Wall Computer

Today I decided to create an easy-access computer that doesn't get in the way, take up space, and help me prepare for making an arcade machine. The computer I acquired/appropriated was this three to four year old PC built by some jack ass in De Soto who apparently didn't know what he was doing. Kinda a jip since he pieced together an off-beat motherboard with an old S3 card from the late 90's and failed to use DDR1 RAM (and only provided 256mbs). That was pretty much it save for a hard drive and CD drive, however I did have some spare parts to add to the mix.



Used previously in this system after I upgraded it for my mom is/was an Nvidia G-Force 3 (bought back when the card was somewhat new on the market) which really boosted the video. Unfortunately as time passed the GPU fan became corroded and removed as seen in the picture below). Video was still available but couldn't run 3D GFX for more than five mins because it would overheat and crash the program/game. I was later able to add a makeshift fan today as a poor replacement. Haven't tested it fully as of yet.



Here is the motherboard set in it's horror of a PC Case. I needed to remove the ribbing so that I can have just the back panel.



And as I was just about to do so, my buddy Jeremy came over and helped. Took about ten mins but we were able to separate it from it's design.



Jeremy wasn't satisfied with separation without destruction so I let him vent his feelings out on the rest of the old case.



After unsuccessfully finding a good place on a table (since I have very little space at the moment) to set it up and test it, I decided to mount it to the wall.



To my surprise, it worked rather well except that now I have nowhere to mount the hard drive, CD drive, floppy drive and power supply. So... using my red-neck instincts, I pioneered little hooks and fittings to hold all the damn stuff up.



Now with it all put together, I had some issues. The PC wouldn't past POST for some reason. First it was due to bad RAM so fortunately I had some spare SDRAM laying around. Then it would pass POST but couldn't find the hard drive, so I had to find a jumper and switch it over to 'master' cause 'cs select' sucks mules cod and it doesn't always work. After screwing around I was able to have a complete working piece of crap hanging on the wall.



So now for an FAQ that you may need to answer some of your questions.

Are you crazy or just stupid?
I was born stupid but I learned to be crazy. There is a difference however I'm not necessarily sure what that difference is.

Won't that catch the house on fire?
It shouldn't, but then again it shouldn't be hanging on the wall. I'm not really worried about fires since most of the heat is under control via fans and open air, but I'm not leaving the house with the damn thing on.

What type of wall mounts did you use?
Screws.

Will you elaborate on that?
No.

What is securing your GPU card and can it fall or bend the joint of the AGP bus?
Nothing is securing it other than the port itself. Yes the weight of the card and the monitor cable will most likely bend and tare the port from it's joins, but I really don't care.

Why?
For many reason. One being that I can test AGP and PCI cards for hardware failure if I need to; Two so that I'll have an idea of what I'll need for a future case mod or arcade machine; Three cause it's there; and Four cause I was sober and thought it was a fun thing to do.


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death-program Wrote:That's pretty cool. What are you planning to make an arcade machine for?

For arcade games.. :P

I'll be using M.A.M.E. but I'll also be emulating other stuff too like NES, Genesis, Turbo GFX 16, Master System, Atari 2600, Colecovision, etc...

... and I'll be making an arcade cabinet but I might go cocktail style instead of upright since it will be much easier to use.... and I can use it as a table too..

Ya! I like the 'office space' treatment on your old case hehe

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I don't know why, but I really like that!

A frickin' wall computer. Is it a space saver? Is it functional art? Is it just something to do with old stuff? Who cares! It's a rockin' wall computer and I dig it!

Awesome, Qix77!

I enjoyed the Jeremy action shots too.

Where is that directly from MS themselves Qixx? I think I have almost everyone of MS operating system with the Exception of Windows NT 3.X to 4.0 and nt server edtions over here.

Yeah that looks cool as workable wall art. You can show that to your friends who don't know what a computer looks on the inside and show them what is what on the inside while the machine is running.

Qix77 Wrote:lol.. yeah... I really wanted to do it myself cause I cut my fingers rather deep when messing with the case (I always tend to do that when getting into a PC case)... but I let my buddy take care of it. There is little I can do with it at the moment. I want to format the hard drive, install Win95 and DOS, transfer over a lot of game ROMS, and have a good old time... but I need a bootable CD first. I know I can download Win95 legally now but I don't have any blank disks at the moment... so I'll wait till tomorrow and pick some up.

MetaClass I think I still have some drawings here of some different cabinets including a sinister sit down, cocktail, and a couple of different upright cabinets here somewhere. (Digging feverishly to find them on the laptop drive.) I know I have a couple I was doing a writing on that not to long ago with Qixx to proof read it when he has a chance too. Both of us got side track with some other things so I still have some of the documentation here. And I'll try and post it on my new web site that I have made over here on a local server that I just got running and in the midst of creating over here....

isMetaClass Wrote:very cool Qix but where are you going to put the MAME cabinet? i always wanted to build one. my own

Send me a private message in TS here and I'll email them to you the cabinet files to you. These days the mame machines can een run on a PIV 1.6 gig without a hitch Minimum PII or PIII should do in a pinch any day of the week.

isMetaClass Wrote:thanx Compucore. i'd love to see some plans. there's sooo much info out there! if i ever stop moving so often or buy a home i'll do it. ah, just what i need. something else to waste take up my time!

Very cool! Playing mad scientist is always fun.

Just a suggestion: It looks like you have the space to remount the PC rotated 90° counter-clockwise. That would greatly reduce the stress on the expansion slots, and also all of the ports that you'd plug the power cord, monitor cable, et al into, thus greatly increasing the life of your wall PC and thereby validating the practicality of its installation.

I'd love to have a bunch of spare parts to play with; although, even if I did, I just don't have the space to play with them in.

One day, when I get my wife a new PC, I'm going to repurpose her current PC - which was my first PC from 1998 - expressly for playing my old Windows 95/98 games, which newer PCs sadly cannot do perfectly.

Although it's somewhat remotely possible that the GeForce 3 which is currently in my wife's PC may render pre-Windows XP games correctly iff I use an old enough version of the drivers, I think I'll have to reinstall the TNT2 Ultra 32MB that my old PC was originally fitted with for the best results.

Ok.. so I took it off the wall a few days ago... and.... (get this) mounted inside my desk......

I'm such a weirdo.. lol..

I have Ubuntu Linux running on it now... I'll try to have some pics.. It really is very convenient....

Compucore Wrote:Looking confused for a few moments. Next thing you know you'll mount it inside your car qixx with the monitor sitting in your passenger seat. LOL. Qix77 Wrote:Ok.. so I took it off the wall a few days ago... and.... (get this) mounted inside my desk...... I'm such a weirdo.. lol.. I have Ubuntu Linux running on it now... I'll try to have some pics.. It really is very convenient....

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