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Building a micro gaming cube

3K views 29 replies 12 participants last post by  Fishie36 
#1 ·
Well, I've just ordered all the parts required to convert my monster steel mid desktop tower into a micro gaming box!
I'm really excited because I get to go to lans a lot and it will be fun to show this thing off. I'll post pictures and everything every step of the way so you guys can see what it's like. For now I'll post the pictures from newegg since the parts ovbviously havn't arrived yet.



The motherboard is the EPoX EP-8HMMI-A Socket 754 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX and the case is the Aspire X-QPack. Cooling will be a 120mm rear fan, a Zalman 7700ALCU, and ATI silencer 4. I hope it stays cool, but I'm not too worried about that since it won't be overclocked due to my cpu being absolute crap and taking .1 volts for every 100Mhz. Maybe I'll get a newark down the road but for now everything in my sig is going into it.
 
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#4 ·
Thanks guys. I got my tracking numbers! Newegg blows me away as usual and shipped the parts out in 3 hours without rush processing. So everything is supposed to be here on monday! I can hardly wait! I just hope the two packages get here at the same time.
 
#6 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Chosen
EPoX also sells specialty boards i think their smallest mobo is about the size of a 20oz soda with 2 dimmslots socket a 2xide 1xfloppy all the nessesitys
That would be nice! Although I dobut it's socket 754. Do you know where I can read about this?
 
#7 ·
I'm building a wooden case for a mini-itx computer, its not going to be a great gaming machine, but it will run emulators fairly well. The cool part is that it is a 100% custom made case, and computer, and it's tiny. The final dimensions of the box are 8.375" x 12" x 8.375"
 
#9 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fishie36
Maybe I'll get a newark down the road but for now everything in my sig is going into it.
.
Now how can you get everything in your sig into that.. a 19" screen


Just kidding you, that looks like a sweet case. So what was the cost for the motherboard and case and does it come with the powersupply that is shown in the picture?
 
#11 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Chosen
Slow site take a look
http://www.epox.com/USA/product.asp?class=IPC
Wow... lol. Sorry a 600Mhz celeron, 1 DDR slot and 1 PCI slot doesn't make a gaming box though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grosmechantloup
I own the same Case but in Black!!Its a Great Case you will love it.It stays cool too.
That makes me feel better. Hey since you own it already, would you trust the handle on the front for carrying it? I read some places that the handle looks like it will break because it's just plastic. Also how much space is there between the optical drives and the power supply? I am a little worried that they will hit since I have a modular PSU with large plastic connectors that stick out pretty far. And is the stock 120MM fan noisy?

Quote:

Originally Posted by HotDog
Just kidding you, that looks like a sweet case. So what was the cost for the motherboard and case and does it come with the powersupply that is shown in the picture?
lol I'm leaving the screen out. But the case and the motherboard came to $156.98, but I will be getting a $10 rebate on it. Also today is the last day to get it otherwise it will be $20 more. And yes the powersupply does come with it but I'm not using it unless I have to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryguy1788
I'm building a wooden case for a mini-itx computer, its not going to be a great gaming machine, but it will run emulators fairly well. The cool part is that it is a 100% custom made case, and computer, and it's tiny. The final dimensions of the box are 8.375" x 12" x 8.375"
Any pictures of ot yet? Sounds cool!
 
#13 ·
Nice box, I've been wanting to make a small form factor pc for a while now. If only it was a 939 pin then I might order the same case since I have an extra processor. Well I do have a 754 pin proc but a few pins are bent and I haven't wanted to try and fix it yet.
 
#14 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by Unarmed

Nice box, I've been wanting to make a small form factor pc for a while now. If only it was a 939 pin then I might order the same case since I have an extra processor. Well I do have a 754 pin proc but a few pins are bent and I haven't wanted to try and fix it yet.

Actually micro 939 motherboards are easier to find, and they will have PCI-Express and all that good stuff. About the bent pins... it's no big deal unless you broke one. Just use a mechanical pencil with no lead and bend them back. You need to have very sharp eyes and good depth perception and it's easy. I recently THREW my friends 2800 newcastle on accident and bent about 15 pins. It took me a good 20 minutes to get them back in line but it worked fine.

