Yes, I modded a pentium one comp....

[voided3]

Alright, when one owns a computer for ten years, you begin to get bored looking at the same vanilla box every day with its screwed on plastic exterior hiding the nuts and bolts of what makes it tick. I have modified cases in the past for other computers with success, so I decided to have some fun with my old standby and my family's first computer, a Compaq Presario 8702 (chassis date Aug. 30th, 1996). In addition to the obvious face lift (more like face removal...) I swapped out every mechanical part except for the motherboard and processor to give it more gusto and set the multiplier/FSB to their maximum. Here are the specs:

Original specs:

166mhz Pentium
24mb EDO RAM
2.5gb Quantum Bigfoot HDD
8x CD-Rom
integrated S3 Virge w/ 2mb
100 watt PSU
56k modem
Interwave sound

Current specs:

200mhz Pentium
72mb EDO RAM
6gb Maxtor HDD
56x CD-ROM
PCI ATI Radeon 7000 w/ 32mb
250 watt PSU
10/100 LAN card
Soundblaster AWE64 sound

I also swapped out the floppy so it has a faceplate and sits recessed in the bay. And yes that is a blue cathode :-D (the main reason for the PSU upgrade). To get the look, I used an orbital sander pad for a drill with 40 grit sandpaper (tough paint) and three hours of elbow grease. It currently is running damn small linux from the hard drive and sometimes Puppy (sorry, it can't handle the X/Ubuntu awesomeness, but the rest of my comps do). The funny thing is I used to have a dual boot of Win98 and XP on that comp before this (yes, XP). That was interesting to say the least. Anyway, here are the visuals:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/voided3/DSC00001.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/voided3/DSC00002.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/voided3/DSC00003.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/voided3/DSC00004.jpg

What do you think?

[tribaal]

Funny, modding vintage computers :) Nice work!

The question everyone wants to ask: Does it run linux/ubuntu?
EDIT: Aye, I saw it... read your article too fast the first time :)

- trib'

[mips]

The question everyone wants to ask: Does it run linux/ubuntu?


Yeah, what does it run.

Weird thing is I just pulled an old pc with similair specs out the cupboard today. Pentium 150, 32MB Ram, Sound Blaster 16, 2.1GB HD & a cd-rom.

Only hassle is I dont think it will boot of cd as I saw no such option in bios. Uses a Jetway J-648a Motherboard.

[voided3]

Yeah, this comp doesn't boot from CD either, so I made a smart boot manager floppy and it has never failed me. On your comp, make sure the cdrom is at least an 8x speed because I think some of the older quad speed drives don't read 700 or 800mb cds. To install DSL I used gparted off of the puppy linux live cd to make a ext2 and swap partition, then used the DSL installer. Installation was quite speedy (it only has to copy about 50-100mb) and all of my hardware works just fine. My next step is to find a way to change from xvesa to xorg so I can get 3d accelleration from the Radeon 7000 I put in it (though it plays LXDoom just fine :-D ).

[Banished]

Wow...I love what you did to the case, looks awesome.
I always found those "vanilla" cases very distasteful...great work.

[depele]

lol it's funny
I am planning something alike.

But do not have the time to do so!

grtz...

Arne

[K.Mandla]

SHWEET!

I'm with you! Mod the old ones (http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/the-operation-was-a-success-captain/) -- it's cheaper and more fun that way. :D

[Apocalypse]

That's one of the best cases I've ever seen... I want one for my current pc...

[voided3]

That's one of the best cases I've ever seen... I want one for my current pc...

Thanks! In retrospect, it might have been more worth while doing all of this work to an ATX case since I could use it for a newer computer however. The case only works with that setup; it's the old style riser card deal, i.e. there's a big tray with the expansion cards that slides out of the case. Oh well, if web browsing, word processing and IM become too much for it (which i'm doing on it right now with Opera and Gaim) it always can be my CLI music machine, aka the world's biggest iPod. Until then though, I will stubbornly keep plugging away at it; the board does support up to 128mb of ram, so maybe i'll try to find some more free ram for it like I did last time; my friend used to have a very similar Compaq and he was throwing it out so I got the ram! Soooooooooooooo if anyone has four 32mb sticks of EDO they wouldn't mind parting with, feel free to let me know :-D

[mips]

That's one of the best cases I've ever seen... I want one for my current pc...

Get out a orbital sander & buffing head and start removing the paint. Finish to your liking, wipe with paint thinnners to clean surface and spray with clear lacquer.

I think I'm gonna do the same except I will have to keep the front bezel as the pc i found is open in the front. I will spray the front bezel black or something.

[mips]

SHWEET!

I'm with you! Mod the old ones (http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/the-operation-was-a-success-captain/) -- it's cheaper and more fun that way. :D

That laptop is hot, Red Hot !

[IYY]

Awesome! Someone should mod an even older machine, like a 286 or even older.

[TheOtherLinuxFreak]

i found a 486 laptop at a thrif shop once... but i didnt buy it. it even had black and white screen.

i sort of modded a pentium 2. it has 333mhz prosseser 256 mbram 2 52x cdrom drives. no idea what the psu is.... i dosnt say on there. it runs xubuntu

[voided3]

Hey, just for a little comparison, I found a picture of what it originally looked like:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/voided3/compaq8702.jpg


That really takes me back haha

[TheOtherLinuxFreak]

wow that looks ugly lol

[euler_fan]

That is amazingly cool!