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Old 07-13-2007, 11:17 PM
Grant Stockly Grant Stockly is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frotz View Post
Two things have me concerned about the design of the new 680 about

1) The power supply is mounted such that it sits directly above and very close to some chips. Is this where it was mounted in the original? It seems to me that this would cause some heat and noise problems for those chips. Perhaps the left side of the rear would be a better place for it?
This is where the original power supplies were mounted. I designed the power supply mounting configuration to closely match the original so that expansion cards don't hit them. The vintage and modern supplies are actually almost identical in terms of total space occupied!

Here is Tom's vintage Altair 680:


Here is Jack's 680. His are mounted on the back. This is the first time I've ever seen one like this!



I could not locate original transformers. They appear to be a custom wound transformer. Every other transformer in this frame size is 30VA, so I assume these are 30VA too. The vintage model only came with one power supply. Even in a stock configuration a lot of people found it to be insufficient. The identical transformers were then wired in parallel.

Quote:
Originally Posted by frotz View Post
2) Is there a way to have Optima take the already-made lids and punch them?

I can ask, but I am 99.999999999999999999% sure they are going to say no and have me order a new lid. I'm not sure if I could order just ONE lid, or if I would have to order multiple lids. Its possible that as early as fall I would order another batch of 680 cases. If I do then I could easily fit a lid in then. The lid would most likely be $50 or so.


Grant
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