Project MBOX

maidtina

maidtina

To all the sega Xtreme group, I am developing a PC based system in the shell of a mark 1 european mega CD / megadrive. I already have the, erm, case :) and am planning the motherboard, and thinking about fan placement and cooling. It will have a Gig processor at least, preferably AMD on a MATX footprint board. What i am looking for is ideas to use, aesthetics suggestions and general feedback on this idea.

rich
 
how are you going to build something like that? you'd need a micro powersupply and micro atx board, is video and such going to be built onto the board?
 
Actually you can have a better chance of doing that using a VIA C3 processor, therefore you will lower the need for cooling sense those processors only require a heatsink. And put that together with Small Form Factor (SFF) motherboard , and your pretty much set. if you've seen the shuttle SV24 barebone systems you can see that they're not too bad with intergrated video, audio,usb, LAN, and firewire. You would save a lot more space, and probably need one fan to cool things down. And Shuttle will release the SS40 and SS50 SFF systems which use DDR with either Intel or AMD processor support within this month I think.

The only problem you would have then besides getting it in that case would be to pay for that little system...which I hear will be pretty expensive. But much cheaper than using laptop parts, and you aviod all the size, power, and heat problems micro-atx platforms require for the size of the case you are planning to use.

Here are links to a preview of the new SS50 system, and a review of the SV24 system that's avaliable already:

http://www.viahardware.com/ss50preview.shtm

http://www.viahardware.com/sv24_1.shtm

Hope that helps.
 
Yes, there is a new board coming out called a via eden, it is 17cm square with everything on board. It is so cool it doesnt need a fan

its too slow for my linink, I am planning a MATX board and use a coolermaster, the heatsink will go under the dome at the top. I was thinking about using a riser card for the graphics and mount it horizontally.

Yep this is my puppy

I will probably use a laptop hard drive and take the case off a micro power supply. Also for cooling i will dremel out the cooling grill on the left side and mount a fan in the riser on the right hand side. The fan sits nicely between the mountings for it - i checked :)

I am still working out whether to use blue LEDs or go Old Skool :)
 
old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! old skool! hehe, go old skool!
 
Got a 6 gig one on my desk i got for 35 quid :)

okok, i get the hint, old school lights, but i might stick a blue behind the CD logo..

anyway, off for a kebab :)
 
Thats ok, i got some shit hot online shops.

Am wondering at the moment whether to buy a slimline CD drive or to inverse mount the motherboard and use a full size one.
 
OK, got a big design problem. Im going to have to epoxy most of the case together but i need to make it so i can get in it, hopefully in a manor that i can show off the contents. Looking at a hinged lid but where to put the hinges?
 
Oh well, given up desoldering bits of megadrive for the night (cant find my soldersucker) and making a big vat of chips. Starting to get the parts for the volume control / reset / power board. Gone on to finding the sexiest switches to control the region crack for my mega CD :)

Just having a though. I know some people in this channel have collected mega modems. Has anyone tried to reverse engineer them yet? I think i can rewire the third port on a board. Probably not worth the effort but the thought of a megadrive with a modem appeals to me :)
 
well if your going to go with the older school 1 gig amd i would advise a p3 instead they run faster than the equivalent amd athlon and they run cooler. P4 sucks i am sorry to say but P3's are better than there amd counterparts. :)
 
uh no and thank you for not flaming me in the future. but even my pro amd friends say that a p3 runs as fast even faster than a heat generating beast amd at the same speed intel screwed up with p4's but even so an amd that is posed to be equal or plus to a p4 looses out in some bench's to the p4 equivalent. so and i have had alotta exp. with both chips and amd's have gotten better. but p3 and is still equal or better than the equivalent athlon. oh and pentiums still run cooler. so :p

all p1,2,3 were great amd killers. but p4 is a intel killer.
 
IIRC, the Athlon and P3 series kind of leapfrogged. I think it went something like:

K7 beat Katmai

Coppermine beat K7

Thunderbird beat Coppermine (but not by much)

Tualatin beat Thunderbird (but not by much)

I've got no idea how Palomino fits into this, since everyone's been putting it up against P4...

A Tualatin P3 would probably be your best bet for a good heat/power to performance ratio from what I've heard - the core was supposedly designed for laptop use. Going with a P3 system probably also opens up the mainboard selection a bit more so you'd be more likely to find one that fits your needs.

edit: come to think of it, I think Palomino (i.e. Athlon XP/MP) was designed for laptop use too, but I'd still suggest scanning the mainboard market before you decide which one to go with...

(Edited by ExCyber at 8:35 pm on Mar. 20, 2002)
 
From what i gather AMDs have more grunt than intel and they are a fraction of the price. Sod the heat, thats what fans are for :) Who cares if its a mega CD that sounds like an aircraft taking off
 
Yeah, regardless of the way these procs are benchmarked, AMD has offered a #### of a lot more power per dollar for about as long as I can remember...
 
i dunno oh all the amd's i have ever owned. they have all been finicky buggers that like to stall every once and awhile. although i had some luck with underclocking the amd's seemed to make em run cooler and more stable.
 
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