It's been a LOOOONG time since I've done one of these.... I've had the case for years, its just been sitting in my office with crap stacked on top of it. It has a Micronics 486 motherboard in it with a DX4-100 CPU.... I was never a 486 enthusiast, I had no intentions of doing a build with it....I only kept it for the case....which someone dropped off for recycling years ago.
Anyway, I recently stumbled upon a Supermicro P6DKF AT motherboard and tested it in 'the oven'. I remember seeing one (or one similar) back in the 90's before eATX was a twinkle in anyone's eyes and wondering what case it would take to house this....well here we are!! This is a rather unusual board, ran across it on ebay inadvertently...and it was definitely cheap enough and I know I'd likely never see another one, so I grabbed it....and here we go!!
Not sure who makes this, but given the stupid drive rails it screams out Enlight....but I'll get back to that debacle later....
Nice big beige full tower; AT form factor.
The 486 innards....
Time to disassemble this. The lower cage removed, I'm guessing this held the HDD's, although it still used those dumb drive rails, but has no access from the front panel. This won't be reused, it'll interfere with the AT (aka full AT) motherboard.
Board out.
I never knew that 'GoldStar' made computer memory. I remember Goldstar consumer electronics as a kid (TV's, radios, tape players, etc), but never knew they made computer gear. Interesting.
Ok, little tangent....I'll atleast see if this works.....in the oven...
It POST's and in the BIOS. No, I did not set the date/time!!
It was only off by a few hours....the RTC chip/battery is still good!
It's only drawing from the +5V rail. Idled around ~3A. Loaded 'troubleshooter', and under testing never went above 6A. Apparently these aren't power hogs.
Holy Slow, Batman!!! ...but it did run!!
Back to the task at hand....and the drive rails mess. These are the rails that are needed....and I have enough for 2 5.25" drives, which won't be the ones shown with the case. I have a nice matched set of Plextor opticals that will go in this....which still leaves me needing atleast one more pair to hold the HDD...
These were the closest thing I had on-hand, and of course they aren't the same....so some fabrication will have to be done....but I'll figure that out during the reassembly phase.
Size difference in the boards. The 486 is a baby AT; as are all AT's without the mass above the keyboard port, even if longer, they're still considered 'baby AT'.
Back to dismantling the case in prep for cleaning. The case was filthy inside.
I don't remove the case badges anymore like I used to....they add a charm & elegance that's long gone these days.
Yea...filthy! Front filter.
I took it outside and cleaned it with the hose & simple green. Dried with the air compressor & microfiber cloth.
It cleaned up well. I couldnt believe that filter cleaned up and not just disintegrate in my hands as I cleaned it in hot water with simple green. The water looked like chocolate milk!!
Now for the power supply. It's a 'topower' rated at 300W...
QC sticker says it was manufactured in September of 1986! Wowza! Makes me wonder if this 486 wasn't the first system in this case; as that is dated ~1992 according to the BIOS and other data suggests 1993 as well.... A mystery that will never be solved perhaps....
PSU inside.... The way this is laid out, any normal AT or even ATX PCB could be mounted in here....good to know if the PSU ever dies and I can't fix it.... It is loaded with 'Fuhjyyu' caps, which of course is a big red flag!!
I scoped the unit with no load on it.....All 3 rails aere quiet as can be! I was shocked (no pun intended)!
Inside of the housing....
I recapped it anyway.....but I really have to wonder if Fuhjyuu used to make a quality cap back in the day. I checked the old ones with my Sencore LCR as I pulled them, they were all perfectly in spec with value, no leakage (electrolyte or current), and quality bungs... I was half temped to just put them back in the PSU...but just couldn't bring myself to....
Recapped...
Cleaned up and back together.
I knew there was a reason I didn't miss dealing with AT cases....those silly plastic standoffs they all used!!
I do have a nice stash of them though...
The case had 3 screw-down mount points and the rest are all the plastic pegs....but what a nice snug fit!
This is where I knocked off for the day.......
Anyway, I recently stumbled upon a Supermicro P6DKF AT motherboard and tested it in 'the oven'. I remember seeing one (or one similar) back in the 90's before eATX was a twinkle in anyone's eyes and wondering what case it would take to house this....well here we are!! This is a rather unusual board, ran across it on ebay inadvertently...and it was definitely cheap enough and I know I'd likely never see another one, so I grabbed it....and here we go!!
Not sure who makes this, but given the stupid drive rails it screams out Enlight....but I'll get back to that debacle later....
Nice big beige full tower; AT form factor.
The 486 innards....
Time to disassemble this. The lower cage removed, I'm guessing this held the HDD's, although it still used those dumb drive rails, but has no access from the front panel. This won't be reused, it'll interfere with the AT (aka full AT) motherboard.
Board out.
I never knew that 'GoldStar' made computer memory. I remember Goldstar consumer electronics as a kid (TV's, radios, tape players, etc), but never knew they made computer gear. Interesting.
Ok, little tangent....I'll atleast see if this works.....in the oven...
It POST's and in the BIOS. No, I did not set the date/time!!
It was only off by a few hours....the RTC chip/battery is still good! It's only drawing from the +5V rail. Idled around ~3A. Loaded 'troubleshooter', and under testing never went above 6A. Apparently these aren't power hogs.
Holy Slow, Batman!!! ...but it did run!!
Back to the task at hand....and the drive rails mess. These are the rails that are needed....and I have enough for 2 5.25" drives, which won't be the ones shown with the case. I have a nice matched set of Plextor opticals that will go in this....which still leaves me needing atleast one more pair to hold the HDD...
These were the closest thing I had on-hand, and of course they aren't the same....so some fabrication will have to be done....but I'll figure that out during the reassembly phase.
Size difference in the boards. The 486 is a baby AT; as are all AT's without the mass above the keyboard port, even if longer, they're still considered 'baby AT'.
Back to dismantling the case in prep for cleaning. The case was filthy inside.
I don't remove the case badges anymore like I used to....they add a charm & elegance that's long gone these days.
Yea...filthy! Front filter.
I took it outside and cleaned it with the hose & simple green. Dried with the air compressor & microfiber cloth.
It cleaned up well. I couldnt believe that filter cleaned up and not just disintegrate in my hands as I cleaned it in hot water with simple green. The water looked like chocolate milk!!
Now for the power supply. It's a 'topower' rated at 300W...
QC sticker says it was manufactured in September of 1986! Wowza! Makes me wonder if this 486 wasn't the first system in this case; as that is dated ~1992 according to the BIOS and other data suggests 1993 as well.... A mystery that will never be solved perhaps....
PSU inside.... The way this is laid out, any normal AT or even ATX PCB could be mounted in here....good to know if the PSU ever dies and I can't fix it.... It is loaded with 'Fuhjyyu' caps, which of course is a big red flag!!
I scoped the unit with no load on it.....All 3 rails aere quiet as can be! I was shocked (no pun intended)!
Inside of the housing....
I recapped it anyway.....but I really have to wonder if Fuhjyuu used to make a quality cap back in the day. I checked the old ones with my Sencore LCR as I pulled them, they were all perfectly in spec with value, no leakage (electrolyte or current), and quality bungs... I was half temped to just put them back in the PSU...but just couldn't bring myself to....
Recapped...
Cleaned up and back together.
I knew there was a reason I didn't miss dealing with AT cases....those silly plastic standoffs they all used!!
I do have a nice stash of them though...
The case had 3 screw-down mount points and the rest are all the plastic pegs....but what a nice snug fit!
This is where I knocked off for the day.......
Attached Files
)
I quickly dumped the idea of any further CPU hackery with this and went back to the Klamath 300MHz; natively the fastest this board can take. It only supports 2.8v chips....so that rules out Deschutes or Katmai CPU's.....
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