Project Overdrive

[DeMoB]

As an effort to move my friends from console gaming to PC gaming, I've offered to build a PC for one of them based on my 'spare parts' and a few purchases to get the most from the system.

It's going to be as much hardware as I can fit in the very modest budget, which translates to building it around an LGA775 platform (mostly because I already had the motherboard and RAM available).

So I present to you.... Project Overdrive

The case I'll be using for this build is a Silverstone SG01. It originally had a Pentium D system in it, so has been around just a little bit longer than the hardware I'm about to put in it.



Stripping it down brings us to the inside. There was a HDD rack at the front I forgot to photograph that had an intake fan on the side too. The case fits a mATX board and full sized PSU, so there are plenty of options for expandability.



However, I'm not happy with the CPU clearance the PSU location provides (above the motherboard/CPU). You're pretty much limited to having the stock CPU cooler, so something will have to be done about that...

A few rivets later and were down to the bare chassis.



I figure there's enough room at the front of the case to mount the PSU, and I can work out where to put the displaced hardware as I go. >_<

First up is to trim the dual bay ODD cage to fit above where the PSU will be mounted:



Then I need a way to secure the PSU in place in its new home. Using some offcuts from before, I can make a bracket that the PSU can screw into.



By chance, I found that I could fit the HDD sideways in the ODD cage. It's a perfect fit, so I cut out a bracket from the original HDD cage to hold it in place there:





And then all that riveted back into the case:



Made a slight mis-calculation with not leaving a gap to plug the HDD SATA cables in, but back to the dremel and a couple of quick cuts later:



I'm ready to start putting hardware in this now, but I've still got a few things I want to finish up first, so I'm going to have to leave you hanging a bit before I do the big reveal. So stay tuned!

 

[Conchubair]

some of your pictures appear to be broken mate...
looks interesting so far too.

 

[DeMoB]

some of your pictures appear to be broken mate...
looks interesting so far too.

Oops, had double uploaded a couple of pictures by mistake and deleted the wrong ones it seems! Fixed now!

---

Ok, now I've started putting some hardware in the case.



The HDD sits on top of...



..the slimline ODD drive, which then sits on top of...



..the PSU (which sits on the case... etc. ).

It really is a perfect fit. There's literally a couple of mm above the HDD to the case exterior.



The cutout lip on the bottom of the case already existed from the original HDD cage, but it conveniently means I can now slide the PSU out of the case without having to de-rivet anything. Win-win.



Now that I've moved the PSU, I kind of have a big hole on the back of the case. I had another idea spark to fill up that hole perfectly...



With another PSU!

Wait, no, that won't fit.



Getting closer!



Boom. One mesh drill with pre-tapped screw holes and mains bulkhead fitting already installed!



That's the ticket.

And to connect that up to the PSU's new location, I cut and soldered a 90 degree kettle lead to the bulkhead fitting...



Then stealthed the cable along the middle case support beam



I'm loving that bar for cable management purposes.

And don't worry, I'm planning on insulating the exposed mains contacts with a liberal application from a glue gun soon enough.


Coming up next time... A surprise wireless adaptor!

 

[barnsley]

Very nice!

 

[tinytomlogan]

This looks pretty cool matey

 

[Conchubair]

i gotta say, i love that ghetto power switch..

 

[DeMoB]

Very nice!

This looks pretty cool matey

Thanks guys, I'm pretty pleased at how it's all turning out myself.

i gotta say, i love that ghetto power switch..

I don't know how you have the cheek to call this ghetto...



:lol:

---

Right, who knows what this is?



...

Give up?

...

It's the controller RF board from an Xbox!

In the past week I've discovered that you can use this board (with a little soldering/driver hacking) as a way to use xbox 360 pads on the PC.

As another friend had a no longer wanted RROD'd 360, I was able to liberate the RF board from it and promptly assault it with solder and glue...



Now this PC will be able to use xbox 360 pads too!

(Which will help immensely in transitioning the recipient of this PC from console to PC gaming!)

---

Going back to cable management, remember how I said I loved that support bar across the middle of the case?



I've been able to hide so much stuff up there, including a custom adaptor for the laptop ODD SATA power...

 

[wassupdoc]

Looking good! Being able to solder is certainly liberating!

 

[Innocent159]

This is some awesome modding skills

 

[DeMoB]

Looking good! Being able to solder is certainly liberating!

Best bit is that I can barely solder. You'd be surprised what you can do if you give it a go.

This is some awesome modding skills

Thanks

---

So I've been pretty cagey so far in mentioning specs of this build, and that's because I've got another trick up my sleeve to maximise performance on a budget...



A 3Ghz Xeon quad core chip... £27 off of ebay!

Now for those of you paying attention, you'll have noticed that I'm trying to put a LGA771 server chip in a LGA775 desktop board. Well first off, the plastic lugs on the CPU socket stop you from physically doing so, so they'll have to go...



...and then with a £3 sticker mod, I can ground/swap two pins round...



...to make it electrically compatible with a LGA775 board...





How about that for some maximised potential!

The equivalent Core 2 Quad models are still selling for around £100-£120, so this really is performance on a budget!

And while we're talking specs, I was also able to max out the board with 8GB of 800Mhz DDR2 RAM.


