I have a Dream...The Dreamcast SFF build!

[Ross Siggers]

On 12/27/2018 at 7:44 AM, thevicparable said:

Awesome build!

 

I'm starting my own in an old PS2 case soon. Like you I'll have to mount the motherboard upside down and was wondering how to go about it. I've never seen those super tall stand-offs before. Where did you get them?

Thanks Jermaine, I saw you and Brett live last year, epic gig  I just got them on ebay. search for 35mm standoff, and they should show up. Mine ahve since been ground down very slightly to lower the CPU cooler nearer the opening on the bottom.

 

~~~ 

Regarding progress, I've not done anything on the build for the last two weeks or so because of the holidays, yesterday I tried to tap the mounting holes on my gpu cooler, and the tool just...stripped. Fucking cheap eBay shit  

 

Before Christmas, I'd done some more cutting/plastic work, adjusted component positions, I've even run a cpu stress test, shell on, lid closed! It was hot, but didn't throttle which was nice. Debating a small vent on the side, it'll slightly affect the sleeper aesthetic... but that corner of the case got very warm to the touch...

proper update soon I promise.

[Ross Siggers]

Oh, somewhat unrelated but @BLLDoesTech...I just bought a sealed copy of Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Edition :3

Question is, do I keep it sealed, or have the pleasure of opening it myself...

[kelvinhall05]

15 minutes ago, Ross Siggers said:

Oh, somewhat unrelated but @BLLDoesTech...I just bought a sealed copy of Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Edition :3

Question is, do I keep it sealed, or have the pleasure of opening it myself...

When's your birthday?

[Ross Siggers]

1 hour ago, kelvinhall05 said:

When's your birthday?

Sonic's Birthday, not mine   On his 10th anniversary, in Japan, they release a special big-box edition of Sonic Adventure 2, with a soundtrack disc, a booklet, and a commemorative medallion. It was available for only two days.

 

Thankfully, they sold a lot because they're surprisingly affordable. I payed £65 for a fully sealed copy. You can get average condition ones starting at around £40, and there's always a few dreamers that have them listed for far more as well. The thing is because it's a cardboard box, they often get a big dog-eared.

 

 

[Ross Siggers]

I spoke to Craig from KPMKT and I'll be getting the correct Dynamo Mini power supply sent out at the start of next week. So I'll try and write up a proper update tonight or Monday, so I can dive into the mounting of the power supply afterwards. 

[Ross Siggers]

NEEEERRRDDDDD!!! 

 

Turns out the birthday pack wasn't actually sealed, it was shrink wrapped by the shop in Japan prior to export. Still in very good condition though, seller is going to reimburse me a little for the misunderstanding. Now I just need to get white label(review) copies of the games as well... 

 

Update tomorrow, I promise! My power supply is in the mail as we speak. 

[Ross Siggers]

Okaaaaay update time, big progress made just before Christmas.

 

I cut the standoffs down for the motherboard, as much as the RAM would allow me to, about 4mm. Remember, the memory is the tallest part of the motherboard, and I currently have it sitting physically as far down as it will allow. The hole in the floor will be 'plated over' using spare plastic saved from other spots on the Dreamcast, so hopefully once smoothed and tidied, it won't look too much out of place.

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the board is as low as it can be. Obviously for more graphics card room, but it's also solved the issue with the lid mechanism, which I alluded to in an earlier post. Honestly the only reason I'm keeping the mechanism in is I can't really think of a good DIY way to make the lid open.

 

 

 

 

Next up after cutting the RAM access hole, was fixing the incorrect hole i cut for the CPU cooler. Obviously i didn't freehand this as well as I thought. I moved it to account for the new location of the motherboard...but I overcompensated! Anyway, a little careful expanding and it's right as rain. A small, chamfered(angled) edge will be added later, to funnel the air down into the fan portion of the cooler. 

 

Here's a picture of the open test bench I was posting from before Christmas. You can see I'm using the KPMKT Dynamo 360 power supply that I was sent, like I said this has already been boxed back up and I'm getting a Dynamo Mini instead. there's no way it would have fitted into the Dreamcast looking at it now...

 

