ccRicers

Some work is still being done with this build, but progress has been slow because not a lot of new parts have been ordered yet. I did receive my laptop cooler, though, and it seems like it will work great. Its fan is the same diameter as the stock fan, but it won't be usable without an adapter, because the pins are a slightly smaller pitch. I'll probably stick with the stock fan. I have measured the hole spacing of both the motherboard and laptop heatsinks, and with that I designed an adapter piece that will act as a spacer with the CPU to support the new heatsink. Here's a render showing a mock placement of the parts inside a roughly shaped shell (bottom piece). The battery management board will go underneath the cooler, where the heat from the MOSFETs can be pulled away with the fan. I also got some 4-pin Picoblade cables to use with the internal USB headers of the board. One of the headers will be used for the screen. I soldered the wires to a USB micro connector as a replacement for the bulky USB cable that came with it. And it's a success, the screen powers on with the new cable. I don't think the data wires are necessary for this screen, but for completeness I soldered them too. Now I just need to get a ribbon HDMI cable to completely reduce the clutter. Next is the new heatsink. Here's a mockup of the heatsink placement with some very roughly placed aluminum pieces (totaling approx. 4mm in height) as a proof of concept with setting the heatsink. First with the heatsink only: Then I slapped on the aluminum pieces with some thermal paste to line up the height to where the spacer would be. This clearly isn't adequate for actual use. The metal is rough with a brushed finish and the heatsink isn't secured to anything. Not to mention the fan can't reach the fins to blow out the heat. But I was curious to see how well that heatpipe would draw away the heat. So I booted it up, to the BIOS. Here's the actual system running with the rush job heatsink. The CPU temperature on the BIOS was 57C and climbing up to 65C. Yes it's on the hotter side but at least it works. I'm looking forward to see what actual performance temps are when I get the proper cooler setup done. Making the spacer and getting the screws to attach everything with the cooler is my next priority. It's not clear from the pics, but the profile is indeed narrower. I have reduced it by about 5mm compared to the stock cooler

Here's an older build I had, all custom watercooled. The case is a Jonsbo U2, around 14L. This case wasn't made with watercooling in mind so it was a real challenge to try to cram all that in. I still think aesthetically this is one of my best personal builds. It still had some pretty good temps for the ventilation.

A mini 7" IPS screen for a mini project

I guess they're mostly LGA2011 socket ones, correct?

Old Xeons sell for very cheap and you can also upgrade to 4C/8T that way, for less than $70. Intel's desktop boards accepted server CPUs before DDR4. Xeon 1270 v2 has same base clock as 3770K. The main tradeoff for the cheaper prices of Xeons is you cannot overclock them (you couldn't OC a 3770K anyways, with a H61 board)

Yeah, I think I will go that route. Turn it into a handheld mini PC like GPD Win 3 and Aya Neo. Just with older hardware. It's no Vega, but the iGPU should be able to handle most PC games around 5 years or older fairly well with 600p and 720p screen resolutions on the small screen. This form factor means there's now the added challenge of integrating physical controller buttons into the case and have it be detected as a XInput device. I will achieve this with a tiny Arduino board that stays powered on with USB. Now getting to the more fun part- coming up with a case design. That's going to be the main focus of this build. I had postponed it earlier because I did not have most of the parts yet to make accurate measurements to design the case around.

Must have been a big leap going from Z87, huh. Something about that brown desk makes me feel nostalgic and cozy. And now I also want a Lego ISS.

Looks like I'll kill two birds with one stone this time. I'm just going to buy this rechargeable 3000 mAh pack for now. It already has battery cells connected in series with BMS plus a USB charging port (which would be convenient to power the monitor with). And it's easier to just open it up to take apart than to assemble one from scratch for the custom case. Also, I'm kind of at a crossroads of how I will design the case. I could either go for a handheld system design which is just controller joysticks and buttons with the screen in the middle like the Aya Neo or the numerous Pi-based handhelds, or go with a mini laptop design like the GPD Win laptops. If I go the laptop route, controller buttons will be optional and I can use a mini Bluetooth keyboard for built-in input. The design I choose to go with will totally depend on how well I can arrange the power source, screen, cooler, and motherboard with the most efficient use of space. However, I'm interested to see what other peoples' opinions on are on what their preferred form factor is.

I have bought gift cards (from a shop, not individual people) with some of my crypto and I don't fit it any of the key groups you mentioned... Anyhow, services like BitPay help ease the hurt of volatility for merchants to some degree. The US dollar did have underlying gold assets to back them, but I believe that had stopped around 50 years ago.

I'm gonna go ahead and buy some 18650 batteries for a battery pack. Possibly 3000 or 3500 mAh with at least 10A of discharge (Samsung 30Q would be good). And a battery management system to keep them balanced. Going to use the daisy chain method to connect the BMS with the load and DC charging port.

