A Project for the Apocalypse: AMD Entertainment System

Nick.Desrosiers · March 27, 2020

Hi all, I made the move to PC last summer and now, my XBox has been getting increasingly obsolete. In order to replace it, I decided to build a HTPC around an R5 3400G I bought for 140$ on Kijiji.

It would have to be small, as it replaces a console, and the ability to read Blu-Rays as I still own a lot and will continue to buy physical discs. While I fell in love with the In Win Chopin, which seems to be a favorite for this type of build, I went with its little brother the BQ656. I uses the same chassis, but trades the brushed aluminium sheet for disc drive support. I managed to grab one used on eBay for $86 CAN.

Came in pretty badly scratched, so I decided it needed a paintjob. And if I was going to paint it, I wanted to do something cool: (Artist's rendering)

Iproceded to take apart the 120W PSU as I will paint the inside of the case and the PSU case, the current gray looks quite... ordinary.

Here is the USB/audio module. I will be modifying this as well, because those thick beige cables are ungodly looking as they are unwieldly to route around the case. Probably will get rid of the audio as well for the sake of neatness.

Nick.Desrosiers · March 27, 2020

Started on the bodywork. I've filled in the nooks and crannies that I won't be using. I removed the previous black paint as it was quite textured and would have wrecked the new paint. I also opened up the front of the chassis to free up some space for cable management (I did a test run, this is gonna be annoying).

I glued and puttied the slot cap that is used for an SD card reader on some models. Once I figure out my new power/reset module, I will cut out that area to fit the buttons and LED (see OP).

Also got started on primer for the other part to get them ready for the semi-gloss black of the interior parts (as soon as I can buy some )

Nick.Desrosiers · April 9, 2020

Due to the current situation, its been pretty hard to get stuff like paint and switches so I decided to put the build on hold and get some gaming done on this thing. This is probably a good moment to discuss the actual hardware used (all $ in CAD):

R5 3400g w/ Vega 11 graphics - $140 on Kijiji

Cooler Master G200P cooler - $55.99 on Amazon

Patriot Signature 2x4G 2666Mhz @ 3200Mhz - $52.99 on Amazon

MSI B450i Gaming mITX - $142.39 used on Amazon

Lexar NM600 256G NVMe SSD - Previously owned

Seagate 500g 5400rpm drive - From an old laptop

The worst part of this is that the heatsink fins are oriented front to rear, which makes sense in a traditional case, but is completely dumb when the fins dont even rise over the low profile ram. Ideally they would point south-north so that the heat would be shoveled directly out of the casethrough the side grill, but oh well. Hopefully this won't get too hot.

And me who was hoping to overclock the iGPU :/