djsnake

Hi guys and gals

I have been mostly lurking here on the site. Only a few basically irrelevant posts so far. I have followed several worklogs with interest and would like to extend my respect and admiration to people on this board yet they are too many to name. This board has a plethora of creative talent and practical knowledge.

I was recently gifted two cases, one a mini tower and the other a desktop. Both seem to be AT formfactor. I am interested in finding out how to convert them to ATX. If this has been posted already im sorry but I searched pages 1-20 and 93-103 of the case modding board and used the search function on the board to no avail. feel free to post any links to any tutorisls on this topic and thank you in advance for doing so.

I intend to replace the power supplys in both cases for starters.

With the mini tower I intend to build a Christmas present PC for my mom. Plans include a top blowhole with custom wooden fan grill. Cutting a hinged access door in the side with a church window cutout in the side. Stealthing the drives with wooden panels and a custom crackle paint finish with some flowers and vines.

The desktop case I plan to use for myself to mod into a DVR specific PC with a custom cut plexi window in top and a super gloss midnight blue metal flake finish and the drives stealthed by mirrors.

Once again thanks in advance for any help you can give or links you can send my way.

P.S I am already folding.

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Sleepy_Sentry

Welcome to PCApex!

I'm sure the welcome wagon will be here soon (maybe not today or tomorow because of the fourth of July).

This article will probably help you:
http://moddingzone.com/articles/at-to-atx/

Good luck man!

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s1ugh34d

Welcome to PCApex, thanks for folding yo


Thats some cool ideas, at to atx isnt that bad

I was gonna do that, and might et yet, but thats another story
But that desktop box look alot like a comcrap i have, sounds like a good idea you have in store for it

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jofultner

I have built several newer ATX systems in old AT cases.Basic all you are doing is using the older case to install new components into.Psu,motherboard cpu and memory is all that is needed in my opinion to make the difference.Jo

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ex421

Ive converted 2 AT to ATX, the power supply fits in both usually, and the motherboard I had to mark where the holes were, and drill new holes into the case so I could screw the mobo on, as for the back I/O panel, in 1 it fit, in the other I cut the old one out and fit the new one in easily. I cant find any tutorials right now, but its fairly easy once you start, good luck .

djsnake

Guys, thanks so far for the quick responses.

I go to the waffle house with a friend to drink a couple of pots of coffee and solve the problems of the world and I come back to find some encouraging posts.

Special thanks to Sleepy_Sentry for the link. It was exactly the kind of article I was looking for and had pretty pictures too. (LOL I admit it sounds funny but I really was hopeing for just those kind of pictures to help me visualize the process)

Once again thanks for the encouragement and feel free to post any more links so I can get more perspective on the process. Once I get up the nerve to actually start it I will post the project as a worklog.

further ideas for moms computer is to build it for at least the next 5 years. it will be ready to run the full version of vista complete with the aero interface when i give it to her even though i expect it will be delivered to her with xp pro.


hardware im thinking of goes as follows


Mach Speed Viper MK8-939A Via Socket 939 ATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.20GHz OEM Processor
A pair of at least 160GB SATA hard drives in a RAID 1(Maybee 200GB if I find a good deal)
A decent video card with at least 256MEG of DDR ram
A budget yet decent dual format dual layer DVD burner
A GIG of DDR RAM for the mobo (prolly 2x512....board can handle 4GIG)
Maybee a card reader w USB and audio I/O
At least a 350w PSU maybee 400w (I dont see her needing tons of juice)

Mom doesent use her computer much but often brings work home and crunches numbers with Quickbooks. Other than that she needs storage space for digitat photos from a 4MP camera as she vacations a lot. (she deserves it)

s1ugh34d

Quote: Originally Posted by djsnake Guys, thanks so far for the quick responses. I go to the waffle house with a friend to drink a couple of pots of coffee and solve the problems of the world and I come back to find some encouraging posts. Special thanks to Sleepy_Sentry for the link. It was exactly the kind of article I was looking for and had pretty pictures too. (LOL I admit it sounds funny but I really was hopeing for just those kind of pictures to help me visualize the process) Once again thanks for the encouragement and feel free to post any more links so I can get more perspective on the process. Once I get up the nerve to actually start it I will post the project as a worklog. further ideas for moms computer is to build it for at least the next 5 years. it will be ready to run the full version of vista complete with the aero interface when i give it to her even though i expect it will be delivered to her with xp pro. hardware im thinking of goes as follows Mach Speed Viper MK8-939A Via Socket 939 ATX Motherboard AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.20GHz OEM Processor A pair of at least 160GB SATA hard drives in a RAID 1(Maybee 200GB if I find a good deal) A decent video card with at least 256MEG of DDR ram A budget yet decent dual format dual layer DVD burner A GIG of DDR RAM for the mobo (prolly 2x512....board can handle 4GIG) Maybee a card reader w USB and audio I/O At least a 350w PSU maybee 400w (I dont see her needing tons of juice) Mom doesent use her computer much but often brings work home and crunches numbers with Quickbooks. Other than that she needs storage space for digitat photos from a 4MP camera as she vacations a lot. (she deserves it)

on the 2 160gig drive, thats a lot ofspace that an average person would never use, personally i use alot more, but it took me 7 years to get over 600GB of stuff, how about a single 160GB SATA 3gb or a 200GB SATA 3gb, it would be easier than the raid, and two drives

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PurpleDiamond

Welcome to PCApex!

I have two remarks:

1. An easy way to convert an AT to ATX is to get a slideout motherboard tray and install that into the existing case. It will save you a lot of work on trying to get the rear cut properly and position the mobo standoffs.
mwave have an aluminum Skyhawk with a sildeout motherboard tray for $29.

2. I would get a mobo from a better manufacturer, especially if you are planning on using a RAID array. The quality of the drivers is paramount if you want to have RAID and Mach Speed is not a name I would trust. I know that they are sold by TigerDirect and I know that in general the reviews are OK, but still - I would prefer a GigaByte/Asus/MSI product (any tier 1should be a better choice, just do some research).

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Dreyco

here is a nice site with all the dimensions you'll need

http://www.formfactors.org/

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djsnake

Quote: Originally Posted by PurpleDiamond Welcome to PCApex! 2. I would get a mobo from a better manufacturer, especially if you are planning on using a RAID array. The quality of the drivers is paramount if you want to have RAID and Mach Speed is not a name I would trust. I know that they are sold by TigerDirect and I know that in general the reviews are OK, but still - I would prefer a GigaByte/Asus/MSI product (any tier 1should be a better choice, just do some research).

Hey thanks for the heads up PurpleDiamond

Havent finalized the hardware yet and yes Tiger Direct is where I found that mobo. For some reason I couldnt access Newegg when I started looking. Normally I'm an Asus guy myself And wasn't familiar with that brand (Mach Speed) but it was bundled with the processer for $99 and had 4 dimm slots, 3 PCI slots, ethernet, AGP and PCIExpress slots

As to the hard drives s1ugh34d I think you misread. Two 160G SATA drives in a RAID1 will read as one 160G drive. I just think it might be spiffy for my mom to have a bit of built in redundancy, and as far as size goes I think that is about right for the next 5 years for her. She doesen't take as many pictures as she would like to because she has all but used up the 4g in the comcrap she has now. (yes only four gig)

jofultner

I would say she is ready for this upgrade.

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