Howdy, how y'all doin' today? If your doing well then that's good! Otherwise, get better! Anywhoseville, now that the greetings/small talk is out of the way lets get down to why you're really here. I'm sure all of you probably read my topic title and thought something like this: "Woah! That's so totally awesome! I wonder what it is! Could it possibly be a NES case mod!? NO WAY!!!!" Okay, maybe you weren't that enthusiastic. I know a NES mod is not the most exciting thing because it has been done several times before. Honestly I would rather be doing some exciting mod also, but I'm a general noob at modding and have never used a dremel before. I figured I had to do something to learn, so why not use this little NES that's broken anyways, it's no use as of now. I'm the kind of person who likes to re-use and recycle as much as possible which is exactly what I will do with my NES Case. Now on to the blood and guts of this thing. The Goal To convert a NES Case into a HTPC Case, notice how I added the word "case", I don't want it to be a PC that has everything hot glued in and you have to start from scratch when you want to upgrade, I want this thing to be able to easily upgrade all of the hardware inside including the HDD, Mobo, PSU, and Optical Drive. The case must also appear to be a normal NES from the front, that being said the back is gonna look nothing like it The Plan Start out with a case, chop off all the unnecessary mounting posts. Then dremel out a block for the I/O shield and mount the mobo. Dremel out a spot for the PSU and secure it in place. Mount the Optical Drive on top. Find a place for the HDD. Add in TV Tuner, if possible. Hardware ZOTAC H55ITX-A-E w/ WiFi Intel Core i3-530 2.93GHz G.Skill 2x2GB DDR3 1333 250GB SATA Slim HDD 500GB SATA Slim HDD, got on sale at local store Slot Load CD/DVD Slim SATA Drive (will upgrade to Blu-ray once I find one that’s not $600+) Silverstone NT07-1156 90mm CPU Cooler 250W Mini ITX PSU 150W DC-DC Pico-PSU Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 or InfiniTV 4 (If I can fit it/afford it) AVerMedia HD DVR ATI TV Wonder External Special Features Custom mario mushroom fan grill for PSU RetroUSB kits added to controller ports Some fancy modding to the Game cartridge hatch Fully/easily upgradeable Built-in IR sensor for remote control First Update! August 5th, 2010 What I did: Gutted the case, cut out a block for the I/O shield and mounted the mobo. I did not cut out the top half for the I/O shield, that will happen a bit later, I'm worrying about the bottom where everything will be mounted for now. Pictures Here's the I/O shield and it's lovely cut, I think it's pretty decent for a first time dremel-er A top-down look at the mobo, it's mounted and everything. If you notice the screws, I used a couple of the mounting posts that I had chopped off when I gutted the thing, then ground them down to size, and melted them to the chassis with a soldering iron. I'm sure there's a better tool to use then that, but it's what I had. This is what I was talking about when I wanted to turn it into a HTPC Case, I want to be able to easily swap out mobos when upgrading. The mobo with the I/O shield, the I/O shield is a pretty snug fit just by itself, and with the mobo in place it's even better so I don't think I'll need to do anything special to keep it in place. Angled from the front. That's all for now, stay posted for my next update when I add in the PSU. Sadly, it won't be for a week or more because I'm going on vacation. I wanted to get this log started though. You can plan on the next update being on or before Tuesday, August 31th.
Just a quick little update. I thought about my TV Tuner options and I decided that I would utilize my PCIe slot with a AVerMedia HD DVR because I want to be able to plug everything into this PC and then have one output to the TV and one to the surround sound. That allows me to record gameplay on my PS3 and TV and whatnot. For the TV I decided I would get a ATI TV Wonder external because no cableCARD tuner would fit and it would most likely overheat in this case. I will also pick up a remote because I do still want a built-in IR sensor.
