7 Nov
2005
7 Nov
'05
11:41 a.m.
I have this dead XT here, and I wanted to replace its motherboard with a
newish ATX beastie. Anyone know where I might be able to find some
pointers?
Peace... Sridhar
7 Nov
7 Nov
11:56 a.m.
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
I have this dead XT here, and I wanted to replace its motherboard with
a newish ATX beastie. Anyone know where I might be able to find some
pointers?
Peace... Sridhar
GOOD LUCK! the power supply needs to be replaced for a ATX at the very
least and that would be a
very custom job for you.
12:07 p.m.
woodelf wrote:
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
I am well aware of this. That part is easy. I was more concerned about
the motherboard mounting.
Peace... Sridhar
I have this dead XT here, and I wanted to replace its motherboard with
a newish ATX beastie. Anyone know where I might be able to find some
pointers?
Peace... Sridhar
GOOD LUCK! the power supply needs to be replaced for a ATX at the very
least and that would be a
very custom job for you.
12:17 p.m.
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
I am well aware of this. That part is easy. I was more concerned
about the motherboard mounting.
I have been known to hack at XT cases but as for a new motherboard I
am at loss to just
how it will fit. Secondly will a new PC run old software if you need to
do so?
Peace... Sridhar
12:34 p.m.
woodelf wrote:
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
It'll fit. The motherboards are roughly the same size and shape. The
only problem will be the mounting plate and the connector panel.
I am well aware of this. That part is easy. I was more concerned
about the motherboard mounting.
I have been known to hack at XT cases but as for a new motherboard I
am at loss to just how it will fit. Secondly will a new PC run old
software if you need to
do so?
I don't need it to. This is going to be a newish gaming box when I'm
done. I have properly working vintage hardware for running old software.
Peace... Sridhar
12:52 p.m.
A lot depends on the board, of course, but IIRC, the power supply in an ATX
box has more clearance for the board to slip under. It's those connectors
that will probably give you fits. The mounting holes should be very
close--if it's not a perfect match, you can always use some extra nylon PC
board standoffs at critical points.
It may be more trouble than it's worth. ATX has been out for so many
years that I'd probably just look around for a recycled PC with the case I
wanted.
Cheers,
Chuck
1:05 p.m.
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
woodelf wrote:
IIRC, there are raised metal sections welded to the base of the XT case,
and it's into these that the plastic standoffs for the motherboard sit.
If I'm misremembering, ignore me...
Anyway, get yourself an angle grinder and slice right down the middle of
the raised metal sections from front to back. Hammer the remains flat,
so you've got a roughly flat bottom to the case.
Then, get yourself a scrap ATX tower case (free from all sorts of
sources) and chop the bit of metal out of that which normally holds the
ATX motherboard standoffs (I expect nearly all of them unbolt, no
chopping required).
After making a few strategic holes in the bottom of the XT case, you
should be able to bolt that assembly in the right place so that the rear
cut-outs for the cards line up with a fitted motherboard properly.
You'll then be able to mount any ATX motherboard that the original
sacrificial ATX case would take.
As for the PSU, good idea of someone's regarding mounting it inside the
original PSU - you'll want to keep that big red power switch! :-)
Connector panel - if the engineering stacks up (XT card slot holes don't
get in the way), I'd be tempted to cut out the whole relevant part of
the aforementioned sacrificial ATX case out and mount *that* inside the
XT case, bolting it to a suitable cut-out that you can make in the back
of the XT's case. Lot easier than trying to cut lots of neat socket
holes in the XT's steel.
The alternative would be to desolder the connectors from the ATX board
and relocate them via cables to brackets scavenged from relevant ISA
cards (soundcard, I/O card etc.) - but I don't know what your chances of
getting the parallel port socket off an ATX board without damaging
anything would be!
Normally I wouldn't agree with chopping an old machine apart, but it is
just a PC and not something particularly interesting...
cheers
Jules
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
It'll fit. The motherboards are roughly the same size and shape. The
only problem will be the mounting plate and the connector panel.
I am well aware of this. That part is easy. I was more concerned
about the motherboard mounting.
I have been known to hack at XT cases but as for a new motherboard
I am at loss to just 
6:08 p.m.
Sridhar, I've done this numerous times with AT's for clients in the
past. XT's it sounds, are a little more complicated. Jules and the
rest of the gang are on the right path with having to mount the ATX
mounting tray in it. If you need help though, I do have a 20k rpm
dremel kit with cut-off wheels to make short work of the backside of
the case to make room for the ATX ports (ps/2, serial, parallel, etc).
-John Boffemmyer IV
At 04:05 PM 11/7/2005, you wrote:
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
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No virus found in this outgoing message.
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woodelf wrote:
IIRC, there are raised metal sections welded to the base of the XT
case, and it's into these that the plastic standoffs for the
motherboard sit. If I'm misremembering, ignore me...
Anyway, get yourself an angle grinder and slice right down the
middle of the raised metal sections from front to back. Hammer the
remains flat, so you've got a roughly flat bottom to the case.
Then, get yourself a scrap ATX tower case (free from all sorts of
sources) and chop the bit of metal out of that which normally holds
the ATX motherboard standoffs (I expect nearly all of them unbolt,
no chopping required).
After making a few strategic holes in the bottom of the XT case, you
should be able to bolt that assembly in the right place so that the
rear cut-outs for the cards line up with a fitted motherboard
properly. You'll then be able to mount any ATX motherboard that the
original sacrificial ATX case would take.
