Vanlife PC Build! Returned my Minisforum Elitemini H31G, got a GTX 1080 GPU. Now for the Rest!

[treefroggy]

So, some of you may have seen my other threads:

- I live in a van

- Why I use DC instead of AC

- Initial thoughts on Elitemini Gaming PC

I live off grid, in a van, with solar power. I prefer PCs that have DC input so I can skip the AC altogether and step up my 12VDC power supply to a 19V, like the minisforum, or NUC lines have. Same idea for any laptop-- it's also what I do with my Thinkpad. This is crucial for me, as it often makes the difference between being able to use my PC at night for long periods or not.

 

I'm new to building custom PCs, but I'm very familiar with solar electrical systems, and extensive retro console modding and repairs. Just never built a pc since I've always been a retro gamer + consoles person. My last gaming PC before minisforum was 2005, when I played Fable II.

 

So I got the Elitemini H31G. It had discreet graphics. I'm returning it now that I have a better GPU. I could just connect the GPU to the h31g, but this coincided with the cpu dying, so I can return it and get more bang for the buck with something else, since the h31g's inbuilt discreet gpu would be dead weight with an external gpu on top. That means I wasted a ton of money on something I'd never use again. The h31g also had some other problems that have me happily getting rid of it.

 

-Route 1-

I may go with another minisforum prebuilt pc, and just connect my GPU to it through nvme or m.2, like so many videos have been doing lately:

- ETA prime , connecting external GPU to the latest minisforum PC 

- Jayz2cents , how to connect external GPU to minisforum PCs

That route would mean I'm finding the most bang for the buck from their selection of mini PCs. I wouldn't get one with any sort of GPU or necessarily APU even, since I'd be paying for dead weight, since I'm now building around the 1080. Also would want something I can add the 1080 to easily, but most of them have m.2 or whatever that can be used like in the videos above. So I would just get the minisforum with the best CPU I guess.

 

-Route 2-

Building a PC, aka what this forum is for. I'm totally new to this but it doesn't seem hard at all. The only hurdle really is that I need a custom power supply. I can get any voltage and amperage from my 12v using step up and step down converters. Again, we started discussing this somewhat over here, but I don't think it went over very well because most of the users on this forum have no idea what I'm talking about, getting hung up on voltage drop, which is totally erroneous when I've already got my setup providing proper voltage wherever I need it.

 

-Route 3-

Last is the stupidest option in my opinion-- just getting a gaming laptop.

In my van, I already have a desktop monitor mounted on a gas-spring arm. I also have separate input devices already-- keyboard, trackball mouse etc. I live off a battery already, so any pc I put together is basically a giant, van-shaped solar laptop, lol. So buying a laptop, I'd be paying for a screen, input hardware, and a battery that would never be used-- ever. Plus the footprint would be huge compared to minisforum which is VESA mountable or a regular PC build which I could also incorporate into my van dwellings. The only plus side to this is there's a market for gaming laptops and they all have DC input.

 

Other van lords I know have the M1 Apple Mac Mini mounted on their wall, and to be honest that's the way to go, and that's essentially what Minisforum makes-- PC equivalents to Apple's Mac Mini. But I want a real gaming PC! The elitemini h31g didn't do as well as I would have liked. My desired benchmark game would be Elden Ring at stable 60fps or more. That's not out yet, so replace it with Sekiro.

 

Not expecting much after what I've seen in my other posts, but any help is appreciated. This is somewhat more of a rough draft for what I'd post on another engineering forum.

[Bombastinator]

