NES PC Mod - Do I Have Clearance?

[Sanji Himura]

I am interested in converting an old NES that I don't play anymore into a portable gaming machine as my first PC build. I have my NES shell prepped for the cutter when I realized an odd thing, I didn't account for a power supply into the build:

Photo 1: The lower half of the case as prepped for the cutter today. I detailed two orientations of the Hard disk, but those markings are likely to be ignored.

Newegg offers this sweet 400W power supply that may fit into the case - Linky here - but I am not sure if both the hard disk that I plan to use and the power supply would fit into the lower half of the case. Would you guys do me a square and look over the measurements that I have and make sure that everything would theoretically fit into the lower half of the case, and if there is any cutting to be done, let me know where?

Specs so far (all from Newegg):

HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint M9T ST2000LM003 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive
Motherboard: ASUS Z97I-PLUS LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
On/Off and reset switch: They came with the console (see lower left).

Measurement pics:

The pole on the left might give me some clearance issues. It was designed to go off center from the stud on the right, but that stud is what holds the two cases together, so I can't get rid of it per say.

This pic is measuring the width of the power supply in question. It's 3.2" wide, but might interfere with the HDD cut.

Sorry for the blurry tape, just couldn't get the camera to focus. The target height is 1.7".

The Length is an even 6". I already know that I would have to make some cuts along the rib on the bottom.

 

[sesselpupser]

Are you working from this Instructable?

It seems like you have two choices:
1. Build an actual gaming PC with a graphics card, CPU and all the rest that comes with it - requiring a bigger case.
2. Build a tiny gaming PC with everything integrated into the motherboard (as per the Instructable) which could fit in a NES case but could only play basic emulators.

I don't think it's physically possible to fit all the parts you need for option 1 in a NES case and keep it looking even remotely NES-like because:
- Actual gaming PCs generate a lot of heat and a NES case isn't ventilated enough for that,
- CPUs require coolers which consist of a heat sink with a fan on top at the very least,
- Graphics cards also require cooling hardware,
- While you can buy hardware so that the graphics card doesn't stand perpendicular to the motherboard, if you were to use one in a NES case you'd end up with a graphics card blocking air flow to the CPU cooler and the CPU cooler pumping hot air right into the graphics card - that's assuming the stack of motherboard, CPU cooler, graphics card, graphics card cooler still fit inside the height of the NES case,
- You'd then need to fit a proper power brick inside the NES, because there's no way you'd be able to get a 400-600W external power brick and keep it looking reasonably tidy or safe, and that would generate considerable heat on its own...

So yeah, I don't think option 1 will work in a NES case. Maybe I'm wrong, perhaps you could find a gaming laptop motherboard and fit that in but doing it with a mini-ITX motherboard and off-the-shelf parts... I'm not convinced it could ever work and still look NES-like and safe.

Option 2 could work, as in the Instructable, but there are cheaper, more efficient and far more compact ways of doing this these days - £85 for an Ouya (plus one of the worst controllers ever devised by mankind - fortunately it supports Xbox 360 pads, Dualshock 3s and other controllers) or £30 for a Raspberry Pi (but then you need a power supply, SD card, controller, possibly keyboard and mouse... It's still cheaper than just the motherboard you're looking at, though). Here's a possibly out of date list of what the Ouya can emulate and here's a guide to turning a Pi into an emulation console. Also, as an added bonus, both the Ouya and Pi have versions of Limelight available (the Pi's is called Limelight Embedded and is harder to get working, though), so they can both stream Steam games from a PC, as long as the PC has an Nvidia card (GTX 660 or newer/better).


So I guess what I'm trying to say is you should work out what it is you want to be able to play first, work out the required spec and see what kind of volume you'd be left with after that.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Well, to be honest, this build isn't intended for gaming, though my parts list suggests otherwise. I'm trying to build something that would be able to run DOS natively (and I think that Windows 7 Pro's XP feature would get the job done), and videos.

I think that I could get by with a lower end motherboard, but I don't want to take the chance quite honestly.

EDIT: Before you suggest DOSBOX, yes, I do have it on my main machine, and no it won't work with the only program that I care to install on the machine.

