Log how to turn a game console into an SFF PC - or - the fastest APU build to date

[REVOCCASES]

today I painted the PSU and one of the fans black because you can see them through the gaps of the case. so this should look better.

also made the new parts for the case, so that I/O connectors align well (enough).

next step: powder coating the case

 

[REVOCCASES]

after the mechanical part is nearly done, here comes a little bit of soldering...


the original power switch is too small, so I am adding a normal one with red LED ring. I could have removed the original one but it doesn't bother me

soldering the power button LED to the Z+ Light Bar PCBA

the Z+ Light Bar shines GREEN by default, but I wanted it to be RED. I figured, easiest way to do this is just to flip the wires for R and G on the connector which goes to the motherboard.

unfortunately it turned out the cable/connector was covered with glue...

so I had to improvise and cut/crimp the wires

short test: yep it works

just need to hook it up when the case is powder coated

 

[REVOCCASES]

just a short update while waiting for the powder coated parts...

the Z+ is currently on sale at JD.com for just 1699,- CNY (USD 260,-) which is an incredible price for the overall package you get! They even throw in a free RAZER DEATHADDER Mouse!



I also got another 1TB SSD to put in my build... I was surprised that TEAMGROUP is still using a pretty solid metal case while almost all other manufactures have switched to plastic.

last but not least I also painted the heatsink black

 

[REVOCCASES]

my parts came in today and turned out pretty nice. I really like that rough "space-gray-metallic" finish.

time to go ahead with the build!

first, installing the mounting board, power button and front USB

next comes the motherboard

WiFi antennas I just sticked on one of the sides using a drop of super glue

for the light bar I had the idea to put it on the back side over the heatsink. the red light is supposed to shine through the slots at the rear of the case, looking like some kind of afterburner when the PC is running...

almost done, just needed to find a place to hide the buzzer

time to see if it still boots up or if I have fried something during the build...

luckily it is still alive!

 

[REVOCCASES]

adding a few shots with case closed and lights on...

 

[REVOCCASES]

This will be the last update on my Z+ build. I hope you enjoyed the project.


Today I re-installed all the OEM drivers because I realized that the system was consuming about 40W in idle for no reason. Not sure which driver was to blame but now idle power consumption seems fine with 8W to 9W. I also managed to install a more recent version of AMD Radeon Software (Adrenalin 19.30.01.02 to be specific). Someone on Reddit asked me if it is possible to do some OC with the FireFlight APU. Well, I guess no. Ryzen Master wouldn't detect the CPU and Afterburner also seems not to know what to do with the GPU. Anyways, I'm fine with the performance out of the box.

Last but not least I also tried some of my good old games. In OVERLOAD (or DESCENT 4 as it should be called) I am getting solid 65 to 70 FPS with all settings at max @ 1080p. Temperatures are totally fine with 60 to 65C while fans stay pretty quite.

Overall I am satisfied with the build. It makes a neat HTPC for watching movies or playing some casual games on the couch and with the new case I can even throw it in my bag when travelling.

 

[n.tesla]

Thanks for all the updates, I enjoyed this build a lot. I think it turned out really neat and I appreciate the rugged, industrial case.
If I wasn't still scoping parts to finish my K39 build I might have been tempted to give this a shot. Hopefully we see more from these guys or similar in the future.

 

[anothernoob]

Really love the outcome of this build.

It was unfortunate to see the earlier update where the PCB cable wasn't accounted for, which ended up causing alignment issues for the IO. It was a relief to see the issue quickly resolved though!

The case itself is so simple, yet fantastic. Great work with the design. The touch of the red accent lights on the space-grey looks amazing.

Great work!

 

[Apocalis]

May I ask how you went about purchasing this console? The way I understand it, you would need a proxy buyer or agent to purchase for you and ship it over, right? Do you have any recommendations? I've been wanting one of these partially as a collectors item ever since I saw it years ago, but never thought it would be possible to buy since it was never officially released (?).

 

[REVOCCASES]

May I ask how you went about purchasing this console? The way I understand it, you would need a proxy buyer or agent to purchase for you and ship it over, right? Do you have any recommendations? I've been wanting one of these partially as a collectors item ever since I saw it years ago, but never thought it would be possible to buy since it was never officially released (?).

Yeah, same reason here. It's a piece of history and definitely worth to collect at this price point.

There are companies like Superbuy who can help you purchasing stuff from China and get it shipped to you. They are buying on your behalf and then organize the shipping to you. You can check out their website or send me PM if you need more info on how to get one.

 

[Elaman]

Truly SFF, smaller than the original console even. When I grow up, I want to build something like this.

That vertical heatsink with the red fan seems to have grown a small motherboard underneath.

 

[Ochikunnnn]

Part 1: Software

I have purchased a Z+ from a vendor on JD.com. As SUBOR abandoned the Z+ and their semi-custom OS, the vendor already pre-installed an activated copy of Windows 10 Pro in Chinese on the internal 120GB SATA SSD. Changing the OS language to English or German was only partially successful. Anyway I wanted to replace the tiny 120GB SSD so that I decided to go for a fresh install. I figured that it might be difficult to obtain the necessary custom drivers, so the first thing to do was to back up all OEM drivers to a USB stick. Here is a good tutorial how to do this:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/68426-backup-restore-device-drivers-windows-10-a.html

After the driver backup was complete, I took out the original 120GB SSD and replaced it with a fresh 1TB one. The Z+ comes with a custom INSYDE H2O BIOS but I didn’t figure out how to access it. To my pleasant surprise there is no firmware / OS lock and the boot-order is set to “boot from USB first” out of the box so all you have to do is plug in a Win10 USB stick and it will boot right into Windows Setup.

