The eMachines eMonster 600 restoration and modernization

[renemauricio]

I wanted to make my own topic, so as to not clutter up this one about the 500a eMonster.

 

Summer of 1999  was the year I purchased my first, brand new, computer. Previously I owned a second hand computer that my friend (at the time) sold me for $200 in cash + my Sega Saturn and game collection. If I recall correctly it was a Intel 133 that was as bare-bones as bare-bones could be. After about a year of use I felt that I needed something better after getting to use / play with other friend's pre-built NECs. The problem was that I did not have a lot of disposable income and major brand computers cost well over a thousand (USD) dollars. Despite this I recall convincing my parents to take my brother and I on a trip down to San Jose to see what was on sale at Fry's Electronics. None of us had ever been before since it was a 90~ minute trip from where we lived. Thinking back I believe what made them agree was that the commercials for Fry's (back then) depicted it as a store that had a theme park feel to it.

 

 

Once inside, teenage nerd me bee-lined it right to the computer section and started coveting such computers as the Sony VAIO, Gateway, NEC, HP and Compaq. It was only after I got myself all worked up did I start noticing the sticker prices and had to face reality. After being severely disappointed I made my way back towards family that by now were looking at the latest in home stereo equipment. I felt bad for essentially wasting everyone's time by walking away empty handed. Luckily for me they detoured from going outside to take a look at refrigerators. It was there on a no-frills pallet that I noticed some computers from a brand I never heard of with a price of about $400~ (USD). I made my way over and read each line of text to be absolutely sure that (for the price) a computer was inside and not just a monitor in a box.  After some careful study I noted that it in fact was a PC that came with everything I would need except the Monitor. I didn't care! I had one of those at home afterall. I grabbed the cheapest model (Celeron 466) they had and raced towards the checkout line. It was all I could afford at the time but I didn't care. Anything had to be better than the old 133 I was using. I was beside myself with joy and could not wait to get home to play Unreal for the first time!

 

Once home I took that bad ass Melon Farmer out and set it up like I was on a mission! The first thing I did was plunk down the Unreal disk into the drive. A few short moments later this would come up on my tiny screen...

 

 

... and since then, I have been a die hard PC gamer. This moment, this single moment in time, would go on to have a profound impact on my life.

 

Like many before and after me, I got rid of my eMachines 466 after some time. I gave it to a friend of mine who was in dire need of a new system once I had BUILT my first one from scratch. Since then I have gone on to build new systems for myself yearly but I never forgot my eMachines. About 3~ years ago I asked my friend if he still had it and if he was willing to give it back. Lucky for me he did and was all too happy to give it back. Unfortunately he spilled Cola on it and it corroded the bulk of the inside. Broken hearted I knew the only way I could reclaim my old PC would be if I somehow managed to come across another for sale someday.

 

For the next few years I would often find myself checking eBay and sites like Craigslist in the hopes that someone was selling one that was in good condition. Then one day I decided to randomly Google "eMachines restoration" and noticed a thread started on this forum by someone named "AshleyAshes" who seemingly wanted to do the same thing as I: Take the eMachine's shell and pack it with modern day parts. The difference being she actually had a unit in hand and I did not. I was inspired by this and instead of occasionally checking for listings, I would check for them daily.

 

One such listing saw a friend and I make a pilgrimage to a city far away to pick up an etower 533ir. It may not have been the 466 I once had but it was a start! Here it is on the motel room we stayed at that night.

 

 

The issues I had with this was the lacking optical drive face plate, the missing bottom door to the USB / Game Port (a common problem) as well as the missing HDD rack. Actually I gave the original owner the rack because I could not detach the HDD from it. It contained pictures of her daughter from when she was a kid. I figured the right thing to do was give it to her since I sure as heck wasn't going to be using any of the internals. I was more than pleased to hand over the asked $40 (USD) and be on our way.

 

 

A few months later I came across the etower 466is on eBay for about $60 (USD). This thing had the missing cover as well as the drive and rack but the shell was scuffed up pretty badly. While cleaning it up I did notice that the inside had a better look to it than the last one. Upon closer inspection I realized that its because this one did not have that primer / galvanized layer to it. I rather like how this one looks.

 

 

 

 

 

This was when I was getting ready to order the parts I would be using in this build. All I needed to do was wait for them to ship out. The more astute among you no doubt noticed the title of this topic and realized I have yet to mention the eMonster 600. That would be because it is at this point, while waiting on some second-hand parts, that I spotted an eBay listing for the eMachines eMonster 600 for only $10 (USD)! The only problem was that the seller was located in SoCal and was only offering it as a local pickup. I watched each day until his listing ended - it didn't sell.

 

I shot him a DM asking if he was willing to sell with shipping if I was to pay the fees. He did not reply.

 

About a week later he relists and this time his description says he will NOT sell locally but his listing was still being shown as local pick-up only. I shoot him another message asking for clarification and offered him $50 (USD) to sell it to me on the spot. He fixed his listing but does not make mention of my offer. It is once again listed at $10 (USD) with a $22 (USD) shipping fee. I check back every day for the next 10 days prepared to pay whatever it takes to get it. At one point I did notice something odd. When typing in "emachines" or "emonster" his listing would not come up. Hell, the way I found it in the first place was from having bookmarked his profile in the hopes he would sell it again someday. It came as no surprise that on the last day, no one but me bid on it and I was now the proud owner of an eMonster 600 for the low, low price of $32 (USD) OTT. Sure, it too was missing some of the aforementioned parts, but I already had acquired them from previous outings. 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I don't have a "Hacklab" near me I used a regular step drill bit (5/16) to get the old motherboard standoffs to come out.

 

 

I will not need to remake the stickers on this one as all the ones on it are in pristine condition!

 

 

 

For now I threw in a bunch of spare parts into it just to see if it would all fit. I currently have an MSI Z270M MORTAR, Intel Celeron G3930 CPU, SeaSonic SS-350SFE PSU and RX 460 (flashed to 560) GPU inside among other parts.

 

 

 

I did learn a few things along my way that may help someone out in the future.

 

While this case WILL house a MATX board (once the old standoffs are drilled out), consider using an ITX instead. The FDD cage will cover up most of your RAM slots. The clearance is NOT enough for you to get away with using low profile units. If you plan on some how using a FDD drive or sticking a HDD in the FDD slot, your remaining RAM slots will be blocked so you may as well forget about that unless you go ITX. As it is now, only the fist two of four slots on my MATX are usable without anything occupying that FDD space.

 

How I got the front panel to work was by using the original harness that came with the switch and using six DuPont Breadboard Jumper Wire Cables. Unless the pin-out to your motherboard somehow matches the one that came with the case, this seems like the best way to go.

 

 

For the time being, that pretty much does it for me. At some point I would like to get a G4560 and GTX 1050 in here but before I do that I think what I would like to do next would be to take the 'shiny' chassis (not the one that came with the eMonster) and Plasti Dip the back and the bottom of it and use it instead of the one I am using now. I am thinking of it being beige or green in order to match the colors on the front. For now it will make for an excellent spare rig. One that will always remind me of my youth and adventures piecing it all together.

 

One last thing. I would love to get the front optical drive to work with the iconic eMachines face plate. I am not sure how to go about doing that but if someone knows of a modern SATA drive that will allow me to slip the face plate on, let me know. I would greatly appreciate it!

[AshleyAshes]

Lucky, you didn't have to recreate your stickers.

 

If you can do me a favor, can you take close up photos of your stickers?  Mine were SUPER faded and I had to take some guesses and dig up a few low res photos online.  I'd appreciate having something better to check against.

[renemauricio]

Can do! I will get them for you tomorrow when the sun is out. 

[renemauricio]

I hope these help you in some way. Comparing the pictures to the eTower in front of me I would say the colors are pretty darn accurate. 

[renemauricio]

I got real lucky yesterday and scored a G4620 for $60 at Fry's! At this point I might just replace my RX 560 for a 1050 if I can find it for a good price too. I may also end up polishing the bare metal chassis and use it instead of the eMonster one. Hrm.... this is proving to be a lot more entertaining than I had initially thought it would be. 

[renemauricio]

As stated before; I did not own the eMonster as a teen. I owned the 466. As such the stickers on the front looked nothing like the ones I have in use now. Luckily I was able to peel the ones that came with the 533 I got and scanned them in. Using the font recommendations mentioned in the other topic by @AshleyAshes, I remade the bottom sticker but updated the text to reflect the modern parts contained inside. This is after the fact that I had grown accustomed to seeing it without any stickers. The solution (or rather compromise) to this was to remake the stickers on clear paper.

 

I think it came out pretty nice, if I do say so myself. I may just keep it like this from now on. 

[AshleyAshes]

On 9/22/2017 at 3:27 PM, renemauricio said:

I hope these help you in some way. Comparing the pictures to the eTower in front of me I would say the colors are pretty darn accurate. 

I'm super late replying to this but thanks a lot.  This confirms what I thought, the orange color faded to 'bright yellow' on mine and from some photos I found online I figured out it was orange, but getting something close up to confirm helps a great deal.

[renemauricio]

I am glad I was able to help. It was you, after all, that inspired me to get off my butt and get to work on this little project instead of sitting around and talking about it.