AIO XBOX ONE & PC & Streaming setup w/built in battery backup

[Justin_]

 Well I guess I have been bumped to the second page due to a lack of posting  so here is an update, first off the updates have been slow due to cold weather and Christmas like I said, but let me get you upto speed. First off the Kinect adapter is still on schedule and should be here friday. Second off I have been using my XBOX inside the case I am building and using the network switch connected through the computer PSU with no issues, the PC is not in there yet but the system is staying nice and cool due to the 2 120mm NF-F12's and the off brand 80mm fan.

 

Next thing to mention and the reason of this post is, well the photo below (by karlijoy on Reddit) got me thinking, what if instead of just mat black vinyl I had a custom print on it?? I want this to look badass!! It will look cool, but it would be much better with some awesome artwork. All from games I played and love of course. Likely including but not limited to MAPPY, Galaga, Xevious, Rayman 2, Super Mario 64, Tony Hawk pro skater (several versions from N64 to XBOX ONE), 1080 Snowboarding, Destruction Derby 64, NFL Quarterback Club '98, DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION! (the one with the real mats on the PS2/arcades), Zoo tycoon, Sim City 4, Microsoft flight simulator, DROP, Roblox, Half Life, Portal, TF2, Rocket League, DOOM (2016), Fallout 4, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and plenty of others.

 

Well as I type this it doesn't sound as good as it did in my head, well i'll put some thought into the idea, this could make it look epic or stupid.

 

 

[Justin_]

Ok I did get some work done today, I made one of the metal frames that goes on the outer edge, it doesn't look perfect, but it will be covered with corner guards so it is just fine. Because it is made out of aluminium I was able to cut it with a broken pair of harbor freight tin snips and some diagonal cutters.

 

 

progress photos/videos hidden spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

[Justin_]

well i'm on the second page again :/, TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE! Well I filmed these videos a few days ago, but I was too busy to post due to the holidays, but here they are now!

 

The first video here is is just talking about how I ripped the entire case apart, and I did this for a few reasons, 1 is that I wanted to take my XBOX to my parents place as I was going over for Christmas, and 2 is I want to make a few modifications, one is that I need to cut about 1cm off the bottom piece as it is a bit too long, another is that I want to add a cutoff switch for the internal batteries, and also possibly replace them with some higher quality duracell batteries. I also noticed that the expandable and nonexpandable versions of this system use the same PCB, I will be attaching the replacements exactly where the existing batteries are, but it is good to know that the UPS should be able to handle different types of batteries. I also trimmed out the small 90mm fan that came with the UPS because I will now be using the 120mm NF-F12 fans to keep the system cool and QUIET. I am also going to have the case more permanently secured when I put it together this next time so that will require a bit of work, as sofar it has just been assembled as a test fit. I am going to make it so that I can somewhat easily disassemble it at a later point if I need to upgrade some hardware, replace a component, or something else.

 

 

The second video is talking about the Kinect adapter as it came in on friday, basically I was just talking about how it basically just supplies more power to the kinect then the USB 3.0 standard will allow like I assumed. One thing that is at least noteable is that it only works in one of the ports on the XBOX even though all of them are USB 3.0, and that is the "Left" USB 3.0 port on the back (the one next to the HDMI ports)

 

 

Alright that is it for now, follow this post for more updates!

[Justin_]

Oh new, unfortunately needed, update. So I am going to do a review of the steam controller and steam link soon on my other channel and to do that I need a working desktop computer, preferably one that can run demanding games like DOOM (2016), Fallout 4, GTA5, and some others, but I sold my system a few months back to start working on this project so I decided I would just use one of my spare servers, an IBM Systems X3650 M1, I have done this same thing before without any issues so I figured this would just work. I put the GPU in, used the Corsair RM650X to power it, and jumpered the pins to activate the PSU, then I turned the server on and nothing... tried again a few times but still nothing, oh wait STUPID ME I took the CPU out of this server to use in a different one. So I took the CPU out of the other server and put it back in this one, I then powered it up and YAY DISPLAY OUTPUT! Or not yay... It told me that I needed to turn off the computer and plug in the power connector to the connector(s), BUT IT IS PLUGGED IN, and I have used this method before without issues. The people I sold the computer to said they got a similar error code when they popped a 1080 into the system, so I figured that the PSU might have an issue, so I tore a different PSU out of one of my active servers and tryed useing it, but no luck still have the same issue. So I called ASUS support to see about warranty repair, told them the problem and they told me that before they can do anything I need to try the GPU out in a different motherboard (ok) and try it with an 800W PSU, only 1 problem, the PSU with the most watts that I have is only rated at 700W. So now I am stuck trying to find somebody with a 800W PSU that will let me try my dead GPU in there system.