Oh and if you guys want to see my current rig (minus the 7700ALCU) I have pictures here. http://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/details.php?id=44
 
#15 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by Fishie36

Any pictures of ot yet? Sounds cool!

No pics yet, my friend is still "deciding" on a design, he thinks he can make it smaller, but he knows nothing about computer design, he wanted to mount the HDD right above the cpu fan intake... I will leave it at that.
 
#16 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by ryguy1788

No pics yet, my friend is still "deciding" on a design, he thinks he can make it smaller, but he knows nothing about computer design, he wanted to mount the HDD right above the cpu fan intake... I will leave it at that.

Well as long as there's say... an inch of space, it will be okay there. Why is he designing a comptuer if he doesn't know anything about them?
 
#17 ·
I designed it, he has procrastinated, since he bought the mobo and stuff, it's up to him. I'm going to be the one making it, and his designs don't look functional to me, mine does but it isn't the smallest possible. The mobo is a VIA EPIA 17cm x 17cm, onboard video, all that good stuff. It's going to be a nice portable gaming computer, only an 800MHz VIA CPU though. It is seriously awesome with 4 player bomberman though
 
#19 ·
Everything arrived yesterday! Everything installed fine and after some breif drama with lockups was resolved it is working very nice. The only real issue I had was that my video card memory cooler would not fit so I had to make some major modifications with some metal shears. Now without further adue I will provide you with the pictures! (in the zip file)
 
#21 ·
Hello,

What would you suggest as a good 939 board? Are there any that would fit that? I might want to go mini cube for the computer I'm building for my friend. It's gonna have 2gb ram, 7800gt, and a 3700+ san diego. Any opinions?

That looks GREAT.. and that's why I'm asking
 
#22 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by KoSoVaR

Hello,

What would you suggest as a good 939 board? Are there any that would fit that? I might want to go mini cube for the computer I'm building for my friend. It's gonna have 2gb ram, 7800gt, and a 3700+ san diego. Any opinions?

That looks GREAT.. and that's why I'm asking


Hi,

I would recommend the Biostar Tforce6100-939

I haven't bought it yet but I have all plans to. Tons of people recommend it and I've seen one guy who had his opteron at 2.9 Ghz on it. Sounds like a winner to me
 
#24 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by dolinn

How's that case? I was thinking about using it for a small server project. Everything fit well? Other impressions?

The case? Well... overall it feels rather cheap actually. The whole thing weighs about 5 pounds and most edges are not rounded but aluminum doesn't cut your hands like steel. Also, good luck finding a better power supply. You can't fit anything longer than 5.25 inches in there without hitting the cd rom drive (the included power supply is 420 watt with dual rails though 12V1 = 14A 12V2 = 16A so you probably will be find with just that). Also if your video card is in the first slot, you can't have anything on the back of it, otherwise you won't be able to slide the motherboard try in.
 
#25 ·
Dang...I was looking for a small case, since I don't have a ton of room on my floor and that looked just right. I had a feeling the psu would be weak, and I read that the construction was iffy, but I was hoping that it was just people being picky. Oh well, guess I will have to look elsewhere. I heard shuttle cases are nice, but I would prefer to put all the hardware together myself.

What OS are you planning to use?
 
#26 ·
Quote:


Originally Posted by dolinn

Dang...I was looking for a small case, since I don't have a ton of room on my floor and that looked just right. I had a feeling the psu would be weak, and I read that the construction was iffy, but I was hoping that it was just people being picky. Oh well, guess I will have to look elsewhere. I heard shuttle cases are nice, but I would prefer to put all the hardware together myself.

What OS are you planning to use?

Hey the psu is not that bad. What are you putting in there? I have all the hardware in my sig plus a fan controller and and 4 fans and idle is 12.4V and load is 12.1V. Not bad at all. I actually really like this psu. As long as you don't install a video card you can prettymuch gurantee that the psu is powerfull enough.

Planning? I'm using XP.
 
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