Home made IBM Tower.

[ThinkPad560X]

I built a Small mini tower out of wood and rounded the edges with a router and spray painted it Raven black the same color as IBM desktops and LCDs. Whats in this tower is a PlayStation 3, XBOX 360 and a Nintendo Wii. And even has its own cooling fan on the back. It can connect to all my other IBM PCs and play off their LCD displays by a AV Graber. I seen this done before but people removed the motherboards from the game consoles and stuck them into a tower but I didn't want to break warranty on them so this is a draw up of it but can post pictures of it later. Could of added all systems if wanted too but These systems here have all the options to play older system games and wouldn't be worth installing them.

By the way Is Sony and Nintendo going to add all the games to their Stores? I still havn't seen any of the rare PSone games I own on their stores yet. And still waiting for Microsoft to add more old XBOX games to their compatibility list.

Image of my system tower: http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/4495/boxml.jpg

Forgot to add, the 360 is the first gen model and the PS3 is the slim model..

[schen]

Very interesting, and if I didn't already have a huge custom built cabinet designed for ALL my AV stuff already in the living room, I'd definitely consider this! Are you planing on putting Actual picture of this build up? It's make a nice YouTube video as well.

[ThinkPad560X]

Yeah after I get it finished I'll post it.

[ThinkPad560X]

An update of the IBM Tower. This images shows what the front cover is going to look like.

Im going to add the HoneyComb front bezel of what the IBM ThinkCentre S50 has.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/64 ... nsole.jpg/

If I can I may even add my extra IBM Protable Drive Bay 2000 in it next to the Wii.
I chose these 3 consoles as they can almost play all the older games from their download site. But was thinking of adding a dock to this where the older systems will sit ontop in another tower and make a complete console tower. But for now this tower will work out fine.

[schen]

Looks like you are using 2 x 4s as the structure. Is there a reason for that, or just what you had laying around? I would've thought you'd use something like 3/4" plywood so it wouldn't have so much mass. Do you have any ideas where you are going to get the grill material? My Cooler Master, desktop case has the entire front of it and I really like it for the cooling and the look.

[ThinkPad560X]

It was just laying around. I may see what some hardware places have, maybe somekinda closeness in metal. If not I did find an IBM OEM grill that should fit this. The IBM servers. Probably buy a junk broken bezel off ebay or something. http://www.radius-india.co.in/yahoo_sit ... 184052.jpg And the picture of it, was laying down, it will sit up like a Tower later.

The tower sitting up: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/thetower.jpg/
I have to cut the back board to fit the tower but once its all done, it will look like a real IBM tower, that plays console games.

[schen]

I don't know how it is where you are, but around here, there are "farm and ranch" supply places everywhere that sell all manner of grating, fencing and misc. sheet metal. I'd bet one of those places would be worth a look.

[ThinkPad560X]

More Images:

AC Adaters stapled in place. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/214/12584015.jpg/

Front of Tower. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/542/73832683.jpg/

I even added a foampad for the Wii and PlayStation 3 to keep from getting scratched as they are glossy black. For the 360, I chisled out the back 2X4 to install the HDD back on the XBOX as you must have the HDD off while installing it. I could of made it taller to fit but want it tightly inside. For moving the tower around, don't have to worry about the systems falling sideways and really they will not fall back inside as Im adding a small block to keep them in place.

The Back of the tower: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/847/88374903.jpg/
Probably going to add twin USB fans for the back. The outlit strip will have USB charge ports on it by the way.

Going to add a small outlet strip where the tower will only have one cable coming out.

I don't think the first PlayStation 3 model would of worked in this, and I have the XBOX 360 Arcade with the added HDMI support and I bought this just before they brought out the new slim 360, but I think this works out very nice and saves alot of space and wires laying around. Once this is finished I will compare it next to my real IBM ThinkCentre A50p, Im going to add a lable once completed "IBM ThinkCentre A50E" the E is for Entertainment.

[ThinkPad560X]

I decided to go with my Aptiva style front, with a front door that opens instead of getting the combe front. In this image I have the Magnet and hinges. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/64/62529235.jpg/
The block of wood on top is going to be where the IBM logo is going to be at, just like my ThinkCentre Tower.

In this image im making another Tower for the rest of my Game Systems.

The first one has: PlayStation 3 Slim, XBOX 360 Basic and Nintendo Wii
The 2nd Tower has: Nintendo NES, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 40GB First Model, PlayStation 2 Silver Slim and PSone with LCD.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/85/80758364.jpg/

Just to get these systems out of the Way and these are all the game systems I own and don't really plan to buy the next Gen systems as their costing too much every time, So its PC upgrades for me, and hopefully they still will make PC games..

[ThinkPad560X]

Case completed together, http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/84 ... 1816a.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/21 ... 1817a.jpg/

[RealBlackStuff]

Remind me NOT to hire you if I need any woodwork done.
IMHO it won't take long before the lot starts overheating...

