His mini 8800 PC mod is actually based on the same sort of case that the much smaller Altair 680 came in. With his 11″x”11″x4-3/4″ case in hand, Bob set about gutting it and figuring out what sort of PC he could fit inside. Ultimately, he settled on a Mini-ITX mobo, complete with a speedy Core i5-660 CPU, running at 3.33GHZ, along with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive and an 80GB solid-state drive. In the interest of keeping things small and tidy, he stuck the DVD drive and front ports in those external boxes underneath the mini PC.

Bob made a custom front panel and circuit board, wired to a microcontroller board to interface with the Windows 7 PC under the hood. And using the Altair 32 emulation program, he can run all the old Altair programs and make the lights and switches on the front work just like the original. Brilliant. Here’s a video of the mini Altair 8800 in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Check out more of the Mini Altair 8800 PC over at Galactic Studios.

No detail was spared in the construction of this neo-futuristic PC, which Henk built using a custom metal frame, wood, acrylic and polystyrene panels. Henk (with the help of his devoted wife) put together this amazing PC which even features sliding side panels, cool yellow backlighting and a hidden computer display inside. System specs for the pyramid PC include a mini-ITX mobo, an Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7200 CPU, a low-profile GeForce 9400GT graphics card, and compact storage on a 2.5″ hard drive and CF card. Somehow Henk even managed to cram a DVD-RW drive in cramped quarters of the pyramid, since this is a media center PC after all.

Check out the gallery below to see more angles and some of the build while it was in progress.

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You can check out the full build log and more pics over at bit-tech.net.

The compact PC comes is a small handcrafted chassis, complete with handmade wooden side panels that come from Italian cypress wood or Canadian rose wood. While Design Hara claims that with this computer “you can simply save the earth!”, I wouldn’t go that far unless you use it to cure cancer or something. That said, it is built using at least some sustainable components and power consumption is rated at only 60 watts per hour, which isn’t bad at all. It looks awesome alongside the less-than-eco-friendly clear acrylic speakers by Ferguson Hill in the photo below, they don’t come with the computer anyway.

The case is loaded with a Zotac 9300 Mini-ITX motherboard, the base system runs on an Intel Core2Duo CPU and comes with a 1TB hard drive and 4GB of RAM. They also throw in a Blu-ray drive for good measure. Sure, the specs sound completely average by today’s standards, but design is what this baby is all about.

No word on when or where you’ll be able to get one of these, but for now, you can check out more photos and specs over at Design Hara.

[via Yanko Design]

Imaging hooking up this plain-Jane NES to your television, turning it on for your friends, and starting to play games from not only the NES, but from the SNES, N64 and other retro consoles with a flick of the joypad. That’s exactly what modder cbutters managed to do when he gutted this old NES and stuffed it with the brains of a modern PC. The system runs on an Intel mini-ITX mobo, which is plenty powerful to run retro game emulators at optimal speeds.

Even the old NES controller ports have been rewired to work via the PC’s USB system. The modded console hides a four-port USB hub that snaps neatly into the original NES expansion port on the bottom, allowing a variety of non-NES controllers to be connected with ease. And to really keep the retro feel, the console can only connect via composite video, preserving that old-school blurry image quality that’ll some older games relied on to conceal their graphical flaws. See the system in action in the video clip below:

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To see exactly how cbutters managed to get the system inside the NES without nary a hint from the outside, check out the build log over on Exoid.

[Exoid via Ben Heck Forums]

According to the system’s maker, Kasey McMahon, the CompuBeaver is where “nature, technology and science converge.” Personally, I just think it’s plain weird.

[via Wired]

Enano desktop computers come in a variety of configurations ranging from a low-power Celeron M CPU all the way up to an Intel Core 2 Duo model loaded with multimedia features.

As an added bonus, the computers consume as little as 20 to 25 watts of power during typical tasks, which is substantially lower than most desktop PCs, which can use as much as 200 watts or more. The Mini-ITX based computers range in price from about $750 all the way up to $3000 depending on configuration, which is definitely on the high end of things. But if you’re looking for a small form-factor PC that doesn’t skimp on features, enano is worth a look.

[via TreeHugger]