 1d.4)
PPC 603e 160mhz/040 25mhz with SCSI & 256mb ram

Mediator LT4;
ATI Radeon 9250/Voodoo 3 3000
Realtek Ethernet
Creative Soundblaster Live!

CD-ROM drive etc.


Depending on what I choose to do, I may source some SCSI drives or source another Fast ATA controller from Elbox.

As there are soooo many cheap and aesthetically pleasing cases out there, I was going to go a more DIY route with this case..all part of the fun :-) It's just knowing the best way to go about it and what case to choose, but I'll keep my options open :-)

Steve

[DIBBEERZ]

yes im thinking the same here them white boxes look cack
id rather hack out the back and realign it with the busboard
and use a nice lian li case or other nice case more effort
but worth it
its not about money saving its about i care how it looks as well as works

ive got a clasic 1200 with a 1230 blizard in a nice alloy style window cheap tower case (is a tight fit)
and have sound blaster live an grafix card network card
jus sitin on the shelf beggin to be used with a busboard

ill borrow you the angle grinder and some bolts
 :-D

[Tenacious]

It seems to me that it's much easier to paint a box to match your furnishings than it is to make all those modifications to a tower designed for entirely different hardware.  It's even harder to get pro looking results.

[DIBBEERZ]

this aint my case (awww)  a metal lover here an paint would be easy yes but look at all the case mods you can do

paint a window no led lights no fancy copper heat sinks no
chemicaly brushed alloy no other finishes no

vanilla yes wow vanilla plastic a bit 80's real retro yuk

and i also think the back isnt so much a big deal as long
as it has a strip of metal that holds the cards firmly in place and has area for mounting some ports ive moved my psu to
the front bottom and leave the power cord in

have to get some pics up eh

is there a case mods section at amiga org?
 :roll:  :roll:

[DIBBEERZ]

follow up hacked out rear used an older case rear stuch it in
with strong thick double sided tape (dont move good as welded)
all cards line up an solid  :-D ps the tape is strog enough to hold a heavy psu to the case roof i dont know what its called but good stuff

[carvedeye]

If it is of any help, apart from our new stock, we have 1x DBox 1200 that we have previously used for demonstration stock at Amiga shows.  It has a few marks on it but we can sell it off at a lower cost to relect this.

@amigakit if you still have the DBox 1200 I might be interested in it, how much would you want for it?