NES PC Build

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nick09

nick09

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nlck09
I know that many people have done this before but I want to join in. My goal is to build a powerful system that can play movies and some games in HD for under $600. So far I have all of the parts that I need except for some nuts, a dremel kit, I need to manufacture some mounts for the Blu-ray drive, HDD, and the power supply.

Parts to be used:
NES: $0
Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 2.93GHz: $119.99
PNY 4GB DDR2 800 RAM: $81.99
Zotac GF9300-D-E motherboard: $139.99
LG Blu-Ray Drive - UH08LS10K: $99.99
Seagate Momentus 5400.2 60GB: $0
In Win IP-P300F1-0 300W PSU: $24.99
GELID Slim Silence 775: $21.99
Three fans, two 40mm and one 60mm: $10.97

If you add all of that up, it's a total of $499.21. So far I have dissembled the NES and installed the RAM and the CPU.

Motherboard with newly installed RAM and CPU:


I'll be updating as fast as I can but you can always check for more progress by going to my DA account(link) or by visiting the gallery(link).
 
That is awesome. I've always wanted to do something like that. Unfortunately, I (currently) lack the technical know-how when it comes to machining/fabricating with metal. . . one of my ambitions was/would be to make one of those 360-in-a-laptop configurations.
 
That is pretty cool, but what exactly has the NES got to do with it? Also, is that US dollars?

👍
 
So he's trying to make a PC using a NES as a case? I see, sounds like a fun idea. :)

How would you cram it all in though? I couldn't see the NES being big enough. :odd:

Anyways good luck, i would try this myself if i get some spare parts, maybe even with my PS1.
 
Yeah, it works. My friend had one, but the case was just designed to look like an NES.
 
$500 without a GPU. That's not gonna do much gaming, Nick. Betcha its really noisy too. My server has three 60mm fans and they are far louder than 90mm or larger ones running full speed.
 
Whoops I forgot that I made this topic and I was way too into building the NES PC to take pictures of the dremeling process.

Well for now, here are some random photos of it's current shape:
NES_PC_Front_view_updated_by_nlck09.jpg

NES_PC_side_view_by_nlck09.jpg

NES_PC_back_view_updated_by_nlck09.jpg


I have already played some games and I can say it preforms very well for a media center platform. I have played it with games such as Crysis with medium graphics and the gpu reported about 150F. I have played it in high graphics and the frame rate was about 20fps. The computer also works fine during long usage.

I have also upgraded to a 2.5" 640GB laptop drive with a fully legal version of Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. I also could not make use of the fans because of space issues, so I'm relying on the CPU and PSU fan for cooling. It actually works quite well. When I made the vent behind the PSU the temperatures decreased by around 40F degrees. So that increases my budget up to $600, which is near my goal.

For more photos of the NES PC just click this text.
 
Currently I have not done any recent modifications to the Case but the HDD seems to be failing(I'm getting some bad sectors on the HDD). I'm also getting tired of Windows Vista and will be installing Ubuntu Linux since the wireless drivers seems to work for 32-bit. I don't need to play blu-ray since I also have a PS3 and honestly I think I can use Virtualbox for that. Currently I'm backing up data from my HDD to make the change. The only real hard part of this change is getting the wireless working since the wireless is so-so with Linux.

@Eric: I sit about 3-4 feet away from the NES Computer and it is somewhat loud but it's not that loud kind of whirr sound. It's only really loud after playing a graphically intense video game. Even after playing Left 4 Dead 2 at a near 720P resolution and some graphics to high the highest temperature I have gotten was 171F on the GPU. The CPU had about 140F and lower on it. Pretty impressive that the computer did not crash on me.
 
Well after boot up the HDD temp is 75F and during use(Youtube and web browsing) it goes up to 100F. That's only because there is no fan nearby and hangs about 0.5 inches away from the onboard GeForce 9300 graphics. The GPU does 130F during normal use.

EDIT: Scratch the Linux idea. I'm installing Windows XP 64-bit because I just can't compile stuff in Linux. I'd be nice if there was a 64-bit wireless driver for Linux.
 
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Well here is a new update for the NES PC and the information is from my DA page because I don't feel like typing it again.
NES_PC_side_view_updated_by_nlck09.jpg

Well for this update I added a fan next to the hard drive and it does wonders for it. After just adding the fan the hard drive temps dropped by 20F to 80-90F while browsing the net and watching videos. The gpu and the cpu also did lose a few degrees but not by much. What's also nice is that the fan is only 25DB even though its a 60mm fan and makes about 12cfm(cubic feet per minute). Another good thing is that the fan does not add much noise to the overall machine noise. So AC/DC's song Back in Black when turned up to 35DB on the 5.1 surround sound set covers almost all of the machine noise. So when watching videos the machine sound does interfere too much at all.

This is after running the NES PC for the night downloading files and the HDD is running fine and is performing fine. I just got to see the temps after playing Godfather II. But I won't be doing that anytime soon because I have recently had all of my wisdom teeth removed.
Click to expand...
NES_PC_back_view_updated_2_by_nlck09.jpg

The only update I did here is that I cut the plastic that was in the way of the power and data cable for the blu-ray drive. The white part you see next the blu-ray drive is the new 60mmx12mm fan which barely fitted against the wireless card and the screw hole to the right of the fan.

The result of the new modification is that the NES PC does not have the plastic bent in the back and makes it harder to tell between a regular NES and this NES PC from the front view.
Click to expand...

You can view the other pictures here.
 