 

So that is that, hopefully I can get it repaired under warranty because otherwise I will need to buy a new GPU and that would suck. I have only had that card for 6 months and only used it for about 3, THAT MEANS THAT i PAID $200 us PER MONTH OF USE!

 

 

Well here is all of this stated in a video (be warned it is ranty)

 

[Justin_]

Ok I have another update now, in preparation for taking the system to the place that will do the vinyl wrap I made trip to Ace, I picked up some sandpaper, wood filler, paint, and another few odds and ends. I made another trip later in the day to buy more wood filler and sandpaper. I actually filmed this video 2 days ago and have been applying wood filler and sanding it down ever since as anybody who has ever done sanding knows that it is a slow process. When I have finnished all of the filling/sanding I will go ahead and paint the entire thing (as advised by the decal company) and take it to get the vinyl skin and be ready to take it over to get skinned!

 

[Justin_]

Well it has been over a month with no updates, Let me explain.

 

in the beginning of January (about the first week) I became busy with random things that were going on and got distracted

 

about the second week of January I was made aware that my grandmother was planning on moving out of the house that she has lived in for the last 40 years and that I was needed to go and help her out in Denver Colorado, about 1500 miles away.

 

Then in January about weeks 2-4 I was in Denver CO helping my Grandmother pack and do home repairs.

 

then for the first week of this month I have been very busy at work because while I was gone the parts for 2 new computers that I needed to build arrived, they started hooking in a new internet connection that I needed to configure, along with normal system maintenance and other stuff also I needed to work a bit at one of my other jobs.

 

 

So that is what I have been upto.

 

 

I do plan on picking this project back up now that I am back in town. I have now received all of the money from the computer I sold, but I now have a new source of income, it will be a little less, but will definitely make it so that I can keep up with the project.

 

 

 

And that is what was going on, I should have the next update within a week or so so watch out!!!

[Justin_]

Ok so let me explain my thinking right now.

 

1) I want to wait until the system is almost done to do the skin, that way I will know the final design and won't need to attempt to cut through the case were the skin is to punch holes for whatever.

 

2) I want a friggin computer, I haven't had anything but my laptop with a dual core (admittedly hyperthreaded) processor and 5GB of RAM since October.

 

3)I don't want to buy computer parts, everybody is about to release the new stuff, or about to announce it.

     AMD has ZEN

     Intel has the 7X40k's

     AMD has Vega

     NVIDIA should be announcing the next generation of cards (20X0?) before too long

     RGB RAM should be releasing soon

 

4) I don't want to just do idle work with this setup

 

so for the next few weeks I might just end up doing more woodworking and basic stuff like mounting the UPS better and getting the front panel cut, along with preparing motherboard mounts and such. I do still have plenty of that to do don't get me wrong, but I have no idea when the next gen stuff will come to market, it could be tomorrow, or it could be another 8 months for some of this stuff.

 

Also the weather is still horrible outside, there is currently about 16"-18" of snow on the ground so I can't get too much work done outside.

 

 

 

That is my current thought process just so everybody can understand. I do want to get this done, but I don't want to rush it and then regret not waiting for the next generation of hardware and wanting to upgrade the system in 3 months because it is already outdated (The GPU more than anything)

 

The one other thought that I had is that I got this idea at a LAN party last year (November?) and this is a twice yearly event at a local university, once in the fall semester, and once in the spring semester, and I wanted to have this system ready for the spring semester LAN party to show it off. I don't even have an approximate date for it yet, but it can't be too far off because I would doubt it would be anywhere near finals so it will likely be in late April or early May at the latest, I could just reveal it to them at the fall semester LAN party next year, but at that point it could end up getting dinged up and have dust inside, I want to show it off when it is brand new with the top of the line stuff in it.

 

Well that is my thought process and the base of what I am going off of when making purchasing decisions and such.

[TheCamba]

Keep up the good work man.  I have enjoyed the progress on this.  

[Justin_]

GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY!!! THE STRIX 1070 LIVES!!!

So I found out that the ASUS 1070 card works just fine, it was just that I was using a Thermaltake power supply wire with my Corsair PSU, I checked the pinout for +12v and ground and it matched up so I figured that it would work, and also whenever I try it on a 6 pin PCI-E card like a GTX 560 and Radeon HD6850 it had no issues whatsoever, but apparently the pin that tells the supply that it is a 8 pin card, not a 6 pin card wasn't wired the same way.

 

So the reason that I was using Thermaltake wires is because when I sold my computer I didn't include the GPU (thus why I have one) and when the people I sold the computer too put in a 1080 it didn't have enough power to run the system (starting to wonder if they had the same issue as me because I think that they said they had the same error) so I offered to buy the PSU back as I needed one and I sold the computer to them to help them out more than make money. When they gave me the PSU back they gave me just a few of the cables and a Thermaltake wire for the PCI-E connector.

