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Thread: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

  1. #1
    Super Secret Agent
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    Default PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid Update 26/08

    Hi all.

    This is my first post on this forum... Please be gentle with me.

    This worklog I'm afraid starts morethan half way through the build. But as it is a fairly unique (please correct me if its been seen before) mod, I thought it may be of interest to peeps.

    Now to the story.

    This is a lesson how "That seems a simple idea" turns into "How many of those things have I trashed now"

    First of all lets start with a simple idea.

    For my living room I wished a silent HTPC. It had to be silent as I intended it to run 24/7 and I like my piece and quiet. I also play some gentle jazz from time to time and the whine of a fan ruins the effect. So a plan was born.

    Make a 100% passive HTPC.

    On reflection this turned out to be the easier aspect of this machine.

    Inside

    2100XP palamino Undervolted 10 1.4v and underclocked to 1133mhz. Cooled by a modded typhoon.

    Abit NF7 mobo. Modded with a 6cm CPU copper cooler, running the NB passive. The power regulators are heatsinked with a cut up PII heatsink. The SB has a PII heatsink shaped and added. The thing runs stable with no forced cooling

    2x512mb DDR 400 ram heatsinked with nexus memory sinks. Running in dual channel mode.

    Silverstone 30NF 300w power supply. 100% passive piece of alu gorgeousness!

    ATI 9600 pro AIW (tuner now no longer required)

    Asus 7131 DVBT card

    V-Stream/K-World DVB-T100

    So I thought take a standardish cheapo ATX Midi tower case. Stripped out the bays, cut out the front, panels at the rear and rear sides. Make a new front panel I have a cover made which is meshed at the rear as well. More of that to follow...

    I then thought (and this is where I have to say a lesson could be learned about how dangerous thoughts are!) There is space in their for other stuff, what else could I fit in there. The answer was staring me in the face. My playstation 2.

    This was the killer. Or to put it more exactly I became a playstation Killer....

    I stripped the first PS2 down. I seem to recall it was a V7. Worked out a placement, built brackets. Removed its own power supply, Soldered a molex onto it and tried it out. Bingo, power and it worked. Now all I had to do was

    1. Extend the controllers and Mem cards to the side of the new case.

    2. Extend the graphics output to the back of the new case.

    3. Work out how to get the power and eject buttons to the front of the case.

    4. Add drive bays to the (at this time non existant) front facia panel

    Easy?

    I searched the web, but noone seemed to have done this mod before.

    Now the piccies...













    I will be stripping the thing down for painting and further filling. When I do I can take some photos of the playstation conversion to give an idea on whats involved.

    I would also welcome positive suggestions on how to take this case further.

    Justblair

  2. #2

    Default Re: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

    nice, reminds me of a mod i did a while back of putting an Xbox and PC in the same case, eaiser mod since the Xbox is all USB peripherals and already had an ATX PSU plug. Can't wait to see the finished thing.

    Currently under work: Xbox/PC Hybrid Tower

    CZTR Series Queue Line:
    Shuttle XPC
    Dell Inspiron 3800 (Yeah a laptop)
    SGI O2

  3. #3
    Super Secret Agent
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    Default Re: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

    Yes...

    The playstation is not easy thing to mod into a pc case. In fact I trashed 2 playstations trying.

    The soldering is intricate, the first one I slipped with the iron and took away 2 resistors, by the time I had tried a repair, 7 resistors and a track had lifted off the board. I used the video out port from that one to extend the output to the back of the case. The laser was used to repair the machine that you see in there now. (flea bay is good for faulty ps2s)

    The second one (a V3) was in a different arrrangement. It had two stacked boards. I made a perspex box for the boards with a 120mm fan. All worked well till I was fitting it. Made a mistake, the box fell out of my hands and when I tried to power it back up, nothing....

    The power supply bit was the easiest. You cant see it in the photos, but all I did was identify the 12v line on the ps2 power supply, then solder a molex onto the ps2 main board accordingly.

  4. #4
    Paradox Sausage DaveW's Avatar
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    Default Re: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

    Very nice work, haven't something like this in a while. Looks like it would be murder if you ever changed your mind about something though...

    -Dave
    Quote Originally Posted by jdbnsn
    Ideas are just knowledge soaked in alcohol.
    Quote Originally Posted by jdbnsn
    Did I just get in a Volvo? Volvo's don't have guns!

  5. #5
    Super Secret Agent
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    Default Re: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

    Well the fact its a passive pc is limiting certainly, couldn't say put an intel in there. But its still ATX at heart, so I can change in the future to an AMD.

    The playstation bit of course is limited, not only is the 3 on its way (Though I wont by the first ones) but I have a horrible fear of breakdown. That happens I have to source another V10 or mod again. But might not happen.

    I suspect though that I will have built another one long before I want to change anything on this project. I have a few idea spinning around just now for another HTPC.

    Oh yes and I have just bought a playstation one 5'tft screen for playing with. Not sure where I will use it. Either in this case or part of a remote viewing screen with a tv extender. Ill try it for size and see how I feel. Got it on fleabay for 20GBP new and unused (its described as) Expect to see it crop up somewhere.

  6. #6
    Razors Edge
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    Default Re: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

    Yeah, I like the idea. hey cheztir, You think you can give me a few photos of you're xbox computer? Becuase I want to try putting an xbox into a computer. I don't mind blowing a few hundred dollars for that.

