Building a PC with an NES case: Part 6

[PigeonTech]

I like the idea, but I'd want a custom OS or Media software that could be controlled with controllers. Like, turn it on, and just use your NES Pad to load to navigate menus, load a ROM, or watch a movie.

[SneakyMcGeeFTW]

everything was great, and then I saw the monitor -_-

[drumboog]

@SneakyMcGeeFTW lol... she's not much, but we've been through a lot together. I finally upgraded since doing these videos, but I was still a little reluctant to get rid of it.

[SneakyMcGeeFTW]

@drumboog yeah, I can understand that haha

[valireality]

Blu Ray drive???? daaaaamn!! go get a LCD Monitor!!!

[samjtm]

Absolutely amazing. I'm thinking of doing something similar with an old First Gen Xbox Console. Should be fun. Enjoyed watching your vids, make more :D

[3949zxcvbnm]

very nice build i really enjoyed watching your progress... thanks for sharing!!!

[twiztidbagz]

Very nice, I almost like the Blu Ray drive in the arcade pad more then using the Cartridge area. Those blu ray players are torture to find. I just started ordering parts for mine, Will be a little different though Ment for Emulators and running Boxee :) I will make a video of my process as well.

[drumboog]

@twiztidbagz Thanks bro... yeah, that blu ray was a lot harder to find than I would have thought. It was also a pain to find screws to mount it. I looked up the specs for the drive, but I still had to order a couple of times before getting the right diameter and length for my setup. Be sure to add yours as a video response when you post it.

[whereschris]

Amazing build but it seems pretty useless.

Definitely not a gaming PC and the atom really limits you.

Could be a webserver I suppose.

[drumboog]

@whereschris It's a HTPC. The atom doesn't generate much heat, so the whole PC is silent... just what I wanted from something that's running 24x7 in the bedroom.

[Kurruppt1]

not bad man i swear when i seen the title my first words was "this is going to be gay" but got to the end here yea there is some small flaws here and there but overall great job.

[pyrothepenguin]

Hey I just bought that bluray drive for a similar project.

Mine doesnt look exactly the same though.

No arm poking up in the middle of the drive.

And did you have to cut off a piece of metal covering the eject button??

mine has a flank of metal so i cant see any solder points.

Nice project btw.

[drumboog]

@pyrothepenguin I had a really hard time finding slot load Blu-ray drives, and I had to RMA the Sony and ended up getting a different drive... that project spanned several months from start to finish, and I guess I forgot to update the description before copy/pasting it between videos. I did re-wire the eject button of the Sony before returning it, and there wasn't anything metal that needed to be cut.

[drumboog]

@pyrothepenguin I just took off the bezel and if I remember correctly there was some kind of semi-transparent tape over the button. It was a real pain soldering that thing... then when I finally got the wires connected, I didn't realize that one of the wires was also touching part of the metal casing of the drive. It was shorting out the circuit and preventing it from ejecting... I ended up sticking some tape on the drive itself to keep it from coming into contact with the wires.

[ox141jf]

no offence but your american accent is REALLY strong  you say thins like alUmunum but its pronounced alUmINium and you say SODDERING its soLdering

[amie704]

@ox141jf are you 4 real? Fancy a Fag?

[amie704]

@ox141jf are you 4 real? Fancy a Fag?

[amie704]

@ox141jf are you 4 real? you would fancy a fag? How are you going to clown him when you said " say thins like". WTF!

[hateWinVista]

I have a very very very good idea,you can put an SSD in the game cartridge,and hook up the SATA cable to the hole where you can put the cartridge in.

You can hook up the external cd drive outside with USB.

[drumboog]

@hateWinVista There wasn't enough room in the case to fit the game cartridge. If I hadn't put the fan in the bottom of the case, then that may have worked.

I thought about using an external Blu-ray, but I didn't want the decreased performance.

[Danowemight]

Quite possably one of the coolest video series I have ever seen in my life. Keep up the good work!

[puko39]

Congratulations! You did it very well and explained it all, so thank you!

[MikeMarino]

This is wicked!

[PlayGamesAllNight]

1 question... why do u need blu-ray?

[Nadrealis]

I liked the way you figured out how to complete the circuit on that blu ray drive. I was thinking to use some type of switch on the a button and completely overlooked the fact that they basically gave you all the tools you'd need in that circuit board. Awesome.

