I started off by buying the Bitfunx transparent purple GameCube replacement shell from AliExpress, which can be found here.

The main reason I did this definitely wasn't in case I wanted to add any fancy RGB lighting inside, but to avoid having to chop up a perfectly good authentic GameCube case. Plus, I think it's a great way to show off all the hard work I have done internally once the PC and electronics are neatly assembled within.

From here I started my research into small form factor PCs. Originally, I wanted to see if I could fit a mini-ITX form factor motherboard inside like in this build, but once I realised this would require extending the entire length of the case and making a whole bunch of cuts inside I decided that was non-negotiable. 

This lead me into the world of mini PC's and NUCs. I had no intention of building an extremely capable and powerful setup that could completely replace a desktop computer, as this will likely just sit inside my TV unit and be used for light emulation and some gaming and media streaming. I eventually settled on the GMKtek NucBox G3 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. From what I have read, this is one of the most cost effective options out there. It uses an Alder Lake Intel N100 processor with integrated Intel UHD graphics.

However, shortly after ordering this I ended up in a bidding war on Ebay and managed to score a second hand Intel NUC8i7BEH barebones PC for just £167! This PC uses the Coffee Lake i7-8559U processor which has 4 more threads, a 2.7GHz clock speed (as opposed to the N100's 1.8GHz), uses Iris Plus Graphics, and generally performs better across the board. Coupled with an Integral M.2 500Gb NVME SSD (Read: 3450 MB/s, write: 2400MB/s) and a single stick of Crucial 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 SODIMM RAM, this little machine should pack quite the punch for its size. Plus, I didn't want to deal with the risk of preinstalled malware that some buyers report from these Chinese mini PC sellers.

Lastly to get started, I brought an old GameCube listed as not working for spares and repairs so I could gut it for the jewel, a black handle, all of the original screws, and anything else I could salvage. 

The next log will detail the teardown and inital layout planning for the build.