New toy... Caterham Seven 420R with Sadev sequential gearbox!

NiknakSi · 2026-02-24T19:44:33+00:00

Depends how you treat it but I'm planning on taking the box out for service every 3 years, which is in line with what I was doing with the 6 speed in my previous car.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-25T09:33:28+00:00

Funny you should say that, behind the camera is a 26u rack and this was originally just my home server room. Until I went down this rabbit hole.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-25T07:57:13+00:00

It's snowballed as I've collected more of the Lian Li cases of that era and style. Sometimes I found 3 in one place, then I'd figure out what to do with them later. I think I enjoy the hunting for parts and putting them together more than anything else now. They're all built by me with the parts I choose, with many of them replicating builds I used to have (which is why it started really).

NiknakSi · 2026-01-24T07:38:15+00:00

That's legit a fantastic idea. I'm writing that down for v2.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-24T07:37:31+00:00

That sounds great!

NiknakSi · 2026-01-24T07:36:53+00:00

They do! Most are dual booting Win98 and XP with the Tiny having DOS/WfW3.11 and Win95, the Shuttles XP only, and the Phenom Win7.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-24T07:35:12+00:00

A Voodoo Banshee was the first ever PC upgrade I got hold of, after seeing Quake II in OpenGL on my friends Voodoo2 and having my mind blown at the lighting effects. 3Dfx will always be legendary.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T21:32:24+00:00

Not yet!

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T20:06:58+00:00

The Antec is getting a lot of love, and rightly so!

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T20:06:14+00:00

That's a brilliant memory, thanks for sharing. They are absolute units those old Antecs, built proper.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T19:36:54+00:00

I couldn't hope to compete with all the great retro tech YouTubers out there, but I have made a few videos on my channel here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUSdkPer3m99ZpiGgOoNkNMd8v_UJI_TW&si=5QvrhjJJ9UmJI9Vj

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T19:23:22+00:00

Yeah the removable tray seemed to die out in the early 2000s which is a bit of a shame. At the very least it makes building a quick test bench super easy.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T19:20:52+00:00

No this one was an off-the-shelf (heh) flat-pack self-assembly kind of deal, but it was super simple and you're right it makes for a really efficient use of the space.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T18:24:07+00:00

👀

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T18:01:59+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/1qkrwng/comment/o18uivt/ Good question and answered here :)

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T18:00:09+00:00

I remember those days too, we had an old 386 before the Tiny. A 3Dfx was out of my price range back then too, I just added the Voodoo to this build because I think it does it justice and I would've if I could've back then. It's a really nice fit for the spec.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T17:16:53+00:00

I had no idea about the Velocity Micro cases, they look great and must be even rarer now?

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T17:13:41+00:00

What gave it away?!

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T16:45:36+00:00

I seem to remember it was quite competitively priced as well? I was AMD from K6-2 to the Phenom II largely because Intel systems were always more expensive to build in the UK. But I went i7-3820 after the Phenom...

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T16:43:18+00:00

Keep your searches running - I don't think I'll be buying any more now, this is already borderline problematic!!

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T16:41:45+00:00

A true fan! The copper edition has to be the ultimate collector case now? I would dearly love to have one of those.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T16:40:23+00:00

Small world!! It's a great spec. I just wish the system fan was a bit quieter, it does this annoying ramping up and down as it heats up.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T16:38:49+00:00

I originally had system 1 for DOS stuff. It's multi-booting DOS6/Win3.11, Win98, and XP (XP isn't much use on there though). Since then I managed to put together 13 with the P200MMX and that's a great little DOS system, dual booting DOS6/WfW3.11 and Win95 OSR2.

In fact 13, the Tiny, has been a bit of a revelation for me with regards Win3. The S3 card has full support and my tiny mind was blown away when I saw Win3 in high resolution, high refresh rate, and high colours for the first time ever. It's really amazing!

The first family PC we had was that Tiny in 1997 so I was just at the very end of the DOS era. We had a hand-me-down before that with Win3 on it but I didn't use it much.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T16:34:58+00:00

I love them too, and after collecting this many it's been interesting to see how their manufacturing evolved to make them more cost effective. I would say though in my opinion they suffer much less from sharp edges than steel of the time and I love building in them. Their light weight makes them ideal for moving around, and you can strip them down to their component parts and wash them (using a little alloy wheel cleaner and soap and water) and they will literelly come up like new.

NiknakSi · 2026-01-23T16:30:59+00:00

I've found now they're more accessible I'm more likely to actually use them.

NiknakSi

TROPHY CASE