Laptop to Xbox 360 PC

[ryguy425425]

In return for reflowing my cousins PS3 for the second time, I was given an Inspiron 1501 laptop, with a broken screen. I already have a laptop, and so do all of my friends. I could spend $100 on a screen to fix it, or I could do something fun. I also have a few 360s sitting around from when I was perfecting my technique. Long story short, research before you heatgun. I have completely given up hope on one particular 360. It has the dreaded 0003 error (Usually a short under the CPU/GPU), and I swapped the dvd drive for one with a bad laser. My original plan was to fix the laptop, sell it, and put the money towards parts for an xbox 360 PC. With the price of a new and decent laptop being about $500, I would not make a huge profit. As I was removing the hard drive I got thinking "What are the chances of this motherboard fitting in a 360 case. I hopped over to Youtube for a disassembly tutorial, and the motherboard looks like it will fit. I have lots of room front to back, and it will just barely fit lengthwise. It looks like all I will need to find to have a functional computer is a heatsinc that doesn't stick off to the side of the board. Of course I will be going for more than functional. My soldering skills aren't amazing, so moving the DVD drive will be one of the many obstacles. I might just buy a slim USB dvd drive to replace this one. The board only sits about an inch high, so there is lots of room to play around with. This should be one unique project.
The computer's primary purpos is to look cool and make my friends jealous. I will probably use it as an HTPC that will be moved between an HDTV, a few SDTVs and my dad's tahoe with built in DVD player. I want it to look as close to a stock 360 as possible, with as many of the stock ports as possible in use (I'm planning on converting the VGA output to composite, and using a regular 360 video cord (If my skill level allows)). I might have to use a USB to SATA adapter to make the 360 HDD port work.
Using a laptop will make things easier and harder. Things are smaller and the motherboard includes nice features like Wifi and a built in PSU. On the other hand nobody that I have googled has ever put a laptop into a 360 case, or any other game system that I know of.
My inspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKUyQUifHS8
My first bit of help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD6WDt-goiU&feature=fvw

Feedback is appreciated. What kind of problems will I run in to? What awesome ideas do you have? Has anybody put a laptop (minus screen) into a game system before (Links are appreciated, sorry if I didn't google enough on this one). Pics coming soon!

[ryguy425425]

Right now I have most of the parts stripped off the laptop. I am working on removing the motherboard from the plastic bottom of the laptop. I shoud get the motherboard free tonight, and I'll start planning out where everything will go tomorow morning. I took some pics with my phone, but the lighting was to bad for me to post them.

[ryguy425425]

I thought I'd post some specs too:
Dell Inspiron 1505 Laptop:
AMD dual core processor (I didn't check which one before I hacked it up)
2 GB ram
160 GB HDD (I might put this one in my ps3, put the 40 GB drive in this, and upgrade when I get a few bucks)
15" screen (it is broken, but that gives you an idea of the size)
DVD Burner (This will replace my 1525's DVD-Rom if I end up taking the USB route)
Built in Wifi, and possibly bluetooth
53Wh battery (keep it or sell it?)
VGA out, any ideas for adding s-video?
X-Box 360:
Origionaly a Pro, but I took the chrome dvd bezel with the DVD drive, so it's an Arcade now
No HDD, Lite-on drive with a bad laser

I do have a few projects under my belt (A MAME cabinet, fixing a few electronics here and there), but nothing quite like this.

[pcclan]

:pics:

[x88x]

Sounds interesting. Are the HDD and ODD SATA or IDE?

[ryguy425425]

:pics:

I saw that in another thread, and quickly took pictures, but like I said the lighting was too bad. I'll post some after work today.

The HDD is SATA, and plugs directly into the side of the board without cables. I'm planning on leaving it where it is, it will fit when the board gois in the 360 case. I don't know what the DVD drive is, but it isn't a regular SATA (I haven't realy worked with a laptop before). The DVD drive sticks out too far from the motherboard, so it will need to be moved.

[x88x]

Something I found works great as a lightbox-on-the-cheap is a fluorescent desk lamp with a piece of blank white paper taped over it. The paper diffuses the the light nicely.

