Vintage & Retro PC Case Finds Thread
- Thread starter mnpctech
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I stumbled upon this old advertisement for local Used Computer Shop, "The Box Shop" in Bloomington, Minnesota. Thats the owner, James.
In 2002, James wrote, co-directed and starred in a commercial for cable TV. The commercial featured James in a hardhat pushing around a wheelbarrow full of computer equipment while proclaiming “At The Box Shop, we specialize in QUALITY COMPUTERS at DIRT CHEAP PRICES – with a WARRANTY on EVERYTHING!” This commercial aired on late night TV in the Twin Cities for several years on both cable channels and WCCO. It wasn’t uncommon for complete strangers to recognize James in passing.
My buddy says he's got the actual cable TV commercial on an old hard drive. I would stop by during my lunch breaks and see what was updated to Jame's inventory. He had direct pipeline to Wholesalers who bought PC's in bulk from corporations going out of business or updating their desktops.
In 2002, James wrote, co-directed and starred in a commercial for cable TV. The commercial featured James in a hardhat pushing around a wheelbarrow full of computer equipment while proclaiming “At The Box Shop, we specialize in QUALITY COMPUTERS at DIRT CHEAP PRICES – with a WARRANTY on EVERYTHING!” This commercial aired on late night TV in the Twin Cities for several years on both cable channels and WCCO. It wasn’t uncommon for complete strangers to recognize James in passing.
My buddy says he's got the actual cable TV commercial on an old hard drive. I would stop by during my lunch breaks and see what was updated to Jame's inventory. He had direct pipeline to Wholesalers who bought PC's in bulk from corporations going out of business or updating their desktops.
This little lovely started life as a 286 back in 1990. Later upgrades included a 386DX, then a P133, then a P233 (I think).
Check out the that Baby-AT power supply! None of that ATX stuff here, folks. At least, not without some modifications. And yes, it still has the top/side panel. It is behind the chassis in the far right photo. Yes, that's a Travan tape drive in there.
For years now I've been planning on doing a sleeper build. Hopefully soon I'll get around to it.
The black chassis to the right is a whole 'nother story.
Check out the that Baby-AT power supply! None of that ATX stuff here, folks. At least, not without some modifications. And yes, it still has the top/side panel. It is behind the chassis in the far right photo. Yes, that's a Travan tape drive in there.
For years now I've been planning on doing a sleeper build. Hopefully soon I'll get around to it.
The black chassis to the right is a whole 'nother story.
Finally got my CoolerMaster HAF 922 Red Edition today 
Bought it nearly two months ago for £20, but me being a very bad case of me, somehow took two months to get it shipped back to me. The seller wouldn't ship, but was happy for me to post them the packaging, drop it in and let me arrange collection for the journey here.
I couldn't be happier with it. Well, almost. It had a weird kind of almost cement-like dust that just stuck even when you sponged it down repeatedly with warm soapy water. It had the predictable decade+'s worth of dust inside too.
But this really is a nice case, I love the red and black styling and - whilst modern cases are even better, they're not so by much. I wonder when vertical mount slots in cases became a thing... I think this is the oldest case I've seen with one.
I'll post a few pics tomorrow.
Bought it nearly two months ago for £20, but me being a very bad case of me, somehow took two months to get it shipped back to me. The seller wouldn't ship, but was happy for me to post them the packaging, drop it in and let me arrange collection for the journey here.I couldn't be happier with it. Well, almost. It had a weird kind of almost cement-like dust that just stuck even when you sponged it down repeatedly with warm soapy water. It had the predictable decade+'s worth of dust inside too.
But this really is a nice case, I love the red and black styling and - whilst modern cases are even better, they're not so by much. I wonder when vertical mount slots in cases became a thing... I think this is the oldest case I've seen with one.
I'll post a few pics tomorrow.
Heh, I still have a HAF922 Red sitting on my shelf. Think it's got an old P4 with RDRAM in it...
I particularly like the tower with the teal triangle and contrasting panel behind it, really captures a certain aesthetic note from the era.
Yeah, that's my favourite too. A 486 DX2 66, with a cool Mhz display so you know the turbo button is on.
So what would be considered a vintage PC case these days? Would a 20 year old case be thought of such? Or PreATX cases like a IBM AT?
General rule in Retro PC Community, Beige = Vintage.
How many years before something is considered "Vintage" has been debated by Antique dealers, but 20+ years is most common via articles on Google. There's 20+ year old PC's in Black & Silver cases, but Beige is most sought after by people.
I think I used it for about 2 years. Shortly after Be Inc went under, I went over to Mandrake Linux. Linux has sure came a long way since then.Not for terribly long I'd imagine!
Impressive! I wasn't sure there were enough usable applications for it to be productive for that long
My recent pickup of vintage atx cases from e-recycler, I'm cleaning, fixing, modding them for resale inventory.. (inwin q500 gone already)
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I think I found my support group in this thread, I have a thing for high end well designed cases...
I'm going to set up a BlueSCSI to install OS/2 on this... eventually. It's one big boi. Hopefully people here will like this since they seemd to like my Lian Li video.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFZeSaMBnZw
If I was going retro I'd lean towards revisiting the real excesses of the 80's.
Imagine manspreading in front of this palatial workstation (this was a package, not separate furniture)
Imagine manspreading in front of this palatial workstation (this was a package, not separate furniture)