Project: Reverse Playstation Mod

misterPK

misterPK

misterPK

Soldato
Joined
18 Apr 2007
Posts
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Probably in a river somewhere
This is my first major mod, so I'm taking the ideas and planning stage nice and slow.

After being bored one evening and flicking through various other peoples mods on the net, I had the inspiration of taking my old grey original Playstation and turning it into a small media centre PC.

The first problem is obviously the size, but after some brief research I think I can just about fit in a low power nano-ITX board in it.

The next problem I can see happening is trying to fit a DVD drive in the top where the flip lid is. I think the chances of me getting something top-loading like the original had is virtually nil, unless I do some major surgery on a laptop drive.

Thats the basics of the idea, might post some pics/specs later, but for now I'm just interested in comments and suggestions.

PK!
 
That will be a very tight squeeze.

But hey - good luck to you - and the more pics the better :D
 
Cool. Don't think ive ever heard / come across that before. What about the height for the heatsink / fan combo? Gonna be a really tight squeeze. Gotta fully document it.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
What hard drive will you use?
Click to expand...

Like I said, its early days yet, but the plan is to use a 2.5 inch laptop drive. Should fit in to the side nicely. I havent decided exactly which one yet, something in the 120 GB or bigger range.

PK!
 
I attempted this with an old NES. I still have all the parts in a cardboard box in my room, but the project was put on hold for a while after my powersupply went up in a shower of blue sparks :p i might have another look at it over summer when i have no uni work to be doing.

Anyway, i found a great site while researching NES stuff but they sell mini-atx motherboards and cpus so i cant link it on here. They have loads of these projects shown on their site, one for pretty much every console you can think of and loads of other completely random stuff
(the white blocks on the images are where i'v lazily cut out the site name)
fearuntouchable-playstationpc0003L.jpg

fearuntouchable-playstationpc0004L.jpg

if you want to add me on msn (in trust) i'll give you the link and try and answer any questions you have.
 
Heres a thought for your summer project: You could take the need harddrives and stuff out of the immediate equation and build a Linux based media centre system that allows a small frontend which would be your playstation box and have a 'back end' pc which would do all the recording of your programmes and house the hard drive and tv cards etc. Try mysettopbox.tv for further info.
 
Indeed, and store the linux distro on a compact flash card with a compact flash-IDE converter.

fini
 
The idea of a "computer of two halves" is pretty interesting, but to be honest I've set myself the challenge of getting everything in that smallish case and thats what I aim to do...

... as long as it doesnt end up looking like its been shoe-horned in like the earlier pictures!

My own initial pictures and maybe even some diagrams will appear later when I get the time (I'm at work at the mo).

PK!
 
yeah, dont really have a lot of choice about that, sadly this isnt gonna be much of a games machine! Oh the irony....

Pictures will finally be posted in a bit, so watch this space!

PK!
 
Ok, so when i went for "small" pictures on my camera I didnt realise they'd be this small, but its not like I've done anything interesting yet!

DSC00085.JPG


DSC00088.JPG


DSC00089.JPG


DSC00092.JPG


Well thats what the insides of an old playstation look like!

PK!
 
ah the good ol playstation, i loved that console, probably the only console that got into mainstream culture.

with modern tech getting a pc inside should be doable ish (if you dont mind low performance laptop bits), the only query i would have is the powersupply.

as long as its powerful enough to run half life and command and conquer (1) what more could you want.
 
You could rewire the playstation ports to accept usb . . . . By attatching the mouse cable to the plug on an old controller. Old Skool.
 
dalin80 said:
as long as its powerful enough to run half life and command and conquer (1) what more could you want.
Click to expand...

Actually, one of the few games i still have for the old thing is the original C&C, along with red alert, diablo, and dark forces. Even back then it wanted to be a PC!

I'm planning on using a small 120w power supply that'll run off a 12V DC input.

PhillyDee said:
You could rewire the playstation ports to accept usb . . . . By attatching the mouse cable to the plug on an old controller. Old Skool.
Click to expand...

I had planned to use an old keyboard and mouse and wire up them with my old controller wires, but I only have one at the moment. Off to ebay I go...

Did anyone ever get the original playstation mouse?

PK!
 
Last edited:
Spec

Well, this is turning out to sound more expensive than I thought. I'm looking at a little over £500 for the kit. Here's the list so far, feel free to comment or offer alternatives.

Via EPIA N10000 nano-ITX motherboard with 1GHz processor
Corsair 1GB PC3200 SODIMM
160GB Western Digital Scorpio SATA 2'5
LiteOn SLW-831S-01C slim slotloader DVD writer
Slim DVD-IDE converter
120W Pico-PSU + external 12 adapter

Some pretty exotic items there, so I'll understand if i get some replies saying "eh???" :D

Cheers,
PK!
 
A single board computer may be cheaper than a nano ITX which are fairly new. Maybe look at some of the really small drives used in mp3 players? Or boot from and then map a network drive. 512mb will probably be enough for a Linux based media server if it will save some money. but you'll probably need to use a low profile dimm to fit in there?
 
agreed that 512 ram may suffice. may save a few bob.

p.s. i had but never completed dark forces for the ps, i stuck it into my ps2 a few months back but i just couldnt take the graphics.
 
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