Take a picture of the DVD connector. If the HDD is SATA, I would be willing to bet that the ODD is mini-SATA, a standard used specifically for slimline ODDs. You can actually get an adapter that will go from that to normal SATA pretty cheaply. Then you could hook up the built in drive in the 360 to it for an even more seamless look. :D

[ryguy425425]

Using the 360 drive is a good idea. I origionaly didn't know how I'd power it, but I just googled the sata power cable pinout and it does have the required 3.3v. That is definetly something I will keep in mind, although I heard something about the coputer not detecting it as a DVD drive on this blog: http://ant.allenthinks.com/ (the creator of the 360 PC in the youtube link). It is something I will look in to.

I tested the board outside of it's shell. Everything is working, except it won't power on without the battery. The battery won't fit in it's current shell, so I'll have to hack it open (unless someone has a better solution).

The board almost fits perfectly. The headphone jack bezel sticks out about 1mm, and is making the fit just barely too snug. I will probably just sand it down, or if I'm feeling brave solder a headphone jack extension cable on and move it to the back.

I finally got the pictures. The problem with the first set I took is that I was trying to use my cell phone as a camera at 10:00 on the dark side of the house. I got a real camera for these ones.

http://s905.photobucket.com/albums/ac255/ryguy425425/Xbox%20360%20PC/

<a href="http://s905.photobucket.com/albums/ac255/ryguy425425/Xbox%20360%20PC/?action=view&current=DSC01509.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i905.photobucket.com/albums/ac255/ryguy425425/Xbox%20360%20PC/DSC01509.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[ryguy425425]

Something I found works great as a lightbox-on-the-cheap is a fluorescent desk lamp with a piece of blank white paper taped over it. The paper diffuses the the light nicely.

Take a picture of the DVD connector. If the HDD is SATA, I would be willing to bet that the ODD is mini-SATA, a standard used specifically for slimline ODDs. You can actually get an adapter that will go from that to normal SATA pretty cheaply. Then you could hook up the built in drive in the 360 to it for an even more seamless look. :D

I had a picture of the drive connector, but I don't know what happened to it. I can take another one, but this is basicly my drive http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Laptop-CD-RW-DVD-RW-Burner-Drive-DW-Q58A-YC640-/190434782151?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal

[ryguy425425]

Bad news. While test fitting I shorted something. Now the powerbrick LED does not light up, and the motherboard did not respond to my regular laptop's powerbrick (also a dell).

[dcattena]

mmm doesnt sound too good man, this project sounds awesome tho, keep trying to bring that board to life :)

[ryguy425425]

I finally identified my processor. http://cgi.ebay.ca/AMD-64-X2-Turion-TL-50-Laptop-CPU-1-6-Ghz-TMDTL50HAX4CT-/290417505952?pt=CPUs
I'm starting from scratch!

[ryguy425425]

Can anyone recommend a nice motherboard/processor combo? I'm looking for something around the dual-core atom range. I also realized that my old board was a lot bigger then a micro ATX board. Built in wifi would be nice, but not needed, and HDMI or DVI output would be great. I'm also looking to unload a bunch of parts. If you need any part for a Dell 1505 or 1501 (besides the LCD and motherboard) make an offer!

[x88x]

I think the best bang for your buck right now in that area is the ION2 platform (not to be confused with the ION). They upgraded the CPU and GPU, so it actually handles 1080p content nicely now, and you can get the MBB/CPU for ~$200. I can't seem to find any bare MBBs, but this barebones from Zotac looks good and isn't much more than I would expect a bare miniITX board to be anyways.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173005&Tpk=HD-ID11

[ryguy425425]

That looks like what I need (and I can reuse my ram and hdd right?). I think I'll prep the case first this time, and try to scrape up a few bucks for either that system, or something close to it. Looking at the specs for that perticular unit it seems to only have one Sata port. Is that including the HDD connector? Thanks for all your help by the way!

[x88x]

If the SO-DIMM that you have is DDR2, they yeah, it'll work with it. I'm guessing that single SATA port is probably accurate, given the design of the unit. Since Zotac is also a MBB manufacturer, I would guess that they might also make a miniITX version of this system, which would most likely have 3 or 4 SATA ports.