[ATSxE7VJOI]

this was a great video to follow really good idea and very well executed on your part

the motherboard was a good choice as well

hoping to try my hand at something like that in the near future

[finneykris]

did the bolts/screws of the 90 degree plates not stick in the blu ray assembly

[drumboog]

@finneykris I'm not sure I follow... but those things made a pretty good mount.  I just drilled and tapped a few holes and the screws worked well.

[guafito]

GREAT!

:D IL DO ONE OF MY OWN

[F0rKix]

This was an awesome series dude. Much props for thinking outside the box with the advantage and cartridge idea.

[munkypoo666]

I sat and watched every part to this and I must say, kudos sir. Job well done.

[drumboog]

@munkypoo666 Thanks... it was an interesting project.

[Davidgon100]

what is it running vista or 7

[drumboog]

@Davidgon100 Windows 7

[shalashaskasaiz]

What about the heat inside the case?

[drumboog]

@shalashaskasaiz I'm not sure about the case itself, but the CPU is running at around 43 deg C idle, 54 with load.

[EssenceCA]

what a waste of a build, "not being able to get the drive in rthe case....

[drumboog]

@EssenceCA I'm not sure why that makes it a waste.  Having an external drive isn't that big of a deal to me... and now that it's all done, I kind of like having a little more to the theme than just the NES.

[acer19994]

did the nintendo work before you started?

[drumboog]

It was hit and miss... I tried replacing the connector, but it still didn't work all the time.

[elvee88]

@acer19994 if it was it would be a waste ? ffs get off your ass man, who cares, there's millions of em.

[kosova7777]

How much did this cost you? and hows the speed of the atom I think i am going to build something close to this plz reply

[drumboog]

It was probably around $1K... a little more than I had planned, but it would be possible to cut costs in some areas; a standard Bluray drive is much cheaper than the slot load drive. And HDD is a better value than SSD.

As far as the atom goes, I haven't done any benchmarks, but it's a little slower than I hoped. A huge drawback of the MB is that I can't get it to play Bluray video. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the GPU or the CPU. I'll probably upgrade to a dual core AMD pretty soon.

[nelizmastr]

9:02 - Molex

[nelizmastr]

Nintendo, the kings of plastic

[scarmulletpart3]

To tell the truth, I would have built it slightly differently. I would have done smaller fans, and mounted the Mobo lower in the case so I could mount the HDD to the top of the case to the side of the disc drive.

Also since SSD are pretty expensive, you theoretically use a 5400 rpm laptop hard drive (the same as a PS3 hard drive).

[drumboog]

That was my original thought, but I didn't want to hear the fans at all, so I decided to go with the big fan. Another big factor was that I didn't want to put a drive inside the case unless it could push the NES open when the disk ejected. I'm just being anal on this, but if I could have fit a standard drive inside the case, I would have done it; but there's no way that would fit.

The SSD was more $, but I've been wanting to try one for a while, and they produce less heat and noise than a HD.

[scarmulletpart3]

I still would have used it like the NES. Opening the door and then putting the disc in. I probably would have moved the button of the disc drive to the top of the drive you have to push down on the drive to get the disc out.

The reason why I wouldn't have them external is because I dont want to deal with USB 2.0 speeds vs SATA speeds.

[drumboog]

To each his own. I kind of like it with a little more added to the theme... and it provided more of a challenge to get the drive wired properly with it in the Advantage controller.

It isn't a USB drive... it's a SATA laptop drive attached to a SATA connection in the back of the case. So there shouldn't be any speed issues.

[batezippi]

your sick :D this is soooo cool.. !!!

[SouskeSagara91]

bloody monitor LoL :D

nice work, dude!

[MrGoomba909]

if you couldv'e squeezed the drive into the game slot, that would've been even better. nice hard disk "mario Brothers/Duck Hunt" cover up. plus, the blu ray being external is even cooler! There are one or two flaws, but overall, its great! 9/10

[zredna33]

That is indeed beatuiful.

[infrinous19]

show some temps, im curious:)

[drumboog]

It's running around 43 deg C idle, 54 with load.

[janaswang]

I hope you sanded all your cuts nice and smooth D:

[M2S4L]

nice and cool idea.

long video but it was fun

well done

[liightheaded]

turned out really nice. it done?? =D

the ssd on the side doesnt stick out as much as i thorught it wuld :)

^ srry 4 spelling =D

[fedest88]

seriously man, u r a genious!!! u should be working at nasa right now!!!

great video!!

