Building a 'Retro' computer

[redwudz]

A while back a friend asked me if I could build a 'retro' computer for him. He wanted a box for his den/home office that looked industrial, but would function as a modern computer. I told him I would look for a proper case.
A few days later, looking at E-Bay, I saw an industrial computer for sale for parts. The description was: “Vintage 1990’s IBM Industrial Computer 7587. Powers up no hard drive. This industrial computer listed was used by the Kansas Turnpike Authority and was part of their toll booth set up. The hard drive was professionally removed by their IT department. Included is the hard drive bracket but no hard drive. The power plug is not included.”

It definitely had an industrial look. I sent a photo to my friend and he liked it. Now I was committed.



I did a bit more research and found this description, “The IBM 7587 Industrial Computer responds to the customers’ need for a powerful, reliable ISA bus computer that is easy to embed in a panel or mount on a wall. Its form factor, weight and built in mounting flanges make it suitable for mounting on a vertical surface like the inside of a panel or on a wall. It is designed to be easy to service with all internal components accessible after removing the top cover.” On a further search, not much more information. It appeared to use a 16 bit Intel 80286 CPU from 6Mhz to maybe 16Mhz speed. They were introduced in 1982 and were commonly used for industrial control PCs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80286

This old PC was missing parts of the daughter boards, which likely contained the CPU, RAM and video card, none of which I wanted anyway. It had no value as an antique, so I had no problem tearing it apart. It listed that it didn’t have a HDD; that had been pulled. It did have a 3.5" floppy drive.

A 3.5” SD card reader/USB port adapter should fit right in place of the floppy drive. My friend commonly uses SD cards for his camera and photos, and USB sticks for most file transfers, so that would work great. He also had an Ethernet cable at his desk and a home LAN system. No WiFi card needed. That was a bonus.

The total price for the project needed to be in the $250 - $350US range.

I chose a Gigabyte GA-AM1M-S2H AM1 motherboard as I had used them before to put together a small HTPC. It has USB 3.0 and VGA/HDMI output, so it’s versatile. The MB is small, close to Mini ITX size, about 7 x 8 inches. Cost about $35US.

For CPU, I would use an AMD Sempron 3850 Kabini quad-core 1.3Ghz socket AM1 25W processor. There are cheaper CPUs in the Kabini line, but a quad core sounded good. Cost about $37US.

For Ram I picked up a G.SKILL Ripjaws X series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-pin DDR3 1333 SDRAM dual channel kit, MDL F3-10666CL8D-4GBXM. These were $25US.

The new power supply is a Seasonic SS-250su 250W 1U 80+ Bronze certified. This is a huge improvement over the original ATX PS and more that enough power for this little MB and CPU. This was $43US.

HDD will be a Western Digital WD Green WD20EADS 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive-used. About $50US

The Rosewill card reader adapter with a silver face was $11US. That brings the price for the main PC parts to about $200US, not including shipping. These were current prices on August 15, 2016. The case was $20 and shipping $39US. (Its heavy. )
That brought the total to about $260US.

The new parts, no photo of the HDD:



I got the industrial PC about 5 days later. It looked perfect from the outside, scuffs and all. The outer case cover was built of some sort of dense plastic, about 3/8 inches thick. Inside was a solid steel chassis.

The remains of a motherboard were still visible. I tossed them, along with the floppy drive and the power supply, which smelled like it had a meltdown and that might be the original reason it was retired.



Here’s a photo of the HTPC I recently built using the Gigabyte GA-AM1M-S2H AM1 motherboard. It’s a small PC with a 120GB SSD and a 2TB HDD and a BD burner. It plays BDs over the HDMI cable with no problems.



Strangely enough, the IBM did have a hard drive, a 1.2GB WD lll drive. I'm curious about what may be on it. Or it may be dead. Later.



I did keep the bracket for the floppy drive as it would work. The HDD location and the size of its mounts had me thinking of a different location for it. It really took up space and I may need that room to place the MB.

The old power supply was about 200W.



The new 250W power supply would be a U1 configuration, similar to what small PCs and some server type cases might use. With the new PS mounted higher and out of the way, I would have a lot more room for the MB and cables. I wouldn't be able to use the rear card slot mounts for the new MB anyway, there just wasn't room and their configuration was wrong. But the MB had everything I needed on-board anyway. And it did have some open card slots, though some way would need to be created to hold the cards in place.