 

So recently I built 2 computers from scratch and because of that I have some spare Corsair wires to test with, so I tried the system with a proper wire and it worked no problems.

 

Anyway I figured that the issue with the card was a surface mount capacitor that popped off by the PCI-E fingers, at the time it popped off the only way that I had to put it back on was a hot air gun, but when I tried with that I just blew the capacitor to who knows where with the force of the air. Now I have a proper hot air station, but I don't know where the capacitor is, or its value to order another.

 

So TL:DR the 1070 works, the modular wire was the issue, and I wouldn't trust the card to SLI.

 

This really bummed me out as this was the first (new) GPU I ever bought, and I spent around $600 on it as I bought it right at launch when it was never in stock, so now that I know it wasn't dead I am feeling better.

 

Also I can play my AAA games again as all I have had to play games with is my laptop that has Intel Integrated graphics that can run Fallout NV at minimum, and skyrim at about minimum, My only other option was using a NVIDIA 560 or a Radeon HD 6850, and they are not much better than my laptop.

 

 

Right now I am looking at buying a Z270 motherboard, that way I can start on mounting it, but I don't want to regret going with the LGA 1151 socket, it will play games no problem, but with AM4 and the updated X99 platform for the i7-7740 coming soon I might want to go with one of those, but if I wait I don't have much to do.

 

 

Anyway that is up. Here is the video where I talk about the GPU;

Video up soon my upload is slow

 

[Justin_]

Ok I have the video up, but the microphone has issues. I might try to refilm, but that wont be tonight. Also I have the server that I was testing it with back in my server rack at this point.

 

[Justin_]

Ok guys, the updates have been slow because I am waiting for RyZen as it may be a good option and it /should/ be out soon, I am also saving up some money, but I wanted to make an update, and there was a side project that I have been wanting to do, so I am going to get to work on it. it will likely only take a few days to finish, but it is something to share so that I am not just doing nothing.

 

So basically I have 3 Dell 16:10 screens (2007wfpb ~20" 1600X1200 60hz) that I use for gaming and I have been wanting to make a custom mount that will hold all of them and have a built in stand. So I am just messing around right now, but what I am thinking that I am going to do is put a 2X6 behind all of them and use there VESA mounts to bolt the 2X6 to the screens. They will all be flat, side by side but I have used them like that and I like them like that. I am then going to take 2 ~16" pieces of 2X4 and screw them into the 2X6 close to each end to work as legs. Then I will do something for feet, but I am not exactly sure what yet, I might just use some of the scrap 2X4 pieces and some "L" brackets to keep it sturdy because this thing will be heavy. I am guessing that it will weigh about 40 pounds all built as the monitors alone weigh 11 pounds each.

 

 

Anyway, photos and the video are hidden

Spoiler

 

 

[Justin_]

Ok so I am 1/2 way done, I have the screens mounted to 2-2"X4"X4' boards. No video this time, but I do have lots of photos.

 

So first off I cut 2-2"X4" boards to 4', then I marked out where the VESA mount screw holes need to be

I then used a 3/4" spade bit to drill the larger hole that will fit the largest washer, and then drilled out the center of the hole with a 3/16" drill bit.

Next I took 6 4mmXunknown (about 1.5") machine screws and put on a 4mm fender washer, a 8mm washer, and last a 1/4" washer on each to make the head almost 3/4" wide

next I bolted on the first board and marked the holes in the second board

I then drilled the holes, added the washers, and bolted on the second board

 

I have some final photos with the 3 20.1" LCDs in a 10:48 aspect ratio, it is actually quite impressive with the 3 screens bolted together and on there sides.

 

Anyway, I don't know if I will be able to put the feet on today, I should be able to do it tomorrow.

I will have a video when I am done with this but I have photos for now hidden in the spoiler, there is 7 so there will be a lot of scrolling if you open it.

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Justin_]

I kinda wish that I had 6 more so I could do a 3X3 screen arrangement, but that would weigh 100 pounds without any mounting material .

[Justin_]

Ok guys, the stand is about done now. I had the 3 panels bolted together and laying on their side so it gave me the idea to hook them together on my 1070 and make sure everything still worked, and it did. So I thought that I would try messing around with a 10:48 display that was 5 feet tall, and it is cooler in concept than practice. It isn't good for anything as you need to be so far away to be able to see it without standing up that any test becomes unreadable so it is useless to read comments on reddit, and the general shape of it makes it useless for gaming. So I got to work on the feet. I took a scrap piece of the plywood and traced out 2 "T" shaped pieces then cut them out. All I had that I could cut with was a circular saw, and that is not the right saw, so it doesn't look all that amazing, but it should work. From there I took and applied glue to the ends of the 2X4's and placed the feet on and added 4 nails on each side, 2 per 2X4. The nails are just to hold it together while the glue drys. I am going to give it a day to dry before I put it on its feet so follow the post and check back tomorrow, I should have a video of the completed project up.

