The "Windows XP Box" (2003)

I used to love the mini-itx form factor. For the time, lots of features in a compact space. I think micro atx might be a more popular form factor now?

• toast0 · 8 hours ago

  MicroATX has almost certainly always been more popular than MiniITX. MicroATX motherboards are usually cheaper than ATX or MiniITX and you can typically use normal PSUs and optical drives instead small ones that are more expensive and have fewer options. You can always put a mini ITX board in a full size ATX case if you want though...

Reminds me of running good old TinyXP.

benheck built a luggable computer into an MGD beer case around the early 00s as well. The build log and pictures seem to be lost to time but I recall it having a flip-open disc door that was cut out of the side of it. I didn't appreciate the humor as a kid but having had a beer or two in my day it's a lot funnier in retrospect.

• sublinear · 7 hours ago

  I was a kid around that era and also thought his builds were very tacky and overrated. You changed your mind over "a beer or two"? I'm so glad we stopped turning every hobby into an offshoot of modded car culture. I can't unhear the tokyo drift theme every time I'm reminded of this era.

• incr_me · 5 hours ago

  https://web.archive.org/web/20051106031830/http://www.benhec...

This was my favorite build from that site: https://www.mini-itx.com/projects/psu-pc/

• tosti · 1 hour ago

  Back then, a computer case like that often came pre-equipped with a PSU. To save a little money around the turn of the milennium I'd buy the cheapest case they had (IIRC CoolerMaster was very affordable) and just use the PSU it shipped with. So it really does look exactly like a spare case and no actual computer present.

• close04 · 16 minutes ago

  Back then this was quite a bit of effort to achieve and probably got a lot of wowed faces. Today nobody would bat an eye, you can cram anywhere a tiny PC or even stick PC, and maybe have a single USB-C cable sticking out.

The final embellishment of making it automatically "dual boot" between XP and Red Hat Linux is a very nice touch.

• vintagedave · 55 minutes ago

  Yes, especially the concern they could accidentally boot XP from their Linux box, and vice versa - I laughed. But also the technical solution, placing it one way up and then another with a tilt sensor, is really advanced.

Sounds like a fun project and very cool for the nostalgic people (like me). A bit off topic, but I also loved the fact that the website remains like an antique website from that era (I know the article is from 2003 but the design is clearly not "modern"). I am going to say something probably stupid, but I feel there is a correlation between old/vintage design = good content.

• denissem · 6 hours ago

  I agree. Specially text-based websites. The content is very rich, full of details, sometimes technical details, useful links, etc.

Just last night I won an auction for a dual Pentium III supermicro setup with 1GB of memory. To relive this era of computing, including simulating my high school network by deploying Netware in a lab.

I miss when software came in nice boxes

• ahonhn · 2 hours ago

  I have on my bookshelf an unopened and still shrink-wrapped copy of Spaceward Ho! (Win 95 version IV requiring at least a 486/33). I like its bold red colour and the exciting way the unseen floppy disk and manual rattle about inside when I turn the box!

Back when software came in boxes.

• egeozcan · 3 hours ago

  I'll never forget the day I bought ( made my parents buy ) Age of Empires 2 and its blue box. More like, "back when software came in physical media". Putting the CD in the drive, the installation starts, and that wow effect starting the game, the hard disk clicking like crazy.

• leokennis · 1 hour ago

  I got my first real Pentium Bought it at the local PC shop Played Rollercoaster Tycoon, CD-ROM straight from it's huge box, on it 'til my fingers bled Was the summer of '99

  • rickdeckard · 1 hour ago

    Here's me, puzzling to which part of "Summer of 69" I should hum this to work best...

    • leokennis · 1 hour ago

      As you probably guessed, I'm in IT and not in the fine arts ;-)

  • deadlyllama · 43 minutes ago

    Please accept this revision: I got my first real Pentium Bought it at the local shop Played Quake till my fingers ached Was the summer of '99 Me and some guys from school Had a LAN and we played real hard Jonny lost, the network failed Should've upgraded our thinnet Oh, when I look back now Ninety-eight was more fun than XP And if I had the choice My kids wouldn't be stuck with chromebooks I really miss my old PC ...

Very impressive to pull off such a compact build in 2003! I built a Shuttle xpc cube in 2008. I though that was tiny. I specifically used a laptop hard drive to reduce noice. I think it was this exact model: https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/s/o2HKpeLmrA It was my firts step away from windows. I ran ubuntu on it a couple of years until I switched to macos to do ios dev.

I wish I could go back in time and tell them what we can do with nowadays tech (well, more like 2020-2022 given the rampocalypse).