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Project RETROactive. $300 revival.

Jenna Haze
By Jenna Haze
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I will be bringing more of the build in the following week but here is how it started... 
I was inspired buy other builds but the two major projects were a NES and an ammo box turned into PCs. I love the idea of having having an interesting looking PC and ones that are not what they seem to be at first glace. I will show you the ammo box build i saw. Now i looked at buying new parts thinking that i could then sell the finished project to someone. I did not really have the money to put into it if i did not have a buyer lined up. What to do??
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Well.. there is my old system left over since i built a new system.(Project Mir, if you care lol) It was only being used by my family rarely for basic internet use. So it came back home. It wouldnt be super performance but it wouldnt be horrible at all. It would still need a few things like a graphics card but that could be worked out. 


Now i had to find the object to hold the parts. I looked at lots of thrift shops till i found it. A 4 channel (my dad told me that was important...) duel turntable and cassette tape stereo system built into a wooden box. I just loved it when i saw it. Its interesting to know that in its time it was the very top of performance and now its so far gone its here in a store collecting dust and cant be sold. 
So i was going to breath new life into it. How much would remain to be seen.

For now here are the two sides of the stereo. Sorry i didnt take a pic of the whole thing before i started. But fear not! You will get a great idea of what it looked like when you see it finished. I intend for it to look almost exactly the same.
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Now exactly what parts it uses are only partly known. I didnt build this one so cut me some slack. Also here are the new parts.

Old parts
Mobo is some kind of 775 socket gigabyte.

8GB 1333MHz DDR2 RAM

Q6600 quad core CPU

1TB HDD 7200RPM

500W PSU

120GB SSD samsung 840

 

New parts

GTX 550Ti (given by a friend after he upgraded)

Zalman Mini copper air cooler (its amazing for its size!)
Silverstone 450W SFX PSU (500W was too big to fit)
PCIE extention cable

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I knew i was going to need all the space i could get so i took off the cover for the GTX. 

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So the system was gutted and i did some spacing out of the parts inside the case with the top removed. Everything seemed to be just right thankfully :)

So here is the lay out, 

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After checking it would all fit i got the system up and running to make sure everything worked. 

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Next up, starting to cut to fit hardware. I started with the PSU and fitted it with screws and a wood block brace glued in place to stop it moving around. 

One sentence, hours of work. 
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I then cut more from the turn table. I hope to use a fan motor to make the table spin by the end of the build. 

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I had bought some nice simple looking toggle switches and fitted them to the turn table to act as the on/off and reset buttons. I think they fit nicely.

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I had changed over some lights in the cassette deck for blue leds. The one in the radios tuning bar is the power led and some 3mm leds are in the cassette housing to light up the clear plastic. It wasnt on when i took this picture but in the upper left corner is another blue led for the HDD activity. It replaced a light that showed whether it was on stereo mode or not. So you can get a pretty good idea of how things will look onced finished here :) Ignore the cpu cooler in the graphics card side. It was there just to prop things up while i worked.

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Here's a shot of the back side and IO. I bent the L shape bracket for the GTX straight so i could drill the card to the wall flat. Cut a hole for the ports. Placed a wooden block to support the other end of the card and was done with that.

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Here I cut up a 3 speed fan to use the motor to spin the turn table when the system was powered on. I promise you it not only worked at just the right speed as to look like it was the real motor but i could also switch to the lowest power setting via switch on the back to stop it spinning if the sound was bothering me while watching a movie at night or what have you. I honestly didnt know how/if i was going to be able to make it work but sometimes things just come together for you i guess. If youre ever stuck on how to make something work, play the A Team theme. Trust me ;)  

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So here it is finished from a few angles and running Blood dragon. i ended up mostly using it as a HTPC. with the cables down behind the TV, you honestly couldnt see anything that told you it was a PC. I had a few friends very confused at first when using it. So the only things you could see that had changed was the original red stereo light was now a blue HDD LED. The tape deck now glowed with blue light. The plastic needle that marked the radio frequency was now a blue power LED and the two toggle switches but they went with the look so well everyone thought they were original anyway. So i had got the stealth look i was going for and with the added bonus of getting the table to spin. 

 

 

Cant tell you all how happy I was with how it turned out. It just looks so in place in a living room next to a TV. 

 

Hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think,

                                                                                Jenna

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I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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and sorry about the double posting of pics but the page locked up on me while posting :( 

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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and sorry about the double posting of pics but the page locked up on me while posting :(

You can edit your post--just use the Full Editor.

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

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You can edit your post--just use the Full Editor.

Thanks! fixed up :)

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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I love those little zalman coolers. They are cute(im weird). Does that case have a power button.

cpu: intel i5 4670k @ 4.5ghz Ram: G skill ares 2x4gb 2166mhz cl10 Gpu: GTX 680 liquid cooled cpu cooler: Raijintek ereboss Mobo: gigabyte z87x ud5h psu: cm gx650 bronze Case: Zalman Z9 plus


Listen if you care.

Cpu: intel i7 4770k @ 4.2ghz Ram: G skill  ripjaws 2x4gb Gpu: nvidia gtx 970 cpu cooler: akasa venom voodoo Mobo: G1.Sniper Z6 Psu: XFX proseries 650w Case: Zalman H1

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I love those little zalman coolers. They are cute(im weird). Does that case have a power button.

It was impossible to reuse any electronic parts. To make the space the system had to be gutted. So the power button couldnt be used. I have put in some toggle switches for the power and restart buttons. They really keep with the old looks of the system and look like they where always there. I will have pics when i upload the rest.

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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Nice username haha :P

 

Also pretty interesting looking build, Wouldn't mind to see some more pics of the guts.

Thanks lol and i will see if i can find the bag of crap i pulled out of it. But seriously it couldnt be used. There was string in there... string... it tuned the radio. With out string it wouldnt work... it was that bad under there lol

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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It was impossible to reuse any electronic parts. To make the space the system had to be gutted. So the power button couldnt be used. I have put in some toggle switches for the power and restart buttons. They really keep with the old looks of the system and look like they where always there. I will have pics when i upload the rest.

I remember a while ago someone connected a screw driver to some spring, when you press the screwdriver it hit the two pins turning the pc on. the spring then tense up and push the screwdriver back up. Seems hard to dobut that pretty awesome.

cpu: intel i5 4670k @ 4.5ghz Ram: G skill ares 2x4gb 2166mhz cl10 Gpu: GTX 680 liquid cooled cpu cooler: Raijintek ereboss Mobo: gigabyte z87x ud5h psu: cm gx650 bronze Case: Zalman Z9 plus


Listen if you care.

Cpu: intel i7 4770k @ 4.2ghz Ram: G skill  ripjaws 2x4gb Gpu: nvidia gtx 970 cpu cooler: akasa venom voodoo Mobo: G1.Sniper Z6 Psu: XFX proseries 650w Case: Zalman H1

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wait a minute... what's that out side of the case? cloth??

its made of wood... im not sure what your looking at??

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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Looks like this could be a great looking build in there if done properly. Have you got any more pictures of the outside and the gutted inside?

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Looks like this could be a great looking build in there if done properly. Have you got any more pictures of the outside and the gutted inside?

Have updated the original post so hopefully you can see more of what youre after.

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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  • 4 months later...
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Have finished this build and updated post

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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Have finished this build and updated post

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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Super Idea for a mod

 

nice work and congrats on having a totally unique system :)

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Super Idea for a mod

 

nice work and congrats on having a totally unique system :)

 

 

Very nice and well done.

Thanks for the input guys  :D 

I like that. Unique. Would be one of a kind i guess.

I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

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