My VCR PC + XBox

Darg

Darg

Darg

Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2006
Posts
6,302
Location
London
Okay, well I finally laid my hands on an old VCR yesterday by going down to a repairs shop in town that were more then happy to give me one that looks like it's from the 80s. I originally had the idea for a PC in a VCR a while back when I was fixing my gfs broken DVD player (one of those old big ones). A few days later a guy on here came on with the same idea which was a bit of a jinx. I didn't get a chance to find a case until yesterday.

I'm cheating a little though. I'm really only using the metal shell of the case as it was mostly plastic fitted perfectly to the components. The metal shell covers the sides and the roof of the VCR. I'm using it for the front, back and bottom of my case. I'll also be extending the top up above the sides in a slope towards the right of the case to fit the PCI slot cards and the PSU(currently a frosties box).

I took about 5 hours today trying to get the best possible fit for everything. I almost gave up several times especially when I'd almost have it only to find that the cable from the xbox motherboard was too short to reach it's dvd drive etc.. etc.. I finally came up with something that I think will work well. I need to get my perspex back off my gfs dads workshop where I left it after doing the side panel of my main PC. I'll be using perspex to seperate several parts as there's quite a bit of overlapping, most notably the XBOX PSU pretty much resting on the Xbox motherboard, obviously that's just asking for trouble so that's getting a nice perspex seperator.

You can see the case design from this picture:
VCRPC2.jpg


Obviously I'd have liked to stuck to the height of the VCR side panels but that's just impossible with the PSU and wanting full height PCI cards to fit. If I can find a small PSU then I can maybe lower the top by the height of a harddrive as I currently have the harddrives under the motherboard:
VCRPC1.jpg


I know it will get quite hot under there but the Yate Loon will be half in, half out of the case so it should be able to push some air up under the motherboard, around the harddrives and out. I'll have another fan behind the CPU in the usual exhaust position. That'll probably be an Akasa Amber 92mm to make it fit.

Here's an overhead shot of the layout:
VCRPC3.jpg


As you can see it's all very tight. There'll be some room between the Xbox PSU and the two dvd drives but that'll be about it. I removed the covers of the DVD drives to primarily let them fit in on top of eachother but with the perspex roof it'll be pretty cool to see them spinning around. Obviously a little something to stop the laser burning a hole in my eyes is needed. If the top drive is empty you'll be able to see down into the spinning lower drive. I plan on shaving off a lot of the plastic bits that aren't needed especially on the Xbox DVD drive so that they fit better.

And finally a look from another angle:
VCRPC4.jpg


I'll actually be using the Xbox fan in its original spot to cool the xbox heatsinks. I never noticed it being that loud so it should be fine. If it is loud then ill undervolt it and hope the airflow from the PC corner of the case will be enough to keep it cool.
 
Azza said:
What does the cereal box represent? / Why do you have it in there?
Click to expand...

Thats the PSU. There's quite a few bits I need to buy in order to finish it off. PSU and CPU are the two main ones. Some more RAM as well.
 
Can you not get a right angle PCI riser to allow you to have the card on it's side?
I know a lot of the slimline HTPC cases come with these.

Also they come with MATX PSUs, so maybe you could pick one of those up too? They are small, around the size of the XBox one, and will allow for a smaller case over all. :)

Cool project, I'll have to keep an eye on this one. :)

InvG
 
Darg said:
Thats the PSU. There's quite a few bits I need to buy in order to finish it off. PSU and CPU are the two main ones. Some more RAM as well.
Click to expand...

Ah ok.

Looking forward to this. :)


Would be better if the PC and Xbox were watercooled. *hint hint, nudge nudge*
 
Yea a PCI riser card would be a big help. I've always wanted to watercool but it's too expensive for me at the moment. If I ever get around to doing it it would be for my main case anyway. With this one I'm looking at spending as little as possible. My list of bits to buy is currently just the RAM, CPU and PSU. All of which I should be able to get for around £150. I might consider a 2600 instead of the X600 if I can afford one.

I'll have to look around for the matx PSUs and those right angle PCI cards. Do they work for PCI-E as well?
 
Darg said:
I'll have to look around for the matx PSUs and those right angle PCI cards. Do they work for PCI-E as well?
Click to expand...

I think you can, else a lot of people with modern systems in HTPC cases would be stumped. I'm not sure how easy it is to get the risers by themselves though, same with the PSUs, as most of them come wth the cases.

InvG
 
I'll have a look around myself. If anyone knows a place where I can get them give me a mail. My email is in trust. I should be getting the perspex today. I think I'll probably go ahead with the current design. If I get my hands on some risers and a smaller PSU then I can think about changing it.

What do you guys think about which bits should be see through and which bits should be painted over? All the extra casing will have to be done in perspex I think as I just don't have sheet aluminium and probably can't afford it if I could find it somewhere. Maybe I can vandalise the metal casing of the xbox for the sides and some sort of support structure but that'd be about it. Thinking about it now I really probably do need some sort of aluminium to work with.
 
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Yay! I'm not the only one who prototypes using cereal boxes! Just remember to leave enough room for the wires that'll be coming out of it.

Also, if you are looking for a smaller supply you might want to consider a shuttle PSU, but they are generally a bit skimpy on connectors.

I like a good crazy PC in a something mod, good luck!

PK!
 
Thanks Mister!

Right now there should be plenty of room for the cables. I'm thinking of ditching the VCR case altogether, right now all I'm using it for is the metal cover. I was hoping to make use of the front panel somehow but that just won't happen with the current layout... actually.. hang on.. let me think for a minute.
 
Okay.. after me everyone.. say "Plan B"..

With that momentary brainwave I managed to make it all fit a little neater, have the DVD drives side by side on the top like I originally wanted and have it orientated so that I can use the VCR front. Wootage.

It will also need less of an extension out the rear. In fact it's so much better I'm really trying to see what I'm missing...

Anyway here's the new plan, first a perspective shot from the front showing the VCR front.
PlanB.jpg


And next a top down view over the entire system.
OverheadB.jpg


The harddrives are positioned below the DVD drives and the Xbox motherboard, there is room for three but for now I'll stick with 2. I might work on a way to slide them in and out from the side to avoid having to move everything to get them in and out but that will be a luxury end of list item.

The DVD drives look too big but I'll be able to pare them down enough to get them to fit side by side. I can't wait to see two spinning discs in them under the perspex top. As you can also see from the perspective view, less of the case will have to be raised up, only the rear right hand corner. Seeing as the PC motherboard is now the lower one on the case bottom the expansion cards will be lower. That means that if I get a PSU low enough I'll only have to raise the perspex top at that section by about 1.5-2 inches.

Does anyone know a good way of bending perspex? I'm thinking, make some sort of wooden mold and then use an iron or something to heat up and push the perspex down onto the mould. Would this work? Well I'll probably tell you after I come out of the intensive burns unit.
 
what about laptop optical drives? Could save a heap or space. Also as suggested Shuttle PSU's small and powerful.
 
Biffa said:
what about laptop optical drives? Could save a heap or space. Also as suggested Shuttle PSU's small and powerful.
Click to expand...

The optical drives aren't really a problem anymore and one of them is the XBox which uses a proprietary connector so I have to keep that as is. I'll look into shuttle PSUs.
 
I'm looking at the Corsair VX450W for this, after resizing my cardboard box to the right size for it it doesn't look much higher then the PCI cards will be. I'd prefer to go with that and have the benefit of the PSU fans for extracting air. The CPU and Xbox fans will be taking air in so the PSU will be the only extracting fan.
 
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