486

silverstone-is-back-with-a-beige-pc-case-that-looks-just-like-your-crappy-old-486

SilverStone is back with a beige PC case that looks just like your crappy old 486

SilverStone’s first ’80s throwback PC case started life as an April Fools’ joke, but the success of the FLP01 was apparently serious enough to merit a follow-up. The company brought another beige case to the Computex trade show this week, the vertically oriented FLP02 (via Tom’s Hardware).

If the original horizontally oriented FLP01 case called to mind a 386-era Compaq Deskpro, the FLP02 is a dead ringer for the kind of case you might have gotten for a generic 486 or early Pentium-era PC. That extends to having a Turbo button built into the front—on vintage PCs, this button could actually determine how fast the processor was allowed to run, though here, it’s actually a fan speed control instead. A lock on the front also locks the power switch in place to keep it from being flipped off accidentally, something else real vintage PCs actually did.

Despite its retro facade, the FLP02 is capable of fitting in even higher-end modern PC parts than the original FLP01. Front USB-A and USB-C ports are hidden behind a magnetic door on the front of the case, and its faux-5.25-inch floppy drives are just covers for drive bays that you could use for an optical drive or extra front I/O.

Despite its retro looks, the FLP02 still tucks away support for modern amenities like front-facing USB-A and USB-C ports. Credit: Future

On the inside, the case can fit full-size ATX motherboards and up to a 360 mm radiator for CPU cooling, and modern high-end GPUs like the GeForce RTX 5090 or 5080 should be able to fit inside.

SilverStone says the FLP02 will ship in Q3 or Q4 of this year and that US buyers should be able to get it for $220. You can, of course, buy a modern high-end PC case for much less money. But if this kind of nostalgia-bait didn’t move merchandise, companies wouldn’t keep indulging in it.

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Linux kernel is leaving 486 CPUs behind, only 18 years after the last one made

It’s not the first time Torvalds has suggested dropping support for 32-bit processors and relieving kernel developers from implementing archaic emulation and work-around solutions. “We got rid of i386 support back in 2012. Maybe it’s time to get rid of i486 support in 2022,” Torvalds wrote in October 2022. Failing major changes to the 6.15 kernel, which will likely arrive late this month, i486 support will be dropped.

Where does that leave people running a 486 system for whatever reason? They can run older versions of the Linux kernel and Linux distributions. They might find recommendations for teensy distros like MenuetOS, KolibriOS, and Visopsys, but all three of those require at least a Pentium. They can run FreeDOS. They might get away with the OS/2 descendant ArcaOS. There are some who have modified Windows XP to run on 486 processors, and hopefully, they will not connect those devices to the Internet.

Really, though, if you’re dedicated enough to running a 486 system in 2025, you’re probably resourceful enough to find copies of the software meant for that system. One thing about computers—you never stop learning.

This post was updated at 3: 30 p.m. to fix a date error.

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