Custom PC – October 2019

RichJonesbuiltthiscustomarcadecabinet

PCfromscratch,makinggreatuseof

plywood,Perspexanda loadofLEDs.

It runsbothretrogamesandcurrent-

gentitlesontheCorei5systeminside

firsttookaninterestin

customarcademachines

backin2012,whenI

spottedKoenig’sbar-topdesign

calledtheWeecade(koenigs.dk).

I washookedimmediately;I’d

alwaysbeenprettyhandy

withwoodworkingandhad

a widevarietyofdifferent

toolsonhandtomakeit

happen.Mysonwasalso

comingtoanagewhereI

wasaboutto

introducehim

togaming,

andI wantedhim

toexperience

theclassicswith

whichI grewup.

Bytheendof 2012

I’dbuiltmyfirst

arcademachine.It

wasnice,butI felt

I coulddobetter.

I’dbeenthinking

ofbuildinga

machine that would

show off both my

woodworking and

PC building skills,

as I’d been building

my own PCs since

the late 1990s.

I decided to design

a cabinet that was a

different shape to the

usual bar-top design.

Ithadtobesee-throughsoI could

showoffallthecomponentsand

customwiring.I wantedit tobe

powerfulenoughtoplaymodern

PCgamesonhighdetail,butnot

sopowerfulthatgettingridofthe

heatinsideit wouldbea problem.

ItwasatthispointthatI decided

that1080pgamingwouldbe

enough,andthata 26inmonitor

wouldstillallowthemachine

tobeportablewithoutneeding

a trolleyjackjusttomoveit.

Hardwareandcontrols

Thebuildconsistsoftwomain

parts.Thebottomhalfhousesthe

Asus P8Z68-V Pro motherboard,

Intel Core i5 CPU, 16GB of RAM,

Corsair CX750M PSU and a

slot loading Blu-ray drive. The

graphics card is mounted on

a flexible riser ribbon cable,

with the fan just clearing the

components on the motherboard

tray. I also stripped down this

card, so I could change the colour

of the GeForce logo to red.

/MEETTHYMAKER

NameRichJones

Age 41

OccupationOilandgas

industry

Location North Wales

Main uses for PC

Current-gen gaming and

retro gaming

Li kes Anything retro,

regularly attending

Arcade club in Bury and

the excellent new venue

in Leeds

Dislikes Loot crates. It’s

gambling and unfair

RetroCade

Readers’ Drives

MODDING / READERS’ DRIVES

Meanwhile, the main SSD

and one 4TB hard drive are also

housed in the bottom section. The

top section houses the Dell 26in

IPS monitor, four JBL speakers,

theamplifier and three more

4TB hard drives, giving me

16TB of storage in total.

The control panel on

the front consists of two

RGB ball-top Ultimarc

joysticks, with six RGB

buttons per player on each

side. The software allows

for each game to light up

therequired controls and their

function for each individual

game. I also fitted ‘coin addition’

buttons, as well as Player 1 and

2 Start buttons. Then there are

buttons for exit game, game

information, select, and volume

up and down. Also housed here

are two PacLED64 controllers

I

By the end of 2012 I’d built

my first arcade machine.

It was nice, but I felt I could

do better