The difficulty with vehicle mounting PCs is fragility. Surface mount soldering, thin semi flexible circuit boards, heavy parts mounted in the middle of semi rigid fiberglass circuit boards with surface mount parts on them.  If the vehicle isn’t moving it’s not an issue..  it’s only a potential issue if it is.  Police have had computers in squad cars for a very long time and they don’t just do laptops they do ruggedized laptops.  They have room for other things (a squad car is not small) and the budget to instal them if needed. The no longer do so though.  Desktop PCs are Desktop PCs they are not built to bounce and vibrate.  There are semi truckers and RV owners who have done desktop PCs and driven with them.  The usual rig for that seems to most often involve a subframe and a bunch of bungee cords. Trading size for security.  Automakers have been putting specialized electronics in cars for many many years.  Their move for a long time was to sink the entire circuit board in a shock resistant material like silicone.  Look at just about any automotive electronics from the 80’s. They’re basically bricks in a metal pan with a circuit board at the bottom filled with a clear solid. You want a Desktop PC in a wheeled vehicle that moves you need serious kinetic damping, and it’s going to take up space. Shock and vibration damping is something that research has been done on for PCs. Mostly for laptops as they basically all need it to one degree or another.  Self parking heads for HDDs we’re developed initially just for laptops. Perhaps a desktop replacement thing that is more of a luggable than a laptop.  It’s one way to go.  There’s still a market for that stuff.  Not a big big one but it exists.  There is milspec stuff designed for rugged environments where they need more horsepower than a laptop can provide.  There’s several companies that do that.  Iirc i saw a PC case on eBay for such.  Milspec rated.  Cost a mere 3k for just the case.  They tend to go up really fast from there. 

[treefroggy]

31 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

The difficulty with vehicle mounting PCs is fragility. 

That is so not an issue. You are entirely missing the point.

 

This is just like the other thread where there were claims that what I'm doing is impossible due to voltage drop. You do not know what you're talking about... Reminds me of the time someone on Reddit told me I cannot use a CRT outdoors because of "cosmic rays"....

 

I came here for tips on building a PC. It's the product lines & modules for PC parts that I'm not familiar with, not engineering, physics, or hardware mounting.... You can leave that to me.

 

I'm not a trucker, I'm not a cop, I don't use bungees to mount electronics. You can tell yourself I'm not even driving an inch, pretend I'm just off grid in a shack somewhere.... This aint my first rodeo, but it is my first time buying PC parts individually.

 

Inb4 one of you guys asks me how I poop or if I get laid, again....

[LyricX]

I'd suggest checking out the discord channel Five2Go RV Life, and also reddit.com/r/GoRVing as well, sometimes they post PC related builds there for mobile living / lifestyle. I've considered this as well and contemplated living in our RV full time too with similar concerns.

The only two valid concerns I've come up with is the GPU (I have a 3080) would need to be removed during transport as the slots are very fragile (or so I've heard), and then if you have any spinning rust (obviously SSD's are better in this use case) that needs to be factored into the consideration....I'd guess with them off it's less likely for them to be damaged, but I dunno. I am not a Data Scientist or Data Engineer to speak on the matter really...

I considered hot swap bays (I already have these) for easily removing my 4TB REDs, and then removing my 3080 and putting them in a pelican case of some sort in the tow vehicle.

Just some thoughts, I know you're in a van so it's a bit different....but same thoughts kind of apply.

Edit: I also considered a gaming laptop, but the thought of paying for an overpriced "portable" brick with 2-3 hours of high use battery life, not to mention sweaty hands and balls - it is not desirable.

[treefroggy]

9 minutes ago, LyricX said:

I'd suggest checking out the discord channel Five2Go RV Life, and also reddit.com/r/GoRVing as well. I've considered this as well and contemplated living in our RV full time too with similar concerns.https://www.amazon.com/RGEEK-24pin-Input-Output-Switch/dp/B082J1FBDH/

The only two valid concerns I've come up with is the GPU (I have a 3080) would need to be removed during  transport as the slots are very fragile (or so I've heard), and then if you have any spinning rust (obviously SSD's are better in this use case) that needs to be factored into the consideration....I'd guess with them off it's less likely for them to be damaged, but I dunno. I am not a Data Scientist or Data Engineer to speak on the matter really...

I considered hot swap bays (I already have these) for easily removing my 4TB REDs, and then removing my 3080 and putting them in a pelican case of some sort in the tow vehicle.

Just some thoughts, I know you're in a van so it's a bit different....but same thoughts kind of apply.

Thanks, I was looking for a vanlife discord actually!

I'm very aware of reddit vanlife communities. I don't need any advice on vanlife though, and vanlife reddit isn't necessarily full of PC experts. I'm more experienced in vanlife than most reddit users. I've been doing it since before "vanlife" or reddit, were a thing.

