Case Mod GuardianStorm's FS2 (PS2 PC) - 27/02/08 - Finished!

[GuardianStorm]

Introduction

I know this is not an original project idea, but it is one that has taken my fancy, and thus I decided to make it so. I read some project logs on this such as these Ouija's HTPS2, which was very inspiring, and to a much lesser extent PlayStation2 PC.

To start off I needed a PS2, so I checked eBay, and also posted on FreeCycle to see if anyone had one they didn’t want, preferable broken, as that way I wouldn’t want to keep it as a console! I ended up with two PS2’s; one from eBay, and one from Freecycle, both broken. So I used the parts from both to make one working PS2, and one case for my PC.

I did some measuring and designing in SketchUp, so see what my options were for fitting everything inside the case.
[image unavailable at the moment]

I then bought my hardware for the case:
Jetway J7f2 1.5Ghz Mini-ITX motherboard
PSU Kit (Power Brick, PSU Board)
CDROM IDE Adapter
1 Gb of generic RAM
CDRW/DVD Slimline drive
Samsung 40Gb IDE HDD (already had this)

Testing the Kit:

I hooked up all the kit, and tested it with a Xubuntu Live Disk, luckily it all worked



Fixing the case:

First off, we need to get rid of all these pesky mounting stands, which get in the way.





To mount the CD Rom, I cut a small sheet of acrylic, and attached it to the PS2 case using my favourite glue, Plasticweld. This is capillary action glue that apparently creates joints as strong as the original plastic. From what I’ve seen and used, this seems to be accurate


Next I modded the CD Rom drive to allow me to eject it with the PS2 eject button. To do this I traced the circuit tracks through the drive and found that there was a test point on the rear circuit board of the drive. I soldered a wire to it, and threaded it out of spare screw hole on the rear of the drive.



To eject the drive all I have to do is set the pin low (i.e., tie it to a ground)

Now for the motherboard, which needs to be raised just above the CD drive, to make the stand offs I bought a standard kitchen chopping board, and proceeded to chop it up with the band saw.

The only down side to the chopping board is that it is made of a kind of soft plastic, which although is no problem for motherboard stands and CD rests, it means it’s not entirely suitable for actual case construction.

And here they are attached to the motherboard, ready to be glued to the case with araldite.


The next item on the list for creation is the hard disk holder, which I created using 1mm acrylic.


It mounts into the case here, which serves dual purpose; it holds the other edge of the CD Rom in place too.


It all fits in…just:


To Do:
Back plate with small (slow) fan
Second part of the hard disk holder
Acrylic behind the front port holes
Attach CD Rom Facia

Thanks for reading
And questions and comments are welcome

[Woodstock]

i could see some great lil home servers being built out of these, and i like how you grabbed two cheep ones two make a good workin one and this

[500mph]

wow, thats looking great!. i think i might use your idea's when i mod my old broken ps2.

[notatoad]

nice standoffs. did you have to tap the holes, or was the plastic soft enough to just screw into?

[GuardianStorm]

Originally Posted by Woodstock

i could see some great lil home servers being built out of these, and i like how you grabbed two cheep ones two make a good workin one and this

Yeah, i was quite pleased that they had different faults...two with dead cd roms would have been annoying

Originally Posted by 500mph

wow, thats looking great!. i think i might use your idea's when i mod my old broken ps2.

Thanks

Originally Posted by supertoad

nice standoffs. did you have to tap the holes, or was the plastic soft enough to just screw into?

I had to tap the holes, but as the plastic is soft, i didn't need to used any oil to help the process. i also have to be a bit more careful how tight i screw into the blocks in case i strip the threads

[Woodstock]

Originally Posted by GuardianStorm

Yeah, i was quite pleased that they had different faults...two with dead cd roms would have been annoying

im supprised it wasnt to be honest out of all my mates who bought a ps2 all of them had it die to due to optical drive out of warrenty... they could buy 3 ps2s (almost a ps3) for the charge of repairing them, a bit ridiculous i thought

[GuardianStorm]

Nearly Complete!

Sorry for not updating in a while, but I have been busy with work/life etc. Here is my progress to date:



Controller Blanking Plates
The front of the PS2, as you can see needs some work doing to it, to hide the IDE socket showing (red):


To create blanking plates I used one of those clear CD’s that come on top of CD spikes and cut two small blanking plates , which fit inside the holes on the front. These were then sprayed (2nd coat of filler primer shown):


To secure these to the front of the PS2, I used some thin plastic, off of a pack of C size batteries, which was plasti-welded into place inside:


I then used Impact glue (strong all purpose adhesive), to attach the blanking plates to the PS2 and to the thin acrylic:




Rear IO & Back Panel
For the rear panel, I measured and created a paper cutting template for the hole in the rear of the PS2:


This was then glued to a 1.5mm sheet of acrylic, and cut out (mainly on a fretsaw, and with a file), the cut out acrylic now looks like this:


To mount this to the back of the PS2, I attached a scrap 3mm piece of acrylic to the inside of the back to allow me something to tap a hole into (lesson: always keep off cuts of plastic/metal):


The other end of the PS2 had its screw hole removed to allow me to put another screw hole in , in the correct place:


I’m afraid there are no pictures of the IO panel being cut, but it took me most of a day, constantly coming in and out of the garage measuring, going back cutting a little then repeating (no motherboards ever enter the garage; too much metal/wood/plastic dust flying round for my likings). Here is the plate attached to the PS2:

The keen eyed will note that the motherboard is not parallel with the back plate; this is because the motherboard is mounted at a slight angle (5mm lower at one end) due to where the IDE connector sits.