I could extend the VGA MB socket to the old case by adapting a short VGA extension cable. USB ports would just use a card slot 4 port USB plate adapter. A third USB port would be hooked to the SD card reader/adapter. The MB has three USB 9 pin ports sockets for external use. Two of the rear case USB ports would be used for KB and mouse. The other two would be open for maybe an external USB hard drive. The MB has USB 3.0, but only from the MB rear sockets. I don't have a USB 3.0 to card slot adapter, but they are available.


Audio out would be another card slot plate with a 1/8" jack installed and a cable to plug into the green MB audio out jack. I could add two more jacks for Line In and Microphone, but the friend says he doesn't need them. Easy enough to add in the future. I will also bring out a RCA phono jack for SPDIF digital audio and he can plug that into his den/office sound system. This MB has a HDMI output also, but he just uses a PC monitor for his present den PC. There are also HDMI to card slot adapters.

The MB has 2 SATA ports, and I would only use one of them for the boot drive. The second would go to the rear of the PC with a E-sata card slot plate. That way an external DVD/BD drive could be added for future use. There is no room in the case for one.

Next was the Ethernet connector. I had a couple of Nylon cover plates for wall mounted CAT cables and I could cut one down to make an adapter and use a common punch down socket. The other end of the cable would have a R45 end that would plug into the MB Ethernet socket.

A minor problem was the power switch, the old PC used a key switch and I didn't have the key. I did find a cylinder switch in my junk box, but it wasn't momentary that the MB needed to power on or off. I finally settled for a simple black momentary pushbutton switch that would fit into the half inch hole the old switch occupied. And it matched the black key switch well enough.

For the card reader, the one I found with a silver front panel looked good. Beige would be better, but none were easily available. But it does look sort of like it belongs there. The front panel lights should work with no real modifications, just plug them in. It also has a peizo buzzer for the MB but I would use a modern one plugged directly into the MB. There was no motherboard reset switch, so I'll just add one to the rear panel.

The MB sitting on an anti-static pad with the CPU latch raised. You can see the CPU 4 pin power jack to the upper right and the case fan connector to the upper left.



The MB with the CPU installed. These are PGA (Pin Grid Array) and they just drop into the ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) socket. Make sure it lines up with the reference marks and don’t force it. Bent pins can be a disaster. I do hold one finger down on the CPU while lowering the retention arm, just habit. Make sure to wipe off the top of the CPU with a bit of 91% isopropyl alcohol on a damp pad and let it dry. Oils can cause problems with the heat sink compound.



Next is installing the heat sink/fan assembly. Just follow the instructions.



With this HS, you hold it over the CPU and make sure the hold down pins go through the MB. Lower the assembly without twisting and hold two fingers on the edges of the fan housing to keep it in place. Check that the pins are fully through the MB. Then push both of the retentions pins down to latch the HS in place. (Circled red) You can twist it back and forth a tiny bit to help to seat it. Then tie a large knot in the fan cable, (To take up the slack) and you are done.



I inserted the RAM modules next. Easier to do it now when the MB is on a firm surface. Here the MB is sitting on a piece of thin cardboard. I will trace out the shape of the MB and mark the MB mount holes and create a MB template.



This was a test of the MB and system. A member here was inquiring about a specific problem and I was trying to duplicate it. I didn’t. That’s what a running PC looks like without a case.



No, I wasn’t planning to run XP in the friend’s computer. I don’t think he wanted to go ‘Retro’ in that way. But I did need it for the problem research.



One reason I don’t still use XP. For the uninitiated, this is a BSOD. (Blue Screen Of Death). A catastrophic failure. Hopefully you will never see it in person. This one was because I forgot to set the correct boot drive in BIOS. (Basic Input/Output System)



When a PC is first turned on, it goes through POST. (Power On Self Test) This is run from the MB. It checks the CPU, RAM, video, drive connections and a few more things, and then it issues a ‘beep code’. This tells you if it passed/failed POST. Then the MB hands over operation to BIOS. When the BIOS settings are done, BIOS selects the boot drive and the OS loads. (Hopefully that’s all correct. If not, someone will tell me. ) 

The inside of the PC with the old parts stripped out and the power supply, 3.5 inch drive adapter and the MB temporarily installed. The purple circles are the old MB standoffs. They are in the way and will be removed. There are several more of them. The blue circle shows that the USB MB connection will end up under the PS and will be difficult to connect. The green circle shows the MB too close to the card slot adapters. I will need room for cables there.



The old HDD mount will have to go. It takes up way too much space. The green mark is where I plan to cut away some of the mount.



The 3.5 inch adapter. Purple circle. You can see the MB comes up against the mount here. Green line, where I plan to cut off the 3.5 adapter. I also need to remove part of its case mount. Green circle. The MB standoffs are still in this photo also. Since the new 3.5 SD adapter is light enough, I don’t need much support, just the one top mount. Red circle.



The mounts to be removed. There are three more that are wire guides. All of this case is heavy steel, so I went through a couple of Moto Tool cut off blades. Do this outside with safety glasses and a mask as you will have a lot of dust and metal particles and you don’t want them anywhere near a PC or your lungs! I also filed and sanded the cut off areas smooth and applied a bit of metal primer to prevent rust. Then I throughly cleaned the case.



Most of the mounts removed. I still have two behind the PS. You can see the MB is in a much better position. It clears the PS completely. Blue circle. It also clears the 3.5 adapter mount. Hard to see in the photo, but there is about ¾ inch clearance between the mount and the MB. And the front panel socket at the top left of the MB has easy access. Best of all, lots of room for the VGA and other cables to the rear of the MB. Red circle. The PS is still temporary propped into position.



The MB standoffs removed. I drilled them out from the bottom with a ¼ inch drill. Blue circles. I still have the other wire holders and the 3.5 bracket to remove. You can see the ones behind the PS now. Red circles. I need to attach a PS support there. If you are curious about the date on the case, it’s Jan 22, 1998. Green circle. You can also see the MB template with the mount holes marked. It still needs to go left a ways.



Now to work on some easier parts. The key operated power switch will be replaced with a momentary switch. This switch works at logic levels and operates a switching transistor in the MB. That in turn takes pin 14 on the ATX power supply cable to ground and the PS turns on. Hold it down again for a couple of seconds and the PS will switch off. This is not the same as using the switch on the rear of the PS or unplugging it or turning off a power strip the PC is plugged into. That is a very bad idea and you can lose data. Always let the PC shut itself down in an orderly fashion. Next to the power switch is the front panel lights and a peizo buzzer. The buzzer is hooked to one of the lights, I suppose for a visual indication in a noisy environment. I’ll just use a MB mounted buzzer. I will also only use two of the LED lights, for power and HDD indication. These LEDs were made to operate at 5VDC with a dropping resistor to reduce the voltage to about 2VDC, normal for a LED. I jumpered the resistors as all newer MBs output the correct voltage without a dropping resistor. I will use the pictured connector, just splicing the MB front panel wires to them.



The front panel with the card reader propped in place. The two LEDs I will use. Purple circle.
I will file out the size of the power switch slightly. Green circle.



The old front 120mm fan I will replace with a 120mm PWM quiet fan, Green circle. I won’t use the original fan grill as it takes up too much space and I don’t often put my fingers in a fan. Purple circle. The holes in the fan mount match my fan, so regular fan screws will work. Red circles. In the filter holder, I’ll use a bit of carbon filter I have. The old filter looked way too restrictive and was falling apart anyway. Blue circle.



The U1 power supply has different mounts than the ATX PS the PC originally used. Purple circles. I will make an adapter plate and screw it to the case to mount it. A rough layout of the new PS position is shown. Red rectangle. The U1 mounts are shown also. Green circles. I will also install a internal brace/mount to the rear of the PS. The front PS mount isn’t enough. You get an idea of how heavy the steel in the case is in this photo. They actually arc welded the air screen in place. 



I made up a adapter plate for the U1 PS, painted and mounted it. Also drilled two holes through the metal screen for the bottom PS mount. For the back brace, I decided to bend one out of aluminum in my vice and epoxy it in place. The outside plastic case fits much too tight unless the screws were countersunk. I used ‘JB Weld’, a industrial adhesive that is machinable. Great stuff. Then an overnight wait for it to cure.



The PS mounted. Lots of room underneath and it’s very secure.



The MB template taped in place, ready to centerpunch the MB mount holes for attachment. Most all the internal brackets and old MB mounts have been removed.



I drilled the MB standoff holes a bit oversize. Easier to adjust the fit and I didn’t have a tap to thread the holes in the case. I attached all the mounts to the motherboard, then sat it down in the case with the ends of the standoffs sticking through the holes in the bottom of the case. I them propped a soft pillow against the MB to hold it in position and used JB Weld from the bottom of the case to secure the standoffs. Overnight wait for the JB to cure.



The type of MB standoffs I used.



The next morning I unscrewed the perfectly aligned motherboard and used some JB around the standoffs from the inside of the case. Sorry, no photos of that. The next morning after it was cured, I ground down the part of the mounts that stuck through the case on the outside, along with any excess JB untill they were flush. No clearance for through case screws there either. I still had to find a place for the hard drive to mount. The lid seemed perfect as it had a metal standoff plate and two rubber strips for viberation. They were used to hold the daughterboards in place. I had a 3.5” metal HDD mount and all I needed to do was drill four holes in the standoff plate to attach it.




That’s the completion of the structural parts mounting. The 3.5” SD adapter just uses part of the original mount.

Next are cables. Some, like the USB 4 socket card slot adapter didn’t need modification, it just plugs into two of the MB USB 9 pin connectors. The eSata card slot adapter would also have the SPDIF RCA phono jack mounted on it, so it would need a hole drilled and the cable fabricated. Purple line. For the audio extension, I used a premade cable and just cut one end off and soldered it to the jack. White lines. The reset switch cable was from an old PC case I junked out. Those are the twisted cables shown. I trimmed the reset cable to length and soldered it to the switch. Then I drilled two holes in the card plate and attached the switch and audio jack. Some of the other twisted cables would be used for the front of the PC, the power switch, the power LED, and the HDD activity LED. Next would be the Ethernet extension cable. I took a regular Nylon Ethernet wall jack, attached it to a piece of wood and trimmed it to size on a cutoff saw. Very safely. Black lines.



Next was the Ethernet cable. I had a 9 inch one lying around, so I just cut one end off. The Ethernet wall jack I used was set up for a phone, so the markings were a bit confusing. My home was wired for CAT5, but for phone not Ethernet. Since I have a cell phone I rewired all the jacks. This is one of the old jacks and it fit my application and the limited space I had in the corner of the case. The Ethernet jacks are too wide for the card slots.



This is what I used to check the Ethernet wiring. Worth every penny if you make your own cable or do Ethernet wiring. Since I used a self punch down type of jack, all I had to do is close it and check it. (It still took two tries to get it right. I haven’t done that in a while.)



Temporary set up for testing. The W7 32bit OS is already installed on the HDD. The HDD mount should work OK. The drive mounts upside down, but they are multiposition. I still have the front panel cables to make up and some wire management to do.



The front cables connected to the front panel LED board and the power switch mounted and wired. I soldered all the connections and protected them with shrink tube. Wire management isn’t easy with this case, but all the cables are secure and not likely to cause any problems. I did run a MB ground wire as I wasn’t sure I had a good common ground between the steel case and the motherboard with using epoxy to mount the standoffs. The VGA cable is a 24 inch extension cable. I used short hex nuts on the case end for the monitor cable to attach and used an existing VGA socket cutout at the rear of the case. The front panel wires are mostly secured under the case fan.



View of the rear of the case. On the left, the top Sub-D connector is just there to fill the hole. Below it is the VGA Sub-D HD connector. The Ethernet jack is at the bottom. I did have to file a bit of metal around the sides of the jack for clearance. Left hand card slots, I left the outer ones in a ventilated style for airflow. Or I can use them for future expansion. Reset and speaker are in slot 4. USB is slot 3, eSata and SPDIF in slot 2. The power supply is held in securely by three screws at this end.



A view of the front fan and wiring. The 3.5” SD adapter cable mostly fits behind it. The power supply cables take up a bit of space, but I didn’t want to trim them all as I might end up needing one for powering something in the PC in the future.



View of the rear panel and wiring. It’s all secure, but it could look better. The two loose cables are for the HDD mounted to the lid.



The air filter bracket with a layer of carbon filter material in it.



The front of the PC, finished.



The BIOS health screen. The voltages all look good. Since this is a 25W CPU, it doesn’t run warm, about 28C. The CPU runs about 42C. The CPU fan has a four pin PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) connector, but the supplied fan is three pin. But it’s still almost silent. The HDD is the loudest noise from the PC. The case fan is configured in PWM mode and normally runs about 500RPM unless the case warms up.




