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The other day I realized that IKEA Hyllis may work as foundation of a very simple case.
The only upside I see from Hyllis is that maybe it's just cheaper than raw materials because IKEA.
It is somewhat wild to me that PC towers are still a thing. So many other tech products have had significant form factor reductions in the past ~40 years yet gaming PCs have largely remained unchanged. (I understand we've had massive increases in computing capabilities, especially around 3D graphics and the power and cooling required for them.)
PCs have had significant form factor reductions though. From smaller form factors like mATX to straight up embedded SBCs like the NUC to even smaller lighter-power systems like the Raspberry Pi. Mid-towers have survived for the same reason cars still leave some open space under the hood in their designs: There are incredibly important practical benefits in being able to easily work in a space.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This 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.
Yeah, 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?
The other day I realized that IKEA Hyllis may work as foundation of a very simple case.
I lack experience in custom builds, but judging by the amount of work, you might as well just buy raw galvanized sheets and build from scratch, no? The only upside I see from Hyllis is that maybe it's just cheaper than raw materials because IKEA.
I suspect if he found a smaller motherboard, it would drop right in. I've always found it a little ironic that IBM, which started the whole PC industry that standardised on the PC, XT, and AT, yet had some of the more proprietary form-factors in their later models. ATX was Intel's effort.
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.
It was our first PC style computer and we used it a lot.
Fun facts:
- newly booted it could run AutoCAD on the standard 4MB
- of course with a giant extra 8MB it flew and was only limited by us kids knowing nothing
- it had suspend/resume (!) If you hit the power button ut turned itself off and when turned on again it came right back where you left it. For younger people here: this was amazing at the time. Some friends probably stil had drives that had to be "parked" around that time.
- 24/7 IBM Helpware was somehow included and these guys (it was mostly guys) where amazing. As a 15 - 17 y.o. I called them a number of times after siblings had cleaned the "mess" in the C:\ folder etc etc. I called them on midsummers eve and I think on new years eve (it might have been Christmas) and they were always friendly, helpful and patient. Utterly amazing customer support! Could answer anything and would stay on the phone while I ran through the backup disks or whatever I did to solve that days problem. Set a standard for what IT support should be like for me. (Yes, I have done IT support myself since then and those guys and Limoncelli/Hogans book "The Practice of Systems and Networks Administration" was probably the best inspiration for me.)