marine aquarium screensaver serene screen

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I scoured Amazon for the perfect combination of project box and “aquarium glass” and settled on this acrylic napkin holder as the enclosure for my build.

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With the technical aspects of the project sorted out and the primary components in transit, it was time to work out how to turn a bare LCD and diminutive motherboard into something that resembled an actual aquarium. I ordered a compliant 45-watt power supply and a one-meter USB 3.1 cable from ALLNET as well. So, despite the pedestrian looking USB-C port, it needs to be fed with at least 9V/2A of juice. The Rock Pi X requires a power supply that supports the USB PD 2.0 specification. It took a little over three weeks to arrive. To save a bit of money, and because I still needed the time to design and print the enclosure anyway, I ordered my Rock Pi X directly from the manufacturer-recommended reseller ALLNET.

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Since I intended to run Windows 10 on it, and I’m not a masochist, I ordered the 4GB model with 64GB of storage for $85. The Pock Pi X can be had for as little at $50 if you don’t mind 1GB of memory of 8GB of eMMC storage.

I believe that was called “good enough” once upon a time. The Intel HD Graphics inside have a 200 MHz base frequency and can burst up to 500 MHz.

Its base clock is 1.44 GHz and it can burst up to 1.92 GHz. You may know it better as a 2-watt quad-core Cherry Trail Atom chip. The Rock Pi X is based on 2016’s Intel x5-Z8350 processor. These little guys hit the scene late last year and purportedly packed the perfunctory punch to push the aquarium’s pulsating pixels.

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The actively cooled 15-watt chip inside that unit was quite simply overkill.Įnter the Rock Pi X, the result of searching for an x86 PC in a Raspberry Pi form factor. It was obvious that any semi-modern IGP could do the job, but the smallest PC I had laying around was a Haswell-based NUC. Even the slightly more demanding 2008 version ran decently on Y2K’s GeForce 2 MX. We’re talking about a program that made RIVA TNT and ATI Rage chips sweat back in the day, but hasn’t changed much since. Thankfully, Serene Screen’s system requirements are extremely low. There wasn’t going to be much room to work with. The size of the screen gave me a rough idea of the overall footprint of the build. It didn’t take a giant leap from there to realize that an all-in-one digital dollhouse aquarium was in my future. Since 32:9 is just a stone’s throw from 4:1, and both aspect ratios were in the ballpark of common aquarium sizes, the screen and the screensaver seemed like they were made for each other. One of Serene Screen’s claims to fame is that way back in 2008 it was updated with a 3D background, designed to fit on two widescreen displays (it slowly scrolls left and right at lower resolutions).

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Ultimately, that makes Serene Screen more than just another piece of software to me and that’s where this fish tale earnestly begins. It may be true that “nobody buys screensavers anymore” but we’re still linked by a friendship catalyzed by long-term fandom. Suddenly, it’s 20 years later and only a few of us diehard fans (and Jim Sachs himself) still congregate in those hallowed forums. I even joined the official fansite – of a screensaver. Serene Screen’s combination of beautiful fish and technology instantly had me hooked. This classic screensaver from the late 90s was created by the legendary artist of Defender of the Crown and more, Jim Sachs. I figured it out a few years and a couple of computers later though, when I stumbled upon the Serene Screen Marine Aquarium. Four years old at the time, and eight years away from getting my first PC, I had no idea what I was missing. Retro computing fans and well-seasoned enthusiasts may remember that the superlative Defender of the Crown first hit the Amiga in 1986. Some may think it strange to design and build an entire PC and custom enclosure dedicated to running a 20-year-old screensaver, but I can explain.