My first real successful modification: A black JP Nintendo GameCube shell with white accents. The innards are from a DOL-101 GameCube.
There’s a few things I did to it besides a new coat of paint, which are:
- Replacement exhaust fan, to improve airflow
- New intake fan, to improve airflow even more
- Replaced thermal pads with thermal paste and trimmed the heatsink
- Cycling RGB power LED
There was originally a third fan where the DOL-001’s power regulation circuitry was, but was removed when the shell was replaced due to insufficient airflow.
The heatsink. Now pressed up against the chips for better cooling, and enabling the use of thermal paste. Thermal paste replacing the dried thermal pads. The heatsink was later sanded down and the paste reapplied. The location of the third fan that was later removed. Shoddy beta wiring for the bottom plate fan. More wiring. Both fans were eventually replaced.
I did eventually finish the project, with good results! I didn’t open it again because there wasn’t anything new to show off.
The finished product, from the front. The disc tray and front bezel were painted white. Both serial port covers were also painted white. The finished product, from the rear. The rear bezel was painted white as well. The second fan, used as an intake fan.
For being my first ever mod, I think I did well. In the future, I plan to add some LEDs to the controller ports, and perhaps replace the disc drive with an SD card reader. I might replace the motherboard with a DOL-001 for component as well.