Building a case for my Spectrum box

[morcar]

I wanted to ask a question about a case I am making.

I plan to use my old Pentium 4 with motherboard for a ZX Spectrum box.

This box will contain everything so that when I turn it on it will go straight to a zx spectrum emulator and be used like a real spectrum (although you can pick what models and clones with menus)

I plan on adding hardware to the mobo like wifi (this is used for spectranet thats built in fuse).

Problem I have is that at the moment my power supply is a 500 ATX which is about 4 inches high which if i am going to build this case with keyboard built in is going to be very high even with a slant on it.

Is there any way I can solve this problem as I have come stuck with how to handle this one.

If you want some idea on how the case will look like its roughly like Amiga 500

 

[mjnurney]

Use an itx psu or a micro atx one ? Or even those pico ones that just require 12v?

eBay 290543642692

 

[morcar]

Use an itx psu or a micro atx one ? Or even those pico ones that just require 12v?

eBay 290543642692

hmmm interesting.

As It is not going to use a hard drive anyway as I was thinking about getting a SD to IDE adapter and use my 16GB sd card for it. There is going to be a front memory card reader but as for gfx the onboard can handle the spectrum emulator with ease even though right now i am using my radeon 2600 pro agp.

I am even going to replace the heatsink and fan because right now its using an Arctic cooling and its far to high. I saw an intel one which is much lower and that could also reduce the height.

I question though about the pico psu's do you think it would run everything in the case without too much problem

I will list what will be in there

Intel D845GRG2
Pentium 4 @ 2.15Ghz
2GB DDR SDRAM
USB Wifi adapter
memory card reader
SD to IDE adapter running 16Gb SD Card
Keyboard and Mouse

 

[mjnurney]

How about a laptop in an A500 / 1200 case ?

Or one of the ZX spectrum replacement cases from years ago with a laptop board in it. Fuse requires little CPU / gpu effort.

You may even come across a pc in a keyboard?

Mike.

---------- Post added at 23:34 ---------- Previous post was at 23:32 ----------

The best way is to look up the motherboard PDF and see what the max load is amp / watts wise is and if it exceeds the psu output?

Itx boards will have height problems with USB stacks / audio stacks and CPU fan / heat sink assys...

Check your heights..

 

[protek]

Or better yet, a Sinclair PC200 case?

 

[morcar]

Don you know if there is an external ATX power supply at all ?

Maybe thats the way i can cut down on size

 

[AmiNeo]

ZX spectrum in a laptop case?

 

[pstrinic]

I'm running Fuse (sdl version without X windows) on a Raspberry Pi. Seems to do quite nicely indeed.

 

[mjnurney]

how about this...

Diablotek U310

not expensive on ebay

 

[johnim]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-BOX...aptopMotherboards_CPUs_CA&hash=item3cccae0446

 

[morcar]

some nice hardware there thanks for the help.