Time to do a case swap for my Pentium 233 MMX. We're going from one Enlight case to another! Here's the end result. I thought this was going to be easier than it was, let's talk about it in, you guessed it, a 🧵 here!
So, you might ask: why do a swap? Well, the current case for my Pentium 233 MMX is nice, but it is a little bit beat up. I found this poor computer in 2019 at Computer Reset being used as a "stepping stool" to get to higher shelves. And I rescued it!
I thought to myself "okay, this is only going to take a few minutes, I'll just swap the cover." Well, despite looking the same, these two Enlight AT cases are actually different! So that plan didn't work out 😂. The cover doesn't fit!!
Here's a comparison of the insides of the two computers. And you can see some subtle differences if you look closely for the case.
Before I started taking these apart, I took a picture of the card order and front-panel connectors. Not critical, but it serves as a guide.
Despite being different, many components are swappable, and we will take advantage of that. The front bezel, drive cage, and motherboard tray are all removable and swappable!
On my current case, the serial ports had been fastened to the case. Rather than remove the "blanks" on the new case, I decided to swap out the connectors and moved the bracket over (wasn't sure if they were the same pinouts). Of course, I got it backwards on the first attempt 😂
I had originally planned to keep the front bezel from the old case. But the newer one was slightly nicer, so I swapped over the badge to it!
I wanted to swap over the Pentium MMX badge too, but it was worse for the wear. I used double-sided tape for now. Maybe I will pick up a replacement reproduction badge from my good friend @geekenspiel!
After assembly, it was time to power on the Pentium 233 MMX. Naturally, the CMOS battery was dead, so I swapped in one of these cheap Amazon batteries.
And from there, reassembled, the computer was a total PAIN. Fiddling with the IDE, floppy and SCSI cable, I was FINALLY able to get everything seated and working properly.
Anyway, that will do it for now, thx for following along as always!
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