Amiga 1000 Turned Into A PC!

[amigadave]

CatHerder wrote:
Actually, why not just go with a MiniITX board?

I mean, have you seen what people put those tiny boards in? Be sure to view all the user casemods etc on the right column! :-)

You can go as powerful as you want to spend, and you can get a board with everything onboard (video, audio, etc). Have fewer heating issues, even fewer power issues (most of these things run with 30-60 WATT power supplies) and plug in any PS2/USB/FireWire expansions you want or desire. If you wanted, you could basically build a "micro Amiga iside a joystick"; just shove WinAUE on it, all the games from BackToRoots and you have one of the fastest Amigas ever. :lol:

Yes, that is my plan, but I did not realise that the more powerful versions would run on such low wattage as you state.  I have the 125 Watt PSU that Kermit used in his design and was afraid that it would not be enough.  Looking at the site you provided a link for, I see the "Nano" ITX MoBo's and start thinking that I might be able to go even smaller and make an Amiga Forever PC inside an old Commodore 1010 external Floppy Drive case.  :-o

[CatHerder]

Yeah, that would be a really slick little computer. A 1010 with a 2500-3000MHz computer inside it. :-)

If you wanted to be even fancier, and you aren't scared to cut your 1010 case a bit, you could mount a notebook floppy drive in there with the motherboard underneath it and have a complete system all in one small case. You can also get small (dimensional) powersupplies in the 80-120 watt range that would possibly fit into the case as well. When you think about it, a "giant" notebook motherboard runs off 6 tiny batteries for up to 3 or 4 hours. So it's not at all surprising that you can get a 2GHz-3GHz motherboard that requires such small wattage and uses little power. But then that's the nature of portable electronics.

I think it (putting a whole computer into a 1010) is a great idea, but then I like to tinker and build stuff.

[JetFireDX]

I had been thinking recently about doing something like this with a busted CD32 from the garage..(I am pretty sure there is a broken one - PSU fried a bunch of traces on the mobo) I still have a working one with an SX-1 on the back. I wanted to fit a mobo, video capture card, and if possible convert a DVD drive to load top down (Laptop drive maybe? Dunno haven't looked yet) and make a media pc out of it. Get a copy of Amiga Forever, throw Media Portal on there, a decent size hard drive ... oh yeah that would be sweet.

[amigadave]

CatHerder wrote:
Yeah, that would be a really slick little computer. A 1010 with a 2500-3000MHz computer inside it. :-)

If you wanted to be even fancier, and you aren't scared to cut your 1010 case a bit, you could mount a notebook floppy drive in there with the motherboard underneath it and have a complete system all in one small case. You can also get small (dimensional) powersupplies in the 80-120 watt range that would possibly fit into the case as well. When you think about it, a "giant" notebook motherboard runs off 6 tiny batteries for up to 3 or 4 hours. So it's not at all surprising that you can get a 2GHz-3GHz motherboard that requires such small wattage and uses little power. But then that's the nature of portable electronics.

I think it (putting a whole computer into a 1010) is a great idea, but then I like to tinker and build stuff.

The 1010 case is almost the same size as a Mac Mini, it would probably be a perfect fit to slip one inside the 1010.  That would be the easiest way to convert the 1010 to a complete computer, but I like WinUAE's ease of use and setup so much better than trying to setup EUAE on the Mac.  It would be great to be able to fit a Nano ITX MoBo, Catweasle, floppy drive in the original position, slot loading slim DVDRW just under the floppy where there is the indent that could be cut to accept CD's/DVD's, a 2.5" HD, all inside the 1010.  I would settle for an external PSU if one could not fit inside.  

It would be a novelty that would be great to take traveling to shows or user group meetings to show off.

[leirbag28]

 I was going to do something like this once..........except I was going to put a CD32 and SX32 into an A1000

Glad I didnt though......as I love the A1000 as it is and the CD32 as it is.

an A1200 however...would be nice in an A1000 :-)

Was also considering  puttind a CD32 motherboard with an SX32 pro into a CDTV case.......that one I would not mind at all :-)    but how to get the LCD working is the Problem.

[Managarm]

I don't undrestand the logic of assimilating an A1000. Given the fact it's the original Amiga and therefore a piece of computing history, why destroy a potentially irreplacable piece of hardware. It's like taping over the first series of the Simpsons with a new series of say, Family Guy. Both great, but surely not the latter at the expense of the former?

