Media Server Idea.....phonograph....

[Snipermonkey2]

Well I've been brain storming these past few hours over buying a vintage phonograph cabinet and gutting it out and putting a new amp speakers and a media server with a touch screen in it replacing where the turntable would be. I'm not sure if this sounds like a good idea or a huge waste of money. I want TPU's input on this one before I buy this thing, the pictures included are the phonograph I am looking at buying if I do choose to build this.

 

[Solaris17]

yes

 

[theubersmurf]

This is your destiny, don't blow it.

 

[Nordic]

Sounds awesome. I even have a phonograph 5 ft from myself right now.

Build log is a must. PRETTY PRETTY please.

 

[Snipermonkey2]

I will call the guy who has it for sale tomorrow.

 

[HammerON]

My grandparents use to have one similar to the one in the picture. This would be a really cool mod

 

[Aquinus]

This is your destiny, don't blow it.

This.
It has the potential to become a very cool in the end.

 

[Maban]

Since I love records (not more than 6 feet from 400 of them) I would be devastated if you just scrapped the phonograph part of it. Surely you can make it into a computer without harming the player.

 

[theubersmurf]

I have to say I think this seems like a really cool project.

I'm curious what you envision, there is the old fabric that covered the old speakers, and that opening on the top. It looks like the front opens up too, but I guess what I'm wondering is what the inside looks like, and more particulars about what you're thinking of literally doing.

 

[Snipermonkey2]

Since I love records (not more than 6 feet from 400 of them) I would be devastated if you just scrapped the phonograph part of it. Surely you can make it into a computer without harming the player.

Well I've gone back and forth with the thoughts of keeping the player but the big thing for me is the lack of vinyl. I for one do not own any vinyl. If anything I could off load the parts on ebay or find old radio repair shop locally that could make use of them.

I have to say I think this seems like a really cool project.

I'm curious what you envision, there is the old fabric that covered the old speakers, and that opening on the top. It looks like the front opens up too, but I guess what I'm wondering is what the inside looks like, and more particulars about what you're thinking of literally doing.

Well as for the paint that is on that it's tough to save, it kind of looks good but I would have to see it in person to really decide if i was repaint or not. That old fabric I would want to pull it out and replace it with something newer. That opening in the top I'm not sure yet I've thought about seeing if that cover could come out and I could replace it with a longer one. Other idea was to enclose part of the end where the turntable sits so it when the cover is pulled shut there is no gap.

Over all I'm thinking a touch screen should be placed about where the turntable is so when the cover is opened you have access to all your favorite tunes. I'd want to remove the old amp and find one that is a bit smaller, basically enclosing it in it's own part of the unit with it's over cooling setup. I want to keep as much heat away from the computer as possible. New speakers would be a must ,I would probably buy a speaker kit or single speakers from parts-express (i've used them before to repair a speaker that was on loan from a friend, awesome company). So after those fun things I think I might want add some white LED's to give it some underglow or maybe back light.

 

[Snipermonkey2]

Well things might be on hold now..... I was building my new i7 desktop and needed to test my mushkin ram so buddy agreed to swap his Gskill ram with mine same speed and voltage, well when he went to boot it up and my mushkin ram burned up his mobo somewhere. So now I'm in the hole owing him a mobo and who knows what else right now.

I'll update later this week if this project is still a go.

 

[Aquinus]

he went to boot it up and my mushkin ram burned up his mobo somewhere.

That's crap. I don't believe that for a second. How good of a friend is this?

 

[Snipermonkey2]

That's crap. I don't believe that for a second. How good of a friend is this?

He's a good friend, I was there when he shut his rig down to pull out his gskill for me to use and I saw him put the mushkin into his computer. It wouldn't post what so ever and maybe a min passed and we shut it down and opened the case back up and it had that tell tale smell of burning components.

 

[Aquinus]

He's a good friend, I was there when he shut his rig down to pull out his gskill for me to use and I saw him put the mushkin into his computer. It wouldn't post what so ever and maybe a min passed and we shut it down and opened the case back up and it had that tell tale smell of burning components.

So did the burning smell come after he put his memory back in? It would start smelling the moment you booted it with your memory.

That sounds mad fishy to me though.

 

[Snipermonkey2]

So did the burning smell come after he put his memory back in? It would start smelling the moment you booted it with your memory.

That sounds mad fishy to me though.

It smelled after we tried booting with my ram.

 

[Widjaja]

I've never heard of installing RAM causing motherboard failure.
Even if the Mushkin RAM was not QVL with his motherboard I still do not believe it would do this.

That's a real shame as I am interested to see how you were going to convert this old phonograph into a media server.

 

[Aquinus]

He's a good friend, I was there when he shut his rig down to pull out his gskill for me to use and I saw him put the mushkin into his computer. It wouldn't post what so ever and maybe a min passed and we shut it down and opened the case back up and it had that tell tale smell of burning components.

It smelled after we tried booting with my ram.

You do realize that the memory controller is on the CPU and not the motherboard. The motherboard only forwards the DRAM connections from the CPU. If the motherboard is damaged I seriously doubt your memory killed his board. The capability DRAM doing this is practically non-existent unless you shorted some pins.

If a cap blew or one of the VRMs failed, that's not the memory. It's his motherboard already failing.

Don't let him drag you too far into it. In all honestly I don't think his motherboard problems are your fault. I think he's using you as a scapegoat since it happened to occur when you tested your memory.

Keep in mind that one of the biggest things they tell you in statistics is that, "correlation does not imply causation." Just because it happened at the same time isn't enough to sell me on it.

With this said, don't let him convince you that you owe him an entire rig. You don't know how he treats his machine. As far as you know he overclocks the heck out of it with a 4+1 phase VRM. He could have already been asking for it.

 

[Geofrancis]

that would be a cool case go for it.