there are loads of guides to building retro pi machines. but this is a slightly different build as going to use 1TB SSD image so will be running an SSD drive on a pi 4 B
So why am I doing this well I was going to put together a retro flag GBI 2 but as raspberry pi modules are limited supply here in the UK/World Wide I decided as I had a pi4 B gathering dust I would review a different case that supports SSD drive.
I have been wanting to build something that I can let my son play with as he is a little young for the ps5 or the VR headset. I was looking at desktop cases and then found argon one v2 with USB SSD support.
A little bit of an update will be building a reviewing a GPI 2 in September as have managed to buy one in Germany and ship it to a hotel I will be staying in so I can get around being outside the European Union. 2022 issues I hate that we left not going to get political.
So what you will need to build this
- Raspberry Pi 4 Modle B.
- Small micro sd card.
- 1TB SSD drive.
- Argon one v2.
- USB adapter for SSD drive.
- pihut argon one adapter for SSD 2.5 drive.
- game controller Xbox pc controller I had kicking around
Burning the image:
Now for the fun bit, I tried this process with the 1TB image and the imager took around 8hrs it didn’t like it so instead I’m using etcher software to create the SSD image I have the drive in a quick swap 2.5 enclosure USB C so loaded the .img file into etcher and hit write
Bear in mind this is going to take a long time to burn at least 3hrs once it’s done we are ready to build the system.
Didn’t work again argh so after joining rick dangerous discord group and chatting with him and some of the great users I found 2 issues one I had a bad drive enclosure not compatible with raspberry pi. 2 the retro flag enclosure I had originally brought didn’t want to work so I sent it back and off the group recommendation I brought an argon one v2 and USB drive housing for it off pi Hut. that turned up surprisingly quick. Rick’s discord link below and his youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-DyMEeix9cKCilqOkT69ng
I also learnt from rick about the about-to-be-released version of his drive the [1tb]-Rick.Dangerous.Insanium.Edition.RPi4. Over 60 systems and 8,400 games on board and growing with user input.
A week later it launched and I downloaded it off Usenet 3hrs 30 with the new version I then imaged to a SSD drive from an old project that I had kicking around the workshop. it ready to use. more information can be found on the link below.
more information about the drive is below:
The Physical Build:
this isn’t too complex you will need to put the heat sync tape on the 2 chips mentioned in the documentation. once they are done place the pi into the enclosure at this point you will need to plug the sideboard into the audio and HDMI ports and power then insert the pi into the gpio pins will post some stock images below. 7 screws and it built
Plugged in the power and turned it on wow Rick’s image is awesome some screenshots are below and it’s continuing to grow. this is on my 65″ 4kv and there are a lot of systems from my childhood. I will be having a retro night soon.
I will be doing a full review of the drive shortly once I get back from holiday and work commitments
ricks also going to develop a hand-held version for the GPI 2 I will be coming on the journey shortly with the discord team.
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