So that was my project. The friend is happy. He has a NAS (Network Attached Storage) in another room that has his movies and the home is wired for CAT5e for his LAN system. (Local Area Network) The PC has no problem with playback of BD rips. I did find a used, good condition gray IBM KB and a new LED wheel mouse that matched, but he wasn't interested in the ‘retro’ 17" Sony Trinitron CRT monitor that I suggested. Just as well, I didn't want to haul it home anyway. They are heavy.  I did find a used gray 19" LCD VGA monitor that was a fairly recent model and almost new for a great price. It all sits on his desk, so he doesn’t need a huge screen. No photos of his setup, but it does all look good together. The total cost came in under $300US. 

[Dougster]

Wow! Are you ever having fun.

[mikel]

A great post.
Being a hardware and modder for many years.... looks like much fun.
Bravo!

(my first build was an analog computer when I was 12)

[El Heggunte]

Excellent post

Congratulations! You're an artist

[cornemuse]

The Gigabyte GA-AM1M-S2H AM1 motherboard is a really great (for the price) mobo. I bought three:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128696

cpu & ram $30 & $15 at Frys,

$1.88 sata to ide adapter, use those old ide drives!

XP Pro 32, & ubuntu on another drive.

Not in a case yet, , , ,

-c-

[SameSelf]

Case technology hasn't changed all that much over the decades. However, unless your mobo sports some rockin' ISA slots and cards, it just ain't old skool amiright? The first PC I built in 1999 still boots into Win98 with all the original hardware including the 11 gb IBM hdd. My point is, if I wanted, I could reuse the old, ugly beige case without any problems. Besides I am more interested in what is on that hdd they left in it. How long are you gonna leave us hanging?

I need to find me a friend that likes building 'puters as much as you. My patience for building PC these days is razor thin.

Anyway, nice post.

[manono]

The total cost came in under $300US.

I take it you didn't charge for your knowledge, skill and labor? If so, I'd expect the price to be around triple that. Must be a good friend. Thanks for the post.

[HemLok]

Awesome job. I'm definitely loving the industrial look and all accomplished through repurposing. Bravo!

[pandy]

From my perspective:
- lot of work
- abomination - this vintage deserve for being in original state...

[redwudz]

That computer is not an antique or really 'vintage'. There are many still in service in different configurations. It's a commonly used industrial PC.
The PC I received was stripped of parts, as mentioned in the post. The power supply was burned out. I bought it as parts.
It would just as often been thrown in a dumpster. I kept it mostly in the original exterior appearance.

But it was a fun project and the person will use and enjoy it for some time in the new configuration.

[usually_quiet]

This MB has a HDMI output also, but he just uses a PC monitor for his present den PC. There are also HDMI to card slot adapters.

I'm surprised that your friend did not want you to add HDMI for future proofing. Not every monitor has VGA anymore.

1990s industrial is not the sort of case design that I would want myself, but you did a fine job modifying it to accept modern components. That required some skill and ingenuity.

[Edit]I kind of enjoy building PCs too but sometimes there are unwelcome surprises. I bought a new case last month for my main PC. It was well-designed and about the same size as my old case, so I expected the move to go smoothly, but I was disappointed. I'm going to end up spending nearly as much money on new SATA cables and other accessories as I did on the case itself.

[p_l]

I like it, and I think you did a great job.

I must admit I was a little disappointed, though, because when I read the thread title I was hoping to see something along the line of these:

[redwudz]

My friends monitor does not have a HDMI input. But with the simple addition of a HDMI MB to card slot adapter, it could have an external HDMI socket.
And this PC isn't a HTPC, it's mostly used for surfing the Internet, storage of work files, viewing his camera photos and watching and listening to the occasional video or music file.

I must admit I was a little disappointed, though, because when I read the thread title I was hoping to see something along the line of these:

Not enough room on his desktop.
Though thinking about it, the modern Micro-ATX MB in the PC could probably do just about everything an older mainframe could do.

[pandy]

That computer is not an antique or really 'vintage'. There are many still in service in different configurations. It's a commonly used industrial PC.
The PC I received was stripped of parts, as mentioned in the post. The power supply was burned out. I bought it as parts.
It would just as often been thrown in a dumpster. I kept it mostly in the original exterior appearance.

But it was a fun project and the person will use and enjoy it for some time in the new configuration.

Well - title should be rather something like: 'using vintage case in HTPC' - don't get me wrong - having few such units - fin one can be used as part donator (in fact i have like 15 Amiga computer and some of them will be used as donator) - single unit deserve to be in original state...
But maybe i'm too strict on this - that's why i pointed first - lot of hard work - congratulations.

(btw - it is real vintage- i have original IBM 286 motherboard wit BASIC in ROM - even PC AT at today is vintage)

[usually_quiet]

My friends monitor does not have a HDMI input. But with the simple addition of a HDMI MB to card slot adapter, it could have an external HDMI socket.
And this PC isn't a HTPC, it's mostly used for surfing the Internet, storage of work files, viewing his camera photos and watching and listening to the occasional video or music file.

I understand, but I've been looking at replacement monitors because my current one is approaching 7 years of age and the backlight appears to be dimming. While it used to be that you would find a VGA connection on every monitor, I'm starting to see some that don't include one.

[redwudz]

My first PC was the affordable Commodore VIC-20:



Then a Commodore 64:



Two different Amiga computers:





A Mac G4:



And my first generic Intel box with a 400 Celeron I put together. No photos.

I wanted to buy Altair 8800 when they first came out, but it was out of my price range at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800



About 5 years ago, my Optician was still using an Amiga for all his office work. Not many techs these days would work on that.

The 'Retro' term in my title was from the friend.

[Cauptain]

Wow!!! Nice project. Very detailed.



Claudio

[redwudz]

UPDATE:

Thanks for all the comments. It was a challenging project, but the end result worked out very well.
And there are still possibilities for expansion with a card slot adapter for a external HDMI and USB 3.0 port if the friend is interested.

The HDD that came with the unit is either dead or wiped. My system wouldn't show the drive at all.
Besides, I expect any data would be a listing of the dates and times of vehicles passing the toll both,
along with listing of the tolls charged. Not really interesting.

That PC likely used the serial port to interface with the toll collection devices, such as a cash register or
coin counter, along with a input for counting vehicles passing. I think it was more of a data logger than a regular computer.
The floppy drive may have been used to remove data and update programming.

The wired ports seemed to be one for a KB/mouse, a video output port and the serial data port.
Anyway, it now has a new life.

[SameSelf]

Thanks for the update on the hdd. I was secretly hoping they overlooked it and you would find Hillary's missing emails

[Lilbar]

Wow, awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[ahhaa]

Hey Red- great job on both innovation and documentation! Also, I didn't know you were an Amiga Man! Me too!

The only thing I woulda quibbled over is the power consumption. These days 250W is a lot...

But still, I think you should post this on Instructables or somewhere there are a lot of Makers & Steampunks!

[redwudz]

Thanks for the feedback.

I unfortunately abandoned my old Amiga computers some years ago. My only real problem with them was their weak video display options.
Using a TV display wasn't a good option. I invested a few $$$ in a converter board for VGA output. Died immediately, but a second one lasted a year or two.

It's a shame they couldn't or wouldn't adapt to VGA or DVI output. I thought it was a great platform and equal to Mac at the time.

*******

Not sure about the '250W' reference. That was the power supply's maximum ratings. One major reason I got that particular model was that it was a quality unit. Not all available U1 PS's were. A failed PS can destroy the whole PC.

With the 25W CPU I used, along with a 'green' WD HDD, I think the total average wattage used by the PC was less than 50W, though I did no measurements of that. The modified case has decent air movement and the PC runs cool, and that also saves energy.

[theewizard]

I had an original first issue Amiga 1000 ?
Then at an Amiga fest computer show, I bought an add on 500 megabyte memory board that plugged into the expansion buss
A board with chips, completed but no car our cover, just an exposed board, I used a thermal tape colour printer

I think the Amiga cost me $ 1100 at the time, an awful lot of money

[ahhaa]

Red, if you don't know about MCM, I can give'em an unsolicited testimonial. It's where I get my Raspberry Pi stuff but they carry a lot of both wacky and useful electronics, sometimes incredibly cheap- like 3 3' HDMI cables for $3... also sometimes with free shipping.
If once you buy from'em they send all sorts of email offers and a monthly catalog too. Very fast & reliable Americans running the place.

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/Default.aspx

[RickyTerzis]

Hi...i am a new user here. In my case the PC I received was stripped of parts, as mentioned in the post. The power supply was burned out. I bought it as parts.It would just as often been thrown in a dumpster. I kept it mostly in the original exterior appearance.

china circuit board assembly

[redwudz]

Welcome to our forums.