The title says it all, lol. I bought an ancient vcr from the salvation army store and began chopping up the insides after taking out the guts. It is now the house for an old compaq presario, but fits other matx mobos as well(or at least it should). I still need to find a way to install a dvd burner, and a smaller psu. What do you all think of the progress so far?
Also, some one please tell me if I posted the images correctly, because I am not sure if they are too big. thanks!


power and hd activity lights


innards




rear



messed up caps ftl!!

thats so crap its funny gj

That's awesome rofl

It looks like it was a good VCR too..

I'll never let you near my Sears SR3000.

Good job on the conversion tho'...might want to look for a slim optical drive (laptop) and you could look online (froogle) for one of Shuttle's psu's.

I like these kind of case swaps...

The fact that fully functional computers can be hidden in plain sight is awesome...

lol! When I opened it up, the belts were so old that they were "melted". The inside was really dirty too!
I think I can fit a regular-sized dvd drive in there. If I can't, then I'll just keep it for another project I'm currently working on...

Looks like you need a mini power supply.

I was thinking about one of those pico-itx power supplies, but its out of my budget right now. =(

Those caps around the CPU are cool? ....oh trodas......

It'd be cool if you could rewire the switches on the front to something like the Power_Switch and Reset_Switch for the mobo, and Eject for the optical drive

A mini-ATX, Flex ATX or possibly one of the DC-DC PSUs meant for mini-ITX could fit... it's kinda hard to judge the space you have from the pictures

reason

The power switch has the original compaq switch behind it, so in other words, it the original button works.

nice... oh and btw, there isn't a rev A2 EVGA 680i... that's just what CPU-Z says for all EVGA 680i mobos, or at least all the A1 mobos says A2... I think AR says A2 as well... maybe even TR and T1

oh thanx! how do I figure out what it is then? Is it on the sticker between the cpu and memory?

It might say it there or on the box... I can't remember now...

oh well, its ok. I will figure it out soon.

As for progress on the vcr pc, theres a small update- I've been working on a custom bracket to hold the dvd drive, but during the process of making it, I offered to help my neighbors move out. It should be able to hold a regular-sized drive. I will most likely resume on monday. I love my dremel!

Looks like someones really creative.

I would have never though of using a VCR as a case...
Hows are u going to get decent cooling with such a compact case?

And it doesn't seem like u could install a Graphics card i there Sadly...

90˚ PCIe riser card or a ribbond riser card should work...

you beat me to it...a riser would definitely make things easier, but a low profile card should fit easily as well. There are plenty of ventilation holes on the top and the bottom. In addition to that, I might make some kind of mod for an exhaust fan, I don't know. I might actually be able to work on the dvd drive bracket thing today, so I'll post some pictures later.

Also, I once saw on another forum a work log of a similar project, except it was a cd player. That thing was awesome though, because it used a screen on the front, and even the original remote!

Another update!

The dvd drive bracket is done, but I don't have a drive that fits. All I have is an old cd burner that is too long therefore interfering with the ram slots .

I was trying to see how to put an old NIC card I have laying around, but then I realized that wireless would be better. Now I just have to look around for a cheap wireless card.

Things left to do consist of: obtaining a dvd burner that is either slim or short enough to fit, pico-itx power supply, obtining the wireless network card and making minor mods if necessary, and modifying the cassette door thing to hide the dvd drive.

It is going to be a while before I have money to get the extra parts, so for now this is an unfinished project .

Well, for now you can run it with out the top panel and set it up with an old power supply, use a wired Ethernet card, and use any dive you have laying around to just tinker with it till you have the money for the correct parts...

Yea I guess...but I will most likely sell it on ebay.