creepingnet
Veteran Member
Just figured I'd post about that crazy idea.....esp since I uploaded the pictures on here long ago, and there was a post about this today. I've been such a dyed in the wool enthusiast on this stuff since 2001 that I come up with crazy ideas like this all the time. Maybe it's time I share them since I'm not planning to make them any time soon, and if I did, it'd be a different approach or something to build up to.
So it goes way back to 2004 when I started really wishing that PC manufacturers still made boxy, beige, 80's-industrial design inspired PC's, and that I did not have to modify a now "Vintage" case to slap a Pentium III in it. I've been reading on various vintage PC forums lately the struggle people have to get their hands on a vintage desktop chassis for their retro-builds and it's kind of shocking with things like that retro-Amiga chassis that nobody has done that yet for PC's as hot as they are right now.
The initial idea started with me wanting to make a clone of the Compaq Deskpro 8086/286/386 case. Basically it's one giant "C" shaped piece of steel with a steel lid. I'd switch over to Aluminum though, to make it lighter, and take some notes from LIanLI and Antec and how they were doing things at the time. The base part of the chassis would allow several different faceplates to be added, so later on I had an idea that I Could actually combine the IBM PC/XT Style, AT Style, DTK Style, PC's Limited (pre-Dell) Wugo style, and GEM/Compaq Deskpro style all into the same chassis just by switching out the faceplates. Sure, the XT's would look a little bit like a Columbia Data Products PC Clone due to the wider stance, but that's fine.
Later - per the first picture, I Thought about having several different styles emulated in actual dimensions with multiple faceplates - ie, what I would do if I was successful and could start having some factory in China or Taiwan stamp these puppies out for me. The top left was an XT style, next down, full AT style, then the next down was the new version of the GEM/Deskpro design, then below that was a remake of the Kingspao Model 35 with modernized acoutrimonts. The top right was a micro case designed to fit with television equipment but still look like a PC (what most people would use a Raspberry PI for now), below that was a sort of mock IBM PS/2 style design, and beneath that, a AIO retro "luggable" With an LCD.
The second picture is more what I'd build for myself. Basically I took the old GEM 386 design, and put the bottom part of the Dell Wugo ventilation towards the bottom. I did test it out on the actual GEM case before I had the idea and it worked BEAUTIFULLY.
So it goes way back to 2004 when I started really wishing that PC manufacturers still made boxy, beige, 80's-industrial design inspired PC's, and that I did not have to modify a now "Vintage" case to slap a Pentium III in it. I've been reading on various vintage PC forums lately the struggle people have to get their hands on a vintage desktop chassis for their retro-builds and it's kind of shocking with things like that retro-Amiga chassis that nobody has done that yet for PC's as hot as they are right now.
The initial idea started with me wanting to make a clone of the Compaq Deskpro 8086/286/386 case. Basically it's one giant "C" shaped piece of steel with a steel lid. I'd switch over to Aluminum though, to make it lighter, and take some notes from LIanLI and Antec and how they were doing things at the time. The base part of the chassis would allow several different faceplates to be added, so later on I had an idea that I Could actually combine the IBM PC/XT Style, AT Style, DTK Style, PC's Limited (pre-Dell) Wugo style, and GEM/Compaq Deskpro style all into the same chassis just by switching out the faceplates. Sure, the XT's would look a little bit like a Columbia Data Products PC Clone due to the wider stance, but that's fine.
Later - per the first picture, I Thought about having several different styles emulated in actual dimensions with multiple faceplates - ie, what I would do if I was successful and could start having some factory in China or Taiwan stamp these puppies out for me. The top left was an XT style, next down, full AT style, then the next down was the new version of the GEM/Deskpro design, then below that was a remake of the Kingspao Model 35 with modernized acoutrimonts. The top right was a micro case designed to fit with television equipment but still look like a PC (what most people would use a Raspberry PI for now), below that was a sort of mock IBM PS/2 style design, and beneath that, a AIO retro "luggable" With an LCD.
The second picture is more what I'd build for myself. Basically I took the old GEM 386 design, and put the bottom part of the Dell Wugo ventilation towards the bottom. I did test it out on the actual GEM case before I had the idea and it worked BEAUTIFULLY.
