Mod NES11X R1

So I have a spare M11X R1 motherboard, some spare parts, and a NES I haven't played in ages. Naturally I decided why not have some fun with a new case mod. I'm well aware that this will not be the first PC mod in an NES case, but I'm sure I'll have fun anyways!

I'm still looking up part numbers and ordering a few things, but I have started on the case. I've got the old mounts taken out and I cut a hole in the bottom of the case that will be used as an air intake, and its also where the HDD will be mounted. I'm still planning the arrangement of everything but I've got it pretty well figured out. The basic plans are:

Killer Wifi
500Gb HDD
8Gb HyperX Ram
Bluetooth
AlienFX Lighting
Internal USB hub
Blu Ray drive
No internal LCD
Some fun cooling mods! (No liquid yet )

Anyways, here are the first couple shots!
PS : These cuts are VERY ROUGH.

 

Sweet, will be good to see this finished

Are you going to keep the original colour? or you going for some nebula red or stealth black

Bigger fan heatsink to reduce cooler noise? ( cheat and try and fit in a H50/60/70 with some silent fans?)

Ohhhhh build it already

 

I like it a lot! Good work, where is the Blu Ray drive going to be mounted? And is the drive bezel going to be made from the Nes case?

 

I'm hoping to have it painted nebula red, and I'm going to try to make the cooling as passive as possible.

The Blu Ray drive will be mounted under the lid and I'm playing around with a couple of ideas on neat ways to make it work. Stay tuned!

 

Cool beans. Would it be at all possible to incorporate a slot drive?

 

It would, but I plan on making the flip lid spring loaded with a tray drive using the old Reset button to eject the drive. I could do a slot load, but it would have to be a little fancier lid mechanic if I wanted it to be automatic.

 

Interesting. I look forward to seeing it play out.

 

here is my NES build.

NES Build pictures by robbass13b - Photobucket

hope it can help with some ideas.

 

Great idea mate but will the motherboard boot without oem LCD plugged in to motherboard? Dell diagnostics would normally pick that up and hang boot with error diagnostics.


Sent from my iPad3 using Tapatalk HD

 

Thanks for that! Ideas are always welcome here.

I know that it will boot with a broken LCD, but if it doesn't want to boot without an LCD I'll find a work-around. I thought about putting an LCD on it, but I want to keep it more true to the original, at least in silhouette. Hopefully by next weekend most of my parts will be here and I can put it together enough for testing.

 

This is the coolest thing since slices bread!

Would this just be plugged into the mains, or do you plan on having the battery somehow connected aswell?

 

You actually can boot without LCD, i had my lcd broken and removed from my m11x ,but connected to my LCD TV without a problem, only cons is that there was an windows update that took my config and couldnt use tv anymore, so i ended getting the money for the replacement .

 

I don't plan on using a battery at the moment because I don't PLAN on having a built in keyboard/mouse/lcd. If those were going in I would certainly have the battery in too so I could carry this thing around with me .

Did you ever try WIN+P or FN+F1 to move the video back over to the external monitor after the update?

 

Something I think you should do for the emergency work on the computer....

Install the keyboard, install the lcd. But put them inside the chassis. If you need to do some repairs that dont allow use of externals, then you can just pop the top open, and you will have them right there.

You can turn off the LCD by putting a small magnet by the 1st headphone jack.... this makes the computer think the lid is closed.

They keyboard you can just set the lights to be off..

 

I have thought of doing that, but the keyboard and LCD are wider than the NES case. I have been looking around for a smaller LCD that could work, but I'm stumped on the keyboard ATM.

 

hmmm... good point. Maybe just keep the keyboard ports on the top clear so you can do a quick plug in for setup.

 

I've actually been thinking of buying a Dell Mini 9 keyboard and LCD and playing around with those. They may be just right for this project.

 

hmmm... I have a dell mini 9 in my desk

 

If the keyboard and LCD did actually work with the m11x I'd be all in for turning this thing into a full NES laptop.

 

Here is the mini 9 keybaord


m11x keyboard



If it wasnt such a pain in the butt to take apart, I would pull my mini 9 keyboard out and test it for ya.

 

I believe that it will actually work and that the second connector for the m11x is just for the alienfx. I can just order a keyboard, they're just like $10 on ebay, and the LCD I can get for ~$38 shipped. At those prices I think its definitely worth testing.

 

Yes, the small cable is just for the lights.

At those prices, yea its worth the gamble.... I have wasted more than that on things that may or may not work.

So, looking around, it seems you dont have the space for the IO board in there. You just going to install a internal USB hub and hook it to the single use port?

 

Even better, I do have space for the IO! After some looking around I found this. Its a guy that sells 50 pin JAE extension cables, so I ordered one of the 12" cables. I will also be using an internal USB hub though for more ports and for internal goodies.

 

Nice, thats perfect then!

 

I'm hoping so. I just need more free time to work on this! I have a feeling its going to be a LONG project.

 

Take it one step at a time.... no need to rush it. Make sure it looks pro.

 

No worries, I'm in no hurry. If its not going to look good I have no interest in doing it!

 

Question - Why hyper-X RAM in an R1? I know the R2 is limited to 800MHz RAM, surely the R1 has similar restrictions? Does it really downclock itself that low?

 

I'm not shure about Bus' reason, but personally I always use hyperX ram because of the reliability and it has heat sinks on the ram.

 

I have hyper-x too, but mine's 1600MHz and it still has to underclock to 1333MHz on my R3... JEDEC timing table says that @ 1066Mhz timings go down to 6-6-6 but it doesn't show that it supports going much lower.

I'm just wondering if they can even downclock down to 800MHz, cos specs sheet doesn't show that it supports it and the lowest Hyper-X sodimms are 1600MHz AFAIK.

 

Bingo, I love the heatsinks and I have never had an issue while using it. Right now I have the stock ram in my M11X and it is the hottest running part of my laptop now that I am running SSD and replace thermal paste with ICD7.

They HyperX does indeed downclock to 800mhz.

 

Ah neat, good to know. The timings would be way low then, we talking 5's or 4's?

 

I actually don't remember about the timings and I've got the ram in my m17x at the moment, I'll be ordering new ram for the m17x. I did get an email today from the guy selling the 50 pin JAE extension saying that he was out and didn't know if/when he would get anymore. I certainly don't want to do this mod without the IO board, so I'm currently looking into other case options .

 

http://www.commodoreusa.net/j/C64_10.jpg

Commodor 64 alienware?

Or, you could do one my planned mods... alienware all in one.
Take optx lcd, install m11x into screen. hook up everything and there you go, all in one

 

Looks like I'm getting some JAE 50 extension cables after all, so the mod is back on!