Build a Nintendo NES PC

Step 5 Cutting a hole for the backplate

Next I placed the motherboard on top of the HD. The other end of the board sits on top of the power/reset switches. I measured where the I/O backplate would come and carefully dremeled a hole in the top and bottom halves of the case to fit the plate.

The picture shows the hole. A tad ugly, but the picture was taken before I did any sanding. It's much nicer now. The fit was alright, so I used hot glue on the bottom half to make sure the plate stayed in place.

Comments

[jimk80124]

How about an external USB for the HDD? Or if you don't mind a little extra expense one of the SSD's for internal.

[them0dster]

It doesnt cost much to do this.. The NES i got on ebay for 15$, the cd drive i got from an old PC, the4 motherboard i bought on newegg.com for 115$ it was an mini itx as well.  the cables r cheap.. u can get them on dealextreme for like 2$  the picoPSU goes for around 60 bucks with the adapter included
so all and all it will cost 250$

[sconner1]

If all you want is to run emulators, one could skip the hard drive and install a small OS to a flash stick. Most modern mobos can boot from them. That would save space, heat, power consumption and some money on IDE adapters.
There are some even smaller form factors than itx that have processor, ram, graphics, sound and storage all on-board, meant for embedded systems but would work for this build too.
Also if one was clever he might add a piece of structure that would push the cart lid up as the cd tray slid out. Slick.

[Andy-K]

Its not the best idea to put the motherboard on top of the HD. I love the idea of making a NES PC, but you should try and think of a new way to mount the Mobo. It needs to be mounted to something secure, possibly with some metal standoffs and those should be mounted to the plastic of the NES case.

[autonomousoperations]

I'm currently working on building one and I used a sheet of Plexiglas style plastic to separate the mobo from the HD. I drilled and tapped holes for the mother board posts but 2 of them did not align correctly. After talking to a freind he recomended attaching the posts to the mobo and puting lipstick or something similar on the bottem of the post and pressing it agianst the plexyglass to transphor exact markings

[MikeGlass]

He's dead, don't say "you".

[spock155]

Who are you talking to?

[Andy-K]

I was just talking to anyone who wanted to make one of these PC's. Just some helpful advice.

[mightymax83]

I agree with you big time because heat is a huge concern. Here's an idea to solve this problem. To allow for some better stand-off between components and hardware, you should build a custom metal chasis where your HD, CD/DVD, Mobo and other parts would mount. The metal chasis should be designed to fit within the dimensions of the NES case. Build your PC in the chasis first, then mount the chasis to the case. This will allow for better design/air flow and will make your NES PC WAAAAAAAAY more secure than duct tape. This is how I am planning to build mine anyway.

[Andy-K]

This is true. I like that idea, definitely not something I would think of but a very good idea. If I ever get the money to build mine, I think I will do it this way.

[brian3140]

I don't think any of you have actually seen how crammed it gets trying to fit all those parts inside lol. Other than the proper power supply I finished building one a few weeks ago. The HDD probably should have been better placed in this one, but you can't really get very elaborate.  Once i get the proper power supply i'll make an instructable with mine :)

[hellraiser141]

I'm saving up money to buy the stuff required to do this but i think i'm going to drill the holes and then smoothen the edges and sum :P also GR8 stuff love this shit :D btw. I need to buy sum shit and i can find it in my country (Iceland) so do you recommend Ebay?

[PCvsMac]

I recommend EBay for the NES, however, I wouldent bother going for EBay for anything else. (For instance, motherboard might be trashed when it gets here and I dont think you can return it...)

[nevermind1534]

If you pay through paypal, you can always get your money back.

[zwollner]

Well My NES PC is almost complete, see here

[hatsuli]

Looking very smooth!