RE: Digital Archaeology: eMachines T5088
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These were everywhere back in the day and were underpowered but they got you something to get online.
I don't have fond memories of them really, because I repaired a few of them and cut my knuckles on more than a few of the drive cages in the cramped insides.
But they look surprisingly good now. Would probably make a pretty good sleeper build with modern components. Or just a nostalgia machine for playing old games. But I'm not really a fan of how hot the old machines and the CRTs got.
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I was never a fan but I guess they could be a pretty good choice if you wanted something to upgrade one piece at a time or something...as long as you started with the power supply. The ones I've seen have used the standard ATX form factor and power supplies at least.
The difficulty with making a sleeper build is the cooling. Those cases are not well designed for that. But you could build a low end system using one with minimum cooling requirements and it would still be 1,000 times more powerful than the original. I just wouldn't try to stick a couple of GTX 4080s in it or anything, lol.
There are people that drill out the sides of old cases using circular saws and install larger fans. But if you don't care as much about the noise, there are more powerful fans available for most fan sizes.
I don't know that the largest of video cards would even fit in something like this though. They're too long. At least not without cutting. My case BARELY fits my graphics card and it's a lot newer than this.
Modern graphics cards are designed for cases without optical drives and the hard drive cages below them.
Could just install a small modern mobo tho and use it for a retro inspired internet surfing machine.
I really want one of tho old clear blue or purple cases that were inspired by the iMacs back in the day.