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One of our customers has asked us to let you know about his Kickstarter Project and since we all loved our old ’80s computers we felt it a good cause. The following snipit is taken from the Kickstarter Project page. We’re sure that Loriano would appreciate your support.
The best of luck with your project Loriano, from everyone here at LinITX
UPDATE: Congratulations on reaching your target Loriano!
What is it?
The X500 Plus is a computer case I designed as a tribute to the computers of the ’80s and ’90s and it’s overall inspired by the Commodore Amiga 500. It’s a wedge styled computer case with inbuilt, full size keyboard.
The X500 Plus has a retro feeling but with modern, clean lines and lots of internal space. It’s made of aluminium, plastic and steel and it’s designed for modern computer hardware.
The X500 Plus allows you to build your own modern, powerful computer, with your choice of components and Operating System like Windows, Linux, AmigaOS, AROS, MOS etc…you can use it for your mini-itx x86 motherboards, PowerPC boards such as the SAM motherboards by ACube, the Natami and the upcoming FPGAArcade Replay board, basically any board which is mini-itx or flex-atx format with low profile heat sinks (overall internal height is 52mm).
The combination of a PowerPC board (ACube’s SAM) and AmigaOS4.1 (the most recent version of the Amiga Operating System by Hyperion Entertainment), the free AROS (Research Operating System) running on a supported x86 board or MorphOS running on supported hardware inside the X500 Plus are ideal for the full, original experience of Amiga inside a retro looking case.
Amiga related items are available from several websites such as:
The case has been designed primarily for low power consumption boards and Solid State Drives, this way one can build a very silent but modern system with classic lines.
I have designed everything (well nearly everything) to be replaceable; LEDs, ON/OFF switch, fans so if things need replacing you can.
What is included:
- The fully assembled case (3 plastic parts, cut and machined – one aluminium part, cut and machined)
- All the screws, washers and nuts.
- One custom made DVD-RW and 3.5″ card reader bracket
- One slim, low profile USB keyboard
- One slim SATA DVD-RW with one slim SATA cable
- One 3.5″ USB card reader (limited availability of white card readers – white version).
- One On/Off power switch
- Braided and tailed (2 pins) LEDs, colour of your choice (amber, red, white, blue or green
- One 40mm silent fan (2x40mm silent fans for the POWER USER model)
- One 50mm silent fan (2x50mm silent fans for the POWER USER model)
- Silicone mounts
- Keyboard holders
- Spacers
- Rubber feet
What is not included:
Power supply – the case has been designed for a picoPSU, they come in 80-90-120-150-160W, plenty to power up the machine in the video (intel i3 dual core 2.5GHz, Ati Radeon 6570 2GB, two 2.5″ HD drives…), they have 20 or 24 pins and some might be slightly higher than others so please check before buying.
picoPSUs are available from www.linitx.com
ebay
Your own components: a mini-itx or flex-atx motherboard, graphics card (if needed), flexible riser card (free with the POWER USER model), Hard Disk Drive or Solid State Drive (I strongly advise the use of SSDs as they are fast, silent and have no moving parts), your choice of Operating System.
History
The project was born out of a discussion with friends and on forums such as amigaworld.net, amiga.org, natami.net, amiganews.it more than seven years ago.
Initially I set the task of designing this case as a personal challenge, to see what I could achieve with my limited resources. So in 2005 I started sketching a few ideas out and building the first prototype. Every time I saved some money or sold things on ebay I’d work on it.
I made several prototypes but I kept adding and perfecting it. People asked for features and I’d work on them. Being a one-man project, I designed it, raised the money and worked on it in my spare time in a cold garage (add sad music here).
Why Kickstarter?
In May 2012 I finished prototype number seven (the white one), fully working as you can see in the video. In October 2012 prototype number eight, the Black Edition was completed. Again, it’s fully working and more or less ready to go. Seven years of on and off development have dried all my funds up so hopefully Kickstarter and you guys will help me raise the required money to add the last adjustments (minor modifications) and start buying the required materials:
Stuff needed:
- Lots of plastic, aluminium and steel
- Paying for CNC machining fees
- Hundreds of screws, nuts and washers
- LEDs
- Switches
- Keyboards
- Slim DVD-RWs
- 3.5″ USB Card Readers
- Lots of glue
- Rubber feet
- Cable tiers
- USB headers
- Silent fans
- SATA cables
- Magnets
- Paying for powder coating fees
- Any spare cash will be used to speed up the manufacturing process and investigating new materials, possibly new colours and improvements for future versions. So please pledge away! 🙂
Limitations: being only 58mm high you’ll need to use processors heatsinks that fit, low profile ones like found on the Intel i3 2100T processor for example. Length and thickness (no dual slot) limit of the expansion card applies, the ATI HD 6570 2GB in the videos is 170mm long for example and it fits nicely.
When assembling your computer consider that it is, after all, a small enclosure, choose Solid State Drives over Hard Drives for example (no noise, no heat, less power required). You will have to be well versed in pc building, using your skills to make it nice and tidy inside, routing cables the proper way and allow good airflow.
– Looks and specifications of the final product might differ slightly from the shown prototypes –
LEDs combinations and replacement:
The X500 Plus Black Edition
X500 Plus specifications
The older prototype – number seven:
