PC in a NES

[mkell]

I know it’s been done loads, just fancied a little project to keep me occupied.

Looking for a bit of advice on my ideas.

The machine will be used as a media center to play 1080p blu-ray rips to my 32” tele.

I have a second hand NES on its way so I am yet to measure up inside. It’s looking like I will only be able to fit an atom board inside it. I may be able to squeeze a Micro atx board inside. I have a C2D 6750 and some DDR-2 in my parts box.

The Micro ATX build would require me to buy
- New Mobo – about £50
- C2D cooler, Low profile. Passive or with fan not to sure. Maybe - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/scyth...am3-1366-1156-
- A couple of small fans for exhausts – something like http://www.scan.co.uk/products/40mm-...inc-fan-screws
- A low profile graphics card like a 5570
- The final but major problem as the NES will deffo not have any room for it, the PSU.

This will come out at about £150-£200
I will be undervolting the c2d so a mobo with half decent bios would be needed.
I could have problems with the heat coming from the gfx card and c2d but would know until I got everything in and tested. As above the power supply could be the biggest stopper on using these parts.

Or my second option,

An Atom build which would fit nice and easy.

The mobo - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...i-itx-with-psu
This has an external style power supply which would be the best option. This gets rid of the need to buy graphics card as the ION is supposedly up to the 1080 job. Cooler is already on the board.
I would however need to buy some DDR-3 RAM.

This will use a lot less power and extra points for the remote

Both options would come out around the same price which is why I thought I would ask you guys what you think.

[scaryjim]

If it'll fit an mATX motherboard:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...board-graphics

If it'll only fit a mITX motherboard:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...gb-s-m-itx-vga

AMDs new fusion APUs: better CPU than Atom, comparable graphics to ION (depending on which reviews you read), and both boards are cheaper than the Atom + ION option you were looking at. Speaking of which, any reason you've gone for such an expensive ION board? There's a number of cheaper options starting at around £100...

If you want to use your existing CPU and DDR2, how about http://www.scan.co.uk/products/zotac...s-raid-itx-vga - an mITX s775 / DDR2 board. With GeForce 9300 graphics you won't need a discreet graphics card.

However, from memory the NES wasn't that big, so I think you might even be lucky to fit an mITX mobo in there...

That said, if it does work then do a project log in the modding section - I'd love to see it

[mkell]

Thanks for the input of the AMD boards Scaryjim, I had totally forgotten about them :/

The main two reasons for choosing that board were, the remote and the fact that its supplied with a external psu bit like a laptop charger.

http://static.scan.co.uk/images/products/1190396-d.jpg

The AMD boards have 24 pin power connectors. Its gonna be hard to fit in a PSU to the NES and a don’t fancy having a large psu outside the system.

I would like to get the AMD board but unless there’s a way of sorting the PSU issue I'll have to stick with the atom board

[scaryjim]

1U flexATX PSU? I'm using one in my Antec Aria and they're pretty compact, while providing good power output and efficiency.

Depends on the space available in the case, of course: if it is very tight then the ASUS ION board with the built in PSU is a reasonable call.

EDIT: here's an instructables on how to do exactly what you want. Should give you plenty of pointers on the feasibility of various approaches!

EDIT2: A quick bit of mad google skillz suggests the outer dimensions are 25.5 x 20.5, which is too small for a standard (square) mATX mobo, but might fit a slim one like the ASUS AMD fusion board (which is 24.4 x 18.3cm, according to ebuyer). That'd be tight though...

[arkham]

if your worried about space for psu with the amd boards have you thought about a pico psu i use that for my media center

[mkell]

scaryjim, Thanks so much for your input you've just made my project a hell of a lot easier.

I'll have a look through the indestructible guide when ave got a spare 5 today.

arkham, Thanks also as I had never seen a picopsu I'll be looking into these.

My NES will be here today so as soon as I have it I'll start the project log