2.5ghz dual core A1200!

06 February 2011, 00:10

This may fit better somewhere else on this forum but I browsed up and down couldn't come to any conclusions, anyway here is my beast.

For a long time I wanted to build a custom PC in the form of an Amiga and here it is. A Core2 2.5ghz ddr3 Amiga 1200!

It was a long search for suitable hardware. Something compact yet fast enough to run emulators, play videos and generally make the whole thing worthwhile was hard to come by.
ITX boards are just too big for the low profile A1200 case, and pico/nano boards don't offer enough power for a really functional system.
The solution was the rare (yet awesome) ECX form factor.
It's built with a Quanmaxx Keex-4030 embedded motherboard. This thing packs a lot for its size being almost half that of an ITX board.
And being a (kind of) standard form factor I could well swap it out if needed.

What else is in it?

Kinston 32gb SSD
2gig DDR3
Creative SB Play USB audio adaptor
Bluetooth adaptor
Keyrah kb adaptor

Getting the motherboard fit right was done by printing out images from the spec pdf - I made sure they were printed as accurately to scale as possible.

The backing plate was cut using a stencil made from the 'side view' image in the Keex documentation.
This was the biggest challenge and took several hours with a dremel, it really holds the whole thing together though.
The rest was almost uncanny how well some of it fit in. After the backing plate it's all a fairly simple process really.

The Keyrah took a couple of goes to find a workable solution. In the end mounting it directly to the keyboard worked great. It makes the keyboard especially easy to remove.
It's powered by a cable running from the internal USB header to the Keex adaptor (not pictured).

Things to do..
Finish the RCA audio outputs (I kinda lost momentum on that one when I realised the onboard sound operates through the HDMI just fine)
Rig the status LED's directly to the Keex adaptor. At present they operate through the Keyrah as the voltage requirements are very different for the modern LED headers.

The Keyrah keymap switch will also have to be mounted on the back at some point.
** UPDATE **
Done this one! Highly recommend to anyone using a Keyrah in this fashion. The switch is very important as UAE is somewhat dysfunctional on one setting, and Windows is on the other.
(I soldered a wire/connector to two points on the bottom of the Keyrah board)

Add a video card? The onboard on this one is actually surprisingly good.
** UPDATE **
It does have a few quirks however. HDMI/DVI needed to be enabled by pressing alt-ctrl-F5 in Windows. This is undocumented so naturally it took me a while to figure out. Windows also has a habit of forgetting the setting and reverting to the VGA output. I'm currently looking into this.

cosmicfrog · 06 February 2011, 00:17

Nice 1

might be trying something similar with Geon106 soon

have you a stencil of that back plate ?? must admit it jumped out at me straight away

apart from that back plate what was your biggest problem ??

06 February 2011, 00:28

Those cutouts are as close to a stencil as I used. I did one rough effort first for proof of concept then the final one which was a lengthy cut, fit, cut and fit again process. I think its fair to say the rest was a cake walk. The Keyrah mounting was a little tricky. Its mounted on plastic and stuck to the underside of the kb with double sided tape, but it works really well.

One annoyance with the Keex mobo is being an industrial board the display defaults to the LVDS output (or at least reverts back to it when its been off for a while). It's a simple key sequence to turn it back to DVI/HDMI but it requires the Keyrah to be in the 'non emulation' keymap. So re-mounting the keymap switch externally will be the next challenge.

fitzsteve · 06 February 2011, 01:17

Very tidy job there, well done

LTAC · 06 February 2011, 01:42

Excellent job, even if it is a false AMIGA

mfilos · 06 February 2011, 10:57

Nice work mate! I always thought of doing the same with an A600 case and a PicoITX (Artigo kit) I have but sadly the time is limited for my mods!

Nice backplate dremeling and fitting and overall a cool projects! Thumbs up

rare_j · 06 February 2011, 16:38

Very nice and tidy, super job... I want!!
What OS are you running? What other emulators?

BippyM · 06 February 2011, 17:30

That first image looks rendered... Well cool

07 February 2011, 00:47

So far its running XP(lite) with WinUAE on top of course. I have stripped away a few things like the win bootup screen and theres also no visible bios post which is nice. Also being SSD u can boot it into workbench as fast as the real thing if ya bypass explorer.

The plan is to run MAME and other things too. I have the old skool controllers as well as ps3 controllers so a bit of everything really. The onboard video controller is fast enough to handle high def video as well.

8bitbubsy · 07 February 2011, 08:12

Extremely nice!

It looks very very well done, and I love the fact that you put the Keyrah adapter in there and even the Amiga mouse/joystick ports!

I am very envious

ElectroBlaster · 07 February 2011, 15:45

False amiga or not this is bloody nice m8!

I want to do the same thing and now seeing one in the flesh as it were gives me alot of inspiration

EDIT: @dcrc Im gonna pm you later if thats ok as I would like to ask some questions. I really want to go ahead with building one and im good with the soldering iron the dremel tool but I might have trouble with the metal backplate part, havent got a vice or any suitable area to do metal work

EDIT: LOL im like a kid in a sweetshop... the possibilities are endless! Im toying with the idea of getting my catweasal mk4 in there and using keeping the internal disk drive and then lobbing on icaros. I have a couple chinon a600 drives which are really short in length. All ideas at the moment but this has fired my imagination

23 February 2011, 00:09

No　worries. A vice is certainly important for this kind　of work but being aluminium and easy to　work nothing heavy duty is required.

I also thought about a catweasal but fitting it in the a1200 case could be tricky.

BigFairy · 23 February 2011, 04:36

abomination...

FOL · 23 February 2011, 10:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigFairy

abomination...

I agree, but it looks the part.
Imagine AROS on it, now that would be cool,

.

CritAnime · 05 April 2011, 10:55

Love it. I have a spare 500 case in the cellar. Might give this a whirl.

Hewitson · 05 April 2011, 12:05

I think any real Amiga fan should be disgusted by this..

seuden · 05 April 2011, 12:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hewitson

I think any real Amiga fan should be disgusted by this..

Tut.

I must hate Amigas

then as I think this is an awesome mod.

khph_re · 05 April 2011, 12:21

A disgrace, gutting an icon.

yet...good...(bebrudging)...job

seuden · 05 April 2011, 17:42

Where does it say that dcrc gutted it? Maybe it was a spare case?

CritAnime · 06 April 2011, 00:49

How much was that motherboard? Also how did you connect the keyboard and such to it?

06 February 2011, 00:10	#1
dcrc Posts: n/a	2.5ghz dual core A1200! This may fit better somewhere else on this forum but I browsed up and down couldn't come to any conclusions, anyway here is my beast. For a long time I wanted to build a custom PC in the form of an Amiga and here it is. A Core2 2.5ghz ddr3 Amiga 1200! It was a long search for suitable hardware. Something compact yet fast enough to run emulators, play videos and generally make the whole thing worthwhile was hard to come by. ITX boards are just too big for the low profile A1200 case, and pico/nano boards don't offer enough power for a really functional system. The solution was the rare (yet awesome) ECX form factor. It's built with a Quanmaxx Keex-4030 embedded motherboard. This thing packs a lot for its size being almost half that of an ITX board. And being a (kind of) standard form factor I could well swap it out if needed. What else is in it? Kinston 32gb SSD 2gig DDR3 Creative SB Play USB audio adaptor Bluetooth adaptor Keyrah kb adaptor Getting the motherboard fit right was done by printing out images from the spec pdf - I made sure they were printed as accurately to scale as possible. The backing plate was cut using a stencil made from the 'side view' image in the Keex documentation. This was the biggest challenge and took several hours with a dremel, it really holds the whole thing together though. The rest was almost uncanny how well some of it fit in. After the backing plate it's all a fairly simple process really. The Keyrah took a couple of goes to find a workable solution. In the end mounting it directly to the keyboard worked great. It makes the keyboard especially easy to remove. It's powered by a cable running from the internal USB header to the Keex adaptor (not pictured). Things to do.. Finish the RCA audio outputs (I kinda lost momentum on that one when I realised the onboard sound operates through the HDMI just fine) Rig the status LED's directly to the Keex adaptor. At present they operate through the Keyrah as the voltage requirements are very different for the modern LED headers. The Keyrah keymap switch will also have to be mounted on the back at some point. UPDATE Done this one! Highly recommend to anyone using a Keyrah in this fashion. The switch is very important as UAE is somewhat dysfunctional on one setting, and Windows is on the other. (I soldered a wire/connector to two points on the bottom of the Keyrah board) Add a video card? The onboard on this one is actually surprisingly good. UPDATE It does have a few quirks however. HDMI/DVI needed to be enabled by pressing alt-ctrl-F5 in Windows. This is undocumented so naturally it took me a while to figure out. Windows also has a habit of forgetting the setting and reverting to the VGA output. I'm currently looking into this. Last edited by dcrc; 18 July 2011 at 14:24.

07 February 2011, 15:45	#11
ElectroBlaster Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Exeter, Devon, UK Age: 50 Posts: 1,714	False amiga or not this is bloody nice m8! I want to do the same thing and now seeing one in the flesh as it were gives me alot of inspiration EDIT: @dcrc Im gonna pm you later if thats ok as I would like to ask some questions. I really want to go ahead with building one and im good with the soldering iron the dremel tool but I might have trouble with the metal backplate part, havent got a vice or any suitable area to do metal work EDIT: LOL im like a kid in a sweetshop... the possibilities are endless! Im toying with the idea of getting my catweasal mk4 in there and using keeping the internal disk drive and then lobbing on icaros. I have a couple chinon a600 drives which are really short in length. All ideas at the moment but this has fired my imagination Last edited by ElectroBlaster; 07 February 2011 at 15:57.

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06 February 2011, 00:17	#2
cosmicfrog The 1 who ribbits Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: leek, Staffs, UK Age: 56 Posts: 3,557	Nice 1 might be trying something similar with Geon106 soon have you a stencil of that back plate ?? must admit it jumped out at me straight away apart from that back plate what was your biggest problem ??

06 February 2011, 00:28	#3
dcrc Posts: n/a	Those cutouts are as close to a stencil as I used. I did one rough effort first for proof of concept then the final one which was a lengthy cut, fit, cut and fit again process. I think its fair to say the rest was a cake walk. The Keyrah mounting was a little tricky. Its mounted on plastic and stuck to the underside of the kb with double sided tape, but it works really well. One annoyance with the Keex mobo is being an industrial board the display defaults to the LVDS output (or at least reverts back to it when its been off for a while). It's a simple key sequence to turn it back to DVI/HDMI but it requires the Keyrah to be in the 'non emulation' keymap. So re-mounting the keymap switch externally will be the next challenge.

06 February 2011, 01:17	#4
fitzsteve Professional slacker! Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Kent, UK Age: 44 Posts: 6,685	Very tidy job there, well done

06 February 2011, 01:42	#5
LTAC Registered User Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: France Posts: 129	Excellent job, even if it is a false AMIGA

06 February 2011, 10:57	#6
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 45 Posts: 1,978	Nice work mate! I always thought of doing the same with an A600 case and a PicoITX (Artigo kit) I have but sadly the time is limited for my mods! Nice backplate dremeling and fitting and overall a cool projects! Thumbs up

06 February 2011, 16:38	#7
rare_j Zone Friend Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: London Posts: 1,179	Very nice and tidy, super job... I want!! What OS are you running? What other emulators?

06 February 2011, 17:30	#8
BippyM Global Moderator Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Derby, UK Age: 48 Posts: 9,355	That first image looks rendered... Well cool

07 February 2011, 00:47	#9
dcrc Posts: n/a	So far its running XP(lite) with WinUAE on top of course. I have stripped away a few things like the win bootup screen and theres also no visible bios post which is nice. Also being SSD u can boot it into workbench as fast as the real thing if ya bypass explorer. The plan is to run MAME and other things too. I have the old skool controllers as well as ps3 controllers so a bit of everything really. The onboard video controller is fast enough to handle high def video as well.

07 February 2011, 08:12	#10
8bitbubsy Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Norway Posts: 1,719	Extremely nice! It looks very very well done, and I love the fact that you put the Keyrah adapter in there and even the Amiga mouse/joystick ports! I am very envious

23 February 2011, 00:09	#12
dcrc Posts: n/a	No　worries. A vice is certainly important for this kind　of work but being aluminium and easy to　work nothing heavy duty is required. I also thought about a catweasal but fitting it in the a1200 case could be tricky.

23 February 2011, 04:36	#13
BigFairy Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 80	abomination...

05 April 2011, 10:55	#15
CritAnime Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Wakefield/UK Age: 41 Posts: 388	Love it. I have a spare 500 case in the cellar. Might give this a whirl.

05 April 2011, 12:05	#16
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,773	I think any real Amiga fan should be disgusted by this..

05 April 2011, 12:21	#18
khph_re Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Northampton/UK Posts: 531	A disgrace, gutting an icon. yet...good...(bebrudging)...job

05 April 2011, 17:42	#19
seuden uber cool demi god Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Kent/England Posts: 2,073	Where does it say that dcrc gutted it? Maybe it was a spare case?

06 April 2011, 00:49	#20
CritAnime Registered User Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Wakefield/UK Age: 41 Posts: 388	How much was that motherboard? Also how did you connect the keyboard and such to it?

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