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Intel NUC Board D54250WYB alternate use

MoonSpot

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-board-d54250wyb.html

 

 

I was just toying with the idea of installing this board into a large older laptop.  There are more then a few reason why it would be difficult or perhaps not possible, but that doesn't mean we can't explore the idea.

I was thinking or pm'ing @LinusTech & or @Slick as a suggestion for a build/video of the more ghetto/inventive variety, but the idea is more than a little rough around the edges at the moment.

Which brings me here!  I'm looking for a sounding board of sorts in the hopes that I can say something stupid, and have an intelligent/knowledgeable reply harken forth 

 

Now, obviously soldering and or running union cables would need to be done for all the various ports that this board supports to ports on the laptop chassis.  So that is not a surprise or any kind of show stopper.  I've no idea however how to resolve battery/power management OR if the UEFI can be coaxed into acknowledging and supporting a battery, so I'm not thinking about it just yet.

Some custom cooling would likely be required, however older laptops run on chips that get a fair bit hotter far more easily, so cannibalizing the existing cooling system could quite possibly work even better then with the original CPU/GPU's.

Since the board has an additional sata data and power there should be a pretty good amount of flexibility in what we can throw at it. 

Additionally, I'm trying to find out how many sata devices the chipset could theoretically support if more sata ports were there or added (if any), but not having a great deal of luck, probably because it's 4am.

 

So anyways what do y'all think?  Crazy? idiotic? interesting?  Know of anything that could be useful to enable a project like this?  or a technical aspect that kills the idea?  please share.

 

 

D54250WYB-Board-645x532.jpg1006915-1.jpg1389775957_nuc_board_up.jpgd54250wyb-i5-intel-haswell-nuc-motherboa

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Lemme stop ya right there. First off laptops are designed from the ground up. Everything is fitted accordingly before even manufacturing a part begins. Now you could put this thing in a tower. Maybe even in a 5.25 bay(?). So two PC in one.

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Pretty sure the nuc board can physically fit into a lot of laptop optical bays. Obviously not with out some modification if it were to actually be used from there(which I personally wouldn't). But that's why I posted this in the modding section and not mobile or upgrades. Was hoping to reach people that aren't afraid of soldering stations, dremels and spools of wire, and are willing to delve a bit deeper than a pat response.

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I think this project could be interesting, but it would be an awful lot of work. You would need to cut out a lot of the laptop to fit the board in, and you would need to drill and tap mounting holes. Most of the other stuff could be done with extensions (assuming you want to mount the 2.5" drive in the normal space in the laptop). Adding anything on to this board would be difficult (I dare say impossible) and the laptop monitor/battery (if you intend to use those) would be problematic.

These are just some of the issues I see with this idea, but with enough time (and money) put into it I think this could be done.

"PSU brands are meaningless, look up the OEM."

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You  could implement it in an old DVD drive( like the ones in desktops) or just get a Motorola Atrix laptop dock and mod it.Many people use it with the Raspberry Pi as a screen.http://rasathus.blogspot.ro/2012/10/a-raspberry-pi-laptop-easy-way.html

It's not a bug, it's an undocumented feature!

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 You would need to cut out a lot of the laptop to fit the board in, and you would need to drill and tap mounting holes.

I don't think you'd always have to cut out "a lot" some laptops(desktop replacement) are pretty huge(like mine).  As for mounting...some rubber and hot glue can sort that out.

 

 

Adding anything on to this board would be difficult (I dare say impossible) and the laptop monitor/battery (if you intend to use those) would be problematic.

 

Yea, but removing the ports off the board and running them to different locations shouldn't be much more difficult then on other boards. 

How to deal with a battery and if the chipset can support more sata connections is a pretty challenging thought, much easier to break things when I've got my paws on them.

And the screen is another really good point i hadn't considered yet, can't really use screens ribbon cable...

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I don't think you'd always have to cut out "a lot" some laptops(desktop replacement) are pretty huge(like mine).  As for mounting...some rubber and hot glue can sort that out.

 

 

 

Yea, but removing the ports off the board and running them to different locations shouldn't be much more difficult then on other boards. 

How to deal with a battery and if the chipset can support more sata connections is a pretty challenging thought, much easier to break things when I've got my paws on them.

And the screen is another really good point i hadn't considered yet, can't really use screens ribbon cable...

Put it in an old mechanical keyboard lol.I'm sure it would fit in my IBM mechanical keyboard

It's not a bug, it's an undocumented feature!

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Yea, but removing the ports off the board and running them to different locations shouldn't be much more difficult then on other boards. 

How to deal with a battery and if the chipset can support more sata connections is a pretty challenging thought, much easier to break things when I've got my paws on them.

And the screen is another really good point i hadn't considered yet, can't really use screens ribbon cable...

 

Extending ports wouldn't be a problem.

 

I doubt you can add more Sata ports.

 

It runs on DC, so just find a small battery charger to put inline, the White 2-pin might actually be a battery input though. It also looks like the same connector that typical display backlights use, so there may be LVDS circuity built in.

 

If there isn't LVDS circuitry, they sell converters you can use.

 

 

 

My main question though... is why would you want to do this? For less money as this board, parts, and a donor laptop, you could just buy an Ultrabook with literally identical specs that would be much smaller and have a nice fit/finish.

 

If it is "just because" there are way better "just because" projects out there that in the end you get a product that doesn't exist, rather than making something you can just buy a better version of off the shelf.

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My main question though... is why would you want to do this? For less money as this board, parts, and a donor laptop, you could just buy an Ultrabook with literally identical specs that would be much smaller and have a nice fit/finish.

 

If it is "just because" there are way better "just because" projects out there that in the end you get a product that doesn't exist, rather than making something you can just buy a better version of off the shelf.

 

One part just because.  One part because keeping use of an 18" laptop is appealing, and two parts cracking the mold on laptop upgrading and modding in general.

There would be a lot of work, but I'm not convinced that the cost of the parts would be greater then 17+ inch laptop/  Mostly because I've already got SSDs and ram laying about and would not need to make that jump again, as I assume most people would.

 

On a slightly different note, making a laptop shell that you could just plug a NUC into could even be a thing(if a standard could be implemented. which won't).  I mean the NUC spec wise is pretty much a macbook.air after all.

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My thoughts;

- Extending the ports wouldn't be an issue, I wouldn't even bother removing the ones on the board if you didn't have to, I would just get extension cables.

- Adding SATA ports directly to the chipset probably isn't going to happen however you can always use adapters from the mPCIe ports, one is mSATA compatible too so you can fit 2 drives right off the bat (SSD and HDD).

- The battery would be doable you just need a charging circuit and a regulator to feed to the DC in. I believe both the ports on the corner are DC in ports it just gives you the choice between a slide in/out one for a back plane or a more secure clip in one for internal use. Having the OS monitor battery use wouldn't be easy, you might have to make a feedback circuit to talk through a USB/COM port to custom software that controls windows, I'm not sure how laptops do it but I'm guessing its built into the BIOS/Chipset so you probably wont be able to get native battery monitoring support.

- The LCD will need a driver board, that board will also need to be matched to that particular panel so it has the correct timings programmed into it which may or may not be particularly easy to find.

It would be cool to see this done however I'm going to have to join the others in saying I'm not sure its worth while, its a deceptively big project you are suggesting if you want all the functionality you are after and when you factor in the cost of the parts AND the time required it would be cheaper just to buy another laptop (similar spec 17" laptops with warranties go for <$600 on ebay) albeit they wouldn't have the ghetto cred this would ;)

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