I'm using a Samsung Evo 850 SSD from my old gaming PC that was sold, although it will have to be removed from it's casing for final fitting, at the very least. No onboard card for wifi or bluetooth at that moment either, so I'm using a wifi dongle, and a wired keyboard and mouse. Talk about cluttered!!

 

 

It's a relief to finally get to boot the system, and to see that all the parts I bought work, especially as some of them have been gathering dust for a while!!

 

 

 

Next up we have the sweet 3D-printed fan mount that I got my friend to make for me, from a design freely availalbe online. It'd designed for the regular dreamcast, to replace the super tiny high pitched original fan, with a 40mm noctua item. This is going to be a front exhaust port to try and get a bit of hot air out from such a confined case.

The only problem is...fitting a bigger fan, doesn't make the vent on the case bigger!! It just looks so...restrictive. The shame is, to make them the vent the correct size would mean cutting accross the seam, where the top and bottom sections of the case join together. Not easy to do cleanly, aside from the issue of affecting the sleeper look. But that wouldn't be too bad...I'll have to think on that one. 

 

Anyway, time to whack it all into the case and see how those thermals are!! I attached the PCIe riser but didn't have any luck getting a display out of the GPU. Not to mention it's still without a cooler...I hope it's just a shitty riser, I'd hate to think I've messed up that card after the work that's been going into it to make it fit...

 

 

Now this. THIS...was a satisfying moment. Putting the top half on, shutting the lid and having it fully working as a PC, with only the power cable and monitor cable out the back. Admittedly the power cable went to the Dynamo 360, but remember this will be onboard eventually. Right now, from the front, the only giveaway is the cables you can juuust about see through the controller ports. I actually used a steam controller for the rest of my testing time, to keep the clean wireless look going  That's what it'll be like in the end anyway, I intend to use a wireless kb/mouse with this.

As for thermals....well, they're going to be just as tricky as I imagined. Although honestly,  not terrible considering the complete lack of any real ventilation, save from the rear I/O area. After running Aida64 for around 15 minutes, I was pretty sure I'd reached my ceiling hovering just between 80-85 degrees. And there was no throttling.

Things to consider are, eventually there'll be a graphics card generating heat as well, so that front exhaust fan will definitely have to be in there and working pretty well to help. Also, the back corner of the case, where the CPU cooler is right next to? That got REALLY hot to the touch. So I think some exhaust vets low down on the side of the case are in order. Maybe on the angled bottom edge to make them less noticeable, but yeah, there needs to be somewhere for the heat to escape there, because even though the back is well ventilated, the air being chucked up against that wall is just making it too toasty for my liking.

 

 

 

[Ja Krispie]

So far loving this build! These are the kinds of builds I love seeing!

[Ross Siggers]

So they released an AM4 board in the STX format. It had been rumoured, I'd even seen pictures of a prototype...

 

BUT FUCK ME A RYZEN APU WOULD HAVE MADE MY LIFE SO MUCH EASIER GOD DAMN.

[Galahad IV]

Great Build so far ! :D

 

Are you planning on adding any kind of front IO instead of the controller ports ?

[GrogStache]

Looking really nice! That pic of the closed top is a great harbinger of things to come. 

[Ross Siggers]

16 hours ago, Galahad IV said:

Great Build so far !

 

Are you planning on adding any kind of front IO instead of the controller ports ?

I'm not sure yet, the front I/O on the motherboard wil probably be inaccessible due to cable management. Which sucks because this thing has USB-C. I'm going to see if I can reroute some of it, but that's a consideration for much later on. 

[Ross Siggers]

I may be getting carried away with this... 

 

Seller was a bit of a douche on the first one, refused to discuss anything at first, despite the listing being misleading(after investigating it clearly wasn't new, or sealed). Ended up giving me a pretty small refund...

 

Second one had a sealed game, but pictures didn't show box damage, and the crack beneath the shrink wrap...

 

I have purchased a third, on its way to me now. Really cheap, it had a battered box. But seemingly undamaged, sealed game. I'm going to mix and match parts from all of them(they're not numbered), and sell two of them on to try and recoup my losses. 

 

I should come out with only a small amount lost. But I'm relatively new to game collecting...and this is a lesson  

[Embroysia]

