[HolGer71] had a Mini-ITX Intel Atom-powered mainboard that he found useful for its vintage interfaces like COM and LPT. On a whim, he decided to give it even more vintage of a look – transforming it into a device more akin to a 50s home appliance, complete with a fitting monitor, mouse and keyboard. The project, dubbed Legacy-PC Computer Case, imitates the sheet metal construction masterfully in its 3D-printed design. That’s not all there is to it, either – everything is open-source, and there is enough documentation that you can build your own!
[HolGer71] starts with general printing and finishing advice, and goes through every part of the setup from there. The mainboard-holding case builds around a small miniITX case frame, enclosing it and adding extensions for connectors and lightbulbs. For the monitor, he built a new frame around an old VGA-equipped 17″ desktop screen – most certainly easy to find. The keyboard‘s an inexpensive one yet equipped with mechanical switches, and the mouse‘s an old Fujitsu-Siemens, but of the kind you’d see manufactured under different labels. All in all, this combines quite generic components into a trusty and stylish device for your workshop needs.
Equipped with Windows 7 as, apparently, the earliest supported version, this machine is now on desk duty – ready to run obscure software for old programming dongles, and look absolutely fabulous while doing so. It’s rare that we see such effort put into creating designs from scratch and sharing them with the community – most of the time, we see PCs built into already existing devices, like this vintage radio, or a benchtop logic analyzer.
I think he nailed the 50s vibe!
But does it have a Centronics port?
My grandfather used the same green color when he painted his garage.
It has built-in serial and printer (aka Centronics) ports. This is why I decided to give this elderly PC a new life. This kind of interfaces are quite handy when doing my hobby electronic projects.
Centronic port… Wow, it’s been a while. I think the only thing I own with one is my old EaZy PC. The old DOS box still fires up.
Centronics or DB25?
Right, the Centronics connector was only on the peripheral device like the Star dot matrix printer that I know of.
Wow. I thought that WAS sheet metal. Good work!
Someone should do one of these with a Teletype keyboard. For extra credit, it should use the same encoding bars, switches, and a distributor to serialize the keypress.
This thing is 100% bitch …. great job, love it!
An old portable typewriter case would be ideal for a retro PC.
Oh, please don’t… I totally agree with you on the look, but those cases are getting scarce. Hipsters and “crafty” people love chopping up old typewriters and cases for ‘art’ projects and crappy Etsy jewelry. Please leave these beautiful old machines (and their cases) to those of us who collect and restore them.
Then buy them all and restore them (although, you know, there is such a thing as junk).
I know what it is missing – tail fins! Late 1950’s cars looked like something out of science fiction movies. I used to imagine the (I believe) 1958 Cadillac our neighbors had was a rocket.
I thought about it AND a radiator grille, too ;-) However, I dismissed the idea to keep the 3D print simple so that it has a better chance to succeed.
Do any one think this is a computer shout out Fallout? (I mean pre-apocalypse era)
Kinda looks like gubment building interior green 🤣
I remember hearing it called “penicillin green”
Simply gorgeous <3
This looks like something out of the Fallout video game series. Well done!
So beautiful! From the pictures you can’t tell this is not cold formed metal, I love it. A simple improvement could be a beige cable clothing, keybord and mouse wires look a little out-of-place…
I love It! but since It looks like It was designed and made in the 50s, I think It shouldn’t be named “Legacy” because If a computer like that existed in the 50s It would be something futuristic (If not Science Fiction), so I think a futuristic name of that era like “neutron” or “astro” should fit better.
How about “Atomic 2000” ?
That name would be perfect, and It could work as the model series name, Think about another model of that computer with an analog clock integrated in the front of the case and chrome details with the name “Atomic 5000”.
Analog clock…
Ooh, clever!
Taking a further step, add an electric bell (Control-G, or carriage return. )
Only one thing I can say about that: Magnificent!
It has a vibe of the LGP-30 but could do with a monochrome CRT display
Looks perfect for the Fallout universe
I thought that too, but it doesn’t fit the storyline (if one still exists) about the catastroggeddin occurring in the late 1950s.
It’s just to look at and not use. Unfortunately it has a non-standard keyboard, I would always be going to look for the backsplash in the usual place and hit the enter key instead.
On the plus side, it has a standard corded mouse that looks to be ergonomic (symmetrical) and can be moved to either side of the device.
Judgemental much? Holger clearly stated that he built this computer to USE for his electronics projects. And since he’s German, he used a STANDARD German keyboard…
I used to work for a US company that sent specialized PCs abroad.
It was interesting seeing the various keyboards we packed with them.
I secretly wished some would fail during testing to give me the opportunity to pull it from the trash. Alas and alack! None failed.
The flat screen in a crt type case kills the illusion vibe on these retro 50s to 90s projects for me. Not that I can do better but a projected image on curved glass in a box that also functions as a space heater would give it fallout type cred
Just needs a couple of analogue meters on the front, maybe monitoring psu current?