Project: Portable Desktop != Laptop

[miahallen]

Very cool project, well done

[Manicdan]

Thanks for the compliments, heres a few more photos of recent changes


here you can see i changed out the fans and added the fan grills


a better view of the stability rail i added to the back left top panel,
its just a vertical piece of .25" acrylic with pre-drilled holes and flat screws.


notice something strange, the panel now holds itself open thanks to a cabinet door hinge. also note the wire sleeving.


from the side.


nice clean back, and yes the case is sitting on a keyboard box.


much more room to reach in and change those usb cables that i use to hate fixing. also notice the furry brown thing on the floor

[Pupo]

Nice work! Put some hidraulics to lift up H50

[Manicdan]

Nice work! Put some hidraulics to lift up H50

the hinge has a spring built into it, and works very well. the only issue is the pipes for the H50 are not very flexable, and a hair too short, so it pulls back on it. if i took that off and only the acrylic was being lifted, once you pull it up halfway, it springs open to perfectly strait up.

[Manicdan]

Weight reduction!!!
2 inch hole saw + table saw + dremel to clean out alot of excess weight from the box.
i also took the opportunity to countersink EVERY hole for flush bolts on each wall and bottom/top. with that i probably gained a 1/4 inch of vertical space, and internally about a 1/4 inch more with the motherboard sitting a little lower.

acrylic box with all bolts, brackets and magnets included is under 5lbs, with over 1lb ripped out of it.

[zalbard]

Very clean, great attention to the detail!
As an idea, you could also try sleeving the cables, might be worth it.

[Manicdan]

Very clean, great attention to the detail!
As an idea, you could also try sleeving the cables, might be worth it.

i have sleeved them, and i have a new PSU in there that is sleeved already. the only thing not sleeved are the peripheral cables (monitor, keyboard, internet, auto, and other USB devices)

later on (in like a month) i might rebuild all the cables from scratch to be the length i need instead of 2ft long and only going 4 inches away. the weight of the cables alone is about another 2 lbs. the 2 biggest culprits are the motherboard main power, and the PCIe power cords.

today im going to put it all back together and have some newer pics up.

[Manicdan]

yes i use the keyboard box as a little stand for the frame. it does a great job of not letting the table get scratched.






probably the ugliest thing in this case. but hey it gets the job done perfect and you cannot see it once the panel is attached












turns out the hole i left on the bottom wasnt big enough, never thought to look at the board to find out the mounting area goes past those screws.
its fixed, but not nearly pretty enough to photograph.



wire-sleeved messes:















acrylic frame inside the briefcase:









there use to be small offsets that i was able to countersink using a razor blade to gain 1/8" more space.


with the set screws that make this so much easier to take on and off.



next up:
wire sleeve the monitors/keyboard cables so they match

cut the length of many cables that are far too long:
most likely the 24pin power cable which i plan to reduce in size, and make it 6 individually sleeved cables of 4 wires each.
the PCIe cables which only need to be 4-6" inches long.
USB/button/leds coming from the faceplate that has their true length hidden inside the sleeves.

build some kind of way to have the monitor extend outward and angle. this might require a new thinner monitor that does not have VESA mounting holes and that i can break apart the bezel/frame. or i do something crazy by having the entire lid come off and make its own stand

[Manicdan]

More updates:

• PSU facing other direction to help keep wires managed much better
• Aftermarket cooling on the GPU
• Old fan gutted into a shroud for the H50
• Turnbuckle added to adjust monitor angle
• Power cables spliced into a single cable
• Bluetooth keyboard thats really tiny
• 3ft Black monitor cable that now comes from the left instead of center

[Church]

Turnbuckle for angle adjustment looks interesting

[Manicdan]

Turnbuckle for angle adjustment looks interesting

o i forgot to mention, its set up in such a way that it automatically latches as you open the case.

greatest ghetto mod i ever did

[viccan]

very cool man.. mucho props for that build!!

[Morphling]

this is BRUTAL :o

[Manicdan]

thanks

i still made a whole bunch of updates, but then started on a second project and never made or uploaded anymore photos. but this one should give an idea of what i fit in here

Before:


After:


its a MCR320 Drive revb with a low profile heatsink

[CrazyNutz]

Just started my own portable build. Thanks for the inspiration.


Just have the LCD panel installed so far. Viewsonic 19" with the bezel removed, it was a freebe since it crapped out on the owner. It was destin for the trash, I just replaced some bad caps and good as new.
0329134134.jpg

[Manicdan]

grats.
ive done 3 in total now. the current one holds standard ATX parts, but no screen.
next up is actually dropping the briefcase part case to reduce weight by a large amount. but i loose structural protection in the process.

[CrazyNutz]

The case I'm using is from Harbor Freight, It is super light ~4lbs, and only $25.00.