Good Afternoon Gents. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... actually it was here, never mind. Anyway, I built a PC inside of an old NES (it was dead, don't worry) sometime around 2011. ITX being what it was back then, it was a Zotac Intel Atom embedded solution, which was fine for emulation and web-browsing, but HD content was, well, hit or miss. Anyway, here are some old, low-fi shots of the PC when it was first built.
It was serviceable but I was never 100% happy with the performance, or the quality of the work I did, especially inside the case. I did have 4 GB of RAM, a 250GB 2.5" HDD, and I made the front ports usable for NES controllers on the PC using a USB adapter and USB header stuffed inside the case. I also converted the Power and Reset buttons to work with the PC as well as the power on light. It was a fun little project despite it's shortcomings, but with the advancement of technology comes the desire to (eventually) upgrade the internals and re-work them.
The ultimate goal is to make a fairly up to date PC that looks like an NES from the exterior when looking at it head on, much like before. The only give away on the old build without turning it on was the WiFi antenna when it was up, and I want to try and keep it that way. I will update periodically as I work on this, but this is a long term, fiddle with it when I can project without any deadline. Thanks for looking.
It was serviceable but I was never 100% happy with the performance, or the quality of the work I did, especially inside the case. I did have 4 GB of RAM, a 250GB 2.5" HDD, and I made the front ports usable for NES controllers on the PC using a USB adapter and USB header stuffed inside the case. I also converted the Power and Reset buttons to work with the PC as well as the power on light. It was a fun little project despite it's shortcomings, but with the advancement of technology comes the desire to (eventually) upgrade the internals and re-work them.
The Plan
What I hope to achieve is maybe impossible, so one or two of these things may have to go by the wayside in order to fit everything in the case.
1. Discrete GPU
This is the one thing that will shape the entire rest of the build. I already have a PCIe riser cable, so that is checked off the list, but the question will be, "Can I fit a GPU, and will it be low profile or standard height?". The hope is to fit something like a 1050 TI (so I can upgrade the video card in my just finished station
).
2. Embedded CPU or low power Intel/AMD solution
This will depend on two things: The GPU fitting and cooling. There are several fairly decent embedded CPU solutions for cheap on Newegg, and with a discrete GPU, wouldn't have to worry about on-board graphics being good. Price, availability, and age of the technology will be other determining factors.
3. Brickless
This will probably go out the window pretty fast, but I want to attempt it anyways. Mocking the rest of the parts up will help determine if I can fit an HDPlex 160 AC/DC or something similar in this case. It will be tight. I had a brick in the last iteration of this build, so I am not completely opposed to it, but it would be cool as hell to make it work.
What I hope to achieve is maybe impossible, so one or two of these things may have to go by the wayside in order to fit everything in the case.
1. Discrete GPU
This is the one thing that will shape the entire rest of the build. I already have a PCIe riser cable, so that is checked off the list, but the question will be, "Can I fit a GPU, and will it be low profile or standard height?". The hope is to fit something like a 1050 TI (so I can upgrade the video card in my just finished station
).2. Embedded CPU or low power Intel/AMD solution
This will depend on two things: The GPU fitting and cooling. There are several fairly decent embedded CPU solutions for cheap on Newegg, and with a discrete GPU, wouldn't have to worry about on-board graphics being good. Price, availability, and age of the technology will be other determining factors.
3. Brickless
This will probably go out the window pretty fast, but I want to attempt it anyways. Mocking the rest of the parts up will help determine if I can fit an HDPlex 160 AC/DC or something similar in this case. It will be tight. I had a brick in the last iteration of this build, so I am not completely opposed to it, but it would be cool as hell to make it work.
Last night I took it apart to start making progress and see what and where I needed to cut/flatten.
Here it is taken apart
Old Zotac board. Still works well, will probably repurpose it for something, maybe a PC for the Garage when working on stuff.
NES to USB adapters plus a USB header. This will most likely be left out due to the size of the adapters, but may take one apart to see if I can't reduce the footprint to cram it in. It will be a tight fit as this will be right by where most motherboards have the 24 pin adapter. If I cannot fit them, then I will convert it to USB ports like many people have done.
Here is the lid, inside of course. I had cut some of the plastic away already from the last build to make the vent better, and the small 60 mm fan that came with the Zotac board was glued to it for some air circulation. The vent space is a little smaller than 40 mm wide and roughly 115 mm long, which is great news, as I can fit 3 40 mm fans for air flow in a case that will be severely lacking in it.
The base is where a lot of the work is going to happen. The initial plan is to place the mobo at the bottom left, so a lot of cutting is going to take place. Luckily, the bottom is not visible. I want to make the base flat by cutting out the risers and the "square tunnel" as I call it. I am hoping to take the plastic from the tunnel part to cover the hole it will make from taking it out in the first place by just eliminating the sides, but time will tell. Also, the reset button at the top right will need to be eliminated, at least the functionality of it. The corner of the board hits the blue switch part, so I'll have to cut the PCB, bracket, and switch, then re-wire the power button and LED by soldering it on the other side. Depending on space/my skills, I might have the reset switch be able to be pressed, just not do anything, or I will just glue it for aesthetics.
Here it is taken apart
Old Zotac board. Still works well, will probably repurpose it for something, maybe a PC for the Garage when working on stuff.
NES to USB adapters plus a USB header. This will most likely be left out due to the size of the adapters, but may take one apart to see if I can't reduce the footprint to cram it in. It will be a tight fit as this will be right by where most motherboards have the 24 pin adapter. If I cannot fit them, then I will convert it to USB ports like many people have done.
Here is the lid, inside of course. I had cut some of the plastic away already from the last build to make the vent better, and the small 60 mm fan that came with the Zotac board was glued to it for some air circulation. The vent space is a little smaller than 40 mm wide and roughly 115 mm long, which is great news, as I can fit 3 40 mm fans for air flow in a case that will be severely lacking in it.
The base is where a lot of the work is going to happen. The initial plan is to place the mobo at the bottom left, so a lot of cutting is going to take place. Luckily, the bottom is not visible
. I want to make the base flat by cutting out the risers and the "square tunnel" as I call it. I am hoping to take the plastic from the tunnel part to cover the hole it will make from taking it out in the first place by just eliminating the sides, but time will tell. Also, the reset button at the top right will need to be eliminated, at least the functionality of it. The corner of the board hits the blue switch part, so I'll have to cut the PCB, bracket, and switch, then re-wire the power button and LED by soldering it on the other side. Depending on space/my skills, I might have the reset switch be able to be pressed, just not do anything, or I will just glue it for aesthetics.The ultimate goal is to make a fairly up to date PC that looks like an NES from the exterior when looking at it head on, much like before. The only give away on the old build without turning it on was the WiFi antenna when it was up, and I want to try and keep it that way. I will update periodically as I work on this, but this is a long term, fiddle with it when I can project without any deadline. Thanks for looking.
