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The eMachines eMonster 500a Restoration And Modernization

AshleyAshes
By AshleyAshes
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46 minutes ago, MRP0P1NFR3SH said:

Will you be selling finished stickers once you have printed them? I want to make one of these liquid cooled for a lanparty rig.

I'm unlike to sell finished stickers but I can freely provide a properly scaled Adobe Illustrator file with all three together which you can then take to a print shop

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Posted
Just now, AshleyAshes said:

I'm unlike to sell finished stickers but I can freely provide a properly scaled Adobe Illustrator file with all three together which you can then take to a print shop

OMG THANK YOU :D YOU ARE A CHAMP!

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23 minutes ago, MRP0P1NFR3SH said:

OMG THANK YOU :D YOU ARE A CHAMP!

Gimmie a few days to get around to attaching it.  It's on another computer and I've been working 60-72hrs/week to finish a film my company is working on, but we should have it wrapped after Wednesday.

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Posted

I appreciate that i can definitely wait as I havent found any good cases to start cutting into.

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Since I'm on the right computer right now...

 

This AI file is scaled for a single 8.5x11 sheet, all three graphics are on it, to the best of my knowledge they fit the appropriate print dimensions that they should 'just fit' when printed if you don't scale them at all.  So your only real concern would be to get a quality print job.  I still need to print mine, I need to get them printed to a gloss paper for that appropriate retail shineyness.

eMachines eMonster 500a Vectorized Graphics.ai

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Posted

Just joined this forum after stumbling across this build topic on Google.  Hi all!

I had just picked up an old eMachines eMonster 550i tower from a friend of mine last night.  I had been thinking about building a new gaming rig using an eMachines case since I remember my wife had an eMachine eTower when we were still dating in high school (1999-2000).  I had hoped to bring back some nostalgia with some modern internals.  I'm glad that i'm not the only one performing the restomod.

I'm thinking about documenting my build as well, although I may have to make some modification to the rear of the chassis for extra cooling (exhaust fan).

Thank you for the inspiration!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I grew up using an eMachines eMonster 550. I played a lot of Sim City 3000 on this system. After stumbling upon this forum post today, I decided to pull it out again since getting it back from my grandpa who was borrowing it from my parents who let me have it. I was looking at the back and noticed it had a gigabit PCI card. I took it out and replaced it with a 10/100 card so I can use the gigabit one in my upcoming XP gaming rig. It also happened to be a Netgear brand one which I highly doubt was put in at the factory. If you have some time, you can check out my video I made a few months ago on this system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT9L2daExm0&t=64s

 

 

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  • 4 months later...
Posted

Sleeper builds like this are the greatest. I just have to necro this in hopes of coaxing an update out of you. ;)

Main rig on profile

VAULT - File Server

Spoiler

Intel Core i5 11400 w/ Shadow Rock LP, 2x16GB SP GAMING 3200MHz CL16, ASUS PRIME Z590-A, 2x LSI 9211-8i, Fractal Define 7, 256GB Team MP33, 3x 6TB WD Red Pro (general storage), 3x 1TB Seagate Barracuda (dumping ground), 3x 8TB WD White-Label (Plex) (all 3 arrays in their respective Windows Parity storage spaces), Corsair RM750x, Windows 11 Education

Sleeper HP Pavilion A6137C

Spoiler

Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.4GHz, 4x8GB G.SKILL Ares 1800MHz CL10, ASUS Z170M-E D3, 128GB Team MP33, 1TB Seagate Barracuda, 320GB Samsung Spinpoint (for video capture), MSI GTX 970 100ME, EVGA 650G1, Windows 10 Pro

Mac Mini (Late 2020)

Spoiler

Apple M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB, macOS Sonoma

Consoles: Softmodded 1.4 Xbox w/ 500GB HDD, Xbox 360 Elite 120GB Falcon, XB1X w/2TB MX500, Xbox Series X, PS1 1001, PS2 Slim 70000 w/ FreeMcBoot, PS4 Pro 7015B 1TB (retired), PS5 Digital, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo Wii RVL-001 (black)

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5 hours ago, tmcclelland455 said:

Sleeper builds like this are the greatest. I just have to necro this in hopes of coaxing an update out of you. ;)

I'm basically stalled at getting off my butt and Retr0Brite treating the old plastics.  I need to do that before this summer is over.

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2 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

I'm basically stalled at getting off my butt and Retr0Brite treating the old plastics.  I need to do that before this summer is over.