2008 called, and they were hella impressed.

 

[wassupdoc]

That's a cracking bit of fudging mate

 

[Conchubair]

sorry for insulting ya mate!
i love the X360 RFboard thing too, was actually considering something similiar myself with the wireless dongleything. i just love this build, its not about the flashy hardware, but the stuuf that your doing to it makes it special/interesting

 

[RadeonHDx]

This is pretty awesome. You've really shown modding skills . My favourite part has to be the server chip to 775 mod, really smart!

 

[DeMoB]

That's a cracking bit of fudging mate

Ta mate.

sorry for insulting ya mate!
i love the X360 RFboard thing too, was actually considering something similiar myself with the wireless dongleything. i just love this build, its not about the flashy hardware, but the stuuf that your doing to it makes it special/interesting

Oh! I was only teasing about being insulted! I guess my 'lol' smily under the photo was too easy to miss

I actually have a soft spot for ghetto mods, none of my cuts ever go straight and I always seem to balls stuff up somehow. Take that rear power switch thing for example, I think I let it get too hot and melted something inside because it now will barely turn off. >_<

As for the xbox RF thing, it's the perfect match to this build in terms of performance for cheap. It was a little fiddly to solder the diodes/contacts right, but once done it seems to be working great (the little I've had chance to test it).

This is pretty awesome. You've really shown modding skills . My favourite part has to be the server chip to 775 mod, really smart!

Best bit about that was that I only found it by chance looking on ebay for Q9550/Q9650 chips. Someone had listed the sticker mod with those models in the title saying you could mod a xeon into one and when I looked it up, they weren't lying! Knowing I got the same quad core performance at a third of the retail price is a really good feeling!

---

I needed to sort out the big gap at the front of the ODD bays, and I just happened to have some spare acrylic on hand...



And with a small cutout to put the drive through, the hole will be nice and covered.



I secured the xbox RF board behind this acrylic bit *cough* with some gaffer tape *cough* (Yes, I was being lazy, but I didn't want it glued in place, and I didn't want to have to take all the components back out of the case to drill/make a mounting bracket).

Having it behind acrylic incidentally also means that that the case won't shield the RF signals from actually working, so this 'unused' bit of space ended up working out in my favour.

---

Depending on if the guy I'm selling this to wants case handles, this could be my last update before final pictures.



The handles would look like above, and while they'll make the case a lot more practical for carrying to LAN'ing (which we intend to do most weeks) I think I do like the case better without them. So we'll see what he decides.

 

[DeMoB]

Final Pictures!















Cable management like a boss.



So what do you think?

 

[barnsley]

Very nice .

 

[SeekaX]

that build is definitely a highlight of ghetto modding. switching pins on a CPU to make it compatible with another socket, never seen that before.

 

[chewythefirst]

That is class, modding at its best

A few questions,
How much did it cost you and how much did you sell it for?

How will the pc pick up the controller?

What type of device with it register it as?

Is it going to be picked up as a unknown device and you just assign it to be a Microsoft controller for windows, like you do the the wireless receiver you can get?

And how come you didn't put in a io shield? the lack of one makes the back look unfinished.

But once again an amazing feet of what you can do with a small budget and a lot of hard work.

 

[DeMoB]

Very nice .

Thanks

that build is definitely a highlight of ghetto modding. switching pins on a CPU to make it compatible with another socket, never seen that before.

I didn't know you could even do that until I ran across the mod stickers on ebay when searching for Core 2 Quad processors.

That is class, modding at its best

A few questions,
How much did it cost you and how much did you sell it for?

I've pretty much done it as a favour for a friend, so sold it for £250.

I bought the CPU for £30, and the GPU for £55. Everything else I already had access to use and was no longer needed by me.

I had a brief look after I'd finished, and if I'd had to buy everything else at the going ebay rates I could have easily spent over £300+ on components.

How will the pc pick up the controller?

What type of device with it register it as?

Is it going to be picked up as a unknown device and you just assign it to be a Microsoft controller for windows, like you do the the wireless receiver you can get?

The link I posted earlier has the full details, but once you've soldered the USB connector on (with a 5v -> 3.3v diode voltage step-down) you can slightly modify the drivers for the official wireless xbox USB adaptor and it'll recognise it as that. The controller(s) show up as the official MS xbox one in windows, so you have to do very little once set up.

The only caveat is that you have to use a play and charge kit to automatically sync the controller to the board (but only if it wasn't already synced before you started this mod) else there's a much more involved solder modification with a small micro controller that you need to do to be able to activate the boards built in sync feature.

And how come you didn't put in a io shield? the lack of one makes the back look unfinished.

Unfortunately the board didn't come with an I/O shield when I bought it second hand a while ago, so I'm unable to do anything about it. I've tried sizing up a few spare shields I've ended up with, but none of them have ports in enough of the right locations to make it worth while even attempting to cut and repurpose them.

But once again an amazing feet of what you can do with a small budget and a lot of hard work.

Thanks man, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

 

[remember300]

i love the 360 controller mod, i was tempted to buy the normal module you can get cut the usb head off and put an internal usb header on it, but i like this idea better i can hide this behind my mobo, and use my Gow controller which i still kept after selling my xbox cos Gow is the best lol

you got a link to where you found the mod?