Mini tower won't be bad either - that's (supposedly) the type I am using right now, and you can fit about everything that's neccesary - altough it will take a bit of effort to avoid having the case cluttered with cabling.

The HDD mobile rack has been purchased. Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain another EasyTouch-produced unit - which is a bit annoying since I already use two of these things - but the configuration works exactly as I expected.

I'm going to get a new cooler for the CPU, and do some cleaning & greasing on the PSU fan. If everything goes well, the noise will be drastically reduced (it's quite silent now, in fact, but I want to achieve as silent as possible without resorting to passive cooling).

I am wondering wether a Roland LAPC could be fit into such a minitower. It looks pretty big.
That thing with supersilent cooler is actually a very good idea. maybe you could make a pc from 1994 with the ergonomics etc. from 2004. That would be cool.
how are you going to use the removable HD for transferring games? do you have a bay on either pc?

To me, it looks like LAPC will fit by a small margin. To my knowledge, the cases are standarised (or at least semi-standarised) in terms of length, while height varies between each size.


About the data transfer, I have a different bay on the other PC, I guess I'll just have to make an occasional switch or use CD-R/RW discs for transfer purposes.

Later on, I'll probably either use a null-modem connection (that is, IF my current machine will support it), or connect both computers in a miniature LAN.

I wonder if I could find DOS drivers for USB memory storage devices... that would solve everything in a pinch.

good to hear that. you can find a link to USB drivers for DOS in the vintage computing thread.
if you need anything for DOS, go there. do you know anything about using two soundcards (lapc and sb16/pro)??

Nope, and not sure if that would work or not.
There are three possible results, though - both cards working, only one of them working and neither working.
If you manage to obtain an actual external MT-32 syntethiser and connect it to the MIDI port of your Sound Blaster card, everything should go well.
Though it's still worth giving LAPC-I and SB combo a try. You might actually be lucky.

still, lapcs are hard to get and verrry expensive - most people that are selling them know what they're holding in their hands.

I just got an old U.S. layout keyboard from a friend. It has two cables: a serial and a ps/2. Quite a find, says I!

Been working on reducing the noise of my machine.
First, I've cleaned out the PSU of all dust and greased its fan - soundless now.
Then I tried to use a newer CPU cooler - but the thing produced so much volume it was insane. I dismantled it and replaced the fan with the former one, but left the newer heat sink. Should improve the cooling efficiency a jot.

Now I am looking for a way to muffle out the HDD, because it's still quite loud (loudest component ATM).

I think there are special noise reduction, 5.25" frames for HDs. You can get them from eBay.

:omg: How many topics you have about that?

Anyway, you could see my answer at the one in the Technical Stuff section ;)