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

[Ross Siggers]

9 hours ago, GDRRiley said:

nice. this is getting closer and closer

I was full on using it as my daily PC since the last post, however many months ago! It's been performing great, for photo editing, and I played through the entire master chief collection with it just before my butterfingers broke it

 

Honestly I can't even remember why it was dismantled in the first place. But here we are haha

[Ross Siggers]

So both my computer projects have been on the backburner, no updates on the PS2 build if anyone is following that either.

 

But I've slowly been working on a new shell for the Dreamcast. I de-soldered the DVI connector on the graphics card, and along with some shroud changes that should improve airflow out of the case.

 

As you can see I'm retaining some plastic across the back so it's not a horseshoe shape like before. It's much stronger than the last one

 

 

 

 

Still working out how to retain the spring loaded mechanism for the lid, but that's looking unlikely.... brainstorming is ongoing! Aside from being bulky, the original one sided spring was so strong, that it made the lid sit twisted when it was closed. I'm looking at slightly weaker springs, on both sides.

 

As for the front panel buttons and led....I discovered why my reset button stopped working clearly dismantling the shell repeatedly has taken its toll. To try and reduce the risk of frayed wires, I'm going to take a rather cool approach for getting the wiring between the two halves of the shell. Magnetic contact pins, often seen on things like lithium ion batteries. They're expensive...but should allow for seamless opening and closing of the case

 

 

 

[TheCamba]

I still believe in you.  I am along for the ride to completion.

[AdamxM07]

On 11/10/2018 at 12:47 PM, Ross Siggers said:

I love Dreamcasts... Underrated console? Justifiable flop? Poor release timing? Say what you will, but I think they're great, in fact I have 3 of them. But unfortunately, the GD-ROM drive died on my daily driver, and without some costly parts from the modding scene, it wasn't worth resurrecting right now. So I stored it's guts in an anti-static bag, and decided that the case is going to form the basis of my first Small Form Factor build. 

 

Now I've seen DC-PC builds before... but never have I seen a really clean build, capable of gaming somewhat respectably. Most are from years back, built on ancient hardware, or without dedicated GPU's; The only one that did have one, also had pipes coming out of the side due to an AIO. So that doesn't count imho. Another build had a complete external desktop PSU...you see what I'm getting at here  

Rough spec 
 

• STX motherboard. Smaller than ITX, but bigger than a NUC. If you've not heard of it I don't blame you...
• CPU will be an i5, probably a 6400T to help what will undoubtedly be 'tricky' thermals.
• PCIe powered GPU. For both simplicity and size, it'll likely be a 1050 mini.
• 8Gb DDR4, single stick of sodimm, budget as well as space restrictions here.
• SSD, capacity undecided.
• External power brick...because I haven't got the space to build that internally.

 

 

I'm currently struggling with the setup of the power delivery, which effects the component selection more than with a normal build. For example, the power delivery I end up going with dictates whether I have an M.2 SSD or I can get away with a separate one and use the onboard slot for WiFi(STX boards all have dual M.2 slots). Also the size inherently means bad thermals, so whilst I want to keep it as original as possible, there's a high possibility of the rear of the console, I/O panel etc being entirely mesh.

 

For anyone wondering, a Dreamcast has an internal volume of just under 2.8L.......so this should be fun...  

 

***Currently seeking advice over on the Small Form Factor forums, about the viability of this build when using discreet graphics. The space limitations are real....But it'll 100% be built in some form or another, so I guess I can do a brief introduction post about it***

 

Thought about doing something similar with an xbox case

[Ross Siggers]

So this is kind of random, but I Googled Dreamcast PC to see if any other builds would show up. Believe it or not, I found a thread I've not read before! So I dug in, I was curious to see how they'd gone about building their own Dreamcast.

After reading for only a short while it became apparent that they'd seen my build, and it had inspired them to do their own! There are references to both this thread, and a second one I made on smallformfactor.net. A copy of my diagram that outlines the power setup for STX/PICO too! 

It's very humbling that someone would do this based off of my build; I know how much time and effort these things take to build. So shoutout to @cityle, and if you enjoy a good build thread you should take a look at his one over at the Level1Techs forum. It's mad, it's actually a Gamecube build and a Dreamcast one both in the same thread, so there's plenty to look through!

 

P.S. It also made me realise that my idea about magnetic connectors wasn't as brilliant as I thought; they'd already done it on their Gamecube build

[Ross Siggers]

Things are happening.

 

Only 3 prototypes down so far, but it's clear after only a couple of trial runs that it's super effective. The amount of heat coming out the controller ports when stress testing, is impressive. I can imagine that swirling around inside the case...eugh.

 

 

 

 

Modifications so far include making sure the ports are accessible, and also widening it by about 10mm, to line up with a planned new shroud for the rest of the GPU. The fins at the sides of the cooler are really choked ATM so hopefully I can open them up just a tiny bit.

 

But I'm kind of stalling on the first test for that shroud... because it's a 9 hour print

[TheCamba]

I think this is the longest project I have followed.

[Ross Siggers]

On 6/6/2022 at 8:16 PM, TheCamba said:

I think this is the longest project I have followed.

It would be less than half the time if I kept working on it consistently  I mean it was complete....I just can't help tinkering and improving...

 

Further updates with the 3D printing;

 

I replaced the old mounting hardware for the GPU. They were bits of leftover Dreamcast plastic, with standoffs trimmed down and attached with epoxy resin. Ugly but functional. At least... until the heat made the epoxy go funny, and they started coming apart.

 

ENTER THE 3D PRINTER. Shaped blocks printed at 100% infill, so I could press brass knurled studs into them. Very similarly to how I mount the motherboard to the Dreamcast shell itself. 

 

 

 

 

Much better. And sturdier.

 

The other thing I've printed is a more refined I take for the underside. I saw more refined, it's hard to be worse than a gaping, jagged hole It funnels the air to the fan only, and blocks off and chance of air recirculating. A little tidying up on the join and it'll look smart as anything.

 

At ambient of around 16* degrees, I ran prime 95 for about fifteen minutes, and the CPU peaked at 78* with the lid ON, no GPU load. That's better than even I was expecting. I've also tweaked the fan curve to be less erratic at normal temps, so overall the CPU performance is very satisfactory right now.

 

 

 

 

Finally, I'm starting work on a GPU shroud to integrate with the vent from the previous post. Early stages of prototyping right now, but it's wider than the gtx750 shroud I'm using. Hopefully that will choke out the sides of the cooler less. No hard data but I can only imagine these two things bringing down the GPU temps nicely.

 

 

[Ross Siggers]

Playstation 2 build thread: 

 

"Am I a joke to you"