I then added a power connector socket:


And a more complete shot of the back (which will be sprayed matt black at some point (this weekend maybe?)):




Hard Drive support bracket

The bracket earlier works, but has a slight problem; the case is currently upside down. If I turn it the right way up (motherboard becomes upside down), the hard drive hangs at an unhealthy angle:


To fix this, drew anther template, and cut out a bracket out of 3mm acrylic:




The bracket then screws to the motherboard here:


And to the IDE adapter here, which braces the hard disk:


That’s it for now, the finishing bits to be done:
* Fan controller for the rear fan and CPU fan
* Spray rear panel black
* Create aluminium bracket to screw the front corner of the PS2 together

I am currently letting the case idle, all put together to see what temp it is at. The CPU is steady at 44 degrees and the case temp is steady at 34 degrees.

Any comments, questions and suggestions are more than welcome!

[zwiks]

loooking nice so far.

[zwiks]

sry 2 post.

[craig_h]

Where did you get the motherboard from?

[GuardianStorm]

most of the hardware (motherboard, adapters, power) was from Lin-itx, and othe bits (CD Drive, RAM) was from eBuyer

[GuardianStorm]

To kick things off, there was/is the slight chance of the motherboard shorting out on the top of the CD drive, so to solve this, I used a thin sheet of plastic (came off the back of a file set), to cover the top of the drive:


To hold the front corner of the case in place, I couldn’t use the existing screw hole, as there is a motherboard in the way, so I created a small L bracket:


Which I glued to the side of the case using Araldite:


Painting the Back Panel
So, we start off with a lightly sanded 1mm sheet of acrylic:


Which then gets a coat of filler primer (which has really nice colour...might use that as afinish colour on another mod...):


I then noticed a small groove in the outside of the back plate, so I used some knifing putty to fill that out, then sanded the whole thing smooth (and back to step 1...):


And finally, after another 2 coats of filler and 3 of Black:



Construction

Time to put it all back together (after cleaning all the case with White Spirit (which is clear... I don’t get that).

So, we start with top of the PS2, I have installed the power switch and eject buttons already.


Add the CD-RW/DVD Drive:


Add the Motherboard:


Add the IDE Cable, Two Part HDD Holder, and Hard Disk:


And finally, add PSU & Rear Fan:

(Then attempt to get the lid (base) and back plate on to it all).

Finished Shots

I really enjoyed creating this, as although I have a lack of free time, I have still managed to finish this to a good standard. Hopefully I will now concentrate on Dark Vortex a little more .

Anyway, here are the final shots:








Thanks for reading, and any Questions & Comments are welcome

[mrdexter]

Very inspirational, and great use of space :-)

[Jar of Almonds]

Absolutely fantastic! Like mrdexter said, very efficient use of the supplied space.

(Pssst, do a Wii next! )

[jhanlon303]

Sweet work! When one of our consoles dies I know what to do with it
John

[500mph]

Great job! I love the backplate.
Now, do mine?
Kidding, but I do plan on modding my borked PS2 soon.

[TapperSwe]

Great solutions fitting in the hardware, the Back panel looks factory-made.

Regards.

[GuardianStorm]

Originally Posted by mrdexter

Very inspirational, and great use of space :-)

Thanks

Originally Posted by Jar of Almonds

Absolutely fantastic! Like mrdexter said, very efficient use of the supplied space.

(Pssst, do a Wii next! )

You buying

Originally Posted by jhanlon303

Sweet work! When one of our consoles dies I know what to do with it
John

Yeah, great idea to do, but not the easiest to fit everything in properly. if i had SATA drives, that would have made things easier.

Originally Posted by 500mph

Great job! I love the backplate.
Now, do mine?
Kidding, but I do plan on modding my borked PS2 soon.

Lol, i look forward to seeing it

Originally Posted by TapperSwe

Great solutions fitting in the hardware, the Back panel looks factory-made.

Regards.

Thanks very much, although when its sat the 'right' way up, i do wonder if the mobo will hold in place , but when its stood on its side, the mobo is at the bottom, so its all fine

[nickhelton]

i now wish i hadnt gotten rid of the two i had sittin around
looks good. maybe il try it with the xbox or n64 i have??

[kaizentech]

Very cool idea, I have a few of these laying around. Maybe it's time to dust them off.