Amiga motherboards in PC/Tower cases

[appiah4]

I found a source selling untested A1200/2000/3000/4000 motherboards. He apparently got them from decommissioned computers from TV channels.


Can any of these be somewhat easily installed in PC a Tower chassis? Which one should I spring for? They are not cheap, but much cheaper than a big box Amiga around here, and if I can find proper housing for them the deal may not be too bad, so help me out here EAB

[Locutus]

Tower kits used to be quite a thing (and Elbox in Poland still makes them new)

Most likely you will need a new backplate for your case with cutouts as all slot positions etc are in the wrong place. Not to mention that with the 3k/4k you need to somehow handle having either all expansion cards at a odd angle or get a busboard.

With a smaller board like the 4000's you could also go for a E-ATX case and use extension cables to mount plugs in a sane way.

I dunno, quite a bit of effort involved to do yourself and it depends on how comfortable you are with metal working.

[Solo Kazuki]

Yes, ELBOX sell Amiga tower systems (with PSUs):

ELBOX tower systems list

...but looking on prices maybe consider to put these mainboards "as is" on some auctions.

[zipper]

With some luck you can find an used tower case in about 100-200(-400) eur - checked just Amibay and Ebay.de.

[jbilander]

For A1200 mobo's a Checkmate A1500 plus case might be an option for you. https://www.checkmate1500plus.com/.

[appiah4]

Those cases cost more than what an A2000 would cost to obtain for me.. I'm amazed at how expensive they are!

[talybont]

For A1200 only, but an option perhaps.

https://www.a1200.net/new-amiga-1200-cases/

[theq]

Originally Posted by appiah4

Those cases cost more than what an A2000 would cost to obtain for me.. I'm amazed at how expensive they are!

Hobbies aren’t supposed to be cheap

[Mick]

I'm keeping everything crossed that there will be Checkmate cases for the big box Amiga motherboards, they're screaming out for it what with new PCB's already having been released or are currently in development.

Or maybe the a1200.net guys will move on to new desktop cases?

[nogginthenog]

My A4000 used to live in a huge AT (not ATX!) tower case. 6 x 5.25 and one 3.5 bay. Needed hot glue, tin snips and a bit of luck. I used the AT power supply too. The Zorro cards hung downwards (luckily the electrons didn't fall out).

It lived in this case for at least a decade and was my main machine for quite a while. Back then I had a loads of SCSI/IDE drives and a CDROM. The A4000 is back in an original case (not the original, I lost that!). Needs a re-cap though.

[theq]

I was through that phase in life as well. Wanting to chuck everything I had into a case of some sort. Wanted desperately to make it look like a proper computer and not like a toy. Ending up looking like an abominable Frankenstein’s monster.
Now it is all about authentic looks and feelings. Possible a couple of «GTRX2000» LEDs but in its original shape and form.

[ElectroBlaster]

Been there and did it all!

I still have the photographic proof. It was a big fad back in the day. I made a pair of ATX towers starting off with a dumpy little AT tower hanging off the side of an A1200 desktop.

They were dismantled or given away at some point, parted out etc. I found the remains of the A1200 boards in storage back in 2017 and had the boards re-capped. Kinda spurned me on to find the original a1200 cases and returned them back to original, or as original as I could get them.

[Daedalus]

My main A1200 is still in its full-height AT tower, and has been for over 20 years. It's an ugly beast, but every time I've considered dismantling or selling it, I quickly realised I didn't want to, and so it's still used in that form today.

It's a DIY job, but not really that difficult if you're handy enough. As well as cutting a slot in the rear panel for the ports, most cases will need an alternative arrangement for mounting the motherboard, as even if you were to drill new holes for stand-offs on the existing motherboard tray, it will be too shallow in the case to allow for Zorro or PCI slots to align with their rear openings. In my case, I removed the tray entirely and used right angle brackets fashioned from sheet aluminium to secure it, and this allows the Mediator to align perfectly.

If you're not looking to add expansion slots or lots of drives, a tower case makes little sense these days. If one of the new A1200.net cases is too expensive for rehousing a bare motherboard, have a look for a 2nd hand original case, as many people with A1200.net cases now have spare shells knocking around. And there are a couple of keyboard solutions in the works these days too...

[nogginthenog]

My A4000 lived in a huge ugly AT tower for many years. Due to the position of the external ports the Zorro cards hung downwards but it never caused any issues.

As hard drives got bigger I no longer had any need for 6 drive bays. Even the CDROM became redundant when I got a network card so it all moved back into a desktop case.

[Sinphaltimus]

When I mounted my A500 mainboard into an ATX case I took the bottom half of the original case and drilled holed to mount it properly in the ATX tower them screwed the Amiga back on to its original mount holes. i image with a very thin piece of wood or plastic (acrylic) you could do something similar. for the Amiga main board (after screwing the whatever backplate to the case) you can use screw in insert nuts with matching screws.