I wouldn't have a problem making an aluminium version of the bezel if people wanted it.Very interesting project. I have an A4000T card but no case and some replica mobo had been selled recently on Amibay. People should therefore be interested in this project.
Maybe PRS will be able to design an aluminum front bezel like its project for the A4000D
Sold - Group Buy - Full Aluminium Front Panel for A4000D Case
___________________________________________________________________________________________ UPDATE 31 March 2023: Dear all, I’ve requested a new quote based on the round 4 order (same items in round 4 requested for a possible round 5) to see what the price increase is at the moment. In...www.amibay.com
A4000T Replica
- Thread starter Ordyne
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Ok, so here are some proposed changes to the case, mainly around the centre drive bay and it blocking the CPU card area on the mainboard. So the support for the case has been moved up and is now part of the upper drive bay, this shouldn't foul anything. Also I have moved up the PSU, if any expansion was to be added to the rear then it seems crazy to put it above the PSU and incur extra cabling, the PSU was higher in the Commodore version if I am correct (but wasn't a standard AT PSU) I have also rotated the PSU 180 degrees because as it was most PSU's would have the fan pointing up, they are pulling the air out so this is bad for airflow. Again, back in the day AT psu's didn't really have 120mm fans in the top of them so this wasn't a consideration.
A120mm fan in place of the 80mm in the front of the case was another thought.
I don't want to stray too far from the original design but some areas of the original case do not work beyond using the original parts (IE CPU Card) so I think this is a good time to put this right.
Please let me know your thoughts.
A120mm fan in place of the 80mm in the front of the case was another thought.
I don't want to stray too far from the original design but some areas of the original case do not work beyond using the original parts (IE CPU Card) so I think this is a good time to put this right.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Modern ATX psu's have their airflow in, so from outside to inside >>>> ^^^^^^
So if you buy a new one and want to have the warranty remaining on it, that is going to be a real problem.
I bet most of us would buy a cheap one and open it and reverse the airflow again, but that would void the warranty instantly of course.
Those 5 1/4 drivebay are mainly going to be used for an optical drive, the problem here is, your drive needs to have those 4 clips to have the dvd or cd from falling out of the tray, or you need to find a slot-in drive.
Second use would be to mount a 5 1/4 bay to 3,5" to fit an IDE or old SSD drive.
And that could be made even smaller to fit 2,5" SSD.
Not a fan of anything mounted vertically if it's a real HDD.
But I agree, that full drivebay from front to back is a nightmare!
Even getting it out was a wiggle process and you have to be careful not to drop it, cards in the Z3 slots are not going to like that.
120 mm fan is a good idea, cause 80mm fans are becoming quite rare to get.
Would be nice to have an option for a fan controller as the Amiga doesn't have that.
If that fan runs at max rpm, that could be noisy.
Maybe internally add a few things for cable management.
Odd, I checked a couple of ATX psu's for airflow direction yesterday and they were both blowing out! I looked at some more this morning with what you said and it seems hit and miss, I've even two models of corsair CX430M and CX450M and one pulls in and the other pushes out. It doesnt really matter in the orientation of the PSU, we just dont want the fan facing the outside of the case. Regarding if your PSU is push or pull you can adjust your case fan accordingly to suit, and leave the PSU alone.
Regarding the drive bays, in my mind and in an ideal situation the two centre side on 5.25 bays would have been 3.5" bays. However this would be a major change to the case, not anything that cannot be done but it also raises the question of do we need 3.5" bays any more, are people going to fit a FDD ?
Good suggestion on the cable management, I will see what I can do!
Regarding a fan controller, if its not going to be internal and needs to be accessed from the front then I guess its going to have to be located in a drive bay?
Regarding the drive bays, in my mind and in an ideal situation the two centre side on 5.25 bays would have been 3.5" bays. However this would be a major change to the case, not anything that cannot be done but it also raises the question of do we need 3.5" bays any more, are people going to fit a FDD ?
Good suggestion on the cable management, I will see what I can do!
Regarding a fan controller, if its not going to be internal and needs to be accessed from the front then I guess its going to have to be located in a drive bay?
Maybe to use a gotek?
I'm interested in how the front facia mounting would be handled, as those presently on the 4T (round metal spring clips) are also unobtainium. I will definitely be on the list once there is a list for this!
Magnets is what I’m going for unless someone has a better suggestion.
Sorry I thought I had already posted this drawing. This is my proposed changes so that the mainboard is no longer covered by the middle 5.25" bay that goes front to rear, the metal work that strengthens the case has been moved to the upper 5.25" bay and the PSU has been moved up to the top of the case.
New to the thread - are you aiming for keeping things "as per original" tower or are you happy to change things? I like the more modern way of having the PSU at the bottom - helps with weight stability and looks better. You could then have the 5.25 bays at the bottom, too, adding to the "weight at the bottom" thing. Modern PC cases do away with 5.25 drive bays of course, but being at the bottom would be cool.
This would be really good
I am all for making it better as long as it looks the same, but if the general consensus is no then nothing will be changed. I am open to all ideas.
I did look at look at moving the PSU to the bottom but unfortunately it isnt possible, if you move the mainboard to the top of the case you have no space for the CPU card between the upper 5.25" drive bay, the case is not wide enough. You would have to make the case and bezel wider and then you loose the ability for existing A4000T owners to use the CBM style front plastics on their Escom/Quikpak towers.
That brings me onto a big subject PLASTICS
My thoughts on the plastics are, I will copy the design with the goal of injection moulding for OEM quality, we know this is very expensive. However what would you be prepared to pay for the CBM A4000T? I know I've always wanted one since I first saw it in a magazine in rhe 90's but there is a limit. If there are enough people interested in the new case with @tbtorro 's mainboard and existing A4000T (like me) owners who want theirs to look like it always should have then hopefully we can raise enough cash to fund a small run of say 100 or so to cover the moulds being made. They won't be cheap but at last we will have the unobtanium.
If this fails to crowd fund I can 3d resin print some (it will be a nightmare even on the massive resin printer I have that goes 400mm heigh) the files can go public, but we have to try to make them properly first as I think this is the only chance we have unless another form of low cost manufacturing happens.
There is some sort of injection moulding using silicone moulds. Those wear out quick, like after 25 parts, but the process is way cheaper and quality is quite close to using metal moulds.
Yes you can you silicon moulds under vacuum or even rapid injection moulding where the moulds are only good for around 500 shots.
Agreed, 20k would not surprise me, from what I remember the Mega65 case was around 20k Euro's for the mould to be made in Germany. However thats the large cost, even at 20k for the mould I still think it is doable. We would probably need more than one mould but only one super large one.
Yes thats what I'm thinking
Slight update, upper drive bay is mocked up and works with original A4000T drive rails.
I’ve started on the mainboard mount.
I’ve started on the mainboard mount.
Looks awesome!