[Justin_]

Woops I forgot the photos in the last post, well here they are!

 

Hidden to save scroll

Spoiler

 

[Justin_]

Ok guys so I got ahold of the group that is doing the LAN event and they said that they don't have an exact date yet but it will likely be sometime middle to late April. That is definitely a bit sooner than I thought, but it is not impossible to have it done by then. The one issue with finishing it by then is the money. The other money source that I got running was that I was selling the ability for my facebook account to post ads, but the people that I was selling it to got it banned because there ads were misleading so that is gone. I do have a few part time jobs, but nothing too major so I don't get too much from week to week. I might try to apply for a job at the gas station near my house on night shifts, and if I do that I will have less time available, but I will have more money to work with.

 

Known costs remaining;

-Motherboard ~$150-$200

-CPU $200 (if RyZen is good) $350 (if RyZen sucks)

-RAM $100-$200 I would like 32GB of RAM and that will run me about $200, but if $100 is the difference between being done in time and not being able to make it I will just get a 16GB kit and add another 16GB kit lator.

-AIO CPU cooler at ~$120

-~$200 left for the case including

     -$130 hardware

     -$30 paint (i'm just going to use truck bed paint, not skin it because $300 is a bit much just to skin it)

     -$40 to make it a round number and to account for any unexpected costs that I know will happen

-Likely about $50 in cables, connectors, and other junk.

 

and that brings the total remaining napkin math cost to ~$800-$1120 that I need to get together in the next 6 weeks to allow me time to build, ouch.

 

Anyway I will finish this no matter what, I just might not be able to finish it in the next 6-8 weeks for the spring LAN party, but that would give me more time to work on the finishing touches as I would reveal it at the November LAN party this fall.

 

 

 

I will have the last video of the monitor mount soon.

[Steinway]

Question: 

For the enclosure, why didn't you just use a 8-10U flightcase and then mount everything to rack shelves?

[Justin_]

14 minutes ago, Steinway said:

Question: 

For the enclosure, why didn't you just use a 8-10U flightcase and then mount everything to rack shelves?

That would be a good way to go, but it would cost about the same as building one, and the whole purpose of building one was to make everything fit perfectly so that it could be as small as possible.

[Justin_]

those things are not cheap, they are about $300-$500

[TubsAlwaysWins]

IDK if you have made one or are making one but those cases are expensive AF. I own one for a projector made in 1996 and I could probably sell it for $200. My work has one for a sound board and its hella expensive too

[Justin_]

34 minutes ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

IDK if you have made one or are making one but those cases are expensive AF. I own one for a projector made in 1996 and I could probably sell it for $200. My work has one for a sound board and its hella expensive too

The plan is to build one, I actually have to body parts cut out, and I have done a rough fit of them already if you look at previous updates.

[TubsAlwaysWins]

8 minutes ago, Justin_ said:

The plan is to build one, I actually have to body parts cut out, and I have done a rough fit of them already if you look at previous updates.

Neat. Well im interested to see how it turns out. its a great concept

[Justin_]

Ok guys I have the final video of the monitor stand up and available and it is below

 

BUT

 

as we all know RyZen was officially announced this morning and it will be on sale March 2nd, so as long as there isn't any major news saying that it was all a big scam I am going to be hitting refresh 30 times a second on amazon and a few other places that morning so that I can get my hands on a RyZen 5 1400X, the $200 7700K equivalent to be put in the system, i have enough money to get the CPU, and I am hoping that the motherboards won't sell out fast as I will likely not have the money to get one that morning. And that is the big news for now. I have officially hopped on the Wait For RyZen train and I am likely going to stick with it.

 

also here is the final recap video of the monitor stand.

 

[Justin_]

I might even Wait For RyZen at my dad's work as they just upgraded to a 500Mbp/s up and 500Mbp/s down internet connection.

[Justin_]

Ok guys so I have the final date for the LAN event. It will take place on April 1st, but apparently I have misunderstood what is going to be happening. Unlike the fall LAN party that is a tournament and LAN party that takes place over the course of 24 hours in the basement of one of the University buildings, the spring LAN party is strictly a tournament event that takes place during the day only of 2 consecutive days in the "University Center" building during its normal business hours.

 

So the spring LAN party is coming up fast, but it is the fall LAN party that is still about 8 months out that I want this to be ready for .

 

This gives me more time to save up for party and work on the system, but I really wanted to reveal at the spring event.

 

It is late and I am working 13 hours tomorrow, so I will try to give a bit more informed post sometime Sunday.

 

IT WILL BECOME COMPLETED!