Apple II Themed PC Case!!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,520 words · ~7 min read
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did you ever pine for the good old days when computers had character
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i mean these days we've got flashy RGB
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and tempered glass but is it not all the same standardized
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parts and standardized operating systems running off a standardized box
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maybe maybe it isn't
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mac weldon makes great underwear t-shirts socks wallets and more they
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believe in simple shopping and if you use code tech tips you'll even get less
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expensive shopping with 20 percent off you'll find the link below for those of
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you who don't recognize it this
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is actually a one-to-one design copy of
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the original apple ii the steve wozniak
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designed machine that was ubiquitous in the united states in the 80s and 90s
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to give you a bit of context for how important this computer was the apple ii
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was produced for over 17 years starting
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in 1977 meaning that
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this may well have been the first computer for a literal entire generation
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of students during that time so
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the successful funding of xiaofeiwang's
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indiegogo campaign to revive it as a
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modern full atx computer case shouldn't raise too many eyebrows
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but is this thing any good well why don't we take a quick tour of it our
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unit is a prototype made primarily from 3d printed resin but it has all of the
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features that are going to go into the final design the most prominent of which
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being an integrated 68 key poker cherry mx
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blue keyboard which looks satisfyingly
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authentic but i do have to ask was anybody really
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asking for the elevated keyboard design
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to make a comeback here fortunately you don't have to use it
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just do that so let's move on then
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we've got a power button and a actually somewhat difficult to reach front usb 3
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and headset jack set on the lower right here and then just like on the original
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on the top we've got this removable panel giving us a look
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there we go under the literal hood
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of the chassis itself so in here we find six 60 millimeter
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fans for exhaust along this side and
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this side and then we've got two 120
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millimeter fans over here as intake which i would think should be more than
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adequate getting it open right up here
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hardware compatibility is a bit of a mixed bag
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though so we've got full atx support for our
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motherboard here you can you can see that here the length is right
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but we're confined to small form factor
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territory for expansion so that means a single dual slot opening on the rear for
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our GPU and then
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just two two and a half inch drive mounts which on this revision of the
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design are mounted right here directly under the keyboard
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cooler clearance is another consideration for this case it's got 82
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millimeters of total clearance and
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yet another thing to keep in mind it supports only sfx
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not sfxl power supplies meaning that the best that we can cram in there is a
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Corsair sf600 or a silverstone sx 600 so
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installing the motherboard is pretty straightforward we just need to remove
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this cable management shroud at the bottom right of where the board goes
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and our ryzen test bench complete with a knock to a low profile cooler with a 92
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millimeter fan on the bottom should slot in a little something like
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shalamo you've got an extra standoff in here
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Anthony that's like Intel boards only when's the
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last time anybody put one of those in well it's okay as long as the board
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didn't die depending on who you asked it's been too long
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as long as a prime doesn't edit this that's probably what we could enter the video for the power supply we ran into a
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small issue though in the default configuration which would
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have had it mounted
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like this using this grille right here as an intake for the power supply our
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power connector coming out the back was going to interfere
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with our RAM slot see now one remedy would be to use a right
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angle connector but honestly we thought it made more sense to just
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carve out this little area in the bracket right here
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so that we could mount the power supply the other way around
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this gives it lots of clearance something that i'm sure will be fixed by
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the time you guys deal with it is the weird coloring for the front wires this
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is the kind of stuff we deal with when it comes to early units sometimes it's
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like white black and red yellow and then which one's positive negative it's kind
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of a just flip a coin moving on to the GPU to keep the form
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factor low profile enough to maintain the original computer's dimensions
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uh we needed a pci express riser for our graphics card this is another thing that
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i would like to see improved in the final design
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right now it just kind of sits here so you
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kind of slot the bottom of the card in over here
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which doesn't fit spectacularly well then at
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the back you've just got this like two pieces that you gotta kind of
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screw together to clamp it on there kind of thing
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and it just kind of hangs there but maybe they can
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do some work on that later i mean overall though looking at it the
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layout's not bad let's get it wired up i don't know what they were thinking with
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this cable shroud what's the point of it
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oh i think i think that makes sense yeah
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got to install our SSD we actually had to remove this mount
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because we had trouble closing the case with it in place but you know there's
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still time to fix those kinds of things in future hardware revisions
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okay this wire is a problem ow
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that's that'll reach
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oh just about lost my screwdriver bit in
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there
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okay powering it on
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as expected with the 60 millimeter fans it is a little noisier than i'd like
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and that is even without the included fan controller that made them louder
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than just using splitters and then headers off the motherboard so let's get
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a stress test fired up in summary
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building in this thing is a lot easier than finding and then
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modding an old apple ii for modern hardware
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but it's still kind of a pain and as expected the 60 millimeter fans
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combined with the authentic but
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not super effective slot design back
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here means that pretty much as soon as you start up a 3d load
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you're going to be generating a fair bit of noise
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so for cooling our CPU hit 74 to 75
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degrees under load so you can expect to see a little bit of boost
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but our GPU hit its thermal threshold at 84 degrees and dialed back its boost
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clocks now considering we're using a low profile CPU cooler with its 120
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millimeter fan removed this isn't too shabby but i have seen better results in
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smaller cases which brings us then neatly to the
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conclusion if it wasn't clear from the start
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let me spell it out for you here this is a niche product with niche
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appeal absolutely not
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for everyone and i guess that's reflected in its
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small but enthusiastic community that allowed it to be funded over on
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indiegogo the product needs some tweaking before it hits mass production
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especially when it comes to ease of use and acoustics but if you can live with
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the cost and the compromises and
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there will be some this is definitely one of the most unique pc cases we've
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ever seen this video is brought to you by three
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value-oriented rosewill products the cullinan mx tempered glass RGB gaming
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case features four pre-installed fans with adjustable RGB via a remote
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including four pre-programmed effects the nebula gx50 gaming headset features
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built-in RGB rings on leatherette earcups and provides strong bass with
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clear sound positioning and the fusion c40 keyboard and mouse combo features
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vibrant RGB backlit keys and in the mouse a switchable up to 4000 dpi
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optical sensor this combo is designed for pc gamers as a best bang for the
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buck RGB bundle and you can check them out at newegg or amazon through the
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links below so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if
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it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in
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the video description also link down there is our merch store which has cool
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shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally join