Since it'll be a while longer before I get the Athlon XP Compaq restored & running again, I decided to do a little side project to keep this site updated. I've had an old MSI socket 754 motherboard for a couple years now, and I finally got around to turning it in to a (mostly) fully functional PC.
Since I don't own any spare cases at the moment, I had to make my own out of a Pringles box in my basement. Even though it looks absolutely ridiculous, it's more sturdy than I thought it'd be. Cooling might eventually become an issue, but I don't intend to run it for very long periods of time, so I think it'll be fine.
The only thing I couldn't permanently attach was a power button. I only have one standard 2 pin power switch, so I can only use it on this machine for so long. Eventually, I'll need to use it somewhere else.
I'm also not going to leave one specific HDD with it yet, just because I'm not sure what OS I'm going to run on it.
One issue that came up when I built it was the PSU. The original PSU I was going to use was a very simple one with not too many extra cables, but unfortunately, the 4 pin CPU power cable was too short to reach the motherboard. Thus, I had to drag out my other spare PSU that has a ton of molex connectors, leading to a very cluttered case.
I haven't powered it up yet, but if anything interesting happens when I do (such as a fire or explosion) then I'll update this page with some photos.