After Windows installation is complete, most hardware works out of the box. The few drivers that are missing are for the AMD Chipset, Graphics Card and HDMI Audio.

For the Chipset you can just download the Autodetect Software from AMD directly and it will install without issues.

The Graphics driver is a bit trickier. I have tried several drivers from AMD but none of these worked.

Luckily I had made the backup earlier. To install the missing GPU and HDMI Audio driver just go to the hardware manager and choose “update driver”. Then point to the folder where you made the driver backup from the original SSD and they will install just fine. If you need some basic graphics control panel, you can optionally install the AMD Catalyst Center 15.7.1 from the AMD website.

And that’s about all. If turning the XSX into a normal Windows PC was just that easy…

Next up: a look at the hardware and designing a custom case


Bro can u share ur backup driver ??

 

[REVOCCASES]

Bro can u share ur backup driver ??

Bro, here you go...

SuborVGA

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

 

[ondert]

Is this still available?

 

[REVOCCASES]

Is this still available?

Unfortunately I didn't see any active listings on JD or TaoBao for quite a while now. Considering the PPB (Performance-Per-Buck) I guess some miners grabbed the last available stock...

 

[ondert]

Considering the PPB (Performance-Per-Buck) I guess some miners grabbed the last available stock...

Oh even this…!
anyway, I’ve seen your small1 case and totally loved it. I was looking for the smallest case with lp gpu and built-in psu.

 

[REVOCCASES]

Since Microsoft and AMD confirmed that Ryzen 1000 CPUs won't make it on the "officially supported CPU list" for Windows 11 I was curious if/how it would run on the Subor Z+

after a fresh Win10 installation I ran the "PC Health Tool" to check Windows 11 compatibility and to my very surprise it showed me that the SUBOR Z+ does meet all requirements to upgrade - without exceptions - despite it is a custom APU based on Ryzen 1000 architecture. Well, now that's interesting! My 3.5 years old notebook does not pass the "W11 compatibility test" but a Chinese Game Console does...

for my main rig I will skip W11 and keep running W10 as long as it's supported but I was curious how well W11 would run on the Z+

the setup completed without any errors or warnings. all drivers installed automatically trough Windows Update - except for the GPU driver which I had to install manually from the OEM driver backup I made previously - and overall it seems to run pretty smooth.

performance wise it does boot a bit quicker but I feel W10 runs a bit "snappier"

next I might give SteamOS or GamerOS a try - I'm curious if I get the GPU to work properly under Linux

 

[Elaman]

next I might give SteamOS or GamerOS a try - I'm curious if I get the GPU to work properly under Linux

That would be awesome!
Right now GamerOS changed the name to ChimeraOS and still it's kind of a coin flip because everything is automated. Good thing is that it's all automated, bad thing is that it's all automated. One connects it to the internet, installs and either it works or it doesn't.
But the upcoming SteamOS is very interesting, the target is the custom Ryzen APU of the Steam Deck and it uses KDE which is very Windows-friendly environment, so this is a proper desktop, and big screen is optional.

 

[REVOCCASES]

That would be awesome!
Right now GamerOS changed the name to ChimeraOS and still it's kind of a coin flip because everything is automated. Good thing is that it's all automated, bad thing is that it's all automated. One connects it to the internet, installs and either it works or it doesn't.
But the upcoming SteamOS is very interesting, the target is the custom Ryzen APU of the Steam Deck and it uses KDE which is very Windows-friendly environment, so this is a proper desktop, and big screen is optional.

Indeed, it would have been awesome to turn that machine back into an actual gaming console but unfortunately I did not succeed...

First of all I tried installing GamerOS aka. ChimeraOS and the setup progress looked quite promising.

Everything downloaded and seemed to install just fine but during first boot it just stuck with a black screen and nothing happened

Next I wanted to try DraugerOS - which is also supposed to be a "Gamer focused OS" - but when I clicked on download, I was greeted with this message:

I managed to download their image eventually but it would also not install properly.

SteamOS should work - I thought - and all looked good until this message popped up:

Last but not least I wanted to see if I was able to run any Linux Distro on the Subor - I had good experiences with Linux Mint in the past so I downloaded Mint 20.2 Cinnamon to see what happens...

Mint installation went totally smooth but unfortunately (as I almost expected) there are no Linux compatible GPU drivers for the AMD FireFlight APU

Long story short: I think GamerOS/ChimeraOS would have been the perfect OS for the SUBOR but for now I'll just have to experimenting a little bit more with Win11

 

[Soul_Est]

Indeed, it would have been awesome to turn that machine back into an actual gaming console but unfortunately I did not succeed...

First of all I tried installing GamerOS aka. ChimeraOS and the setup progress looked quite promising.

Everything downloaded and seemed to install just fine but during first boot it just stuck with a black screen and nothing happened

Next I wanted to try DraugerOS - which is also supposed to be a "Gamer focused OS" - but when I clicked on download, I was greeted with this message:

I managed to download their image eventually but it would also not install properly.

SteamOS should work - I thought - and all looked good until this message popped up:

Last but not least I wanted to see if I was able to run any Linux Distro on the Subor - I had good experiences with Linux Mint in the past so I downloaded Mint 20.2 Cinnamon to see what happens...

Mint installation went totally smooth but unfortunately (as I almost expected) there are no Linux compatible GPU drivers for the AMD FireFlight APU

Long story short: I think GamerOS/ChimeraOS would have been the perfect OS for the SUBOR but for now I'll just have to experimenting a little bit more with Win11

That version of SteamOS that you tried there is very much out of date. I would recommend trying EndeavorOS, Pop!_OS, or Solus.