I haven't had this computer in a while but I can upload and share the STL files to print when I have some extra time. I also gotta remember where I kept those project files

Reviewing the mini monitor and some graphics tests I have now received the monitor. I've already used it several times just to test it out and see how to navigate on Windows and Linux on such a small screen. https://imgur.com/a/fGbGMFt The monitor really is quite thin at 9mm. It's still not a touch screen panel but adding one should not add more than 1 or 2mm to the profile. The casing is all metal. Two pieces, one solid piece that is milled out with screw holes and openings, and a metal sheet screwed onto the back. There's one good reason it's not plastic and you'll see why. This just needs 4 Philips screws to remove the back. Control board is on the right, with a nice, slim profile, and the monitor buttons are on the left. There is a thermal pad (top right of the speakers) that sits above the main IC of the board when closed. This IC uses the back metal side as a heatsink. If I were to completely remove the monitor from its casing I will need to use a different heatsink to stick on the IC, because the monitor does get warm to the touch when in use. The picture is very clear, great viewing angles given that it's an IPS panel. 1024 x 600 pixels look really crisp in a 7" screen. Just don't expect a smartphone quality panel here, it's still a LCD not a AMOLED. It was hard to take good pictures as it's so bright it just washes everything else out. While the monitor options let you change the brightness, contrast, and color balance, there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the brightness of the backlight. It's always this intense. I have gotten two Samsung 4GB RAM sticks now, so the benchmark score is with dual-channel RAM. Samsung 2133 MHz DDR4 SODIMM 4GB x2 - $22 Total - $239 The speakers were pretty disappointing, however. When plugged into the wall, the monitor speakers didn't sound that loud even at maximum volume. Still hard to hear some things in media players where you can push its maximum past 100%. I also have plugged in the monitor's USB power to one of the USB ports of the computer. The manual doesn't suggest it, but it does power the monitor fine (I have measured 5W powering it at the wall). When it's powered by USB, the speakers begin to buzz and crackle in a matter of minutes. Could be from ground loop interference. I guess this is why the manual doesn't mention plugging it to one of the USB ports of the computer. I may have to unplug the speakers for this build and figure out what I'll have to do for sound. There are better speakers for small DIY projects but they can also draw more power, and I'll have to be mindful of that in a battery-powered setup.

Following this because it's.. well... smol. SFF builds just add another layer of ingenuity with squeezing parts in a small case. I miss water cooling though.

A while back I first heard about the LattePanda Alpha and it's an interesting little SoC machine that can be gaming-capable and is actually in reach for many potential buyers. While the prospect of eGPU is very interesting (some even pairing up with a Titan to truly test its bottlenecks), I find more interest adapting it into a handheld form factor. The LP Alpha is more out of my budget, and so are the GPD Wins and the OneGX1, so I want to see what I can accomplish under $400, with some decent gaming performance. This budget should include the computer itself, additional hardware, case, and power management. I chose a 6th generation Intel NUC with Iris graphics. I wouldn't be the first to make a portable system out of a NUC- that was done already with Project Scout, and it serves as one of my inspirations. The form factor is going to be a 7-to-8 inch netbook, or like those mini gaming laptops that seem to be getting more popular. That will probably be the biggest driving factor to how much I will need to DIY for the design. And when I build custom PCs I also like building custom cases. So here we are. To make it a UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC), it needs the following: Built-in controls Screen Batteries A ton of handheld Pi-based systems already exist but rarely do I see ones based on a NUC so I think that would be a nice challenge to do. Here's a render of what you can expect for the parts layout to be like inside its case. First is the PC itself, the Intel NUC6i5SYK. Its CPU is a few generations old, but I got it because of the low price. Its iGPU is noticeably better HD integrated graphics most of its CPUs have. Maybe I will upgrade later to a Minisforum PC, Asus P50 or something like it for the Ryzen goodness. But for now this will do. NUC6i5SYK - $181 after tax This is probably the smallest desktop computer I've owned, as I don't buy a lot of single-board computers. The aluminum case is sturdy and makes it feel heavy for its size. I went out to the nearest computer store to buy a DDR4 laptop DIMM in a pinch because I didn't have any. The cheapest RAM is some brand I don't recognize, Neo Forza, and the ram modules are by GoldKey. I actually took a gamble with this RAM because it's not on Intel's certified vendor list, but it did boot up properly. First I booted with Kubuntu 20 on live USB, and quickly ran some Unigine benchmarks. Heaven is more taxing on the iGPU than Valley but I am satisfied with how well it ran on 1280x720, one of the resolutions I'm targeting. And that is just with single-channel RAM. I will replace this later with dual-channel RAM so I can get better performance. For now, I think the next step is how to add battery power. Either I could go with Li-ion or Li-polymer cells. This NUC can take in a wide voltage input of 12V to 19V, so that makes power setup a bit easier. I will go over power settings on the BIOS to see how I can make the PC more energy efficient, but in stock settings the benchmarks draw up to 35W at the wall. A 3000 mAh pack at 14.8V- a typical voltage for cell in 4-series- can theoretically last up to 44.4 watt-hours (not counting loss of efficiency). 3500 mAh would net around 50. Something like this DIY uninterrupted power supply. Alternatively, I could use a lower-voltage cell and a step up converter. The UPS part comes with being able to recharge with a power source and disconnecting it so it runs on battery while the barrel plug to the NUC stays connected. It's still possible to bypass the battery circuit completely to make the NUC use its own power supply as normal, though this requires turning off the unit. Another major part for this build is the display. It needs its own small display to be a handheld unit, right? There are many 7" touch screen IPS displays mainly designed for Raspberry Pi and general purpose use. They are all similar but with subtle differences in ports and circuit layout. Lamentably, all of these are not slim enough to fit in my project. It was hard to find the thickness of these displays, but a few listed in the specs as 15mm including the ports. I settled for a non-touch display because it was at a good price ($33), and in a thinner case. Plus, it has built-in speakers! UPerfect 7 inch IPS display - $36 Total cost - $217 The resolution is 1024x600 which is reasonable for this small size. While I could just get a bare 7" display with control board, all the boards I've seen for these displays are too bulky for my needs and take up too much room that would used better for power or cooling. I will add a touch screen overlay later on. By this time I would work on a custom frame for the screen anyways, so that the overlay fits with the screen.