Gamecube Mod.....HELP/ADVICE!!!

[SlicedBread]

i have this project that i am wanting to start soon but i am needing some advice/help on it. i am wanting to take my Nintendo Gamecube, gut it out of every little piece of technology out of it and make it into a tiny little cpu.

here are my goals/dreams for this little machine:

-replacing the four gamecube controller inputs on the front end with usb plugs. (these being for keyboard, mouse, external cd-rom etc.)

-replacing the power source with a laptop power input

-replacing the video output with a fairly good video card.

-installing a notebook harddrive with at least 80gb worth of space on it

-installing a sound card (obviously!)

-installing a fairly good motherboard (at least an intel 2.0)

-have at least 512mb of ram


i need some suggestions on exactly what kind of mother board would fit in this cramped space and allow all of these things to be hooked up to it.

[DoctorZettabyte]

Erm...never modded a GC, but you may want to look at Falcon Northwest's FragBox for a viable chassis and equipment idea here:http://www.falcon-nw.com (http://www.falcon-northwest.com)

Also, some CPU\graphics issues:
It will not be very fast. The PS2, which is faster, would start coughing up blood if it ran Halo. Think on that...the XBox has a 733 PIII core in it. A GC, while still a feat to get running on an actual MotherBoard, will not be the best machine out there.

Aside from that, you'll need a BIOS and a lot of patience. Take a lok on google, see if this has been done before, and try to work from that a bit.

Best of Luck!

-DocTera

[Neo]

Err. You want to just make a computer within a GCN case?

I'm confused.

-Neo

[Darkslayer633]

it sounds liek he wants to tear out teh gcn guts, and make a computer inside it

[SlicedBread]

it sounds liek he wants to tear out teh gcn guts, and make a computer inside it

thats exactly right. i just need to know where i can find the hardware small enough and good enough to do so.

[TimP]

It would be just about impossible to build anything useful in a case that small. PCI Express video cards alone are larger than the case.

[OboeGuru]

Before you go destroying what may or may not be a perfectly good GCN unit, you'd better research out exactly what parts you want and make a schematic of where everything is going to go. The GCN box is a tiny little thing, and I think that that detail is the downfall of your scheme. Unless you are building your own motherboard, there is no consumer motherboard I'm aware of that is less than 5.9" x 6.3"
MicroATX motherboards are significantly larger than that (generally 9.6" square these days), even Mini-ITX mobos are a bit too large (6.7" square).
Nano- and Pico-ITX boards could fit in there, but I'm unsure of their consumer availability, much less their suitability for what you want to do with this theoretical GCN-PC.

[Basan]

My opinion, from what I've gathered reading his post, is that he wants to strip the GameCube apart and fit most of it's hardware onto a PC casing to make mixed combo between the two. The main problem is the compatibility schematics that you must pull (and most likely will have to do) just to make those two pieces of mismatching hardware and software to mesh well with one another. You (Sliced') should start trying to find circuitry blueprints of all pieces involved 1st to investigate their eventual 'get along' stance and just to see if porting from one onto another is feasible. A good starting point would be a search for customizing forums to see if it was done before and if so to follow it's steps after comparing it to your PC's hardware settings.
No need to destroy good parts of it (just not to mention the throwing away money) if after research you come to the conclusion that they aren't compatible, either in hard' & software. ;)

[Modred]

My opinion, from what I've gathered reading his post, is that he wants to strip the GameCube apart and fit most of it's hardware onto a PC casing to make mixed combo between the two.

it sounds liek he wants to tear out teh gcn guts, and make a computer inside it

thats exactly right. i just need to know where i can find the hardware small enough and good enough to do so.

Basan, my friend, you fail at reading this time. :p

[Basan]

Yeah, I guess so. But in my logic it'd be a lot easier to fiddle a PC casing to fit all the GameCube components and those PC hardware extras than to 'blend' them all in the console's original casing. :P