Back from vacation, and right back to work Update! August 14th, 2010 What I did: I basically just put in all the hardware and made it all fit I did switch out for a pico-PSU because the mini-ITX PSU I got was just barely not fitting Oh well, leaves more room for other stuff The only other thing I was not able to get in was the DVD drive, it fits and everything, but I got the wrong cable and so now I have to wait a few days for a new, correct one, to arrive What I have left to do is fix the power and reset buttons, add in RetroUSB to the controller ports (still unavailable from their website), attach the internal IR remote receiver, and get the DVD drive working with the right cable. I also want to put in the AVerTV card, but that will come later once I have more money. Pictures As you can see, it looks like a NES from the front, except the missing buttons and ports From the back, not so much, I'm going to get a broken NES off eBay and tear off the black accent pieces and put em on here because my little fan grill thing didn't work out Here's what you currently see when you open the hatch, there will be a DVD drive there once I put it in Here's the guts of it all, here's where you say "Oooooo, Aaaaa" Ooooo, Aaaaaa Again: Oooooo, Aaaaaa That's all I have for now, the PC does turn on and is rather quiet, it doesn't really do anything past that because there's no OS on it. Next time I'll be putting in the IR receiver and the front buttons, hopefully I will get the correct cable by then and have that ready to go and maybe the RetroKits will be in stock by then and I'll have this thing done before school starts Check back on or before Wednesday, August 18th for the next update, and hopefully completion
Update! August 16, 2010 What I did: I mounted the IR receiver into the case a put a shield over it, looks pretty clean from a distance, not so much close up but, I'm still pleased with it, hopefully it works the way I want it to, I can't fully test it until I get the DVD drive hooked up and Windows 7 installed. I did install Mythbuntu the other day, I thought I'd give it a try, but I decided I'm going to use Windows 7 instead because it's what I'm used to and there's a driver for my IR receiver I also mounted the power and reset buttons which work perfectly, it was a pretty simple task really, just some hot glue and thumb tacks, nothing too special. Pictures Here's how I mounted the receiver on the inside, just got a couple screws and was able to screw it in. The little shield I took off an old remote and glued it on there, works nicely and small The power and reset buttons, the reset cable was a bit short so I had to extend it a bit Direct view of the buttons The buttons from the front It's almost finished! All that's left now is mounting the optical drive which will happen once my cable arrives, I'm also going to attempt to mount a multi-card reader underneath the drive, if it fits great, if it doesn't, oh well. Check around for my next update which should be sometime around Tuesday August 31, 2010. Hopefully that will be the final update
No comments thats pretty strange Very clean work there you've managed to keep it look like a nes from the front end! i love how you've mounted everything in there its hard to do it in an already exisiting case without breaking it completely one thing you might want to try is connecting some of the internal usb to the original nes controllers believe it or not i've seen a mod done before similiar (you probebly have seen the same thing) Great little pc might have to put something together myself like this! cool stuff mate
Since he mentions RetroUSB, I presume he'll be using these. Great work on the mod so far! Looks completely unmodified from the front, which is no small feat! The pace seems to be quite high as well Looking forward to seeing it done.
Retromods are the best! Great work on the switches. I'm confused - are you putting an optical drive in there or not?
@Cuzza, I'm working on getting an optical drive in there, the only reason I haven't is because I didn't have the correct cable to connect it which should be arriving tomorrow Hopefully I'll have enough time in the evening to stick in the DVD drive. @pio, I'm actually going to get the RetroKit and modify the original ports, this way it's a few bucks cheaper and I don't have to physically mod the ports to fit in. Although, it's been a month or so that the chips have been "Temporarily Unavailable" so I may end up looking into alternatives. @Everyone else, thanks I managed to pick up a pretty nice bluray drive for a good price off eBay which should be arriving next week and I'll quickly swap out the DVD drive for it I do want to put in a multi-card reader under the optical drive, but that will be in a few weeks. Once I get the optical drive settled in then this baby will be complete basically... I have installed Windows 7 and gotten it all up and running, there was a slight issue with the IR Receiver and a wire not being connected correctly but it's all good now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzpFrEJGj2s There's a video of the entire system up and running Since the last update I put in the PCI-E x1 card and mounted the bluray drive. Nothing too special, I didn't document this update very well and didn't take pictures I got kinda lazy :/ Anywho, the build is now on eBay if you would like to purchase http://cgi.ebay.com/NES-HTPC-NES-Home-Theater-PC-Bluray-Core-i3-500GB-/320590237898