[Plaz]

It could be forgiven if they would do something like I might.... Put a ACK powerPC board in my A1000 :-)


Plaz

[amigadave]

Managarm wrote:
I don't undrestand the logic of assimilating an A1000. Given the fact it's the original Amiga and therefore a piece of computing history, why destroy a potentially irreplacable piece of hardware. It's like taping over the first series of the Simpsons with a new series of say, Family Guy. Both great, but surely not the latter at the expense of the former?

Well, in my case, I already have one working A1000 to preserve, my 2nd A1000 does not work, and replacement A1000's are still pretty easy to find at very low prices, so I don't consider it being close to "potentially irreplacable" hardware yet.  That plus the whole point for me is to replace old, broken hardware that was limited in what it could run and replace it with new hardware to run the same old Amiga software, plus lots of newer Amiga software, while also trying to duplicate the experience as invisibly as possible so most people could not tell it was not still a real (but much faster) Amiga 1000.

I prefer Amiga computers over any others, but don't feel the need to bash everyone that uses anything other than an Amiga.  Can't we all just get along?   :-?

[justthatgood]

Seriously people.  Do we have to bash people that use their Amiga hardware for other things then what is intended?  People start sounding like a bunch of hopeless Trekkies then.

[Noster]

Hi,

I've also done this.
I put an socket 370 motherboard with a Pentium III 933 MHz in the case of an old defect A1000. I placed the CD-RW behind the front-door where the 256KB memory extension is placed. It's a very nice system running windows and UAE.
Currently I save my money to purchase an micro A1. When I have such a beast, I will replace the x86 mobo with this one and I will have a new Amiga in the original Amiga-case :-D

A Windows-PC looks much better in an Amiga-case than in any other case. You will only find Amigas in my working room ;-)

Noster

[Noster]

Hi,

BTW.: My reworked A1000 is better: :-)

The whole system is shielded because I've build a metal-case that fits into the A1000-case.
I have a micro-ATX board, that is larger than a flex-ATX board and has an (unused) AGP- and two (unused) PCI-ports.
I use an original A1000-mouse that is attached to the mouse-port of the A1000-case (using an additional logic to convert the A1000-mouse-signals into the signals of a serial PC-mouse).
I use a full-size CD-RW, that is invisible, when the tray is closed.
The computer has additional front-audio- and USB-connectors hidden behind the front-door below the CR-RW.
The expansion-port at the right side is used as air-input for cooling the cpu.
The original A1000-powerswitch is used to switch the powersupply on and off, the computer is started by a poweron-switch hidden behind the Amiga-symbol at the left, top corner of the case.
And the power-cable is attached at the original position of the case.

Noster

[amigadave]

@Noster,  Can you post some pictures of your converted A1000, both inside and outside pictures would be helpful for those of us that want to do our own projects.  Also please provide a complete parts list of what you used and who did the custom logic work so you could use the original A1000 mouse?  If you were to make any changes to what you did, what would you change now?

Thanks for any info and pictures.

David

[Noster]

Hi,

> Can you post some pictures of your converted A1000
I would do -- I have pictures of every part of the A1000 and of every step of work -- but I don't know how :-)
I have no webspace where I could store the photos. Anybody knows a solution?

> Also please provide a complete parts list of what you used
I'll try to do my best but it is not so easy. The powersupply for example was an ATX-powersupply from scrap. You will need a powersupply that isn't higher than 5.5 cm or could be reworked so it isn't higher.

> who did the custom logic work so you could use the original A1000 mouse?
Microsoft :-D
I used the logic-circuit of a Microsoft serial mouse for this purpose.

> If you were to make any changes to what you did, what would you change now?
Use a better motherboard than the scrap Elitegroup board, look for a better way to close the A1000 case, I've had some problems because I couldn't use the original screws.

I'm still thinking of placing a catweasel into the case so I could connect -- with some rework -- an original A1000 keyboard. But the catweasel controller is more expensive than the whole computer and I don't know if it really fits into the case (there isn't much space left and I would get a heatproblem -- don't know where the hot air of the processor cooler should be blown out of the case).

The best would be to write a complete description with some photos but this would take some time. Tomorrow I would have the time to do this but is there anybody that could place it in the web?

Noster

[oleimann]

> I have no webspace where I could store the photos. Anybody knows a solution?

You can create a new (free) account on www.webshots.com.
Allows up to 200 pictures (per account) for free.

Cheers,

[Noster]

Hi,

Ok, I'll try to get an account and place the pictures there.

Noster

[Noster]

Hi,

Ok here we have an album with the pictures of my A1000 casemod.

http://community.webshots.com/user/Amiga1000Power

I have added some comments. Any questions? Feel free to ask.

Noster