Omg the Dreamcast was my first console as a kid.

Keep it up, dude, this is awesome! 

[Ross Siggers]

So clearly this project has been on the backburner. I've generally just been busy with L I F E, job interviews, potential relocation too. So my mind is elsewhere.

Although I randomly bought a Zotac 1060 mini last night. Hey it was a great deal, and even if it doesn't fit in the Dreamcast, I can use it in my other project, a homemade eGPU enclosure for my laptop  I also bought a few new tools to tap out the threads for my GTX750 cooler. Hopefully they won't be made of cheese like the last one, and I can finally assemble that card.

[Xkillerpn]

Maybe a R9 fury nano or a vega nano will fit, they are very small.

[Ross Siggers]

9 minutes ago, Xkillerpn said:

Maybe a R9 fury nano or a vega nano will fit, they are very small.

The initial plan was for a 1050 mini, not only for budget, but power and heat. Honestly the 1060 is pushing it, if I had to change card I'd go to the 1050.

If I do another sleeper build, I'm definitely not making it so challenging. The space is minuscule.

[Ross Siggers]

Also, I completed my Sonic Adventure 2 quest. Collecting games sucks. Not for me I don't think!

 

UK retail copy

'The Trial' demo + manual

'White Label' reviewers disc

Birthday Pack, sealed disc

 

 

[Ross Siggers]

THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE BUT I SHOWED THEM!!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

I'm referring to my graphics-card-on-a-diet...I'm writing out an update now  

 

[Ross Siggers]

Okay, update part one...because i always run into the image limit even though I shrink the quality  

 

I got my new power supply! It's a Dynamo Mini, rated up to a peak of 200W and itty-bitty small  But, I'm not 100% how to hook it up yet, I need to ask some FURTHER advice on that front. It's supposed to plug directly into the 24-pin on the motherboard, but I only have a DC jack on the STX form factor. So for now, I can't actually boot the system, as I returned the previous power supply in exchange for this one. 

 

 

Don't worry, it comes with a range of cables  Anyway, it'll be sitting where the modem would have gone on the Dreamcast, the only significant area of space left in the case. I'll have to trim, and open it up a lot, but I'll try and leave a lip because a lot of the structural rigidity left in the case, comes from that box-section...

 

 

Next up, we have the first Noctua fan I've ever bought! And I have to say, opening the front cover was the most hilarious, anti-climactic thing i've ever seen  Yes my friends, it's a whopping 40mm fan...but damn, if the accessories and quality don't justify the price. Can't wait to get larger Noctua products for future builds. 

 

 

 

As you can see, it bolts neatly into the 3D-printed adapter. As I said before, this part was actually modelled for people who want to fit a more effective, quieter fan to their original Dreamcasts. Man, the internet is awesome. It barely fits, I swear it's touching the roof and lid button both at the same time...but it looks cool in there, and should definitely bring down my temps significantly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ross Siggers]

Update part 2...THE GRAPHICS CARD.

So my new thread taps came in. They aren't made of cheese like the last one I bought, because I used the same one to thread all of the necessary holes...I probably over ordered then, I bought five because I anticipated many many failures  

 

A slow, delicate process, but I got all four holes tapped perfectly. What a beautiful sight. Unfortunately my mantra of "I'll just judge this by eye" made me come a little unstuck when I fitted the cooler up, because one of the boltholes was about 2mm out of alignment. So out came the files, and I had to elongate one of the holes on the PCB, you can see the picture where the bolt is offset from the sticker around the hole. There's a safe zone around the holes where no circuity runs, but that was a very painful thing to have to do  Good job this is only a GTX750!

After that though...well, look at that fitment! It lines up, and tightens down straight and true, I removed and re-seated it just to check the paste and contact patch; They're perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And once again, lets take a look at how sexy and thin this card is now...the GTX1060 next to it is a two-slot card, but it looks huge in comparison...Pictures don't do justice to how sleek this card is now.

 

 

