Case Mod - In Progress Project PC3 - Updated 20th Feb

Yeah, we all know how the last project ended up. Poor time management and, erm, college, left it mothballed for 3 months. While my heart bleeds for my beloved black beauty, it's really hard for these hands of mine to stay idle.

I moved to a bigger, nicer room at university this year, and of course, the assole in me promptly began thinking of ways to screw it.

"Hey! Why not fill it with plastic dust and leave saws and screwdrivers all over the place so that my roommates can bleed all over the carpets?"

"Great!"

So I decided to hit eBay looking for some stuff to begin a SFF mod.

The idea was simple - stuff a relatively powerful PC into a console shell. I toyed with the idea of an Ion board inside an XBox 360 shell for a while but then dropped the idea for two reasons. One - it wouldn't be messy enough to cause injury to people in the room, and two, it wasn't going to be powerful enough.

Upsizing the board to a Zotac LGA775 with 9300 IGP was the next logical step, and upsizing the console had to follow. That pretty much left me with the retro look (original XBox anyone?) which I am not a particular fan of, and the PS3. So I took the plunge and began designing the rig inside a PS3 in Sketchup.

The components I've chosen are as follows, but subject to change:
E5300
Zotac GeForce 9300 HDMI Wi-Fi Mini ITX
2x1GB Patriot DDR2 RAM, or maybe even 4GB if I happen to make money playing pool this quarter
Sparkle/FSP 300W 1U server power supply
PS3 console shell
Sony/NEC Blu-ray slot-loading slim optical drive

With these in mind, I raided the excellent Sketchup Components Collection maintained by Jeremey McKean (jezmck) for the PC bits, and google's 3DWarehouse for the PS3 shell model (yes, I'm lazy). These two concepts are what I came up with:

Concept 1 - all was going well until I realized the optical drive was trying to make babies with the Intel heatsink. Can't have unprotected intercourse in a college dorm room, so I had to drop it. Still, it was a useful exercise in getting an idea of how things would fit.







So on we move to Concept 2 - juggle components around, play around with orientations (o_0) to get something like this:







This looks acceptable, so next stop - eBay, to order the console shell and the power supply. Everything else I plan on mocking up with cardboard (thanks John) before buying, just in case something goes wrong.

So yeah, here's the stuff.











I got right down to butchering it. I don't know the rules on power tools in the dorms, but I'm not risking anything. One of my roomies is on probation (for bleeding all over the carpet, I think), so I'm not making life harder for him. I'm trying to this with hand tools as far as possible. I'm hunting for a fret saw on eBay, because those look mighty useful for something like this

Anyway, more pics:

The tool of the day:


Took care of one of these little plastic posts that I think are supposed to take screws that hold the top cover in place:


Leaving me with this little nub of plastic:


Now to see if the PSU fits...
... and it does!




But does it close?


Er, sort of. Something inside is obviously pushing down on it. We'll take of that tomorrow, the Coffee Bean beckons and I need my caffeine fix

 

I have to say I've never seen anyone do a rig in a PS3 shell before

*subb'd*

 

“The PS3 is a computer!”

Turn those words into reality I'm subbing this.

 

...alright, apart from Sony I've never seen anyone put a rig in a PS3 shell before XD

 

Whats the spec of your processor? sure 7X3.2ghz cores are better?

 

Thanks!

I intend to. And thanks to you as well

 

Update tiem!

So today I finalized the PSU location and ripped a lot of annoying plastic nubs and mounts off so that the PSU could sit nice and snug where it's supposed to. This also gave me an opportunity to mock up my motherboard and HDD from cardboard and do a test fit.

Tore out some nubs and plastic mounts on this corner:


And some near the front of the shell:


Now the PSU sits flat and stable on the base

With that out of the way, I mocked up the motherboard with a 170mmx170mm square of cardboard. First hitch of the day.

It doesn't fit! Two of these posts that are supposed to take the screws that hold the top of the shell down are in the way:


Clearer shot of the problem:


Now, since those posts are held to the casing both at the base and by a little piece of plastic on the side, I figured it wouldn't be too bad if I could somehow take off the part attached to the base and leave the post itself attached to the side of the case.

A lot swearing, sweat and sawing resulted in this:


And the board fits perfectly now!


Also, since these mods make it obvious that Sketchup I made wasn't 100% accurate, I needed to find a spot for the HDD. This is what I came up with:


Of course, it won't be taped there, I'll be screwing it onto some mounts that I have yet to make.

Oh, and here are the remains of the butchering (minus the tons of plastic dust that's now found a home in my carpet):


More soon

 

Nice going, I hope the precariously suspended screw mounts don't break

 

Likewise mate. Btw, I there's only one precariously suspended mount. The other cleared the motherboard.

Anyway, I plan on giving them a healthy dose of some sort of epoxy or glue before actually trying to screw anything down.

 

Hell Yeah!!! Carboard motherboard rawks. I approve.

I've been mini-ITX since like forever and I got a little fancier. I took a direct photo of one of my old boards (I think it's one of the ones I sent Cheaps) and had it printed full size 170mm x 170mm and spray glued it to a nice piece of white foamcore board. You could probably do the same thing if the manufacturer has a direct overhead shot.It really cuts down on the looks from the charity store workers when I'm eyeballing a found case mod.



The I/O actually does extend a bit past the foam on purpose. Cute isn't it.

john

Now it needs a naming. PS3, Zotac 9300, ITX. maybe like PS-Zotac. Help him out here guys.

 

Yeah - help me out here guys!

And John, that printout idea is pure genius! But how do I scale it to 170mmx170mm exactly?

Or is it just trial and error?

 

How'bout PSx86? Or PS-Pi? Pi is just three with a little extra anyway

 

Oh, I really like PSx86.

 

PS9300?
PSITX?
PSMC? (PS Media Centre, I assume that's what it's for)

 

Hey, I liked the last one (PSMC)!
Maybe a poll once I have a list to choose from?

 

I just scanned the pic into Marilyn's copier/scanner/printer HP thingy, measured it, and did a little math to reduce/enlarge it by XX%.

You could just lay the MB on the scanner flatbed and then print it but mine came out with shadows from the depth so I did the picture way. Doesn't give you the depth but all the mini-ITX I have used were no taller than the I/O shield in stock form. The ZOTAC Northbridge cooler looks taller, though. I have the MB and 3.5" HDD and a 2.5"HDD, I/O shield,etc. All fit in my messenger bag when we go out "What about? and How's this" searching. M helps a lot. She has a good sense of scale. She does tend to shake her head once in awhile.
"Put that into THAT?????"

john

 

Ah, I don't have the board on me yet (waiting for monies to come in or things to get a little cheaper). So copying it becomes difficult. I might take a screenshot of it from Skethcup or Newegg though and play with scaling so I can get it to fit

 

wow, an itx in a ps3! subb'd. I suggest PSx8 or PS-ITX. Maybe some math/java nerd will come in here and figure out how to incorporate PS3 and Zotacs 9300 ITX board...

 

Added a poll for the name.

 

OR:



print this to size

john

or for a REALLY big one:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh137/jhanlon303/misc/zotac-gf-9300-itx-wifi-2g.jpg