Vintage Hi-Fi PC

[Sabbathian]

Hi all!

As someone who likes old Hi-Fi gear and collects old Sanyo Hi-Fi components, I decided to take one old Sanyo amplifier and integrate my computer inside of it. That way I can have my PC as a part of my Hi-Fi tower!

 

I used standard desktop components I had in my PC, but my goal was to have the whole front completely functional, all the knobs and switches.
I know this is not the top of the line PC, but it is my baby I have been using for years now and its still serving me great, so be gentle

Original amp had to be gutted, and many modifications had to be made to the main shell. While I was at it, I also customized almost all the components inside, and made many parts out of copper and wood.

Bottom part of the case had to be separate from top so I could fit original 1978 switches inside, and to make room for three hard drives. I separated bottom and top sections with one piece of hand cut copper plate (2mm thick). Purpose of copper is purely cosmetical, there is no special reason (heat etc) behind it. That plate sits on four steel feet with anti vibration rubber on bottom and top, painted in copper.
Back plate is made one part from copper (where motherboard comes), and one part in wood (where graphics card comes).
Since there is a serious height problem with that kind of case, I had to use PCI-Express riser to place graphics card horizontally and Noctuas low profile CPU cooler in order for everything to fit inside.

Graphics card and motherboard both got a new paint job and wooden inserts.

Front functionality, starting from left to right:
- Top two knobs control fan speeds
- Power switch turns on the computer
- Green light for HDD activity
- USB 3.0 port hidden behind a knob
- 2 switches to turn on/off fans
- 2 switches to turn on/off LCDs
- Above switches - left LCD shows case temperature and the right one - CPU temperature
- Largest knob is for volume control
- below it, another USB 3.0 hidden behind a knob
- Big red power light

Outer shell has been made from scratch, using 1.5mm aluminum mesh and profiles. Top plate is hinged, so it is extremely easy to take a look inside

And finally, all the copper got a nice polished finish and the rest was painted in mat black.

I hope you will like it as much as I liked working on it. It took me some time, but to me, its more then worth it.
And don`t judge it by the old components... I worked with what I got

Have a nice day everybody!

 

Here is the video of it working ;)

 

[Lot Qahnaarin]

That looks very nice!

[kilcmd]

SICK SICK SICK BUILD!!

Good Job on it!

[Zando_]

Holy SHIT that is gorgeous! Especially all the knobs and switches, I love those. And are you using an EVGA Classy mobo? Looks like the same northbridge heatsink as my Classified X58 boards. 

[Sabbathian]

1 hour ago, Zando Bob said:

Holy SHIT that is gorgeous! Especially all the knobs and switches, I love those. And are you using an EVGA Classy mobo? Looks like the same northbridge heatsink as my Classified X58 boards. 

Yeah, thats EVGA X58 SLI Classified inside

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Sabbathian said:

Yeah, thats EVGA X58 SLI Classified inside

Hell yeah! I've got a V1.0 Classy 4-Way (the big XL-ATX one), and 3-Way (the EATX one), they're stellar boards. X58 still does a lot for it's age too, I mostly upgraded for better gaming performance, am on X99 for my main now. Need to build a proper X58 rig again, right now I've just got an X5670 running at stock for my folding rig. 

[Sabbathian]

19 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Hell yeah! I've got a V1.0 Classy 4-Way (the big XL-ATX one), and 3-Way (the EATX one), they're stellar boards. X58 still does a lot for it's age too, I mostly upgraded for better gaming performance, am on X99 for my main now. Need to build a proper X58 rig again, right now I've just got an X5670 running at stock for my folding rig. 

Mine is paired with i7 970 @ 3.6GHz, 24 Gigs of RAM, two SSDs and GTX 970... for my usage, still enough. I mostly do 3D graphics and sure, new components would eat it, but there is really still no need for me to upgrade... I think these components will stay in this PC forever. Next PC that I will buy, some day, will be a brand new project

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, Sabbathian said:

Mine is paired with i7 970 @ 3.6GHz, 24 Gigs of RAM, two SSDs and GTX 970... for my usage, still enough. I mostly do 3D graphics and sure, new components would eat it, but there is really still no need for me to upgrade... I think these components will stay in this PC forever. Next PC that I will buy, some day, will be a brand new project

Noice, mine is similar. X5670 (basically the same CPU at a slightly lower clock since it's running stock rn), 24GB RAM (1600Mhz CL9, I've pushed it to around 2100Mhz CL10 when I was OCing), just a single SSD and right now a 1660 Ti and 1050 Ti for F@H. Have ran it with up to a 1080 Ti, but at 1080p there was a bit of a CPU bottleneck going on, lol. 

If I build a proper rig with it I'll probably use my NH-D15S (rn it runs the stock cooler from an i7 920) so I can push a heavy overclock, and pair it with either my 1050 or 660, since those are the only GPUs I have that aren't folding or in my main rn. 

[NinJake]

This is wonderful!! Awesome work with this build, it's something I would want at my place.

[Sabbathian]

On 10/1/2019 at 11:18 PM, NinJake said:

This is wonderful!! Awesome work with this build, it's something I would want at my place.

Thank you! I also designed a complete new computer case in this style, but for people that only want to install components inside an existing case, not spending alot of time making something like this. I even started a crowdfunding campaign for it. You can can find it on OKpal.com under "Vintage Hi-Fi Computer Case"

[NotABigGamer]

Nice! the design is cool!