The only downside to the great progress I made tonight, was the cooling fan for the card. All testing of the card powered up was done using my eGPU dock...I was hoping to use the original 75mm fan, from when it was still a CPU cooler? And on initial tests(holding wires to the header pins), it seemed to work...but when i pieced it together properly, and booted the system...it stopped working instantly. Pretty sure there was too much power for the fan to handle and it died a quick and painless death...

 

So the solution? Well, I'm not sure yet. I could clip the fins shorter on the GPU's original fan and carry on using that, but it's a tad taller, so may not fit nicely. Or take face of the CPU fan, and put it onto the hub of the GPU fan...but that has it's own issues with fitment...We'll see. What I can tell you, is after spending months in pieces, and being...pretty badly abused...the card still works! I didn't run any tests, as it was passively cooled at this point. But it booted into windows and detected perfectly fine, so it should be good to go into the Dreamcast.

[Ross Siggers]

Oh, one last note; I will probably have to lose the hinge on the lid. As cool as it would be to keep it on there, the mechanism is taking up much needed space inside the case. What I'll probably do is make little supports so it can sit in place, but be taken off. Maybe a tiny magnet or two, to hold it in place. 

 

Plus, I'm definitely making sure the card can keep it's plastic shroud, because it's gonna look like an engine bay when you take the lid off!!!   

 

 

[Ross Siggers]

So I was trying to figure out fan options last night, and the original CPU fan came back to life. Holding the wires to the headers made it spin up! So I spent the time wiring the spades from the GPU fan onto it, screwed it onto the card, booted, AND... 

 

... It doesn't work. ARE YOU FUCKING TROLLING ME RIGHT NOW. 

 

The only fan option I can buy, is a replacement fan for a 1050ti from China. And its £20!! So I'm trying to avoid that but it looks like I'll have to bite the bullet

 

 

I did actually run a benchmark, I figured I'd see what it was like passively cooled.... The 750 chugged through Superposition, and got toasty, but not super toasty. Its only a short test though, no doubt in prolonged usage, in the confines of the case, it'd overheat. The dips in the graph? That's me blowing on the card. No I'm not joking  

 

 

The stack of components looks impressive and... Dense. Adding power wires will be interesting, but there's actually a fair bit of space at the front for that and the ssd... 

 

 

 

[Ross Siggers]

Well... The fan works. If anybody asks, I definitely didn't mix up the power and ground wires when I soldered it....

 

So I did a slightly longer test. I ran Furmark until the temperature levelled off, which only took a few minutes. 55 degrees open air, assuming the lid of the Dreamcast will be open while gaming, that shouldn't go up too much Fan sat at 40% on automatic, so I ramped it up to 70%. I'll definitely work on a custom fan curve when the build is running because I want it to be quiet with the lid on under normal usage. 

 

 

[Ross Siggers]

I've been browsing a really cool GameCube build on the Small Form Factor forums, shout out to EjectButton if he's reading this  Here's the finished build, doesn't it look sick!!! Similar components, and layout, the only major difference being no internal PSU. Anyway, I thought I'd just post a tiny update;

- I'm looking for a better, higher speed M.2 riser cable. When I get this build powered up again, I don't want to be hamstrung by the currently very low PCIe bandwidth this riser gives me, x1 supposedly. With a more powerful graphics card, the performance loss proportionally becomes more significant.

 

- Going to speak to a local PC shop to help me with the KMPKT Mini. Because it's designed to be plugged directly into a motherboard, it needs a trigger signal to operate remotely. I've been told I can get this signal from a fan header. I also need to get power from the 24-pin, into a DC-barrel. And I suck at making my own wiring... and they're friendly blokes down there.

 

- I Sold the 1060  It was simply because I needed the money in the bank; my car is at a bodyshop. BUT... I did mock it up, and it fits! Because the PCB is longer, I was worried about clearance of the 6-pin power plug, it's right up front where the case gets shallower. But it clears okay, and with a custom cooler made up, it would fit just fine  So the card is gone, but the option for more POWAH has not been ruled out. Hell, it's one of the main reasons I'm even using an internal PSU.
 

~~~

Getting my car back on the road is the main goal, especially with the weather looking up I wanna be able to hit those country lanes on the weekends  But this build is not forgotten, especially with the good dose of inspiration I got.