Starting my ultra-portable PC project (PCp?) update Nov 26th

*o* · Post by ***o*** » Thu May 19, 2005 1:25 am

good to hear take lots of pics

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Fri May 20, 2005 8:33 pm

Took some pics, but most didn't come out well. I did what I could to make them viewable. Click an a picture for the larger version. (Warning: may look worse when enlarged)

Since it's the only picture that turned out decent, here's the 48 CD holder that I'll be using for the final system:

Old prototype next to the future case (came out so bad I had to make the image B & W):

The card board prototype bottom, showing the heatsink sticking out:

Here's a pic showing the battery powering the screen:

Here's a pic of a test fit of the LCD in the new case:

Pic of test fit of motherboard:

*o* · Post by ***o*** » Fri May 20, 2005 8:40 pm

cooolllll

are you adding a cd drive?

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Fri May 20, 2005 8:57 pm

Not initially at least. There may be room in the top half, but it'd be a pain to install thanks the corners haveing 45 degree braces on them. I'd have to cut through those, and the outside of the case. Low priority, as it'll have USB ports, an ethernet port, as well as WiFi so using an external drive, or a drive in another PC won't be much of a problem.

Foxx373 · Post by **Foxx373** » Fri May 20, 2005 10:03 pm

Ive been itching tomake a "small portable PC" But i dont have too much $$ to spend. When I get the initial parts together, ill post it.

What are you doing for the video signal? VGA or Composite?

Foxx373 · Post by **Foxx373** » Fri May 20, 2005 10:06 pm

... im thinkin' about using a Micro ATX board with intergrated evrything. I have some kick ass laptop batteries, but i cant scrap them, they go to my laptop. Im hoping they have enough juice (14.x Volts at 68,000mA/H) to power a DC-DC PSU.

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Fri May 20, 2005 10:46 pm

those pics look sweet

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Sat May 21, 2005 12:53 am

Foxx373 wrote:Ive been itching tomake a "small portable PC" But i dont have too much $$ to spend. When I get the initial parts together, ill post it.

What are you doing for the video signal? VGA or Composite?

I'll be doing the 'VGA mod', which is basically forcing the VGA out of a PC down to the required frequency for a PSOne screen. In the pics it's running off composite from my DVD player.

Foxx373 wrote:... im thinkin' about using a Micro ATX board with intergrated evrything. I have some kick ass laptop batteries, but i cant scrap them, they go to my laptop. Im hoping they have enough juice (14.x Volts at 68,000mA/H) to power a DC-DC PSU.

Look into Flex-ATX, as it is a fair bit smaller than Micro-ATX. You might want to try your luck on Ebay and search for 'PC104' in computers, you might be able to find a nice embedded board for cheap.

Foxx373 · Post by **Foxx373** » Sat May 21, 2005 1:17 am

Im not too fond of the PC104 boards. They need too much work. I allready have a few working all-in-one Mini and Baby ATX systems. All I really need need is power. If I could spend more cash on this project I would get one of the VIA ITX or Nano-ITX systems. Size isnt my issue, its power (Battery power, not CPU power).

Unidentified Assilant · Sat May 21, 2005 12:25 pm

I'm thinking about making mine for gaming though. So I can actually burn games to CD or put them on a CF card and just play them, though a menu system I can create myself, but add playback for DVD and CD Audio as well (and of course VCD/SVCD)

On mine I will probably put Video Out ports for S-Video, since I will probably hack a PSone screen to support VGA.

Side Note: I accept a PCp if it can play Quake 3 Arena

Thornwillow · Post by **Thornwillow** » Sat May 21, 2005 12:39 pm

That looks sweet, im thinking about making a DC computer, but how much is the $ budget $ counting everything that cost money...

*o* · Post by ***o*** » Sat May 21, 2005 3:43 pm

thats a really good idea a CF drive *begins searching for miniitx mobo*

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Sat May 21, 2005 5:15 pm

Foxx373 wrote:Im not too fond of the PC104 boards. They need too much work. I allready have a few working all-in-one Mini and Baby ATX systems. All I really need need is power. If I could spend more cash on this project I would get one of the VIA ITX or Nano-ITX systems. Size isnt my issue, its power (Battery power, not CPU power).

You have a point there, they are difficult to work with much of the time. However, they're the easiest to get in the handheld size.

Unidentified Assilant wrote:So I can actually burn games to CD or put them on a CF card and just play them, though a menu system I can create myself, but add playback for DVD and CD Audio as well (and of course VCD/SVCD)

I'll play games off the HD entirely. Unless I get a good deal on slot-load slimline DVD drive, I'm going to leave that out, and just play DivX files from the HD.

Unidentified Assilant wrote:Side Note: I accept a PCp if it can play Quake 3 Arena

Mine should be able to handle Q3A.

Thornwillow wrote:That looks sweet, im thinking about making a DC computer, but how much is the $ budget $ counting everything that cost money...

Hmm... Difficult to figure. Probably about $300-400 so far in the unit itself, but there a few side items that I bought to see if they could be integrated, but don't plan on incorporating them now. I still need more RAM (a friend may hook me up with some), a USB WiFi dongle, and the trackpoint (may go with a trackball salvaged from a notebook I have, for now, though). I may tally up the full costs eventually.

A friend and I were figuring out how much it'd realisticly take to make another, and the figure came to about $500.

Unidentified Assilant · Sun May 22, 2005 3:08 am

Mine beetter be able to play Unreal Tournament, Resident Evil 2 and Quake 3 Arena, both of my PC's can, and I'm getting the PSone screen soon, so theres at least something done for my N-Forcer. I just need to find the right motherboard to use, I think I found one I liked quite a lot on Mini ITX[/url]

*o* · Post by ***o*** » Sun May 22, 2005 3:13 am

i am feeling interested in making one now