AMD BC 250 project 2. The easier one.

ALXAndy

ALXAndy

ALXAndy

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Hola. So as you may have noticed I have the G.E.C.K project ongoing. If you read it you would have noticed that I actually bought two BC 250s as I got one super cheap (about £60 IIRC). I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it as the first one worked lovely, but I had two 256gb NVME drives identical and so on.

Well last night when I was looking for bits on the bay I found this.



What is it? well it is from about 10 years ago. It is called an Alienware Graphics Amplifier. It was designed for the M13, and M17x among others and could house a graphics card.



I checked the dimensions and at 40cm deep it *should* be able to house a BC 250.



I took note that it uses the wind tunnel design too.



Which I am going to beef up hopefully with one of these that I have left over from the other Alienware project.



Apparently the unit has a 460w ATX psu in it which is more than man enough. However, if it tests bad I have a mint EVGA 650w Supernova gold rated PSU.

Now this thing was cheap. And I mean, stupid cheap. A snip @ £30.

It should also keep me busy whilst not being too taxing and I can then finally set up one of these AMD things and get to grips with it properly without worrying if it is going to cook itself.

If it doesn't fit in there? well then it will become some sort of Pi based NAS. But fingers crossed, eh?
 
Oddly enough as you said mine was mint too (the pads). I have a feeling they may never have been fitted to the main unit tbh. If they were? well the data centre they ran in had 0 humidity.

Not sure what to do with this one. The other one is 100% going to be my new Fallout machine (so 3, NV and 4 etc) but yeah not sure on this. I don't think Truenas works on it? no idea. Might try that though, as a two drive NAS here at mum's would be super.
 
Not sure how many you could cram in there tbh. Besides, this is not my home NAS. That has 12 1tb SATA SSDs in it and two 3gb spinning drives. It would just be for mums to stream to the fire sticks in case I want to watch anything without ads (like Fallout S2 for example). So yeah, tons of drives is not necessary !
 
OK quick update. It is coming tomorrow with RM. I am going back on Friday, maybe Thurs if I can get stuff done. Good thing is mum is going on a break for a few days so I can make some racket if I want lol.

I'm still not 100% it will fit, so I may have to make it lol.
 
OK so this is looking like it could be too good to be true lolz. It fits like a glove. I am pretty sure, though, that I will need to solder the wires into the back of it as with a EPS in it will be too tall. Other than that though? looks like minor modding will be needed and a cover plate for the back.





I've heard bad things about the stock fan. I hoped I could fit a 120 but I don't think I can. This was about £12 IIRC.



I will try and duct it somehow. I got this because the PSU only has two 8 pin PCIE so will need modding.



I will take those from the 24 pin. I also got this, as seems customary lol.




Now from the look of it the worst thing that can happen now would be if the PSU was dead. I have another, but I would rather not butcher it as it is very high end. I'd need to be really unlucky for the one in there to be dead, though.
 
Time to poke the PSU after jump starting it. Fan spins up, light comes on. Do we have 3.3v?



We do. How about 5v?



Yup, so for all three....



Sweet. That saves me a few bob. I should have had more faith, Dell PSUs are usually excellent.
 
lmao. I am amazed at the Dell PSU.

See, I could have sworn the BC 250 needed a 12v EPS. But then, that is the problem when you haven't touched one in about two months. I wondered why it needed such a shove.

It turns out it is actually a 8 pin PCIE, and how I did not blow it to kingdom come is a mystery. Dell PSU = good. It refused to start.....

 
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Quick update.

I’ve now spent hours playing with it and for a good fit it needs to go in upside down. This means I need to cut lots of plastic out of the floor and make a tiny incision into a piece of metal to accommodate the end of the PCB.

Annoyingly we are talking literally the last 3mm of the actual PCB and nothing else.

I’ve had a lot to do because I’m here alone atm but I should be able to get back on the tools tomorrow or at worst Tuesday.

Other than a small cover for the back (CNC) and some soldering it should all be quite straightforward.
 
No not hacking it up.

I’m going to make a duct and smother it in tape.

Edit. It must have been in the air. I also 99% worked my PSU yesterday too. I opened it up and physically removed every wire I don't need and soldered on the SATA connector for the fan hub.

I ordered some latching switches but they are not latching ffs. So I have ordered a load more. I need some in stock tbh I always seem to need the bleedin' things.
 
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OK so I tried to upload photos last night but the site was down. I've now done more !



That's all the plastic crap clearanced. Problem is I need to cut a slice in the metal where I have circled in yellow. That needs to be done outside, so can be done tomorrow. PSU is done.



And £6.99 got me a bugger load of latching switches.



Pre wired too which is nice, as they can melt when soldering onto them.
 
OK so the 90 deg stick out on the IO was getting in the way. So I cut it off.



Left a bit of an edge poke there. It's all been filed, but that 3mm or so poke was for this. It now slots in where a GPU would.



And so.



And the area that needs removing for it to sit down where I want it.

 
OK finally got some done.

Mum has not been well at all. She has a heart condition that whilst apparently not life threatening is making her short of breath. As such I now need to look after her. This doesn't leave much time for me, but it is what it is. She does have an appointment on Thurs, and they mentioned a inhaler.. So that should help !

Any way, back onto this.



I wanted to use the bracket on the BC250 but it was laying right over where the bracket for the front and top etc. So I did this.



Better... One M4 tapped hole needed.





And then.





That will go in with some epoxy and bolts.
 
OK note. I used JB weld plastic bonder. It's like black epoxy. I could only use one bolt, as any more were not going into any metal and or would obscure it slotting into the PCIE tang.

The small slither is to be plastic welded to the end of the hole to stop it drifting outward. I will then fashion another bracket to hold it in at the other end. Probably tomorrow tbh, I don't forsee it being very hard.
 
OK so I put some spade connectors male and female on the power button wires. That worked. Time to boot it up and install Bazzite...



Those of you who had your money on that puny Noctua not being up to the task? were correct. So I machined two pieces of plastic, glued them to the floor then VHB a larger fan onto those.



No duct yet, that will be the last task. I made up the small bracket I spoke of and fitted that.



Now I knew it wasn't going to close but it was annoying.



*some time later*



Now initially I tried to solder on a pigtail behind the connector. It did not work. I think the solder on the sockets is made from uranium tbh. It just smokes but doesn't melt. So I somewhat lost my excrement in frustration and well it now looks like this lmao.



*cut mangle snap etc*.

But it works, and I will take that.
 
Hehe. About a week for that.

It’s basically done now, other than the led.

Update coming in later as I’ve just gotten home.

I’ll do the led and some tidying and cleaning when I get back.
 
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