hey all, i got an old gamecube hanging around and i was wondering what i can do with the old thing. any suggestions? i'd like to mod a whole pc into it, kinda like a mac mini in a cube box but i don't know how that would work. any other ideas?
it's called a mini-itx or nano-itx depending on the size of the box. if those are both too big, there is pico-itx
ok, it looks like the pc in a cube box is viable. however i'd like it to do more than just run windows xp on bare minimum....it's gonna be a lan pc. but specifically for older games, ie civ 4, CS1.6 (maybe source if i can push it that hard!) can you help me with getting components together? i've never really dabbled in SFF pc components and the like. i guess what i'd look for is: CPU: highest speed i can get, ideally 1.8ghz hdd: maybe 32gb from a flash stick or something, or notbook sized HDD GPU: something like a nvidia 6600 would be fine or an old radeon 9800! psu: i guess 200w will be enough. a network port and say 4 usb connections for bits and pieces. possible?
haha, 360 in a cube! that would turn heads! http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Product.aspx?ProductID=568 looks like a build is possible. forgot to add possibility of a optical drive, but might do that externally but internal would be better. a slot loading drive...
Yea get a slimline slot load drive. Won't take up much space and no one will argue that slot loads are cool ha
Being of the small form factor persuasion, one of the places I hang out at is here: http://www.mini-itx.com/ Spend some time on the site and look at some of the projects for ideas. John
at the moment it looks like only a pico itx will fit, but they're very limited in terms of what they can do and very expensive. the micro atx boards are a fraction too big (i havent measured the GC, but i think they're a bit smaller than 17x17 cm according to the net). i'm actually quite surprised no one has done it yet. anyone else got any suggestions on hardware?
I was looking into this a while ago. It will have to be Pico-Itx. The Gamecube base has a fan built into it, so that's nice. You might want to wait for an atom or Isiah pico-itx motherboard to come out though. You could mod your router into it, or make it a NAS with a pico-itx board.
hate to be Cpt Ruin-yer-mod but no way will the above fit in that, as awesome as it would be. Unless you invert something that means you can bend motherboards over to save space, as even a mATX is way too big for a gamecube. Prove me wrong if you can though, as it would be awesome!
@gavX This is more than possible... with the below. (click for link) I have one of these Pico-ITX boards and a, to-be attached, video card module (to aid in video playback). I have it attached to a 7" touch panel LCD and it runs Windows HomeServer. Eventually it will be installed internally inside my main rig Prometheus. These boards run great, suck almost no power, run very cool, and look even cooler. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED
looking at this, it's entirely possible to whack a Pico ITX into this, but I really doubt it will do what i want. Langer, do you happen to have a copy of Civ 4 you could try on your Pico? All the rig has to do is play civ 4 multiplayer at a respectable rate and i'll consider it a success and go ahead with it. it really is a shame the mATX won't fit, that would have been perrrfect. btw, what's a NAS?
It would be even more interesting/cooler if you could take a slim-line optical drive and somehow mod it to use the gamecube's top lid loading setup.
Clearly, what you should do, is put the GC into a PC :B I mean, the power is easy, it already runs within standard molex spec (I actually have a modified power cable for that exact purpose), the lid security can be bypassed easily, and the other switches are easily extended. Though, with the PC idea - adding a top loading CD drive shouldn't be too hard. I mean. The mechanism is all in place for you, and that lid can definitely lift the weight. Might need to check out those GC shells that've been molded to take full size DVD's, though, to get the right fit. It'd take a lot of planning and careful measurement, but totally worth it :B
hmmm...looks like i'm going to say goodbye to my cube this weekend and gut that paperweight. liratheal, could you provide a few more details about what you've done to your cube and what's inside it?
There's nothing in the shell I used to have my Xbox and GC in a Lian Li case a while back - Got pretty familiar with the GC internals. Most of my GC modding was centered around the actual console rather than the shell. There is a surprising amount of space inside the shell, but the lid (As I'm sure you've noticed) isn't quite big enough for a standard DVD/CD. There are a few companies that sell the raw shell with a modded top so it can take full size DVD's etc. Making it a lid based DVD drive would be quite fraught with trial and error, but would SO be worth it. I'd be tempted to do it with a standard tray based laptop drive, that way you don't have to worry so much about holding the disk down, thanks to the mechanism already used in laptop tray based drives - As I'm sure you're aware. Saves you having to be so precise with the lid spaces
hmmm....damn that's well above my league, like, all i've ever done is paint my case and put a hole in it! now you're asking for me to rip open a laptop optical drive!? where can you get the cube shells from?
