NES Mini ITX PC.

[TheBestUserName]

I tried doing this in a Dreamcast, but in spite of my research, it turned out to be extraordinarily difficult.  So I abandoned that enclosure and bought a broken NES console from eBay. 

 

It is 98% physically complete (see very last comment in this post) and it is 100% functional.  It boots and works great. 

 

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 bought the CPU used on eBay for $45. 

 

It has a 256GB Samsung SSD, and a 750GB HDD that is nearly full with NES, SNES, Genesis, GameCube, PSP, and Wii roms and emulators. Although I probably won't use it for Wii because I have a perfectly functional Wii console with its own USB HDD. 

 

It has Windows 10, and it's set up with the Launchbox front-end with the Big Box setting autoloading.  

 

 

NES with the top off. 

 

I started cutting off posts with my rotary tool. 

 

I cut the power switch leads off a really old case that I'm not using any more. I used the original solder beads to attach the cable. It's not pretty, but it works.  

I also cut off half of the circuit board that the original Power and Reset switch used to operate.  It's not necessary for a momentary switch to turn on a computer, so it's harmless. 

 

 

I had to cut the circuit board to make room for the motherboard mount.  The bottom nuts are held in place with a small dab of superglue. 

 

 

The motherboard is only on three legs. The front right mounting hole (to the right of the power button) would have gone directly through the NES foot. 

 

I drilled and enlarged three holes in the back for the Wifi antenna and power port. Each connector is threaded and has a nut and locking washer under it.  The power cable's connector doesn't thread onto the socket, but the Wifi antennas do. 

 

Cleaned up and sanded the cuts a bit.

 

I don't really have any incremental shots showing the parts going in one at a time, but it's basically like building any other PC.  The only difference is adding a nut onto each bolt to vertically secure the motherboard.  I tried to run the cables as tidy as I could. 

 

 

Another top shot to help see. 

 

 

 

There's actually a really decent amount of space in there. The power button is functional, but the reset button had to go. If you scroll up you'll see why. I super glued the external parts to the case.  This doesn't bother me, my S340 [case] gaming PC doesn't have a reset button either.  I don't like or use them. 

 

 

The stains came that way from the eBay seller, but I did wash it. I'll probably try again later. 

The back port cut-out is bigger than it needed to be because of the adjustments I had to make as I was sizing and fitting the location.  But, it's really not all that terrible.  I'm happy with it. 

 

 

The only thing I have left to do is to get a shorter USB 3 header cable so that I can replace the two front controller ports with USB ports. I already have a cable, but it's twice as long as I need it to be.  And any one that has built a PC knows that USB 3 header cables are pretty rigid. This will be a cheap and easy step. 

[Energycore]

What did you use for a power brick / PSU? I see you've done custom work on the 24-pin ATX connector

[TheBestUserName]

4 minutes ago, Energycore said:

What did you use for a power brick / PSU? I see you've done custom work on the 24-pin ATX connector

No custom work. 

I have a link at the top of the first post for the parts I ordered. 

[Energycore]

3 minutes ago, TheBestUserName said:

No custom work. 

I have a link at the top of the first post for the parts I ordered. 

Wow the PicoPSU looks pretty dope

[TheBestUserName]

2 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Wow the PicoPSU looks pretty dope

Ya it's pretty neat.  It's basically just a converter or distributor.  The brick does all the AC/DC work. 

[Wes219]

Wow! That is really cool! I wonder how many times more powerful your build is than the original NES.

[TheBestUserName]

I think I'm mostly done now. 

I knocked out the original controller ports/connections and ran the USB header cable into the controller housing. Until this morning I was planning on buying a shorter cable to make it easier to manage, but I tried it any way. It seems to work quite well.  I used a little superglue to hold the USB ports in the housing.  [If I cut out just a small bit more case-plastic on the back, I'd have two more ports. I'm undecided if I'm going to do that, though.]

 

I couldn't figure out another way to secure the hard drive, but it rests nicely on top of some case posts. I put one small drop of super glue on top of two posts and then put the hard drive down. It, too, seems to be working well. And I don't think I used so much that the drive will be damaged if/when it needs to come out. 

 

I also rigged up the original power LED, so that works now, too.  It slow-flashes when the computer is asleep. I was thinking about connecting the LED to the hard drive activity pins, but I decided against it. (Although, it is still an option.)

 

 

Edit // oh ya. It has a hard drive now instead of the 256GB SSD. The SSD is fucked up some how.  SMART and Crystal turn out fine, but I installed Windows 4 times onto it, and each time it had problems.  Problems updating, loading programs, or booting/shutting down in a reasonable amount of time.. or any combination of those things.  Now it has a 500GB drive that I had spare. The extra space, compared to the SSD, will be very useful for certain console roms... like PS1, GameCube, etc..  I'm satisfied with its speed and performance on the hard drive. 

[ccRicers]

Nice job with the case mod. How well do GameCube games run on emulators with the integrated CPU graphics?

[TheBestUserName]

1 hour ago, ccRicers said:

Nice job with the case mod. How well do GameCube games run on emulators with the integrated CPU graphics?

Due to the reconfiguring of drives (from two, to one) I haven't imported those yet  to LaunchBox. I have very many PS1 and GameCube roms (PS1 is currently importing) so I'm not entirely sure how much space I'll have.  There really should be enough room; I have to do some housekeeping once the PS1 import is complete. 

 

My preliminary assessment is that GameCube runs fine.  While I was still dicking around with the SSD, I tested Luigi's Manson and it was playable for the two minutes I had it loaded.  But I'll post an update when I know once and for all. 

[TheBestUserName]

6 hours ago, ccRicers said:

Nice job with the case mod. How well do GameCube games run on emulators with the integrated CPU graphics?

I just played Need for Speed Underground 2 for a bit.  I drove "The Outer Ring" quick race. Dolphin at default settings (no enhancements) kept the frame rate at 45-61 the whole time.  It dropped lowest when it started raining. 

 

Open Hardware Monitor was running in the background. CPU usage was up to 100% and peak temperature was 54.5C.  Idle is 33C.  I've got about 90 games.  I can try another specific one if you want... and if I have it. 

 

PS. Underground 2 has pretty bad but GOOD graphics.  I forgot how much I enjoyed this game back in the day.  I played it on my computer back then, though. 

[Darlin]

Oh wow! Thats nice! This is one of the most creative builds I have ever seen.

[TheBestUserName]

25 minutes ago, Darlin said:

Oh wow! Thats nice! This is one of the most creative builds I have ever seen.

Thanks!  It was actually kind of easy.  If you have the means, I totally recommend it.  The specialty tools you'd need are a rotary tool [Dremel], and I used a soldering iron for the power button and LED. 

[Darlin]

13 hours ago, TheBestUserName said:

Thanks!  It was actually kind of easy.  If you have the means, I totally recommend it.  The specialty tools you'd need are a rotary tool [Dremel], and I used a soldering iron for the power button and LED. 

I'd like to get into the PC modding scene some day. It looks so fun.

[VitoHGrind]

What is the specific USB 3 header cable that you are using for the front ports?  Do you think there's enough space to stack them vertically and fit two usb ports in each controller port?