And so it begins

Well I have just about all the parts I need for the system to run. The only thing I'm waiting for now is my processor (which will be here tomorrow) and my power supply. The system has been completely dismantles and is being prepped for a trial install.

Today I started hacking away at the NES base to make room for the motherboard,and all the other parts needed to run it. I used a dremel to remove all the unnecessary screw posts. I'm going to see if I can avoid removing the raised part of the case,but if I can't then I'll have to come up with a way to make in not look horrendous. I'll most definitely need to cut a hole to vent the CPU, and I plan on having a custom grill made to cover it.

I chose a dual core celeron processor because it produces less heat than most others processors. But wait a min...aren't celerons suppose to be like the worst processor ever? Well that's what I had originally thought as well. I mean earlier generations were known for being these weak pieces of garbage that weren't even worthy of being called dog crap. However, the newer dual cores actually have some power behind them while maintaining a cheaper price. The processor itself is just slightly less powerful than the Pentium dual core e5300, but it's about $27 cheaper as well. I could of went with a fan-less 1.8ghz atom processor, but I need something a little more powerful since I'm using Hyperspin for the front end.

The power supply is from mini-box.com. It's an external power supply much like a laptop. I chose it to save space,and also to keep the original look. I also decided on 2 gigs of ram instead of 4 since I don't really need a powerhouse PC. A 250 gig 2.5 laptop sata hard drive...should be plenty for what I need.

I chose to go with retro kits (the kind you solder) from retrousb.com so that I could use the original ports as a plug and play for different controllers. Speaking of controllers...Why in the world do I have 6 controllers listed? Well 4 I'm gonna mod and 2 I'm going to destroy. I'm going to have the Nintendo logo back lit on the originals just to make in look cool. That's why I needed the LED's and the resistors. As for the other 4...The 2 generic controllers are only needed for the cord. My plan is to mod the SNES controllers to work in the NES port...In theory it should work. I mean both controllers are wired up almost identically. So if it works hooray! If it doesn't...then I'm out some controllers and some money.

Well that's the run down of the parts. Next post I'll have some pictures, and possibly a video of the first trial boot of the motherboard.