[poshgeordie]

IMHO it won't take long before the lot starts overheating...

I've been following this with interest and the idea is great and I wanted to see how it would end up, but I've also got to say I think you will have overheating problems.

I'm concerned that the lack of ventilation will cause the solder balls on the games consoles to become unsoldered and I'm not sure if you have the same problem in US finding anyone who's prepared to reball the chips at a reasonable price - there's none in the UK.
I suggest adding (a) big fan(s) in the rear and to then a fan at the air inlet of each console to force cool the air into the units. Also add exhaust vents and even another fan to help the exhaust process.
You could add fan speed controllers to keep the noise to a minimum, but I think it's worth doing.

[ThinkPad560X]

Their is a FAN that goes in on the back... A tower wouldn't be complete without a FAN, and I had it before I even started this.

[poshgeordie]

Oh OK. But a fan with no means of exhausting will just stir hot air. Also you need to make sure cool air can inlet and exhaust from each console.

I'm just concerned about decent cooling of the consoles.

[ThinkPad560X]

The entire back of the tower is open, that has a Metal Cover on it, unlike the normal Tower with a small hole just for the FAN.

Dont have Fans installed but Red Xs are the fans. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/14/10611046.jpg/

The Metal cover "Not cut down or installed yet" http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/535/94322759.jpg/

The Stickers for the two towers, Shows the systems inside of them. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/71 ... 1809a.jpg/

[poshgeordie]

And the air will exit out of the front where?

it's not enough to have that front wooden door and to hope the air will exhaust through the gaps - all that will happen is you'll have hot air being circulated within the case with very little air flow through the consoles.
I'd suggest cutting a hole in the front to take an exhaust fan, and then the air to be drawn in through the back fans, via the consoles (if you've got the rear fans placed right), and then out through the front fan.

Think of it like being in a hot room. You open a window and you get a bit of extra air flow. Open a door and you'll get a much bigger air flow through the room.

Simples!

[ThinkPad560X]

This would of made a great Console Tower. http://i.ebayimg.com/t/IBM-5095-Expansi ... !~~_35.JPG

IBM 5095 Expansion Tower, Very Big.

[poshgeordie]

Had a further thought overnight. You could build air ducting out of cardboard from one of the rear fans to the air inlets on the consoles so the air is being forced into them.
You will need to identify the air inlets into the consoles and providing you point the ducting to that area it should cool a lot more efficiently.

The other fan will blow cooling air into the rest of the space and will generally help with air flow through the cabinet

Re exhausting the air, one way would be to cut a long slot in the base of the box and put a fan or couple of fans to blow out through the slot; that way you don't spoil the looks of the uncluttered front.
I'm not sure if there's enough room to put slots in (looking at your photos) but you could even use narrow slots and 2 or 3 small fans, though the noise levels may be too high.

Just an idea.

[ThinkPad560X]

I know this isn't about my tower but does anyone know where I can buy empty Console Boxes?

I need: Nintendo NES Basic Box. Super Nintendo Basic Box, Nintendo GameCube "Purple" System box, Original XBOX Box, and Very First Gen PlayStation 1 Box.

[poshgeordie]

I'd suggest contacting one of the repair companies who may well have such cases from scrapped machines.

BTW how's the project going?

[ThinkPad560X]

Its going fine, Im actually working on another project rather 2. My Perfect Desk. It houses/Built-in my LCD HDTV 26" VIZIO and any of my 3 IBM LCDs: 15" 9512-HB0, 20" 4945-HC1, 15" 4820-5GN on the side of the Tv. And working on the games I own. I found this very nice to have since I don't like hand held games such as PSP and GameBoy/DS I bought a GameBoy Dock for my Nintendo GameCube. can play GameBoy, GameBoy Color and GameBoy Adavance. Only Wish DS could, and hoping Wii will make some kinda of dock or USB plug in for DS games, same for Sony with PS3. but Im looking to buy the factory ship console boxes that came with my systems plus games "Not the hand held games" but the NES and SNES. Their actually hard to find. Most people would throw away the box after buying the game, But the boxes makes my Library nice.

[ThinkPad560X]

Well decided to start from scratch and work with a real IBM tower. So im going to use my main desktop "IBM ThinkCentre A50P" (Tower) I'm probably going to add a extended side to the tower, this will just hold one system at a time.

In the image I added the extended part to the tower and even added the "In White" air holes on the extended part. Of course the side cover is going to be off. But Im going to but atleast 3 fans for my tower. One for the main tower as their is a place to put one, but never came with and the real two will be inside the extended part. The picture will show all.
http://patcomps.weebly.com/my-tower.html

And No I didnt trash the other wood tower but use it for my cleaning stuff now.

Im also going to use sheet metal instead of wood and use a bending tool to get a very close match with the tower.