Dreamcast mini ITX PC building

[TheBestUserName]

Disclaimer: No working Dreamcasts were harmed during the making of this film. 

 

With these parts that are either in-transit or already owned by me, I'll be shoving it all into gutted Dreamcast case. 

 

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157687

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232301

Power supply/brick and converter:  http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-150-XT-102-power-kit

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1N83U90919&cm_re=g4500-_-19-117-624-_-Product

 

I found the CPU on eBay for less than a G4400.  

I have storage taken care of. 

 

My Craftsman rotary tool is going to get a workout.  I'll buy some more bits when I go to Home Depot for glossy black spray paint. 

 

I'll need to figure out that power switch because it's two-position. If there's no way to gently "break" it into a momentary switch, I'll buy one from eBay or hopefully Fry's because it's in-town. 

 

This post is premature because I don't have all the parts yet (as mentioned above), but I'm excited about it and it should be fun. I plan on tossing all my roms and emulators on it and rigging the four controller ports with USB. 

[Rodniz]

Dis is gonna be gud!

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

I'm excited to see this come to fruition, I'm assuming you're not gonna use a tiny GPU as the Skylake iGPU is actually rather powerful, what will this build be used for?

[ManOfGold93]

Subbed!

[minibois]

RIP dreamcast, but I guess it will be put to good use.

[Energycore]

Dropping the follow cuz this looks like a super cool project.

[TheBestUserName]

7 minutes ago, Jacktastic-Mofo said:

I'm excited to see this come to fruition, I'm assuming you're not gonna use a tiny GPU as the Skylake iGPU is actually rather powerful, what will this build be used for?

Right. I'll just use the integrated HD530 graphics. 

 

I'll put my roms and emulators on it.  I briefly tinkered with RetroArch last night. It works and it's pretty cool... albeit not that elegant. It's like a messy version of the PS3 XMB. I might continue to use it, or look for a cleaner version.  Or maybe even a shell UI for RetroArch. 

 

It should look snazzy under my TV between my receiver and Wii U. 

[TheBestUserName]

12 minutes ago, Minibois said:

RIP dreamcast, but I guess it will be put to good use.

I'm not using one that works.

 

In fact, I ordered a "broken" one from eBay that turned out to work just fine. The power button was stuck.  It took literally two minutes to fix. I'm selling it to a coworker and using a different one. I made sure to ask him if he's going to disassemble it or play it because I don't want to contribute to accelerated deaths of Dreamcasts. But... he said he'll be playing it. 

 

[Bananasplit_00]

2 minutes ago, TheBestUserName said:

Right. I'll just use the integrated HD530 graphics. 

 

I'll put my roms and emulators on it.  I briefly tinkered with RetroArch last night. It works and it's pretty cool... albeit not that elegant. It's like a messy version of the PS3 XMB. I might continue to use it, or look for a cleaner version.  Or maybe even a shell UI for RetroArch. 

 

It should look snazzy under my TV between my receiver and Wii U. 

i have a small bit of experience with RetroArch and its pretty good, i use it on my phone to play GBA games like Pokemon and it works pretty good once you have got it set up but my saves seem to have corrupted or something and i cant seem to save anymore but i dont know if thats because of RetroArch or the ROM i was using

[TheBestUserName]

20 minutes ago, Rodniz said:

Dis is gonna be gud!

I don't think it'll be very pretty with all the necessary cutting and tiny working space, but it should be fun at least. 

[Rodniz]

1 hour ago, TheBestUserName said:

I don't think it'll be very pretty with all the necessary cutting and tiny working space, but it should be fun at least. 

If you manage to get clean cuts and work overall carefully that could get really cool. If you ruin it, well, i wont judge too much

[TheBestUserName]

1 hour ago, Rodniz said:

If you manage to get clean cuts and work overall carefully that could get really cool. If you ruin it, well, i wont judge too much

I guess I need to find out what rotary bit is best for ABS plastic.

[Prokart2000]

4 hours ago, Rodniz said:

Dis is gonna be gud!

 

[ccRicers]

Following this! Been a while since I've seen a Dreamcast PC mod.

[TheBestUserName]

In this picture, I have already unscrewed the switch assembly and the C-shaped bracket. 

 

Here's the bracket completely removed. It has two finger-like things so that it can hold onto all four sides of the plastic housing. 

 

 

The bracket had to come off so that I could get to this clip on the bottom of the switch.  

 

Here's the back side of the housing removed. 

 

With the back removed, while pressing the 2-position switch, I could see the tiny piece of metal moving back and forth holding it into position.  The mechanism works kind of like a clicky-top ink pen. 

 

 

In this picture you can see the tiny piece of metal sitting on the back cover. After discarding that piece and snapping the back cover back on, it behaves like a momentary switch.  In theory, this should create the momentary short circuit a computer power button needs. 

 

 

Here's the power button replaced into the case.  I cut off the end that leads to the Dreamcast's power supply.  When the motherboard arrives, I'll solder the regular pins for the front-panel power button to the bare ends of this cable.  I really hope there's room for the switch assembly with the motherboard in place.

 

 

Motherboard and memory arrive on Wednesday. 

PicoPSU and power brick arrive on Monday. 

CPU and cooler should also be here on Monday. Tuesday at the latest.  

 

I'd rather the motherboard get here first.

 

 

The motherboard doesn't come with any USB header cables, so I'll end up buying these two guys:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4DR1VY8336&cm_re=usb_2_header_cable-_-9SIA4DR1VY8336-_-Product

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812423076&cm_re=usb_3_header_cable-_-12-423-076-_-Product

 

If I could find a single USB 3 header that has four ports on it... reasonably priced... I'd get that.  Otherwise, I can live with two USB 2 and two USB 3.  

 

With the Dreamcast controller port assembly removed, It'll be a perfect place for USB.

[PlayStation 2]

Holy shit, I actually wanna see this.

Following.

[Albatross]

That poor Dreamcast! t-t either way this should be fun!