Well yesterday I ran Godfather 2 on the NES computer for about two and a half hours and it now performs about the same but the temperatures are lower overall. Rather than the usual 176F on the graphics without the fan I now get 163F with the fan running. The CPU has dropped down from 140F to 133F and the HDD has dropped from 110F to 90F. It only takes a minute or two for the temperatures to drop back down to normal after the game is closed. The idle temperature for the computer is 104F on the cpu, 127F on the Graphics, and 86F on the HDD.

So to conclude this; the computer runs dramatically better now because of the lower temps. I am quite impressed so far by the fact that this computer has not crashed yet from overheating. I am also amazed by how much this computer can do when it's pushed to the limits.

For now I'm going to leave this computer on for a four day marathon to test it's reliability. I have been running it for about a day and a half so far and it has kept the regular temps. I will post again tonight to report the temps.

EDIT: Last night the HDD went to 88F but went back down to 86F this morning. I could barely hear the fan noise from upstairs because there is no other noises being made inside the house in the morning so that is a good sign. Mind that I always put the machine to download around 4GB every night and then I watch that content during the day. So far it has been holding up pretty good so far.
 
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Would it be worth moving the HDD externally? You've got an E-SATA port after all. You could even get a 32/64GB 1.8" SSD to save some space and install the OS on it. Then went wanting to download or whatever plug a HDD into ESATA.
 
Looks really funny. Let's watch some movie or let's play some game on my Nintendo. But i don't like how it looks, i mean that is cut badly and not properly put together. That's probably the way how motherboard is way to big for small Nintendo Box but still with some good carving tools ans silicon you could achieve good result.

Still funny.
 
I can't afford a SSD drive but I did consider buying one before. But I do have a 1TB external that I use to backup all of my media files. Though I should really get a esata cable for my external because I could really make use of the speed.

darkos
Looks really funny. Let's watch some movie or let's play some game on my Nintendo. But i don't like how it looks, i mean that is cut badly and not properly put together. That's probably the way how motherboard is way to big for small Nintendo Box but still with some good carving tools ans silicon you could achieve good result.

Still funny.
Click to expand...

Actually the motherboard is 6.7" long on each side. The only motherboard standard that can run a windows OS and is smaller than Mini-ITX is Pico-ITX(3.9 x 2.8 inches). Now about the fact that I have not put the screws back in the the NES is because I'm still waiting for my boot controller to come in. So currently I have a large computer tower acting as the power button.

Now I know that the cuts are bad because the dremel tool is hard to manage in tough corners. Silicon? Do you mean caulk? I have made use of caulk for the blu-ray drive mount to keep the drive suspended over the motherboard and to hold the NES together I also glued some metal support under it.
 
This is my NES PC that i built.

<a href="http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c383/chicodawg03/?action=view&current=93754bae.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c383/chicodawg03/93754bae.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c383/chicodawg03/?action=view&current=5b5960cf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c383/chicodawg03/5b5960cf.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c383/chicodawg03/?action=view&current=78f49ed8.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c383/chicodawg03/78f49ed8.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
 
Well my NES-PC is now finished. The only appearance that gives off any surprise that there is a power switch(boot controller never came back to me) that is coming out of the controller port in the front and some rather unusual cables coming out from the back(HDMI, USB Wireless, USB Hub that came free with the wireless, and a rather larger power connector). I have posted some more information from my DA account quoted below.

I have gotten the new motherboard, new 250Watt Mini-ITX PSU(APEVIA ITX-AP250W), new 64GB WD SSD, new Rosewill B,G,N Wireless(Rosewill RNX-N1), and the slim LG Blu-ray laptop internal drive(LG CT21N). I got the new power supply because my current PSU was just way to modded to use anymore and the cables were too long. The new PSU helped save some space since it was smaller and had shorter power cables. Since the new power supply was smaller I used some Velcro to keep it from moving. I also used the Velcro to mount the new Blu-Ray drive and the new SSD drive under the Blu-Ray drive. What is also important is that I used the industrial Velcro because this type of Velcro can take temperatures up to 225F so you don't have to worry about the adhesive slipping off when you are playing video games.

So far after playing a 720P video I saw that the GPU went up to 142F and the CPU was 125F to 131F. So because I have finally screwed down the case(took power switch from a case) all of the free air around the case cannot be taken in. So right now I don't see the possibility of a very abusive video gaming session but it should play yesterday's video games just fine and today's decently. I will have the whole day off tomorrow so I will try to play a more recent video games like Just Cause 2 and post my findings if the gpu survived or just exploded(of course that would not happen. The CPU would most likely burn out if that happen and I would be one depressed owner of a NES-PC).

I also could not get any new pictures uploaded because my camera is broken and the family camera is also missing. So I'm sorry if you really wanted to look at some pictures of the finished build.
Click to expand...

@chicodawg: That looks really nice so far. So what cpu are you using there and I am assuming that board has intel graphics by the looks of it.
 
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I have a new update and since I don't have the time I will just quote my DA journal:
I have gotten a new camera, the Canon T2i, so now I can record my videos up to 1080 HD. I have gotten the new camera a week ago and I could not make anything new because I'm busy at work. Though tomorrow will be my last day of work so I will have some free time available to do the video and maybe snap some pictures.
Click to expand...
 
New video will be up tonight. It's just a simple video showing what my NES-PC can do and the basics of the hardware.

EDIT: The video is up!


This is my first time recording myself so I would need more time to improve. I also made a new youtube account just for this.
 
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