[drumboog]

Thanks... it'd be awesome to work there. At one point I wanted to, but I don't think I want to go back to school for this stuff... I'm just tinkering around in my spare time. I guess discipline isn't my best trait... lol.

[drumboog]

There are several varieties depending upon your needs. I got it from digistor[dot]com. The one that converts to SATA data and Molex power is part # DIG-31521. They also have one that converts the mini power connector to standard SATA power, then you can use a standard SATA cable for data (part # DIG-31631).

[putsipa]

GREATEST PC IN WORLD :DDD

Very very nice idea, i like that.

[FFGamer077]

Dude this has to be the greatest idea since the Light Bulb lmfao. Really nice I like it a lot. If I could do the same I would lol.

[plutoexpress]

you know, i was actually looking for a video tutorial about usb tv tuners and all of a sudden i came across your video and after watching the whole video, i gotta say, you are a genius! that was well done and assembled professionally. you shud be a professor in the electrical engineering department!

[drumboog]

Thanks, but don't get carried away... lol. I really wish I knew more about the electrical end of this stuff, but completing a circuit is about all I can do reliably.

[supertroye]

Dude! It's all come together as "planned". Love that joystick action. Well done... I would have been way too intimidated with all those small parts.

[drumboog]

Yeah!!! Finally got that last video finished. Only took a couple of months and a couple of RMA'd drives. How's the LSU build? Any time these days to get anything done on it?

[WestCoastMods]

That turned out sweet! Very creative my friend. This is the kind of stuff that gets my blood flowing, it's not the build but what and how you do things to make them functional.

5Starz for ingenuity,creativeness, and workmanship!

LazyMan :-)

[drumboog]

Thanks man... I wouldn't know where to start with these mods if it weren't for all the videos like yours; constantly showing new tricks or materials that I would have never thought of. I'm just stealing ideas... keep 'em coming.

[WestCoastMods]

Yeah right, your so modest. You have the a creative mind as well.

btw, how is my buddy Troye doing?

[drumboog]

Not too bad, but he skipped town a few weeks ago... moved to Virginia and left me modding solo. The LSU build was really coming together last I saw it... can't wait to see the end of that one.

[WestCoastMods]

Wow didn't know that, will have to PM him.

Keep up the great work!

LazyMan

[Naz013]

great production man------

did you by the tools as you went along or did you already have the kit

---------u should have used ubuntu linux.....cos it free, funkiny,customizable and functions well with every thing......

it be a great ride if learn how to operate such an operating system

[drumboog]

Thanks... I had most of the stuff, but bought a few things as I needed them.

I was considering a linux distro, but I don't think there are drivers for all of my hardware. I still may try it at some point in the future... I do dual boot to ubuntu on my main machine for some development. My knowledge of the environment is very limited, and finding the right drivers has always been a very frustrating process for me.

[jfa2001]

You are very creative, Im just curious how pricey this was ? it has a very nice mobo and dvd. All you need is a NES Emulator and some Retro controllers.. LoL Well done..

[drumboog]

Thanks... I think it ended up around $1K. It was a bit more than I expected originally, and I could have saved a good bit If I had planned it out better... or gone with a standard laptop drive instead of the slot load. It might have ended up $200-300 less.

[jfa2001]

At least you ended up with a good quality computer. I had fun watching!

[IHunger4Battle1]

That is SICK! Next time wear an FSU shirt...or maybe a Bama shirt. lol...my house is divided.

[drumboog]

Lol... I guess I should represent better, huh? I'm an FSU man through and through (even with the heart-ache lately). My bro is a Texas fan and got me the shirt... I really like the shirt for some reason, but they won't get any loyalty from me... Go NOLES!!!

Thanks for the comment.

[IHunger4Battle1]

Yeah, my wife's a bama fan. I'm the nole man. We're in Pensacola...moved here from Tally Town. I'll be at the Maryland game...hopefully Ponder will be back in by then.

[zenkikun]

nice

[drumboog]

Thanks

[daninglis]

that is fantastic, so happy it worked out with the case, very very gd job

[drumboog]

Thanks... I had my doubts about the case at times, but I think it ended up pretty good.

[M3RVITIS]

thats actually a pretty mint unit, good job on that one

[drumboog]

Yeah, the case was in pretty good shape, but it didn't function very well. Thanks for the comment.