I know that feeling. I've been wanting to get some Retr0Brite to restore the front panel + CD RW drive for my Presario 2286, but I just haven't felt like spending money on making it (even though the front panel is seriously yellowed). And summer will pretty much be 100% dead by the start of November. :/

Main rig on profile

VAULT - File Server

Spoiler

Intel Core i5 11400 w/ Shadow Rock LP, 2x16GB SP GAMING 3200MHz CL16, ASUS PRIME Z590-A, 2x LSI 9211-8i, Fractal Define 7, 256GB Team MP33, 3x 6TB WD Red Pro (general storage), 3x 1TB Seagate Barracuda (dumping ground), 3x 8TB WD White-Label (Plex) (all 3 arrays in their respective Windows Parity storage spaces), Corsair RM750x, Windows 11 Education

Sleeper HP Pavilion A6137C

Spoiler

Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.4GHz, 4x8GB G.SKILL Ares 1800MHz CL10, ASUS Z170M-E D3, 128GB Team MP33, 1TB Seagate Barracuda, 320GB Samsung Spinpoint (for video capture), MSI GTX 970 100ME, EVGA 650G1, Windows 10 Pro

Mac Mini (Late 2020)

Spoiler

Apple M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB, macOS Sonoma

Consoles: Softmodded 1.4 Xbox w/ 500GB HDD, Xbox 360 Elite 120GB Falcon, XB1X w/2TB MX500, Xbox Series X, PS1 1001, PS2 Slim 70000 w/ FreeMcBoot, PS4 Pro 7015B 1TB (retired), PS5 Digital, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo Wii RVL-001 (black)

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19 minutes ago, tmcclelland455 said:

I know that feeling. I've been wanting to get some Retr0Brite to restore the front panel + CD RW drive for my Presario 2286, but I just haven't felt like spending money on making it (even though the front panel is seriously yellowed). And summer will pretty much be 100% dead by the start of November. :/

Also, not gonna lie, I'd been hemming and hawing on what actual modern parts to put inside, but now I think I'll wait for Coffee Lake.  This is a poorly ventilated case and I think we'll see some nice TDP vs performance gains there.

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9 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

Also, not gonna lie, I'd been hemming and hawing on what actual modern parts to put inside, but now I think I'll wait for Coffee Lake.  This is a poorly ventilated case and I think we'll see some nice TDP vs performance gains there.

Hopefully Volta will one-up Pascal in that regard too.

Main rig on profile

VAULT - File Server

Spoiler

Intel Core i5 11400 w/ Shadow Rock LP, 2x16GB SP GAMING 3200MHz CL16, ASUS PRIME Z590-A, 2x LSI 9211-8i, Fractal Define 7, 256GB Team MP33, 3x 6TB WD Red Pro (general storage), 3x 1TB Seagate Barracuda (dumping ground), 3x 8TB WD White-Label (Plex) (all 3 arrays in their respective Windows Parity storage spaces), Corsair RM750x, Windows 11 Education

Sleeper HP Pavilion A6137C

Spoiler

Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.4GHz, 4x8GB G.SKILL Ares 1800MHz CL10, ASUS Z170M-E D3, 128GB Team MP33, 1TB Seagate Barracuda, 320GB Samsung Spinpoint (for video capture), MSI GTX 970 100ME, EVGA 650G1, Windows 10 Pro

Mac Mini (Late 2020)

Spoiler

Apple M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB, macOS Sonoma

Consoles: Softmodded 1.4 Xbox w/ 500GB HDD, Xbox 360 Elite 120GB Falcon, XB1X w/2TB MX500, Xbox Series X, PS1 1001, PS2 Slim 70000 w/ FreeMcBoot, PS4 Pro 7015B 1TB (retired), PS5 Digital, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo Wii RVL-001 (black)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I stumble upon this amazing sleeper pc project of nostalgia.  So how far in to this project have you completed? @AshleyAshes

Can't wait to see the finish product, good luck!

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Just now, cooroxd said:

I stumble upon this amazing sleeper post of nostalgia.  So how far in to this project have you completed? @AshleyAshes

Can't wait to see the finish product, good luck!

It's not progressed anymore I'd update if it has, however I'm getting it moving again.  Next stop is retro-briteing the plastics so I can then start doing the restored stickers.

Also I had an SSD fail and I managed to lose ALL the work I did making the vector images. ....But I apparently attached the AI file to this thread, so I was able to get it back and then put to on my Google Drive for good measure. :)

 

I decided to going again after watching this and seeing a lot of approaches to treating the plastic.