  7. #7
    Life is like an analogy...
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    Default Re: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

    Well the fact its a passive pc is limiting certainly
    you know, i was kind of torturing myself about this point... trying to think of a way to overcome the limitation. i cant believe i didnt think about this earlier.

    ever heard of things like ion propulsion or the ionic breeze or lifters? those work on a principle of electrifying atoms in the air to ionize them, and it can create an air current.

    the ionic breeze is probably the best demonstration. you plug it into the wall, turn it on, and it starts circulating air silently... and fairly quickly too.

    the trick though is engineering something like this to operate in a case. devices like this use at least 1000 volts and two mesh layers that act as anodes and cathodes. its quite possible to pull off though (you just need to use 120 volts from the wall, and make a transformer to step it up 9 or 10 times... not too hard).

    i think something like that would look cool because of the mesh, and just BE cool because of the principle. theres just one thing i should say though before you go and try this. if you take the voltage up too high, you start getting coronas. coronas are basically a visible discharge between the electrodes... usually a purple colour. this is bad for two reasons:

    1. its makes a hissing crackling noise

    2. its pretty much the same thing as jumping a spark. you could fry everything instantly.

    1000 volts should be enough to get a small current happening, and it shouldnt jump sparks (general rule is something like every 1000 volt increase means a spark can jump an extra centimeter).

    so, its a wild idea, but its completely possible, and you strike me as the sort of person thats crazy enough to try it.... id try it. all you need to do is find some fine metal mesh, or you could weave some 50 gauge copper wire.

    by all means, dont take my advice. its a little risky. doesnt hurt to try though... maybe make a test apparatus to see what it does first. i just thought it would be like a golden bullet solution.


    Quote Originally Posted by Slug Toy
    im pretty sure i was your car, but i was into mah music and didnt think too much of it

  8. #8

    Default Re: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

    More on Slug Toy's point, why not try one of those "Bath Room Ionic Breeze", or better yet "Car Ionic Breeze"'s since they run of 12v anyway. From what i can tell they'd seem to get the job done quietly, effectively, and becuase you could just keep it in it's casing no fear of a jumping spark.

    Hehe. Ionizing is very dangerous, i've played around with it using a disassembled CRT. You can get seriously hurt, so use at your own risk.

    Also, Razor's Edge sadly i gave away the Xbox/PC hybrid as a gift a few years back. But good news is a might be constructing a new one soon, expect that on here of course.

    Currently under work: Xbox/PC Hybrid Tower

    CZTR Series Queue Line:
    Shuttle XPC
    Dell Inspiron 3800 (Yeah a laptop)
    SGI O2

  9. #9
    Life is like an analogy...
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    Default Re: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

    Ionizing is very dangerous
    well, dangerous is a relative term. it really depends on what kind of risks you are willing to take.

    some people might consider this dangerous because they could fry their computer.

    some people might consider it dangerous because they can get RF burns and electrocutions.

    some people might consider it dangerous because its potentially deadly. i disagree with this one because if you power off a 120 volt outlet, you lose current through the transformer and through the wire (something like 50 gauge is very small and large currents either melt it or cause major coronas).

    i've played around with it using a disassembled CRT
    you didnt make an electron gun by any chance did you? i figured out how you can make them from a crt coil. its not that hard, and you can do some neat things... fry steel wool from 20 feet away... light up tvs.... make peopes hair stand up. ive even seen videos of people burning wood... but i dont understand how that happens.


    Quote Originally Posted by Slug Toy
    im pretty sure i was your car, but i was into mah music and didnt think too much of it

  10. #10
    Super Secret Agent
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    Default Re: PC-Playstation 2 Hybrid

    so, its a wild idea, but its completely possible, and you strike me as the sort of person thats crazy enough to try it.... id try it. all you need to do is find some fine metal mesh, or you could weave some 50 gauge copper wire.
    I'm not sure wether to take that as a compliment or not...

    Initially I dismissed the idea...

    Then I started thinking

    Then I definately dismissed the idea....

    For a bit at least...

    Then I made this...

    Only joking!

    I think for the mean time I will leave it. The processor stays below 60c even in the scorching hot summers Scotland is famous for. The machine is stable and does enough for the moment. Even when I add the partially meshed top I am fabbing at the moment. One benefit I did think of was this... I smoke, Ionisers are very effective at cleaning the air of dust and tobacco fumes. Trouble is the dirt litterly falls out of the air around it, which of course would be the inside of my case.

    My other problem with this idea comes down to power consumption. The Silverstone 30NF certainly is no slouch. It has oodles of current. But I have to consider that it is a passive PSU and more watts means more heat. I still am toying with the idea of squeezing a playstation screen onto the front.. Thats another couple of amps of power used up.

    At the moment certainly there will be a few left. The PS2 is rated at 45w including its own psu (Which cant be that efficient judging by its design) probs about 30w now. The undervolt to the processor takes the processor down to 30w max (It only ever runns at 40% of its power, so I guess about 20w. the Graphics card is setup to handle as much of the output as possible.

    I'd guess that I am drawing round 100-110 watts and the PSU is warm to the touch but not burny. I'm not sure how much extra burdon I want to give it though. Its not just that it will tax the PSU, the processor is very close, so that would be more heat generated in close proximity. Again I have probably got some headroom... Rather keep the headroom there tho.

    That said I am sure my folks had one of those ionisers at one time, it may still be in a cupboard back at theirs. Mum didn't like the dirt that it attracted. You get a fair bit even in an obsessive compulsive clean freaks house (sorry Mum) I am tempted to give it a try one afternoon... If I do I will report.

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