chris
Well-known member
Well, I was looking through the cabinets at Computer Hardware Club at my school, desperately looking for a new project since my last one, a Ubuntu file/web server for the club, had been resolutely refusing to develop any problems.
Third cabinet I tried was golden. Two Mac IIsi, plus monitor! Joy! Turns out that:
They were decommissioned school computers from the art department
Neither had a HD
One had a (gasp!) Ethernet card!
And -
One was dead as a doornail, the other was working beautifully (and now has a HD and will be browsing the text-only Web at some point in the future)
The dead one had some kind of junk, not cap goo, ALL over the mobo - strange, as the case did not appear to be stained.
So, I had a Mac IIsi case with a bunch of junk parts in it. Hmmm... what could I do? Went looking through the cabinets again...
Success! A Celeron 466 SFF mobo! It quickly got 256mb RAM and a 3gb HD that were lying around, and I dug through the Pile-O-PSUs and found a 100w SFF one!
A few instructive hours and about ten ceramic Dremel disks later, I had an ATX case for the mobo, complete with nicely drilled holes for the screws and a newly drilled grille for the PSU fan (all on the bottom, I was trying to not butcher the front, sides, or top)
Unfortunately the PSU had to go in the front since it was still too large to go over the mobo, but I just ran the power cable through the inside of the case.
Now, a few things about the case:
The original power LED works - soldered on a standard connector.
There's two fans where the original fan was and where the speaker was.
The case looks perfectly stock from the front, top, and sides, horribly butchered from the back (extremely thick plastic there, very difficult to Dremel through) and a bit odd on the bottom.
The power switch is where the old monitor extension cable would have gone. I would have used the original switch, but it was blocking the ports.
The machine is now happily running CrunchBang Linux (a light Ubuntu derivative) and is our Bittorrent machine, complete with a 500gb external USB drive.
Final stats:
Celeron 466- silent fanless
Two near-silent fans for airflow
256mb SDRAM
3gb internal drive w/CrunchBang Linux (may install a Mac theme as soon as I find one)
500gb external drive for Bittorrent.
Original power LED, apparently stock case from the front.
These will probably be upgraded if we get a better SFF board donated.
I might wire a recorder to the power switch like the person with the motorcycle case did, with the Mac 'bong' recorded into it. I think that would be very interesting to have, just for authenticity
Pix whenever I can get them.
Third cabinet I tried was golden. Two Mac IIsi, plus monitor! Joy! Turns out that:
They were decommissioned school computers from the art department
Neither had a HD
One had a (gasp!) Ethernet card!
And -
One was dead as a doornail, the other was working beautifully (and now has a HD and will be browsing the text-only Web at some point in the future)
The dead one had some kind of junk, not cap goo, ALL over the mobo - strange, as the case did not appear to be stained.
So, I had a Mac IIsi case with a bunch of junk parts in it. Hmmm... what could I do? Went looking through the cabinets again...
Success! A Celeron 466 SFF mobo! It quickly got 256mb RAM and a 3gb HD that were lying around, and I dug through the Pile-O-PSUs and found a 100w SFF one!
A few instructive hours and about ten ceramic Dremel disks later, I had an ATX case for the mobo, complete with nicely drilled holes for the screws and a newly drilled grille for the PSU fan (all on the bottom, I was trying to not butcher the front, sides, or top)
Unfortunately the PSU had to go in the front since it was still too large to go over the mobo, but I just ran the power cable through the inside of the case.
Now, a few things about the case:
The original power LED works - soldered on a standard connector.
There's two fans where the original fan was and where the speaker was.
The case looks perfectly stock from the front, top, and sides, horribly butchered from the back (extremely thick plastic there, very difficult to Dremel through) and a bit odd on the bottom.
The power switch is where the old monitor extension cable would have gone. I would have used the original switch, but it was blocking the ports.
The machine is now happily running CrunchBang Linux (a light Ubuntu derivative) and is our Bittorrent machine, complete with a 500gb external USB drive.
Final stats:
Celeron 466- silent fanless
Two near-silent fans for airflow
256mb SDRAM
3gb internal drive w/CrunchBang Linux (may install a Mac theme as soon as I find one)
500gb external drive for Bittorrent.
Original power LED, apparently stock case from the front.
These will probably be upgraded if we get a better SFF board donated.
I might wire a recorder to the power switch like the person with the motorcycle case did, with the Mac 'bong' recorded into it. I think that would be very interesting to have, just for authenticity
Pix whenever I can get them.
