Tag Archives: casemod

Ben Heck Builds PS3 Wii U Xbox 360 Combo System

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I’ve been waiting a very long time for somebody to build a single game system which could play all of today’s console games. Well that day is today – courtesy of master modder Ben Heck. For his latest project, Ben has created a single mutant machine that combines a PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U.

ben heck ultimate combo system

Heck’s wood-cased Ultimate Combo System may not be the sleekest and most modern looking thing, but it’s still an impressive build, having combined these three current-gen consoles in a single box. We don’t know too much about the final build other than the picture shown above. However, Ben and element14 have teamed to release a 3-part series chronicling this epic build. Here’s Part 1 for your enjoyment – skip to about 1:25 to get to the meat of the mattter.

Surprisingly, this is the first time that Heck has disassembled a Wii U or the new PS3 super slim, but he digs right in and starts ripping things apart right away, giving us all a glance inside the two most recent consoles. Parts 2 and 3 of the build video will be released on element14 on March 15th and March 23rd, respectively, and will reveal the construction of the case and assembly of all of the components. From what I can tell, the final build will include HDMI switching to a single output, and I’m betting it’ll have a power strip built in so you can plug it in with a single cable – but that’s just conjecture on my part. Personally, I can’t wait to see exactly how the finished thing works.

While I’d assume Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will never collaborate on such a console, you can still get your hands on this one. Those of you interested in the build can enter to win it over on element14 now.

Atari 2600 Portable is Woodier than its Ancestor

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We’ve featured our fair share of portable Atari 2600 mods, but I don’t think any of those can hold a candle to this one. Speaking of candles, the future owner of this one of a kind handheld should keep it away from even the tiniest of flames, because its case is made entirely out of wood.

atari 2600 portable with wooden case by retro mood

The mod was made by eBay seller retro_mood. Inside the varnished wooden case is a 3.5″ TFT screen, a 700mAh battery that should last up to 3 hours per charge, two player controls – one of which was made out of a PlayStation analog stick – and the guts of an NTSC Atari 2600 console. Retro_mood also added digital volume and brightness controls as well as composite video and mono audio outputs. Perhaps most importantly for a handheld, this Atari 2600 has a pause button! Its weight – 600g (approx. 1.3lbs) – borders on iPad territory though, so minus points for portability there.

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Ultimately though, retro_mood intends this handheld to reside not in the deep pockets of a collector. He’s selling it for a cool $1,240 (USD) on eBay. Money doesn’t grow on trees, but neither do wooden cases.

[via GameSniped]

Mahogany art deco ‘heater’ houses Intel Ivy Bridge fanless home theater PC

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Mahogany art deco radio houses Intel Ivy Bridge fanless PC

If you have certain interior design tastes, some types of PC case mods may not quite suit your decor. That's where Jeffrey Stephenson comes in, this time with a fanless home theater PC featuring an art-deco style Mahogany shell that slides right over the aluminum chassis. Inside, there's an Intel Core i3-3225 processor running Windows 8 with 8GB RAM, an Intel Cherryville SSD, 150W Pico PSU and Silverstone HE02 passive heatsink. While able to handily perform most media chores (and generate a little heat!), it stays in keeping with his other tasteful, retro designs for those of you who eschew Thermaltake Level 10-type PC cases. Or, almost all of you, anyway.

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Via: Fanless Tech

Source: Jeffrey Stephenson

Steampunk Cellphone Casemod: Gorilla Brass

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We’ve seen a steampunk desk phone before, but Andrei of Steampunker steamrolls that with his awesome casemod. He replaced all of the external parts of a mobile phone with brass or copper and gave it a shiny yet grimy finish to make it look like it’s always been that way.

steampunk cellphone by steampunker andrei

Here’s what the phone looked like before Andrei got his hands on it:

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Check out the pictures below to see more of the phone’s details, including the engraving on the inside of the rear cover, which seems like it contains a lost and found message.

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Head to Steampunker to see more pictures and information on the mod. Before you click the link, know that there are a ton of images on that page and the accompanying text is in Russian. You already clicked the link didn’t you. Serves you right! Now you’re stuck waiting for a page that you can’t read to load completely.

[via English Russia]

Millennium Falcon Mac and PC Computer in One

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Wanna make the Kessel Run in record time, while surfing the internet at the same time? You’d better use this Millenium Falcon computer then. It was the grand prize winner in last year’s Deconstruct for GOOD event sponsored by Good Magazine and Vizio.
Millenium Falcon pc and Mac
This Millennium Falcon has both a PC and a MAC inside. When you and your Wookiee co-pilot can’t agree on an operating system, use both. Builder Ken Swallow removed the insides of a model ship and replaced them with a Mac Titanium G4 motherboard and a MSI ATX motherboard (PC) while keeping the original sound effects from the toy intact.

He added fans, lights and power switches for both computers. So you have a full Windows 7 PC and MAC OSX 10.5.8 system, with Linksys wireless, an Apple airport card and more – all inside of a spaceship. Hyperspace on over to Etsy to get more specs, or buy it for $2,800(USD). If you can’t afford that, you can always borrow some credits from Jabba.

The PC Briefcasemod: Desktop Luggable

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Redditor yoshiwars wanted a portable gaming machine but he didn’t want to spend a fortune on a high-end laptop. So he stuffed a desktop computer’s parts into a briefcase. Looking at it, you wouldn’t mistake it for anything else. But I think the mouse pad balances out the junkyard chic.

briefcase computer by yoshiwars

Inside the briefcase is a 15″monitor, a Gigabyte motherboard, a Core i5 2500K CPU, 16GB RAM, an XFX Radeon HD 6670 and two solid state drives. One drive has a 30GB capacity and holds yoshiwars’ Windows 7 setup and the other is a 90GB drive that runs Mountain Lion. That’s right; as if a briefcase computer wasn’t impressive enough, yoshiwars also made it a dual-booting Hackintosh.

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You know yoshiwars, if all you wanted was to play Uplink, you could’ve gotten an iPad. Seriously though good job. With the mouse pad.

[via Reddit via Computerworld]

Translucent Mod Kit Exposes iPhone 5 Guts in All Its Naked Glory

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We’ve seen transparent casemods or rear panels for past versions of the iPhone. Now it’s the iPhone 5′s turn to show off its goods, courtesy of the Translucent Mod Kit from iPhone5Mod, the same aftermarket shop who makes the magnetic keyboard and gamepad for the iPhone 5.

iphone 5 translucent mod kit by iphone5mod

Aside from letting you see what your iPhone is made of, iPhone5mod claims that the kit’s plastic parts are more resistant to scratches and fingerprint smudge compared to the default aluminum rear panel. I’m not sure if it’s tough enough that you won’t need to cover your phone with a protective case though.

You can order the Translucent Mod Kit from iPhone5Mod for $40 (USD). As shown in the video above, the kit comes in seven colors; if you have extra money you can get all the available colors for $169. Keep in mind that the kit only comes with the parts and not the tools needed to actually install it on the iPhone 5, so you’d better know someone who can do it for you before you order the kit.

[via Fancy]

Wind tunnel PC case pushes the air cooling envelope, does its thing for cancer research

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Wind tunnel PC case pushes the air cooling envelope, does its thing for cancer research

Pushing air cooling to its limits might mean buying a bigger fan to the mortal PC builder, but for Mike at Total Geekdom, it meant constructing a wind tunnel case. Built from a box fan, medium-density fiberboard, lexan and aluminum, the tunnel increases airspeed by about 240 percent and cools its contents with a brisk 9 mph breeze. At full bore, however, the fan churns out air speeds between 26 and 30 mph inside the case's sweet spot. As for computer hardware, the rig packs an Ivy Bridge 3770K processor, a pair of Radeon 7970 (Sapphire Dual-X) GPUs, 8GB of RAM and a 40GB SSD. There's still room to overclock the beast, but it currently keeps its CPU humming at 4.5GHz with temperatures between 64 and 65 degrees Celsius, and can run its GPUs at 1225MHz with core temperatures at 46 and 56 degrees Celsius. So, what does one do with a wind tunnel-cooled PC? Why donate time and computing processes for cancer research through the World Community Grid project, of course. For photos, performance specs and a full break down of the construction process, hit the bordering source link.

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Source: Total Geekdom

Guy Builds Wind Tunnel-Cooled Computer to Help Cure Cancer

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I’ve had problems with computers and video game systems overheating over the years, so I’m all for good cooling systems. And while some computer modders have solved the problem by adding more cooling fans and heat sinks, I think this build might just be a bit more than most of us need.

wind tunnel computer 1

What you’re looking at here is the Wind Tunnel Computer. It was built by Mike Schropp over at Total Geekdom, and it’s nothing short of awesome, if you ask me. Those giant ducts you see on the left and right are air intakes and outputs for the 6-foot-wide system, which is mounted in a contraction chamber in the middle designed to take full advantage of the increased air speed as it flows through.

wind tunnel computer spec

The beefy Intel Ivy Bridge 3770k powered system is overclocked to a whopping 4.5GHz, along with overclocked Radeon 7970 GPUs running on Sapphire Dual-X cards. But it doesn’t just run fast, look cool and stay cool – Mike built it for a good cause. It’s connected to the World Community Grid project, and its CPU and GPUs spend their days and night crunching numbers to help cancer researchers find a cure. And thanks to the massive throughput of the system, it’s able to push through about 20x the workload of an average 4-core system. While that’s all awesome, I do wish Mike had actually built a small wind test chamber inside of it for other science experiments. Maybe for version 2.0.

wind tunnel computer 2

He built the system using large MDF wood panels for the vent sections, and there’s a big box fan installed in one end of it to generate the wind. Mike assembled the main computer section using custom-cut Lexan so you can see through to it, and aluminum pieces to finish the look. It’s even got a control panel on the front with LED temperature gauges and key switches for turning the fans on and off.

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Using a wind-speed tester, Mike was able to determine that the inlet takes in air at about 0.6MPH, and the exhaust port pushes out air at 1.4MPH. However, it’s the center contraction section where the computer is that really benefits from the design, where the wind reaches 12MPH – or 9MPH with the computer in place. He actually was able to push wind speeds as high as 26-30MPH with the fan set on a higher setting. He even used smoke testing to ensure optimal airflow over the components.

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Check out the complete build log, along with many more photos over on Total Geekdom.

Nintendo 64 Stuffed in Game Boy Player, Makes GameCube Backwards Compatible

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Console modder Jon Jandran aka Hailrazer is back with another Nintendo related project. Instead of working on portable versions of old game consoles, Hailrazer decided to combine two consoles – the Nintendo 64 and its successor, the GameCube – into one playable unit.

nintendo 64 gamecube mod by hailrazer

Hailrazer crammed the guts of an N64 into the case of a Game Boy Player – the GameCube add-on that allowed GB or GBA cartridges to be played on TV. Because of space constraints, Hailrazer had to fold the N64′s cartridge slot, making it unusable. He loads N64 games on his frankenconsole using an SD card system based on the Everdrive 64 flash cart.

Hey Hailrazer, can you make an Xbox 360 that can also play PS3 games (or vice versa)? Head to Hailrazer’s thread on Bacteria’s Forum for more info on the hack.

[via Engadget]