PS2 Slim PC | Potentially Unpossible

[TheElt]

I've always wanted to build a PC in an interesting form factor, initially I had all of the plans made out for something in an Original Xbox however it ended up being too expensive for the hardware I wanted, and had an awful price/performance (Plus it had been done before ).

 

Then I thought about something no-one has done before, try and cram mid range hardware into a tiny form factor! It's unique, cool and has an even worse price/performance than my original plans! Perfect!

 

I'm also going to try and keep changes to the case to a minimum, I want it to look as stock as possible and the hardware should allow me to do that.

 

CPU - i7 5557U     [Arrived]

MB - NUC 5i7RYH     [Arrived]

RAM - 8GB DDR3L 1600MHz     [Ordered]

Storage - Samsung 850 Evo 256GB     [Ordered]

Case - PS2 Slim     [Ordered x2]

 

Gonna leave the CPU, Cooler and MB as an unknown until they arrive, I'm sure you can take some guesses as to what they are. The donor PS2s were listed as untested and for spares or repairs, they could be working fine but I don't have the cables to find out.

 

-

 

Onto the extremely rough 3D models, I suck ass at SketchUp so don't rip my throat out for the bad dimensions. The PS2 Slim it's self is based off what little there is online and by-eye guesstimation, but is generally a little smaller than it should be. The rest of the parts are made slightly bigger than they should be, to allow for margin of error.

General overview of what has to fit, a 7mm SSD and the MB with CPU and heatsink included. It's gonna be tight.

 

The biggest issues came from the bottom being a different size to the upper section, since all the dimensions I could find did not give me all the info I needed, so the size was guessed using the USB ports on the front of the console.

 

The front and side shows how much of a difference this could make to internal space. I'll update all of this when the donor consoles arrive and I have accurate measurments.

 

Both front USB ports will be wired up, along with the power button (And hopefully the LED too). Controller ports will be blanked out to save space and the memory card slots will be sealed too. DVD lid will also be sealed in place and potentially will be used as an intake depending on looks. More to come in later updates when I have more to work with.

[shadowbyte]

if this works, it will be incredible

[AstroBenny]

Well..

Good luck

[EvilWiffles]

It'd be very impressive to build a system inside a slim.

Maybe external GPU support as well :D.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Seems like a cool concept. Where are you planning to put the PSU? External like the NA PS2 Slim?

[TheRandomness]

R9 nano anyone? Also, this heatsink might work (http://silverstonetek.com/product_cooling.php?tno=0&case=c_low&area=en)

[TheElt]

2 minutes ago, AstroBenny said:

Well..

Good luck

Thanks!

2 minutes ago, EvilWiffles said:

It'd be very impressive to build a system inside a slim.

Maybe external GPU support as well :D.

That was an idea though out of budget currently. A dock containing a PSU and GPU that you can have everything connected to, and just drop the PS2 into for better performance. But running power from the dock to the console along with PCIE data in a way that's hidden but rugged is a bit of a challenge.

2 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Seems like a cool concept. Where are you planning to put the PSU? External like the NA PS2 Slim?

The board just so happens to have a DC jack input, so it'll be an external brick but not very bulky.

1 minute ago, TheRandomness said:

R9 nano anyone? Also, this heatsink might work (http://silverstonetek.com/product_cooling.php?tno=0&case=c_low&area=en)

Sadly the Nano is a slot and a bit too tall, and too long. The AR04 was the first I looked at when I came up with the idea, but it'd end up being too thick when mounted to a board.

2 minutes ago, DEcobra11 said:

If it's really 152 mm mITX won't fit (cause well... 170x170 mm) so what? UCFF (NuC) MB?

You guessed it. NUC board is the only thing that fits, whilst having the power and expansion I'd like. But it's quite thick all things considered without the SATA port being populated

[Howlingwolf101]

Why not use a regular (original) sized PS2? Is that too big? I'm curious why you chose the slim version.

[TheRandomness]

2 minutes ago, TheElt said:

-snips-

Sadly the Nano is a slot and a bit too tall, and too long. The AR04 was the first I looked at when I came up with the idea, but it'd end up being too thick when mounted to a board.

-snips-

 http://silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=367&area=en Use that instead and have the heatsink sticking out the top.

[Bananasplit_00]

make build log out of this thread please, i will definatly follow

[TheElt]

Just now, Howlingwolf101 said:

Why not use a regular (original) sized PS2? Is that too big? I'm curious why you chose the slim version.

Too big and it's been done before. I wanted something that'd be challenging and cool, plus I'd have something easy to cart around with me if needs be.

Just now, TheRandomness said:

 http://silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=367&area=en Use that instead and have the heatsink sticking out the top.

Hah, that'd be a unique look for sure. Doesn't fit with the stealth look however

Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

make build log out of this thread please, i will definatly follow

That's the plan. PS2s and MB are supposed to arrive Wednesday, RAM and SSD hopefully this week. I do need to get myself a dremel first, however.

[TheRandomness]

Just now, TheElt said:

Too big and it's been done before. I wanted something that'd be challenging and cool, plus I'd have something easy to cart around with me if needs be.

Hah, that'd be a unique look for sure. Doesn't fit with the stealth look however

That's the plan. PS2s and MB are supposed to arrive Wednesday, RAM and SSD hopefully this week. I do need to get myself a dremel first, however.

Paint it black.

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, TheElt said:

Too big and it's been done before. I wanted something that'd be challenging and cool, plus I'd have something easy to cart around with me if needs be.

Hah, that'd be a unique look for sure. Doesn't fit with the stealth look however

That's the plan. PS2s and MB are supposed to arrive Wednesday, RAM and SSD hopefully this week. I do need to get myself a dremel first, however.

im going to go pick up a PS2 for $30 at the local pawn shop just so i can post it here now  hope this turns out awesome and that its going to me awesome  

[TheElt]

4 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

Paint it black.

I did buy two consoles... If I can get the money, I'll make something silly for show

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

im going to go pick up a PS2 for $30 at the local pawn shop just so i can post it here now  hope this turns out awesome and that its going to me awesome  

Had to order mine off Ebay, 2 for £30 which wasn't bad, people are asking quite a bit for them still

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, TheElt said:

 

they still have some awesome games

[TheElt]

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

they still have some awesome games

I had an Xbox instead of a PS2, only games I really wish I had one to play are the MGS series

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, TheElt said:

I had an Xbox instead of a PS2, only games I really wish I had one to play are the MGS series

i never had one myself but almost all my friends did and i used to be so hyped to go to there place after school to play games

[TheElt]

8 minutes ago, DEcobra11 said:

So... thickness is a problem eh?. This GPU isn't that top end but might be better than the iGPU (you'd try this with the LP version too :P)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/single-slot-geforce-gtx-750-ti,3761.html

~Snip~

I had a good look into 750Ti's, but sadly no-one makes a single slot, low profile card that's no longer than the PCIE slot. MSI's 750Ti LP could fit with the fans removed by the looks of things, and it's the same length as the PCIE slot, but then I'd need a way of pushing air over it, and the heatsink would need cutting down to fit with the lip the console has. Not to mention that takes away all space for the SSD

[Bananasplit_00]

just thought of something, you can probably fit about 6 Raspberry Pi's in there, wonder how they would stack up as a cluster against whats planed here, especially now with the Pi 2 here being actually something that can be used running either Rasbian or full Windows 10, i wonder how good fps/$ it would have in comparison to something like a nuc with a skylake IGPU or similar

 

*edit*

also never released before how insainly small a NUC motherboard is...

[TheElt]

5 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

just thought of something, you can probably fit about 6 Raspberry Pi's in there, wonder how they would stack up as a cluster against whats planed here, especially now with the Pi 2 here being actually something that can be used running either Rasbian or full Windows 10, i wonder how good fps/$ it would have in comparison to something like a nuc with a skylake IGPU or similar

 

*edit*

also never released before how insainly small a NUC motherboard is...

Unfortunately the issue with that is ARM and nothing that can scale across multiple 'nodes'. Even if you could couple 6 together as 1, it wouldn't be x86 Windows and wouldn't be massively powerful.

 

Yeah, the damn things have a tiny footprint considering all the features they pack on. Extremely impressive little things

[Bananasplit_00]

2 minutes ago, TheElt said:

Unfortunately the issue with that is ARM and nothing that can scale across multiple 'nodes'. Even if you could couple 6 together as 1, it wouldn't be x86 Windows and wouldn't be massively powerful.

 

Yeah, the damn things have a tiny footprint considering all the features they pack on. Extremely impressive little things

hmm didnt think of that but it would be cool if they could scale, that might kill the NUCs almost seing as you can fit 2 Pi's in the footprint of a NUC

[TheElt]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

hmm didnt think of that but it would be cool if they could scale, that might kill the NUCs almost seing as you can fit 2 Pi's in the footprint of a NUC

Would be interesting, but they'd still struggle to keep up with the (Frankly a bit silly) i7 NUCs that are essentially a desktop i3 with lower power draw.

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, TheElt said:

Would be interesting, but they'd still struggle to keep up with the (Frankly a bit silly) i7 NUCs that are essentially a desktop i3 with lower power draw.

yah the I7s are silly power for something that small  what are you getting for this then?

[TheElt]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

yah the I7s are silly power for something that small  what are you getting for this then?

All will be revealed when the NUC arrives. But it was a tough choice between the options I had

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, TheElt said:

All will be revealed when the NUC arrives. But it was a tough choice between the options I had

well then i guess i have no choice but to wait then