Image Credits: Lowyat.Net
It doesn’t get much better than putting a gaming PC into a vintage console when it comes to stealth gaming PCs. In a similar vein, a modder crammed a Ryzen 4650G APU, 2TB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and a dual-band Wi-Fi chip into a Sega Dreamcast shell to make the ideal stealth small PC for vintage gamers.
Sega Dreamcast modified to AMD-powered gaming PC
Image Credits: PCGamesN
On the ComputerBase forums, Temujin123 released a video detailing the process of hollowing out the Dreamcast shell and installing the new components. As a first stage, the disc drive was replaced with a Matshita DVD drive connected to a magnetic switch. The switch causes the drive to spin when the lid is closed, and it stops spinning when the lid is open.
Thankfully, that appeared to be the most difficult aspect. To attach the mainboard, Temujin123 fashioned a mounting plate out of sheet metal with standoffs. They utilized an ASRock X300M bare-bones kit instead of a standard motherboard.
The small board has all of the necessary connectors for this design, but it lacks PCIe connectivity for projects without a graphics card.
Temujin123 was able to add a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo, 960GB Corsair Force MP510, and a dual-band Intel Wi-Fi chip right on the board because the board contains connectors for M.2 SSDs and Wi-Fi cards. They even managed to squeeze in a 120GB Samsung 830 SATA SSD beneath the motherboard.
Temujin123 picked the 37mm thick Noctua NH-L9a CPU cooler to keep everything cool. However, from the bottom of the Dreamcast case, the cooler is considerably stronger.
Image Credits: Digital Trends
The mainboard of Temujin123 was turned so that cold air from the bottom and warm air from the bottom. The Dreamcast game PC was covered with a coat of paint, and USB ports replaced the controller’s connectors.
The Ryzen 4650G can handle contemporary AAA games at 720p with medium settings at 30 to 60 frames per second (fps) in terms of performance.
Although the chip’s outdated Vega graphics processors can’t compete with a separate GPU, they’re still powerful enough for independent games and games from a few years ago. It’s hardly a high-end gaming PC, but that sort of performance inside a Sega Dreamcast is hard to disagree with.
Temujin123 claims to be working on a “Dreamcast Two” for AMD’s yet-to-be-announced Ryzen 6000 APUs. These APUs are said to have new RDNA 2 graphics cores, which could increase performance significantly.
