Struck upon an idea whilst thinking about the new CatWeasel 3 card. It struck me so hard I had to go get a beer and drink it before I could feel my feet again
I like the fact that such inginuity has been devloed that you can do hair-brain stuff like fit 6 PCI slots to an A1200 ( onlywith a PPC upgrade right?) and mouth the whole shabang in an ATX Tower. However I have a few problems wit hthis genius stroke.
1 - ATX towers are *dull* and *boring*, no matter how cool your A1200 becomes it doesn't look like one any more.
2 - It costs a lot - esp to fit the PCI slots (£180 - youch!!).
3 - I'd miss the old casing, I grew up on Acorn Arhimedes computers and used to have an Acorn A3000 (nothing to do woth Commadore - bloody confusing I know) and before that I had a BBC Master 128 Micro. I always stick by the fact that the keyboard/case combo, although a little cramped at times, is the most efficient way to pack a computer.
Scuse me if I'm going over old territory but here's my idea (not for those affraid of a soldering iron and a bit of case hacking):
Buy/nick a knackered old 486 in a full hieght destop case.
Remove the motherboard and any nafareous bits, hard disk and floppy might be useful - keep them also don't chuck the mother board.
Lash up an adapter to get the voltages required off the PC AT PSU (I've done it and i get the idea a lot of other ppl have to). I intend to put a page up on my site with instructions. Involves copious amounts of soldering and volgaes which might hurt ur paws etc. don't blame me if you get hurt yadda yadda...
When you've stopped trying to kill yourself/blow up your Amiga (I have a free A600 to do my testing on) with the PSU you should have a cable to power your Amiga 1200, quite a lot of it if you use a good PC case.
OK here's where it gets interesting and a bit theroetical. you need to find some IDC cable (flat ribbon), and some crimp on plate mountable 40-pin and (however many pins the A1200 clock port is - I don't know yet)-pin male sockets. Make up good long IDE cables that go from the drive bays in the case to the front panel, where you crimp ont he sockets. Cut holes big enough using plasic surgery and bring them out of the plastic facure (I suggest using those removable blanking plates as they are easier to swing about than a whole case/font panel). Put the case back together.
Now fit a 4 port IDE buffer card in your A1200. Get some good length IDE cable (one plug at each end is all you really need) that will reach from he trapdoor, out forwards and down to the ports you mounted on the front of the PC case. Ping off the trapdoor and lead the cables from the IDE card outt othe case, plug them into the case, plug the IDE connectors inside the case into a couple of IDE devices you want on your A1200. Also take cable from the clock port to the front of the case and in via a socket. Add a CW3 card (hang it in a PCI slot with something plastic protecting the contacts on the bottom from the bare metal case floor and maybe something propping up the in-board end) plug the cable that leads to the clock port into the CW3, the CW into the old PC floppy and there you have it.
With no motherboard to get in the way you could fit a great deal of stuff in the case. Develop a racking system and you could fit all sorts in it.
Idea is still devoloping and I'm no Amiga expert by FAAARRR so please hit me over the head and call me stupid before I try it. I thin kthe most appealing thing is it doesn't involve any modding of the A1200 casing. I suppose you could adjust the trapdoor cover so it would allow out an IDE cable while it was shut but that wouldn't be anything major or cosmetic.
OK I'm done.