 

 

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yeah saw that the other day about de-yellowing plastics .. some hydrogen peroxide in a clear container with the part and let set in uv light for awhile .. does wonders

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I wouldn't recommend retro brighting anything, it will go back to the yellowed shade it started at within a year or two, and the plastic will become more brittle. If you really want the original color of the plastic, use paint.

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6 minutes ago, potoooooooo said:

I wouldn't recommend retro brighting anything, it will go back to the yellowed shade it started at within a year or two, and the plastic will become more brittle. If you really want the original color of the plastic, use paint.

I'm willing to risk it.  The intensity at which the yellowing returns depends on how yellow it was to start with.  The parts that I need to clean up only have fairly mild yellowing so I'm not really worried.  More over, restoring it to the state of how it seemed new in 1999 is my priority.  Not to mention how painting plastic will yield exceptionally poor results.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

i was at an estate sale looking for a good crt monitor for my ibm netvista horizontal and my wife told someone that i collected old pc and someone handed me this emachine and i was like "ok... thanks..." then when i was putting an hdd in it realized i misread and it said emonster500a it didnt have any other stickers and now im super into this project please please keep going. I admit im not sure what i want to do with my emonster i was gonna give it a network card i guess and put it and some other pcs on a switch and lan some diablo 1 maybe and bring back some of my youth memories... then again if there are people who are into these i might be willing to part with it but for right now im just trying to find drivers that work for win98se and then im gonna print our those amazing stickers you guys made. ...do any of you happend to have copies of its backup disk and maybe be willing to supply me with and iso file? 

20170909_104753[1].jpg

20170909_104806[1].jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
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12 minutes ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

Someone liked your project is doing something similar with their eMonster

 

I invented the new PC trend; Building old looking beige computers. :V

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13 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

I invented the new PC trend; Building old looking beige computers. :V

I think that trend existed before that, but you have started the trend of upgrading emachines.

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  • 1 month later...
Posted
On 2/25/2017 at 12:41 PM, AshleyAshes said:

 

I'm actually using a local hacklab. :)

 

https://hacklab.to/about/

I am very very jealous right now!

Instructions for frustration management:  

1) Sit at desk.   2) Repeatedly slam forehead against desk.

 

I never said I was smart, just smart enough to be dangerous.

 

 

ORLY?

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………|:::::,':_„„-|: : :_„---~: : :|''¯¯''''|: ~---„_: ||
……..,~-,_/'': : : |:    ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) : |: : : :|:  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)): \..|
……../,'-,: : : : : ''-,_______,-'': : : : ''-„_____|
……..\: :|: : : : : : : : : : : : : :„: : : : :-,: : : : : : : ?
………',:': : : : : : : : : : : : :,-'__: : : :_',: : : : ;: ,'
……….'-,-': : : : : :___„-: : :'': : ¯''~~'': ': : ~--|'
………….|: ,: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :: :
………….'|: \: : : : : : : : -,„_„„-~~--~--„_: :: |
…………..|: \: : : : : : : : : : : :-------~: : : : : |
You have been visited by the propane god, I tell ya hwat. Repost this on 5 more profiles or Hank Hill will bring the propain.

- credit to, @Cinnabar Sonar

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  • 5 weeks later...
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This project is back in business after being ignored.  This month I will be tackling the proper printing of the graphics and retrobrite treating the necessary plastics.

 

One thing that I've been searching for this build is the appropriate peripherals and while lots of eMachines branded keyboards were to be found on eBay I could not find the keyboard that shipped with the eMonster 500a, the eKB-5001 keyboard.  I could find others, some that were 'better' and what was basically the eKB-5001 if it was black but not the right one.  I have literally been searching 'eMachines Keyboard PS2' or looking at the newest listings on eBay for 'eMachines' on and off for almost a year now.  Last night someone finally posted an eKB-5001. :)

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/E-Machine-keyboard-Model-eKB-5001-Microsoft-Windows-98/202133592949?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

If you factor in shipping and everything else, I shelled out $45 CAD for an old, dirty, cheap, membrane PS/2 keyboard.

 

In additional good news my recent searches have lead my to discover a 'generic' version of the keyboard, not branded but apparently new, (It's not like Machines would DESIGN a keyboard, they'd just get someone else to make theirs for them with some logos on it) so I could potentially use one of those keyboards for 'new parts' and keeping any branding that's necessary.  We'll have to get a close look at this keyboard first before I decide.

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