Performa Rehousing

[hageir]

Hello  gang,

new guy here. (lurker)
I have a bunch of computers of all sorts (up to 20≈ish now LOL)

I have a G4 at work doing some oddball stuff alongside a Mac Pro for all kinds of design and photography work.

Got my hands on an old PowerBook 165C with all original documents and in mint condition, currently in the works (need a SCSI2SD for that one)

Recently I've been on the prowl for an older Mac to use with MIDI Sequencing software.
I've got an Opcode Serial/GeoPort MIDI Interface so I need a Mac that can run 7.5 - 8.5 circa and has that port.

Rescued two Macintosh Performa machines from the junkyard yesterday,

one is fairly beat-up (the plastic shell) but actually boots into 7.5.1 and is the working one out of the two;

it's a 5200 and I've made a Disk Image clone of the hard drive (for easy installation onto a IDE -> CF card I'm adding tomorrow).

The other one (5260/120) is in better shape physically (transplant?), I tried switching it on and the Cathode Ray Tube display is iffy to say the least,

there's a small 'electrical discharge sound' and the screen flickers... I saw the Question Mark on the display before I switched it off.
Albeit much dustier than the other one, I haven't cleaned it (might be dust?)

These two suffered a concussion when thrown/semi laid into the electronics dumpster... So something's bound to be busted for sure.

I've cleaned both Logic Boards and they look quite good.

I don't mind the 5200 that actually works that it's a bit beat up hehe, I was thinking about getting my buddy to 3D print a new speaker grill for it (it's missing one)

and some various bits and pieces. LOL -make it mine!

Alright long-ass intro towards my question:

Is it possible to house the "lower half" of a all-in-one Performa into a Mini ATX case? The computer/logic board itself is fairly small.

I noticed in the service manual there is an external video port connector (so that would rule/free out the CRT) which could be utilized with a tiny LCD
If it would be done, with a modern disk solution (IDE SSD or CF card - easily accessed externally) I'm not sure I'd need the floppy drive and CD drive,

so it could even be smaller; basically just the logic board and power supply?

*edit* -ah the power supply! Yeah I was thinking about the relation of the CRT display to the PSU in the Performa, how is that?

I found this pin-out of an ATX PSU for a different Apple Computer /Performa http://www.mediafire.com/view/55x07ht4360wc0j/Performa 6200 - 6300 schema ATX.png#

Thanks in advance,

-Geir Helgi

 

[hageir]

I took the 5260/120 apart, cleaned it out, sprayed the PSU and Analog Board with contact cleaner, tried my best to get all dust out of there.. 

I specifically remember my dad mentioning you need to "massage" the old brittle plastic, to loosen it up a bit, because this just snaps like a twig.
I managed to get it apart without breaking anything  
So it's in really good condition and I just decided to fire it up (been what, 17 years? 17 years since I had a CRT monitor) 

so the memories were coming back;

just leave it on for a good amount of time and I did. 

I heard a bunch of those snapping/spark sounds, old dust getting blasted by the Cathode Ray Tube arc? 
Left it on and it managed to boot all the way (into an Icelandic version, mind you) of OS 7.6 or 8.1 by the looks of it and voila! It's all good. 

The 5200/75 has a L2 Cache ROM/RAM? module installed, it's slower, 

but somehow I like it more, it's beat up sure, I'll need to 3D print some parts and shit-mix it a bit hehe, 

but I like it. It's easy to pop the CompactFlash card off out the back and both transfer files to it from a PowerBook and to back it up. 

It's a nice system to have for 7.5 duties, Serial Ports, nice CRT Monitor, logic board on rails and the HD being IDE and all

 

[Bunsen]

Hey there,
Bit late to this party, but:
 

Is it possible to house the "lower half" of a all-in-one Performa into a Mini ATX case? The computer/logic board itself is fairly small.

In theory, kind of.  The mainboards from those AIO Performas are actually identical to ones used in desktop models - like the 6200-6300 series you mention in the ATX power supply conversion link.

Now I don't know about specifically into a mITX sized case, but you could most likely get it into something more conveniently sized for you.  The main drag is going to be getting the wiring harness out of the original machine, and reconnecting that to whatever you want to use.

These two series (the desktops and the AIOs) use a long edge connector on one side of the logic board to connect to almost everything else in the machine - drives, in particular.  If you wanna re-use that logic board, you'll need the edge connector and the wiring harness it's attached to, and the individual connectors for drives etc at the other end of the harness.

The simplest thing to do, possibly, would be to find a Macintosh 630-6200-6300-series desktop case -  I believe your 5xxx logic board should just slide right in and work.

That said, if you'd rather recase it yourself - it's doable, but don't expect it to be quite as simple as transferring an ATX-style PC motherboard from one place to another, and expect to have a little research ahead of you.