Commodore 64 Case Mod

Lalorm · March 3, 2015

Hi all,

I'm starting a case mod of an old Commodore 64 (Bread bin style) case and I'm trying to decide on what motherboard to use with this. I'm hoping that maybe someone here has done something similar and can offer advice on the best choice of motherboard with an APU that will work ok for basic gaming.

In terms of the case, it's small in there. Not much in the way of heigth for a large heatsink and not much, if nothing at all in terms of airflow. So this baby has to run cool so it isn't going to be a beast of a machine, but I would like it to be able to do some minor 3D gaming if possible.

So as I see it I need the following...

a Mini ITX motherboard and if possible a motherboard that comes with an APU and small heatsink/fan already fitted. I think these exist! It has to be as low as possible to get in there under the keyboard!
The PSU needs to be external, so the Motherboard needs to be able to use a Laptop style PSU.
I'm planning to use Windows 8.1 on the system so I'd like to have a recent enough board so I know there shouldn't be any problems with the support of the OS.

I don't have much experience with these types of motherboards so I'm hoping that someone here might have suggestions on the best board to use. Something like this is what I have in mind except I can't use this as it has an internal PSU connector...

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/NEW-Asrock-QC5000-ITX-WIFI-Amd-Ft3-Kabini-A4-5000-Quad-Core-Apu-Embeded-Mini-It-/311280426559?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4879c25e3f

I'll be posting updates on this build on here as I start going through the build. Also planning on modding the Commodore datasette (tape drive) into an external hard drive case with maybe a card reader and/or a USB hub. Might be interesting.

What do people think?

Regards

Mike.

Lalorm · March 3, 2015

Have a solution. Intel NUC.

ctxgaming · March 4, 2015

Yup a NUC would make it

ObilvionNizer · March 4, 2015

What about Water cooling?

MblaZe7run · March 5, 2015

What about Water cooling?

He said there is minimal room, he'd like have trouble bending the loops. Also, he was asking to help find a motherboard, not what cooling method to use

Scheer · March 7, 2015

You can use a PicoPSU if you want it external with a standard motherboard.

What kind of performance are you wanting? You can run Windows on a Asus Chromebox that only costs $150, and would have everything you need where most (if not all) NUCs are barebones that also require you to purchase RAM and a SSD. The Chromeboxes use a Celeron 2955U processor so they aren't all that powerful, its plenty enough for general purpose usage, but I wouldn't want it as my main computer.

As for mITX motherboards with integrated CPUs, I would suggest the Gigabyte BayTrail ones, preferably the ones with a quad core J1900 as they are only a few dollars more than the dual core J1800s. They are passively cooled and as a reference for heat output at load my J1800 system pulls ~11W from the wall and my J1900 system pulls ~15W (has a HDD in it) which is pretty incredible for the performance. The downside is that I don't think they make one yet with a mSata slot on the board, some do have mPCIe which is physically the same connector, but SSDs will NOT work in them meaning you have another component to fit in there.

Some of the older Atom boards have built in DC-DC converters with a barrel plug in the I/O for an external power brick, most of the Atom processors prior to the Bay Trails are pretty crappy...

There is also a thin ITX standard, for when height is a concern.