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Nice although this would not have been my choice of a case to mod. I'd love to and some day may attempt to do this to a well preserved SGI Octane or O2.
by abraxas 4y ago
Nice although this would not have been my choice of a case to mod. I'd love to and some day may attempt to do this to a well preserved SGI Octane or O2.
- kube-system 4y agoThis build really resonated with me because the Aptiva was my first IBM ~~compatible~~ PC. I later broke it learning how to work on PCs as a child. If I can find where it ended up, I may very well do the same build.
- abraxas 4y agoYeah, obviously there is nostalgia value for a lot of people but objectively it's a pretty average looking case even for the era... which leads me to ask this: what _was_ the best looking computer case of the retro era?
- Aeolun 4y agoI think anything retro will beat anything current because of the nostalgia factor. At the time I didn’t think about how aesthetically pleasing a case was though.
- jinto36 4y agoSee the GP's comment about SGI- SGI cases were still some kind of box or tower, but usually with curvy accents and bright colors at least. Otherwise, I wish I had managed to pick up a NeXT when they were not as rare as they are now. Apple of course didn't make any regular-looking towers or desktops while Steve Jobs was in control. Sun tried a bunch of different form factors in the Sparcstation line, but they were generally all beige boxes of some sort or another. In IBM-compatibles, there were... not many I can recall that stood out. IBM themselves had some slightly unusual designs in the PS/2 series, like the model 25, but nothing that was particularly nice-looking. Curious what other people have to say about other IBM compatibles in this regard. I have a lot of computers but haven't seen everything yet.
- walrus01 4y agothe SGI Crimson comes to mind
- cfeduke 4y agoSame thing for me, the Aptiva was the first computer I actually owned, and learned how to program on. I still have mine, upstairs in a closet, though it is the flat desktop case and not a tower. Every few years when I am cleaning past debris I think "why do I keep this thing?" and somehow manage to hold onto it.
- pengaru 4y agoFor something kept x86 I'd have a tough time resisting something like the classic IBM PS/2 with its giant red flappy power switch out front. Like https://dfarq.homeip.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IBM-PS-2-Model-30.jpg https://dfarq.homeip.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IBM-PS-2... or if there were tower variants with the same style power switch
- causality0 4y agoIt would be incredible if someone came up with a 3D-printable IBM 5100 RPi build.
- lproven 4y agoHow about this? https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=76832 https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=76832
- nope96 4y agoThat switch was attached to a ridiculous long metal arm, that pressed the real power switch way at the back inside of the case. Loved it!
- jonah 4y agoThose are such great looking cases. For an easier conversion job, look for an SGI 540 Xeon tower. They had a matching really sexy 17" LCD monitor.
- pengaru 4y agoThe earlier models were more interesting looking, the Professional IRIS is so eighties I'm surprised it didn't make an appearance somewhere in Sneakers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SGI_Professional_IRIS_(1).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SGI_Professional_IRIS_(1)...
- cm2187 4y agoWouldn't you want to preserve it rather than gut out the internals?
- georgeecollins 4y agoYeah, that's kind of a boring and not uncommon bit of hardware. I have an old Osborne that would be cool to update. Or an SGI.. or an Next Cube!
- charles_kaw 4y ago> well preserved SGI Octane or O2 please at least use a gutted case or something with bad boards. These old computers, especially machines like the SGI risc line, are not being made anymore. At the end of the day, you'll have a bog standard pc inside an old case that looks cool. IMO, a much more interesting alternative would be to use something like a hyte revolt 3