Dreamcast Computer

[Thornwillow]

I was going to paint it black too, lol

[tom61]

I think i want to take everything out of the DC, and add:
-PC Motherboard
-CPU
-512MB RAM
-40GB or 80GB Hard-drive
-CD/DVD Drive
-New Cooling Fan
-Power Suplie
-128MB Video Card
-And try to get Windows to work on it, i might do this to the Xbox, because there would be more room in the inside...

Is it a good idea?

Only a Mini-ITX or smaller board will fit, and you're going to have to be fairly inventive to cram a CD drive in DC too.
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/dreamcastpc/

If anyone wants to turn into a DC into a computer without removing the motherboard, you might consider internally moding a couple of Total Control 5 keyboard/mouse adapters. The adapters are fairly small, and you could desolder a couple of the front ports and rewire the TC5s in their place. Kind of like what some people do on X-Boxes when they replace the controller ports with standard USB.

Total Control 5 insides:

[Thornwillow]

I dont always have to have the top part on it, i can spare something else to go over it or have nothing off of it...

[Unidentified Assilant]

I think i want to take everything out of the DC, and add:
-PC Motherboard
-CPU
-512MB RAM
-40GB or 80GB Hard-drive
-CD/DVD Drive
-New Cooling Fan
-Power Suplie
-128MB Video Card
-And try to get Windows to work on it, i might do this to the Xbox, because there would be more room in the inside...

Is it a good idea?

Only a Mini-ITX or smaller board will fit, and you're going to have to be fairly inventive to cram a CD drive in DC too.
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/dreamcastpc/

If anyone wants to turn into a DC into a computer without removing the motherboard, you might consider internally moding a couple of Total Control 5 keyboard/mouse adapters. The adapters are fairly small, and you could desolder a couple of the front ports and rewire the TC5s in their place. Kind of like what some people do on X-Boxes when they replace the controller ports with standard USB.

Total Control 5 insides:

Also, gut the controller ports, put USB in there, gut a Dreamcast Controller and a USB Pad, and put the guts of the USB pad into the Dreamcast one, and install Chankast

[Thornwillow]

Thats a good idea...

[tom61]

Or, better yet, hack a couple (or better yet, four) of Dreamcast to USB converters inside the case: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?catego ... ts_id=1939&

You should make it entirely stealth, so that you can't tell it apart from the real thing without opening it. Good examples on mini-itx.com on how to this. Dreamcast has a VGA adapter, so that's no trouble, just re-wire the port to VGA. Keyboard and mouse are a bit harder, since the adapter doesn't work with DC keyboards or mice, and it'd be difficult to mod one to work with the insides of a USB one, how about having wireless (RF based) keyboard and mouse, and make the reciever internal? (that way there are no cables giving it away). You could widen the hole in the modem for ethernet, that way it looks like you have one of the rare Broadband adapters.

[*o*]

how well do those adaptors work?

[Alchemist]

Well, as far as I'm aware there's no game servers still available for them, so not too well for online gaming. However if you want to develop on Dreamcast they're a lot faster than the serial cable for uploading code.

[Unidentified Assilant]

Or, better yet, hack a couple (or better yet, four) of Dreamcast to USB converters inside the case: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?catego ... ts_id=1939&

You should make it entirely stealth, so that you can't tell it apart from the real thing without opening it. Good examples on mini-itx.com on how to this. Dreamcast has a VGA adapter, so that's no trouble, just re-wire the port to VGA. Keyboard and mouse are a bit harder, since the adapter doesn't work with DC keyboards or mice, and it'd be difficult to mod one to work with the insides of a USB one, how about having wireless (RF based) keyboard and mouse, and make the reciever internal? (that way there are no cables giving it away). You could widen the hole in the modem for ethernet, that way it looks like you have one of the rare Broadband adapters.

So I waste my money by gutting my Dreamcast to turn it into a PC running Chankast (Dreamcast Emulator)

[tom61]

how well do those adaptors work?

Not familiar with those exact ones, but the 'PC Magic Box' is supposed to work well.

So I waste my money by gutting my Dreamcast to turn it into a PC running Chankast (Dreamcast Emulator)

Sounds like a plan! Though, you'd have to get a beefy mini-ITX board to be able to emulate the DC at full speed. Just think of the attention you'd get at a LAN party when you close Sonic Adventure and start playing UT2004!

[*o*]

is there an emu for DC yet

[Unidentified Assilant]

yeah, Chankast, though sound emulation isn't up to much and neither is compatiblity, but it is still worth checking out.

[*o*]

will do

[Unidentified Assilant]

I've played Crazy Taxi with it, quite nicely done, a few problems here and there, but apart from that I cannot complain, I perfered to play it on my real cast though (when I had it)

[Alchemist]

None of the mini-itx boards with embedded CPUs that are currently available would be able to run Chankast, so bear that in mind. The P4 ones might if you gave them a nice VGA card and a decent amount of RAM.