My Portable PC project starting now!

Ness · Post by **Ness** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:21 pm

Okay, here is what's going on!!!

I know that there is already a portable pc project going on and I think its moving very nicely. However, I have been reading it for a while and it definitely has been pushing me to make my own. Now, I finally decided to go along and do this.

First, here is the board I am going to use:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... &rd=1&rd=1
(PCPartner 915GMS7 Motherboard LGA775 Onboard Video MATX)

I'm gonna modify the board by moving the parallel port over to one side, same with the serial port, and moving the usb ports too trying to shrink the thickness of the system. I'm gonna get some copper sinks on the chips and install a small water cooling system onto the processor.

Next, I am looking into LCD monitors (15"). Nothing special really...just trying to find a good price.

The keyboard will be a full size keyboard, and I'll have a usb mouse attached.

The powersupply will be lithium batteries (gonna see if I can get one of the long small batteries from sony). Also, the power box will be a modified 400w box where the atx portion will be cut off and a special adapter will be added onto both ends (the board and the supply). I just need to get the other supply connectors removed and then shrink the box size somehow.

I'm now working on a design layout, so once done, I'll post it up. Bye for now!!!

Post by **Triton** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:51 pm

so your talking more imac esque i assume, aint much of a handheld with a 15" lcd man lol, sounds cool tho, all-in-ones are awesome

Ness · Post by **Ness** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:09 pm

laptop style...15" would be perfect for me because I wanna play games on it as well. I'm working on it for running some high-end games as well as personal work. It will be portable...just not small like the other project that's being worked on.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:46 pm

Sounds neat, but I think the water cooling would be unnecessary. Get one of the newer, more efficient CPU's, like the Core 2, attach a low profile copper heatsink and position a fan to the side to blow through horizontally.

Ness · Post by **Ness** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 7:41 am

I'm not too familiar with water cooling so copper sinks was second on my mind. Just a matter of finding good ones for that.

The board takes 775 pins so I would need to find a core 2 processor that has those pins. Also I need to make sure that board can run that processor as well. Time to research some more...especially with the batteries. Does anyone know of any good copper sinks for processors that's small?

ATOMICMAN · Post by **ATOMICMAN** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:33 am

im not sure if you will find one for that socket but a mobile processor would work best to conserve battery power and reduce heat.

you could look for laptop cpu heatsinks also. they may need a little modification to attach to the board but im sure it can be done.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:36 am

Some I found on Newegg compatable with LGA775:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835114042
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835114036

These would save you the trouble of hacking a fan into your setup. They're made for 1U servers- those rackmount things barely more than an inch or so in height?- so these are probably as small as you'll get. Be warned that they appear to be loud as sin, though.

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:43 am

Hmmm... doesn't seem like it will be a portable, but i'm sure it will be cool nonetheless. Good luck!

Ness · Post by **Ness** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 10:02 am

That's the beauty of portables! It doesn't have to be small and run off of triple A batteries just to be considered a portable! To me it will be a portable computer because I'm getting good power on the go. It'll be big yes, it may be a tad bit heavy, but it'll be portable.

@ ATOMICMAN - Yeah, I checked out the board and it won't run the duo processor but its okay. In the end it works out nicely because it won't use that much battery power. I'm gonna get a P4 533FSB 3.06 processor.

@teraflop122 - Thank you VERY much! That'll work perfectly. As for the noise, I'll look into making the board sit on rubber to help cut down the sound overall. There's pleanty of options to cut it down, but for now, I just need to see how loud it'll get.

EDIT: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 65&CatId=0

This one is better and the one I'm going with.

EDIT 2::
Motherboard and processor purchased and on its way.
Processor being used: Intel P4 3.06GHz 1MB 533MHz

Nucklez · Post by **Nucklez** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:02 pm

I'm actually using a smaller laptop for a portable PC. I plan on keeping the 14" screen, and make it into something similar to a big PSP. I am running the same MameWah frontend that I do for my arcade cabinet so I can switch between systems without having a keyboard. I also have a slot loading DVD drive that I plan on forming into the side to play DVDs. I am using an XBox-S controller for the controls, and I already have it running the system with the MameWah frontend. I'm ready to buy some plastic and start bondoing and cutting up the controller. I'll start a new thread once I get some pics up.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 7:23 pm

A few weeks ago I had considered building what would essentially be a very small, tablet laptop convertable. There was an auction on eBay for a 4 x 5.7 inch Advantech motherboard, an 8 inch LCD with touchscreen, and the required connections between the two. I would have used a microdrive for storage, a little USB keyboard barely eight inches across, and a PS2 touchpad I had purchased a while ago.

In the end I decided that, while relatively cost effective, I simply would not have had much use for it.

KIWIDOGGIE · Post by **KIWIDOGGIE** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 9:10 pm

dont buy that use mini itx boards thats wot i bulit my xbox pc with
http://www.allenthinks.com then xbox

it has a dimentions of around 6" by 6"

Ness · Post by **Ness** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 8:18 pm

I already purchased the board but its cool...its something I wanted so it'll be fun to experiment with. Also, I have the processor and a simple keyboard so once the stuff arrives, I can test and start desoldering things and moving stuff around. I won't be able to get a lcd for a bit until I get some more cash on the side.

Unidentified Assilant · Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:08 am

Me and my dad are going to build a PC sometime in the future (and it's mine woot) and I thought about a laptop style model, just without a screen lol, with a Media Card Reader and a DVD-ROM drive in the front pre-installed with Windows Vista Media Center edition. I would probably have 4 controller portsi in the front, then extra ports for a Headset (Headsets + Teamspeak. OWNAGE), possibly a built-in Internet Router, then SVGA and TV-Out, hell, it would look like a console, but it would copulate own. Oh yeah, Keyboard & Mouse too, but I like games with a controller, then put a ton of games on it such as Frets On Fire, Unreal Tournament 2004, Far Cry, Doom 3, Worms Mayhem, Quake 4 and WWF No Mercy (:D)

That would own, but be VERY expensive.

One another note, good luck with this, and yes a handheld PC is a bit farfetched huh lol?

Sounds nice, keep going.

Ness · Post by **Ness** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:28 am

If you are getting media center edition of vista, you want the version called windows vista premium edition.