 

[Grayfox]

Option 2 could work, as in the Instructable, but there are cheaper, more efficient and far more compact ways of doing this these days - £85 for an Ouya (plus one of the worst controllers ever devised by mankind - fortunately it supports Xbox 360 pads, Dualshock 3s and other controllers) or £30 for a Raspberry Pi (but then you need a power supply, SD card, controller, possibly keyboard and mouse... It's still cheaper than just the motherboard you're looking at, though). Here's a possibly out of date list of what the Ouya can emulate and here's a guide to turning a Pi into an emulation console. Also, as an added bonus, both the Ouya and Pi have versions of Limelight available (the Pi's is called Limelight Embedded and is harder to get working, though), so they can both stream Steam games from a PC, as long as the PC has an Nvidia card (GTX 660 or newer/better).


So I guess what I'm trying to say is you should work out what it is you want to be able to play first, work out the required spec and see what kind of volume you'd be left with after that.

Intel NUC is a very small form factor designed to give off little heat and be fast

 

[Robin]

PSU's always ruin a good old mod... I've had loads of ideas for putting PC's into all sort of stuff only then to realise it probably won't fit with the PSU which is by far away the most bulky component.

Although there are smaller form factor PSU's they aren't really that much smaller. Also they are usually max 400-500W. PICO PSU's are only the size of stick of gum but won't provide much either.

I wish the ATX PSU standard was changed because there is actually lots of wasted space inside the metal housing. The dimensions were devised when they used the old heavy transformers to create the various rails. Doing away with them has taken away most of the 'stuff' and lots of the weight.

 

[NLxAROSA]

If you're only going the DOS route, you could try something radically different. For one, you won't need a dedicated GPU, onboard will suffice. What you could even do is buy a motherboard with an embedded CPU, like this one: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Q2900-ITX/ (Just an example to give you an idea, plenty of other choices available). These motherboards generally have a TDP of < 10W, so you could go with a very small PSU, like the PICO that @Robin. mentions. And it should still provide plenty of enough oomph to play DOS games and proper video playing (my coworker built a media PC with this same board, works brilliantly for movies).

 

[BobK]

Just out of curiosity, what DOS drivers are available for USB, SATA, etc? Also, will 64-bit CPUs be a problem with an inherently 16-bit with 32-bit extensions OS?

I should probably brush up on what's available from the Freedos project nowadays.

 

[Grayfox]

Just out of curiosity, what DOS drivers are available for USB, SATA, etc? Also, will 64-bit CPUs be a problem with an inherently 16-bit with 32-bit extensions OS?

I should probably brush up on what's available from the Freedos project nowadays.

SATA
None, since the motherboard is new it will use a rather new sata controller which will not have DOS support since DOS has been dead for about 10 years.

USB
You might have better luck with USB but I doubt it.

Chipset.
LoL yeah right, It wont support DOS.

Best thing do to is to emulate DOS or run a DOS system in a VM.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Well, to be honest, this build isn't intended for gaming, though my parts list suggests otherwise. I'm trying to build something that would be able to run DOS natively (and I think that Windows 7 Pro's XP feature would get the job done), and videos.

I think that I could get by with a lower end motherboard, but I don't want to take the chance quite honestly.

EDIT: Before you suggest DOSBOX, yes, I do have it on my main machine, and no it won't work with the only program that I care to install on the machine.

Make a Pi, or Galileo (if you want Windows).

 

[BobK]

Make a Pi, or Galileo (if you want Windows).

The RasPi only supports dosbox, which the OP specifically excluded. It does not support dosemu, which may have been another option.

There's something out there called Qemu, which I know nothing about, but seems some have got it to run on a RasPi.

 

[TenEightyOne]

There's something out there called Qemu, which I know nothing about, but seems some have got it to run on a RasPi.

Qemu! That's the one I was thinking of, couldn't remember the name

I'm pretty sure it can run Windows (prob XP, almost certainly lightweight) on a Pi, probably the B+.

I've also seen Arduino-based Windows emulators at a security thing, be VERY afraid of those if you operate standalone cashpoints Wouldn't recommend trying to make one as a starter project though.