Found it! Side mounted fan in Apple's Workgroup Server 9650 in the same case as the X600s with which it was introduced in February 1997.
So the side fan is totally consistent with the time frame I outlined earlier. IBM's Long Trail CHRP Board was developed in parallel to the x600 series, rendering the side fan's presence a moot point in terms of dating the case in question as far as I'm concerned.
g makes an interesting point about it possibly being for industrial use, but I'd think that there would be filters on the fans. There are however, a dozen holes distrbuted about the front and sides which might be consistent with early shock mounting methods (drives in Luggable computers, etc.) but I think that's much less likely than this being a very nice case intended for developers in the fresh new world of the ATX standard. That would be motherboard developers as well as developers of PCI cards and ISA cards supported in the early Intel design standards for ATX.
This case being from a Bog standard, cheap Clone is clearly contraindicated IMO.
I do believe that this case is part of a short production run of cases intended for the development environment. As such, more than a few of these cases probably made their way into the many Tech houses here in RTP and I was lucky enough to snag one several years later in a local Thrift.
In my wildest dreams this may have housed one of the prototypes for Big Blue's Long Trail CHRP demonstration board during its development right here in RTP. Though it could well have been developed in a facility elsewhere, the Glendale Labs where my Pops was a boffin at one point comes to mind, but IBM's entire PC Division was right here in NC during that time frame..
Stranger things happen with regularity here in the Bermuda Triangle of N.C. :lol:
Last pic set unless I get requests for any details:
Here's a pair of shots of your expansion card dingus, g.
Fugly fan in the side implementation:
Nicely stamped, notched and seamed "finger hole" for easy, repetitive access to case innards, clearly not an attractive, consumer oriented design feature.
Drive bay makeover for Dimetrodon, the Intel MoBo, Win98 Rom HackStation candidate. Note the 2.5" SCA MiniDrive with cable adapter mounted in a 3.5" adapter and mounted in the 3.5" Drive "Magazine Clip." Let's see if '98 handles the UltraSCSI card and drive with any more aplomb than the ubuntu NetBook Remix did.
Last, but not least, the FDD/Zip does indeed fit mit dat meshuggah x600 Drive Tray installation.
This has been fun, but I'm going back to fitting this out as an ancient Win98 computer rather than admiring it as an empty curiosity.
But I really am glad it caught my eye, it's a great toy . . .
. . . and even better as an exercise in fantasy/imagination and curiosity! [
] ]'>
So the side fan is totally consistent with the time frame I outlined earlier. IBM's Long Trail CHRP Board was developed in parallel to the x600 series, rendering the side fan's presence a moot point in terms of dating the case in question as far as I'm concerned.
g makes an interesting point about it possibly being for industrial use, but I'd think that there would be filters on the fans. There are however, a dozen holes distrbuted about the front and sides which might be consistent with early shock mounting methods (drives in Luggable computers, etc.) but I think that's much less likely than this being a very nice case intended for developers in the fresh new world of the ATX standard. That would be motherboard developers as well as developers of PCI cards and ISA cards supported in the early Intel design standards for ATX.
This case being from a Bog standard, cheap Clone is clearly contraindicated IMO.
I do believe that this case is part of a short production run of cases intended for the development environment. As such, more than a few of these cases probably made their way into the many Tech houses here in RTP and I was lucky enough to snag one several years later in a local Thrift.
In my wildest dreams this may have housed one of the prototypes for Big Blue's Long Trail CHRP demonstration board during its development right here in RTP. Though it could well have been developed in a facility elsewhere, the Glendale Labs where my Pops was a boffin at one point comes to mind, but IBM's entire PC Division was right here in NC during that time frame..
Stranger things happen with regularity here in the Bermuda Triangle of N.C. :lol:
Last pic set unless I get requests for any details:
Here's a pair of shots of your expansion card dingus, g.
Fugly fan in the side implementation:
Nicely stamped, notched and seamed "finger hole" for easy, repetitive access to case innards, clearly not an attractive, consumer oriented design feature.
Drive bay makeover for Dimetrodon, the Intel MoBo, Win98 Rom HackStation candidate. Note the 2.5" SCA MiniDrive with cable adapter mounted in a 3.5" adapter and mounted in the 3.5" Drive "Magazine Clip." Let's see if '98 handles the UltraSCSI card and drive with any more aplomb than the ubuntu NetBook Remix did.
Last, but not least, the FDD/Zip does indeed fit mit dat meshuggah x600 Drive Tray installation.
This has been fun, but I'm going back to fitting this out as an ancient Win98 computer rather than admiring it as an empty curiosity.
But I really am glad it caught my eye, it's a great toy . . .
. . . and even better as an exercise in fantasy/imagination and curiosity! [
] ]'>