Putting a Core 2 Duo into a 486 Amstrad?!

[LastChanceHotel]

I've found a little 486 Amstrad machine that I reckon I could fit a mATX board in (only just, mind - and assuming I move the PSU to outside of the case). The 8800 should be small enough to fit inside with a waterblock, assuming everything else (CPU and NB mainly) are also watercooled ;)
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/DSCF1132.JPG

I think it'd make such a leet "retro" system. It still has the stickers on the front!
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/DSCF1136.JPG

Here it is with a 1.2ghz Duron sitting in it.
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/DSCF1137.JPG

One slight problem....
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/DSCF1138.JPG
Modernisation will be required.

LastChance

[Chesire Cat]

[insignificat irrelevant remark]

[Sid]

Looks like a nice little box, there. You'll definitely get watercooling in there. I'm just slightly concerned that you won't be able to find a 12V DC-DC PSU that will be powerful enough for a C2D.

I'd possibly vinyl dye it black and maybe try and integrate some kind of retro lighting on it.

[LastChanceHotel]

I'm going to try and get back into contact with an Intel friend in Portland, Oregon (went there during the summer) and get hold of one of these...

http://www.8080.net/pics/200610/10191854230.jpg

A quad-core 6800, with 8MB of cache.

If this works, I'm gonna forget about buying myself a Toughbook :)

[DAve]

I'm going to try and get back into contact with an Intel friend in Portland, Oregon (went there during the summer) and get hold of one of these...
Sweet. Any luck in getting one of the dual / quad xenon mobos? They're going to be mental in the servers :-D

[LastChanceHotel]

Yes, I have found some things for the new processors I have.

Sadly, a quad mobo will cost £200...

I'm planning out the other hardware to go into the system, currently I'm looking at:

- 680i motherboard, Northbridge watercooled
- Core 2 Quadro QE6800 (this will obviously be unbranded, what with it probably going to be an Intel internal sample), watercooled
- 2GB Geil 8000 DDR2 RAM
- BFG 8800GTS, watercooled
- sadly, no room for other cards (eg, X-Fi :()
- External power supply (I'll probably buy an 750W one of a reputable brand, and use some nice thick, screened cables in sheathing to connect to the back of the machine, and make it an external PSU)
- External water chiller (I'll probably use a custom-built dual 120mm radiator job, as I think I'll need it...)

[Bluepixie]

Do it! Do it now!

[YegaDoyai]

The only issue I see is that you'll need to custom fab a backplate for it and preferably have your rad and res external along with the PSU

[Bluepixie]

- External power supply (I'll probably buy an 750W one of a reputable brand, and use some nice thick, screened cables in sheathing to connect to the back of the machine, and make it an external PSU)
- External water chiller (I'll probably use a custom-built dual 120mm radiator job, as I think I'll need it...)

preferably have your rad and res external along with the PSU

Eh? :confused:

[YegaDoyai]

he is only talking about having the rad external, unless he has a big enough rad he'll also need an external res. looks to the restorator 1 or 2.

[LastChanceHotel]

Okay, I've got hold of my waterblocks and a second chassis to hack around with.

What I'm going to do is cut the back of the chassis apart, so I can fit this ATX backplane in...
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/backplane.JPG
and put a standard ATX backplane there, so I can swap motherboards easily.
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/backplane2.JPG
I'm going to leave the two big slots at the top as-is, so I can mount the 8800 there no problem (using a flexible PCI-E x16 extender, see link: http://www.orbitmicro.com/product_lines/riser_cards/pci_express_flexible_extenders.html )
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/mobotray.JPG

I've had a go tonight of cutting the motherboard tray and backplane out of another machine to mod the existing chassis, sadly I ran out of cutting discs. And the last one splintered! Fuck!
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/brokendisc.JPG

Still, I got some juicy stuff from home, including waterblocks.
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/watercooling.JPG

The idea is to watercool the CPU, northbridge and graphics card (probably using more modern blocks for CPU+GPU), and duct them out of a water connector.
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/watercooling2.JPG
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/vgacard.JPG
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/vgawatercooling.JPG

That looks like it for today, going to go to Mappers tomorrow and buy more discs. Does anyone know if there's facilities at University where I can go to get the motherboard tray cut? The dremel is a real pain.

