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Resources for AT cases

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rbgrn

Experienced Member
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Apr 5, 2013
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I've been putting together a number of systems lately, 286/386/486 and one of the hardest things was finding AT cases! I have some current resources that probably won't last long but here's what I discovered:

I didn't buy any of these, but apparently this company has AT power supplies, a mid-tower case and a desktop case or two:
http://www.interloper.com/search.php?search_str=at+case&search=Search

Then I DID buy one of these slim desktop cases and am really happy with it - so I bought a second. He seems to have several in stock. They are really nice for putting a few systems together without using too much space.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Bab...3494?pt=US_Computer_Cases&hash=item3f273bd9f6

If you find more resources - please post them! I still would like a nice little AT baby tower with turbo and mhz display to move my 486 in to.
 
Newegg has a few computer cases which are Baby AT-compatible, but as of right now, the links you have found are otherwise the only AT-cases I can find. Occassionally, you will find other sellers on Ebay with AT-compatible cases... they seem to come and go.
 
There are quite a few older ATX cases that you can get the AT bezel for and mount an AT motherboard inside. It is pretty easy to remove the momentary power switch and just mount the AT power switch in its place. The thing that is getting harder to find is the AT supplies themselves.
 
Most larger mid size ATX cases and full ATX cases can hold an AT clone motherboard fine, as nwell as baby AT. I currently have a full size DTK AT clone motherboard in an Antec Plus 1080, but any Cheiftek Dragon-type case should fit one.

As said before the harder part is finding an AT power supply. After that the problem is mounting a power switch, which isn't hard if you mount it to a spare drive bay cover.
 
The older ATX cases mounted the power switch the exact same way so they are a perfect swap (unscrew one put in the other).
 
Compgeke said:
Most larger mid size ATX cases and full ATX cases can hold an AT clone motherboard fine, as nwell as baby AT. I currently have a full size DTK AT clone motherboard in an Antec Plus 1080, but any Cheiftek Dragon-type case should fit one.

As said before the harder part is finding an AT power supply. After that the problem is mounting a power switch, which isn't hard if you mount it to a spare drive bay cover.
Click to expand...

You're implying that the screws are in the same place for Baby AT and AT motherboards as for ATX boards?

If there are AT to ATX switches that can fit in a drive bay, that makes me wonder if there are Turbo LED displays that also fit in a drive bay...
 
All screw holes line up, except for one in the center which is just slightly off on both AT and Baby AT boards in an ATX case. Other than that every screw lines up perfectly. I can get some pictures tomorrow (more like later today, it's 3 in the morning) as the camera is in the car.
 
rbgrn:

What board are you using with the slim desktop case? Can a standard 486 board work with the ISA riser card?

Thanks!

Chris
 
Chris:

I've got a 386 and a 286 board in there. Yes - any board with a 16 bit ISA slot where the riser card goes should work fine. ISA is a parallel bus so you can extend it anywhere. Your 486 AT board should work fine unless it is freaky weird and doesn't have a slot there or has some other slot in that location.
 
Caluser2000 said:
Yes. I've got Olivetti PCS 40 SX/25 which is just a generic 486 ISA/VLB board in a slimline case and 5 slot isa riser card on number two isa slot on the mobo.
Click to expand...

Excellent--thank you for letting me know! I just bought one for my 486DX2/66 project. It is a nice looking case. The good old "beige" AT cases seemed to have really dried up the past few years.
 
There are quite a few older ATX cases that you can get the AT bezel for and mount an AT motherboard inside.

Most larger mid size ATX cases and full ATX cases can hold an AT clone motherboard fine, as nwell as baby AT. I currently have a full size DTK AT clone motherboard in an Antec Plus 1080, but any Cheiftek Dragon-type case should fit one.
Click to expand...

With the AT bezel any ATX case should be fine ? But I can not find any bezel on eBay. Where can I get it ?

The AT power supply can be replaced with ATX power supply and converter cable readily available on eBay.

Look for ATX to AT Adapter Cable With Switch
 
vanderk said:
Excellent--thank you for letting me know! I just bought one for my 486DX2/66 project. It is a nice looking case. The good old "beige" AT cases seemed to have really dried up the past few years.
Click to expand...
Don't forget to post up about your project. I quite like slim lines machines myself. Got given the Olivetti and was expecting some proprietory setup, so was quite surprised when I opened it up.

I also got a DecPC which is an OEM slim line in contrast has video, fdd, hdd etc on the mobo and one riser slot which the PO had upgraded to a DX2/66. It's my OS/2 v3 box.
 
Although if using an ISA riser, you wont be able to use the VLBus for graphics (8Mhz 16 bit versus 33Mhz 32 bit).
Just something to keep in mind.

Finding the towers isn't easy though, one of mine I had to rescue from a rubbish skip :(
 
SpidersWeb said:
Although if using an ISA riser, you wont be able to use the VLBus for graphics (8Mhz 16 bit versus 33Mhz 32 bit).
Just something to keep in mind.
Click to expand...
That's one thing I could'nt quite understand with my Olivetti. It has 3 vlb slots and made more sense to go with a lower spec mobo. Of course the good thing is it can be removed and place in a more suitable case, a better cpu fitted and L2 cache added. Gotta just love generic clones of the era for their upgradability.
 
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Eric, IMO you'd be better off listing your items in the For Sale or Off Topic Marketplace forum(s) as well. It seems there is very little traffic/action in the Marketplace.
 
Great...thanks for the info. I didn't want to plug up the entire forum with my pile of parts. I putchased the remains of a repair shop and I have piles of vintage components...new. I am trying to get the big stuff sold so I can recoup my cost and then I have thousands of small parts...mother board components...everything to sort through.
 
If you keep your prices reasonable you'll likely do quite well considering this place is mainly comprised of cheepskates! :) I'm sure that as you post more items of interest you'll notice the increase in responses to them. I don't care if you 'plug up the entire forum' with your stuff 'cause I'm always looking for interesting stuff and so are many others here.
 
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