jessenator
Well-known member
You are correct. The PowerTower, PowerCurve, PowerCenter/Pro all had Catalyst-based designs (and may all be the exact same board). The PowerWave, PowerTower Pro were both Tsunami-based designs, though not the same board (the PTP has standard PCI slots, vs the 90* riser setup on the PW). The outlier is the PowerBase, which is Alchemy-based and is the only model with a soldered CPU (save the ColdFusion-based Power-series). All the rest had daughter cards, AFAIK.I had thought they were different platforms
As far as the case designs, I've seen 2 different "low-profile" cases (which are quick thicc), the first on the Power-series, and then the PowerWave and PowerCenter, and then the even lower-profile case for the PowerBase/Curve. According to some sources you could purchase a Power-Series and then the PowerWave with a mini tower case config as well, later to be used on the PowerTower (non-Pro), and a not-quite-full-tower for the PowerTower Pro only(?) And with 2x 3.5 and 4x 5.25 drive bays (in addition to a dedicated floppy drive) and 6 PCI slots... that was quite the setup.
I want to say the boards are swappable, but from what I've seen (of my own machines and what pics I can find online), the I/Os differ from model to model, and they didn't use shields, but were punched out of the steel. Don't know if they separated their tooling so they could make 90% of the case, and then save the I/O punch to have variants?
But I might be off on some points there...
Thanks! I'm glad I snatched it, and for the price, too. I couldn't say no.This is a very handsome looking box.
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