15 replies to this topic

[matty0]

ok, so a while back i posted here that a friend of mine had challenged me to put a pc in an xbox 360 case. that project died as we had no free time, and as students, no cash for parts.

but now with 2011 dawning i am reattempting his challenge with a slightly different aim. i'm not building a new pc in the xbox, but moving an old m-atx machine that's about 8 years old into the case. that way there's no parts to buy (other than a hard drive) and if it all goes wrong, it dosent matter. the pc is crap anyway haha.

so for those interested, heres the hardware im using.

Mobo - ASROCK kfn84g-sata2
Ram - 2x 1GB DDR1 (aka, DDR400)
Graphics - Onboard, Nvidia 6100 (using 128mb of ram to a total of 256mb)
sound - onboard (alc 888)
wifi - broadcom pci card (i will have to cut this to fit...)

and the bit where i need your guys help, the power supply...

in the case its all currently housed in, its a generic 400 watt "Power-X" PSU. but as those of you who've built pc's before will probably know, PSU's are mahusive!

the chasis for the psu will in NO way fit in the xbox case. so i have 2 options, look online for a smaller one (then have to pay for it...) or option 2, disassemble my current psu, taking it out of its housing and seeing what i size i can get it down to.

so my question is,
A) is that in any way safe or a good idea?
B) if anybody has done it, are the circuit boards out of the case small enough to make it worth while?

thanks for any help

if i can get started, i'll make a thread and keep you all updated with my progress.

wish me luck

[jmdalmighty]

Don't know much but I'm 100% sure that's not safe.

[gruntmods]

jmdalmighty, on 28 December 2010 - 08:43 AM, said:

Don't know much but I'm 100% sure that's not safe.

Correct, you should never disassemble a power supply unless you have been trained. Find some way to make it external instead.

[Quinn]

I've taken apart a few, and can safely say, they really don't get any smaller when out of the case. I wonder, original xboxs had a small power board. It might be worth looking into to see how many watts it puts out.

[TheMasterSnail]

What about using the xbox 360 power brick, Get a volt meter and see if it has enough power to run the computer, Or putting the power supply inside xbox power brick? If you look on google other people have put computers inside an xbox and they oftern have the power supply on the outside hidden out of view maybe that might be easyer

[gruntmods]

TheMasterSnail♥, on 28 December 2010 - 03:29 PM, said:

What about using the xbox 360 power brick, Get a volt meter and see if it has enough power to run the computer, Or putting the power supply inside xbox power brick? If you look on google other people have put computers inside an xbox and they oftern have the power supply on the outside hidden out of view maybe that might be easyer

it clearly states the voltage/wattage on the power unit.

[matty0]

i see what you're all saying... but i want to make it all internal if possible.

the origional xbox may be worth a look into but otherwise, it dosent hurt to have a look and see what it can shrink 2 im decent enough with a soldering iron... whats the worst that could happen haha

[Quinn]

matty0, on 28 December 2010 - 06:32 PM, said:

i see what you're all saying... but i want to make it all internal if possible.

the origional xbox may be worth a look into but otherwise, it dosent hurt to have a look and see what it can shrink 2 im decent enough with a soldering iron... whats the worst that could happen haha

shock with a side dish of death D:

[gruntmods]

Quinn, on 28 December 2010 - 07:24 PM, said:

shock with a side dish of death D:

not to mention risk of fire and destruction of components.

[matty0]

i bought a m-itx micro psu. 15cm x 4cm.

it is TINY! itl arrive in 2-3 days i'll start a project page once i have all the parts.

btw, im using the xbox's origional 20gb HDD im going to use it as a HTPC so i'll run the xbox origional HDD as an OS drive, then store the media on an external drive (for now)

EDIT:

just thought i'd add, its 120watt. that should be enough

Edited by matty0, 30 December 2010 - 12:19 PM.

[Quinn]

matty0, on 30 December 2010 - 12:18 PM, said:

i bought a m-itx micro psu. 15cm x 4cm.

it is TINY! itl arrive in 2-3 days i'll start a project page once i have all the parts.

btw, im using the xbox's origional 20gb HDD im going to use it as a HTPC so i'll run the xbox origional HDD as an OS drive, then store the media on an external drive (for now)

EDIT:

just thought i'd add, its 120watt. that should be enough

A 120w may not cut it. I tried to look up that mobo, found nothing. Is is an oem? What CPU? I tried to build a similar system, ran it through a psu calculator, and got 141w.

[gruntmods]

Quinn, on 31 December 2010 - 06:42 PM, said:

A 120w may not cut it. I tried to look up that mobo, found nothing. Is is an oem? What CPU? I tried to build a similar system, ran it through a psu calculator, and got 141w.

I sincerely doubt that is big enough, as my Compaq from 2000 used 200W.

[matty0]

gruntmods, on 01 January 2011 - 01:10 PM, said:

I sincerely doubt that is big enough, as my Compaq from 2000 used 200W.

all im running is a motherboard and a hard drive... no graphics/sound cards, no optical drive, nothing really! motherboards require 50w approx, and the hard drive can run of a usb which is 20w... shouldnt be an issue whatsoever .

if it is... i may link 2 togeather... only £12...

[Quinn]

matty0, on 01 January 2011 - 07:19 PM, said:

all im running is a motherboard and a hard drive... no graphics/sound cards, no optical drive, nothing really! motherboards require 50w approx, and the hard drive can run of a usb which is 20w... shouldnt be an issue whatsoever .

if it is... i may link 2 togeather... only £12...

tsk tsk tsk. Your running a CPU, motherboard, hard drive, and if you really want to be technical, you are running a video card and sound card, although integrated, they still use power enough. Jesus, my desktop CPU would overload that psu alone

[matty0]

Quinn, on 01 January 2011 - 10:12 PM, said:

tsk tsk tsk. Your running a CPU, motherboard, hard drive, and if you really want to be technical, you are running a video card and sound card, although integrated, they still use power enough. Jesus, my desktop CPU would overload that psu alone

internal sound uses almost no power! and the graphics are 6 series nvidia... comes out of the ram and therefore motherboard. its a bios trick, not really hardware.

we'll see how it goes. if it dosent work then it dosent work, but think. you can put a 4 core i7 in a laptop now and run that off an 80w psu internaly with a screen, graphics, sound, hard drive, optical drive, wifi...

you'd be supprised how economical computers can be

[gruntmods]

matty0, on 02 January 2011 - 06:50 AM, said:

internal sound uses almost no power! and the graphics are 6 series nvidia... comes out of the ram and therefore motherboard. its a bios trick, not really hardware.

we'll see how it goes. if it dosent work then it dosent work, but think. you can put a 4 core i7 in a laptop now and run that off an 80w psu internaly with a screen, graphics, sound, hard drive, optical drive, wifi...

you'd be supprised how economical computers can be

a CPU alone can use 90W.........