As for the PSU, good idea of someone's regarding mounting it inside
the original PSU - you'll want to keep that big red power switch! :-)
Connector panel - if the engineering stacks up (XT card slot holes
don't get in the way), I'd be tempted to cut out the whole relevant
part of the aforementioned sacrificial ATX case out and mount *that*
inside the XT case, bolting it to a suitable cut-out that you can
make in the back of the XT's case. Lot easier than trying to cut
lots of neat socket holes in the XT's steel.
The alternative would be to desolder the connectors from the ATX
board and relocate them via cables to brackets scavenged from
relevant ISA cards (soundcard, I/O card etc.) - but I don't know
what your chances of getting the parallel port socket off an ATX
board without damaging anything would be!
Normally I wouldn't agree with chopping an old machine apart, but it
is just a PC and not something particularly interesting...
cheers
Jules Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
It'll fit. The motherboards are roughly the same size and
shape. The only problem will be the mounting plate and the connector panel.
I am well aware of this. That part is easy. I was more
concerned about the motherboard mounting.
I have been known to hack at XT cases
but as for a new motherboard
I am at loss to just 
12:15 p.m.
On 7/11/05 19:56, "woodelf" <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
GOOD LUCK! the power supply needs to be replaced for
a ATX at the very
least and that would be a
very custom job for you.
Not really, there's enough room inside an XT case to gut the original power
supply and make cables that will connect to a modern PSU that's put
somewhere else in the case or even inside the remains of the original one.
As for mounting the motherboard, a template can be made from an existing ATX
case for the mounting screws...if I had a spare dead XT I might have a go at
that myself :)
A
12:36 p.m.
Adrian Graham wrote:
On 7/11/05 19:56, "woodelf" <bfranchuk at
jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
The PS is fried in this machine also, so I was planning on mounting the
guts from a newish power supply inside the housing for the original.
The PS I'm going to be using is significantly smaller than the original.
GOOD LUCK! the power supply needs to be replaced
for a ATX at the very
least and that would be a
very custom job for you.
Not really, there's enough room inside an XT case to gut the original power
supply and make cables that will connect to a modern PSU that's put
somewhere else in the case or even inside the remains of the original one. As for mounting the motherboard, a template can be
made from an existing ATX
case for the mounting screws...if I had a spare dead XT I might have a go at
that myself :)
So would you suggest installing metal standoffs with nuts through new
oversized punched holes, or would you suggest drilling/tapping holes and
installing the standoffs directly? Or something else?
Peace... Sridhar
1:19 p.m.
On 7/11/05 20:36, "Sridhar Ayengar" <ploopster at gmail.com> wrote:
The PS is fried in this machine also, so I was planning on mounting the
guts from a newish power supply inside the housing for the original.
The PS I'm going to be using is significantly smaller than the original.
This idea's appealing to me more and more, purely because I know I can do it
:)
So would you suggest installing metal standoffs with
nuts through new
oversized punched holes, or would you suggest drilling/tapping holes and
installing the standoffs directly? Or something else?
It depends on the available height from the base of the case as to whether a
standard backplate from an ATX case could be used instead...if I wasn't
using my PC for its sole purpose of watching TV right now I'd strip it down
and check. Failing that, direct standoffs would do.
Cheers
A
12:45 p.m.
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
I have this dead XT here, and I wanted to replace its
motherboard
with a newish ATX beastie. Anyone know where I might be able to find
some pointers?
You'll have to swap the PSU and you'll have to find a mobo that
can be mounted in the box given the alignment of the mounting
holes etc. and you'll need to find a way of getting the mobo
connectors to the outside world.
Without checking in detail, I think you'll have to virtually
destroy the XT case to make the mobo and PSU fit.
Are XTs far enough along the modern development curve that
they cannot be fixed? I thought that the trend towards
no-schematics-all-in-a-chipset machines was somewhere in
the 386/486 era.
Or are XTs still so common that you have no hope of trading
the dead one for a modern case?
Antonio
--
Antonio carlini
arcarlini at iee.org
1:04 p.m.
a.carlini at ntlworld.com wrote:
Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
Probably none of the above.
*This* particular XT is probably beyond repair. There are scorch marks
galore and the motherboard is cracked from the cardslots forward.
Ragged remains of traces are sticking out. Sadly, it looks like it was
quite abused in its day.
Peace... Sridhar
I have this dead XT here, and I wanted to replace
its motherboard
with a newish ATX beastie. Anyone know where I might be able to find
some pointers?
You'll have to swap the PSU and you'll have to find a mobo that
can be mounted in the box given the alignment of the mounting
holes etc. and you'll need to find a way of getting the mobo
connectors to the outside world.
Without checking in detail, I think you'll have to virtually
destroy the XT case to make the mobo and PSU fit.
Are XTs far enough along the modern development curve that
they cannot be fixed? I thought that the trend towards
no-schematics-all-in-a-chipset machines was somewhere in
the 386/486 era.
Or are XTs still so common that you have no hope of trading
the dead one for a modern case?
1:47 p.m.
On 7/11/05 20:45, "a.carlini at ntlworld.com" <arcarlini at iee.org>
wrote:
Without checking in detail, I think you'll have to
virtually
destroy the XT case to make the mobo and PSU fit.
One check in detail later with an XT and an ATX motherboard it's looking
like you're right - PSU is in the wrong place......but what about the
mini-ITX? People have been shoehorning those boards into the Commodore SX64,
Vic-20 and other classics....
Www.mini-itx.com - check the PC in a Sega MegaCD case :)
A
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13 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
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arcarlini＠iee.org -
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
cclist＠sydex.com -
john_boffemmyer_iv＠boff-net.dhs.org -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
ploopster＠gmail.com -
witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk