Nintendo (NES) HTPC: Overview

The step-by-step instructions can be found here. This is an overview of the components, the decision making process, and the cost.

Home Theater Personal Computers (HTPC) are amazing. We have been running our TV with a laptop for a long time and wanted a dedicated computer for the new Betchin' Basement. Because I never owned a gaming system as a kid and was forced to sneak in gaming time at friend's houses, I have always wanted to buy all the old systems and play through everything I missed as a kid. I saw a few tutorials on building a small media computer in an old NES box and wanted to give it a try. The goal of the NES build was to combine all the basement entertainment needs in one box (HD movies, music, retro gaming).

Here's the final product.

Also, I LOVE Amazon Prime! Got all this crap in 2 days. Makes it so much easier to do spur of the moment projects while I feel motivated!

Software

XBMC:

Xbox Media Center(XBMC) is amazing! If you haven't checked it out I highly recommend it. It plays everything, audio and video, without having to worry about media packs and additional programs. The HD display looks amazing on a large tv, and there are multiple skins and tons of customization available. It has scrapping programs that automatically search your files, identify the titles of movies and music, and will automatically scrap cover art and fan made backdrops that look great in HD.

The skin below is Aeon Nox and it looks great.

The background fan/art changes with the disk cover. It's so pretty in action.


XBMClauncher:

So windows boots straight into XBMC. It goes SO FAST!

Windows 8 ($70.00)
*sigh* I didn't want to buy windows 8 but it does start up really quickly (faster than Vista or 7).
XBMC does have an open source operating system that I really wanted to try, but it wouldn't have worked for emulation. If you are just doing a movie/music box I would recommend checking out XBMCbuntu and save some money. I really dislike windows 8 for PCs, but because this would  need to function well with a remote and a PS3 controller, the Start tile screen is actually useful for easy navigation with arrow keys and searching. If you have a student e-mail you can upgrade an old version of Windows for $69.99. They say it doesn't work to go from 32 bit to 64 bit but that is a lie. Windows has a great program for quickly formatting a flashdrive to be a bootable drive to install Windows without a disk drive or install disk. I took an old windows vista code from a broken laptop, upgraded to Windows 8 64 bit from a computer with Windows 7, wrote down the code, downloaded the Windows 8 disk ISO from piratebay and formatted a 4 gig flashdrive. They say you need 8 gigs for 64 bit windows 8.1, but 64 bit Windows 8 is only 3.7 gigs, and upgrading to 8.1 is easy once it is installed.

Hyperspin:

XBMC does have an addon to handle Roms and retro game emulators, but it had problems scrapping my files properly and I couldn't get it to work well with Playstation games. Hyperspin is the next alternative. It is annoying to set up, but they have complete databases of EVERY game from Atari to PlayStation X (and arcade games!) including coverart and fanart. The Hyperspin Project a few years ago attempted to compile information and files for all retro games and is a good place to start. Eventually XBMC will probably have a built in emulator but for now I have it set to boot from inside XBMC and then reopen XMBC when Hyperspin closes.

Tools

Dremel tool - these are amazing and every crafty betch needs one in their arsenal.

Screwdriver

Hammer

Drill

Super glue

Hardware

This build could have been done cheaper (500 dollars?), but because I wanted Intel 4600 graphics to run the emulators and video enhancers and had no idea how well Intel 4000 would handle it I spent a little extra on a newer CPU and Motherboard with bluetooth. I don't have room for a graphics card and it seemed like the best option.

Mother board: Gigabyte GA-Z97N Gaming 5  ($160.00)

It HAD to be mini-itx to fit in the case (7" x 7"). I hate choosing Mobos. There are a million different options with only slightly different features. I went with this one because it was a cheaper option, had a sata and 4 usb 3.0 ports on the back, wireless and bluetooth included, 7.1 and I like Gigabyte. 

CPU: Intel i5 4590 ($188.00)

Wanted i5 with Intel 4600 graphics. Might have been able to get a little better graphics with AMD for the price, but I needed to run cooler, and AMDs still run a little warmer? I did order a separate low profile cooler, but the included fan works well and was still fairly short.

Power Supply: picoPSU 160 xt (plug and 192 watt power adapter) ($80.00)
This is pretty much the only option when it comes to small case builds. I didn't have room in the NES case to fit a full power supply, and I don't have the ventilation to cool it even if I had room. Plus, the power supply fan always seems to be the on that starts to make noise after a year and I want this build to be relatively quiet. The picoPSU plugs into the 24 pin power on the motherboard and then powers 1 hard drive, and 1 disk drive. It is only rated for up to 200 watts, and quick check on my system said it needed between 150-180 watts (eXtreme Power is a good site to get a rough estimate). The power adapter sits outside of the case like a laptop and works great so far.
(You might be able to find the power adapter cheaper elsewhere and only get the 24 pin connector for $40.00)

RAM: Kingston 8 gig 1600 MHz ($80.00)

8 gigs is more than enough, and it doesn't cost that much more. It needed to be lower profile, so no crazy fins or anything.

Internal Hard Drive: Kingston 120 GB Solid State (SS) ($65.00)

Didn't need this big but it was on sale. Installed Windows and I still have room for all the other program files (XBMC, Hyperspin, emulators) so they run fast. The computer boots SOOO FAST! (6 seconds?). With a combination of bios settings that allow for super speedy boot, and XBMC loader program

External Hard Drive: Seagate 2TB USB 3.0 ($120.00)

This thing is tiny! I am going to try and fit it in an old NES cartridge like the ones found at

Bluray/DVD drive: Panasonic Slot fed Bluray/DVD drive    ($70.00+$6.00)

The disk drive had to be thin to fit in the case. I ordered a laptop disk drive without realizing the drive uses a different SATA connection that also includes power.

You need this connecting cable to connect it to the 4pin power and motherboard.

Peripherals

The goal here is to have 3 sources for input: keyboard, Infrared (IR) remote, and keyboard. They all must work perfectly with the HTPC and all must be able to control all functions (gaming, watching movies, moving around Windows). Only the remote can dim the lights :(

Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Keyboard with touchpad ($28.00)

I LOVE this keyboard. It works great from across the room with the USB sensor plugged into the back of the NES. There is no delay, and I have the computer set so it never fully turns off. A click of the button and it instantly wakes up.

Remote: Harmony 650 ($74.00)

So far so good. Harmony uses a browser based program to set up the remote. They had the TV and even the Lutron IR sensor lights already stored. I still need to do a lot of tweaking to get everything perfectly organized, but so far so good.

Game Controller: PS3 Wireless Bluetooth controller ($40.00)

Haven't bought this yet. Want to get Hyperspin set up first. We played a lot of PSX and PS2 and because I haven't consoled in a long time this is the closest to what I love. It should be easy to set it up for Sega and Nintendo games. I will have each button act as a keyboard button, and then make sure all the emulators have the same keys bound to the same actions.

A/V Receiver: Yamaha RX-V575-R 7.2-Channel (Refurbished) ($280.00) 

I know nothing about recievers and surround sound. This was decent. I didn't need all the extra features, because I am building a computer to do all that crap for me. This seemed like the best reviews for the cheapest price. Future proof with 4k and 3d passthrough, only needed 1 hdmi in slot, but has 4 (a little low for most other home theater set ups).

Speakers: Monoprice 5.1 ($260.00)

Best rated for the surround sound in a box price. They sound good to me, but I am not an audiophile.

Total

HTPC: $981.00
Audio: $540.00

Again, could probably be done cheaper, but I was under budget on the rest of the basement and so I don't feel guilty. Still need to buy an IR reciever for the computer, the PS3 bluetooth controller, and a bluray program. Looking for cheap/free options for bluray playback.