Jan

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

Mechanical Engineering, but i dont think the staff there are likely to help you out. If you know anyone studying there you could ask them (Dave).

[DAve]

That looks like it for today, going to go to Mappers tomorrow and buy more discs. Does anyone know if there's facilities at University where I can go to get the motherboard tray cut? The dremel is a real pain.
Ask the mechanical engineering guys, they'll probably help you, or be able to point you to someone that could. They really do give top quality craftsmanship.

Also, WTF are you doing cutting steel with a dremel for? You're only going to get many, many broken disks. Get a hacksaw or a jigsaw.

[LastChanceHotel]

Lack of other tools is why I'm using a dremel, and hence why I'm trying to get hold of someone to help me with the mechanical aspects :)

What building/room/office/whatever should I go to, to locate these mysterious Mechanical Engineers?

LastChance

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

James Watt building
5

Follow the big brown arrow, it's the ugly one on the end. The door is on the South face of the building (looking over the park) and the dwarves are in the basement.

[Fyndir]

the dwarves are in the basement.

Just remember that you HAVE to refer to them in full RP style as Mystical Dwarves.

[LastChanceHotel]

I shall visit them tomorrow.

Hahaha, the dwarves are in the basement. Speaking of dwarves in basements:
http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/dwarves.JPG

James Watt building
5

Follow the big brown arrow, it's the ugly one on the end. The door is on the South face of the building (looking over the park) and the dwarves are in the basement.

[Bluepixie]

any luck with the mech boyz?

[LastChanceHotel]

Sadly, not been able to see them.

I shall try on Tuesday if I finish in time. I've started beta testing of my VPN system, so that's sucking up a good portion of my time. (managing 30 testers and the errors and bugs they find is a logistical nightmare)

LastChance

[Howard81]

Do you have the motherboard for this Amstrad? I have an identical one, but the clock battery is dead... If it worked before you took it apart, can I buy/have/steal the RTC chip? Pls? :lol: :D :D :D

[LastChanceHotel]

I've got a whole one.

What on earth do you want a working 486 for, aside from retro'ness?

Show me what it looks like and I shall extract it.

LastChanceHotel

[LastChanceHotel]

In other news, this mod is probably still going ahead. I got this in exchange for bailing someone out of a huge DNS-related hole:

http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/psu1.jpg

http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/psu2.jpg

http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/psu3.jpg

http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/psu4.jpg

http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/psu5.jpg

http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/psu6.jpg

http://www.pausegaming.com/galleryimages/img/amstrad/psu7.jpg

Meanwhile, my motherboard is being RMAed because the *last* power supply toasted it. Thank god the Opty, RAM, graphics card and HDDs were okay! :O

[Strings]

This is what happens when you skimp and save on the PSU :P

[LastChanceHotel]

I found this out to my peril.

But still... £96 on a power supply... :(

I'll thank myself for it later no doubt.

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

Tagan = love

You will never use anything else, from now on.

[DAve]

Tagan = love

You will never use anything else, from now on.
unless you put things in it you really shouldn't have.

Like keys, or water.

[Strings]

unless you put things in it you really shouldn't have.

Like keys, or water.

You'd think that would go without saying. But no, DAve really has tried these things :)

[YegaDoyai]

i think you'll find he was refering to jans previous PSU failure

[Strings]

Hah yeh, I remember him telling me about key incident. Water as well? Dear oh dear.

[LastChanceHotel]

There was no water involved in any of my power supply failures.

Admittedly, my watercooling -did- leak onto my graphics card and cause it to artifact wildly (even in the boot screen) - but that was easily solved by popping it through the dishwasher (sans artic silver, natch) and then putting it in the warming oven (only 50'c or so). Yes, that's how they wash the flux off the boards after wave flow soldering the components on =)

LastChanceHotel

[Phizz]

Erm.... last time I saw wave soldering cleaning done it was in a vat of steaming solvents. Granted I was only watching it in BAe Systems but meh.