 

I've lived in a vehicle since I was a lad, and I've done vanlife in this build fulltime, 365 days a year for over two and a half years now. If you're truly interested, I can answer any questions, either in DMs, discord, or in my thread about my van.

I am not interested in discussing fragility of electronics while driving. Properly mount your stuff, use common sense, and understand nothing lasts forever. You don't have to remove your GPU. Like I said already, I've had many PCs in here before, I'm way ahead of you guys. I've been around the block, spinning Hard Drives is just common sense. There are none in here, it's irrelevant. Like I already said, just pretend the van isn't moving. I've no need for advice on engineering or physics, just PC parts.

 

So I should say I also have my storage under wraps. Just looking for a CPU. Here's a power supply option a friend shared with me: https://www.amazon.com/RGEEK-24pin-Input-Output-Switch/dp/B082J1FBDH/

[LyricX]

3 minutes ago, treefroggy said:

Thanks, I was looking for a vanlife discord actually!

I'm very aware of reddit vanlife communities. I don't need any advice on vanlife though, and vanlife reddit isn't necessarily full of PC experts. I'm more experienced in vanlife than most reddit users. I've been doing it since before "vanlife" or reddit, were a thing.

 

 

I've lived in a vehicle since I was a lad, and I've done vanlife in this build fulltime, 365 days a year for over two and a half years now. If you're truly interested, I can answer any questions, either in DMs, discord, or in my thread abouthttps://www.amazon.com/RGEEK-24pin-Input-Output-Switch/dp/B082J1FBDH/ my van.

I am not interested in discussing fragility of electronics while driving. Properly mount your stuff, use common sense, and understand nothing lasts forever. You don't have to remove your GPU. Like I said already, I've had many PCs in here before, I'm way ahead of you guys. I've been around the block, spinning Hard Drives is just common sense. There are none in here, it's irrelevant.

 

So I should say I also have my storage under wraps. Just looking for a CPU. Here's a power supply option a friend shared with me: https://www.amazon.com/RGEEK-24pin-Input-Output-Switch/dp/B082J1FBDH/

Cool, just offering some friendly advice....and I personally can't afford 10TB+ worth of PCIe Gen 4 SSD's (thousands of dollars) so spinning discs are relevant to me in my use case (I have a very large plex library, critical backups, photos and I don't intend to get rid of it, haha).

Good luck on your journey with the build.

[treefroggy]

6 minutes ago, LyricX said:

Cool, just offering some friendly advice....and I personally can't afford 10TB+ worth of PCIe Gen 4 SSD's (thousands of dollars) so spinning discs are relevant to me in my use case (I have a very large plex library, critical backups, photos and I don't intend to get rid of it, haha).

Good luck on your journey with the build.

Well I lied. I have a nice stack of various Hard Drives in my collection. They are all back up drives.

My main storage:

nvme - 512gb

2.5" Sata - 4TB

I use a sata cloner to clone them to a 4tb and 512gb HDD respectively. When not in use, the hard drives go in a container where they're safe and sound, along with the rest. I have many old hard drives from consoles like original Xbox, PS3's that I use for various projects and mods. My PS2 has a 1TB full size HDD in it. I'm just avoiding discussing this stuff because I don't want to freak out bubble boy. But really, when I'm not on a road trip, I don't drive. I drive less than 1 mile per month. What's more of a worry than my electronics vibrating is my gasoline going bad in the tank, so I only fill up about 1/5th a tank at a time when I'm not on a trip. I also plan on retiring my whip to my property in 3 or so years once I've bought some land on the coast.

 

10TB is a lot of data! Always have redundancies, like I said, just use common sense. HDDs are so cheap nowadays you can afford to back it up.

 

The point of the thread is the three routes I listed for what I'll do next. I'm deciding if I want to build a pc or just go with the easy route, Minisforum. I have never built a PC before so getting a motherboard is still somewhat daunting as I've no idea where to begin.

[Bombastinator]

8 hours ago, treefroggy said:

That is so not an issue. You are entirely missing the point.

 

This is just like the other thread where there were claims that what I'm doing is impossible due to voltage drop. You do not know what you're talking about... Reminds me of the time someone on Reddit told me I cannot use a CRT outdoors because of "cosmic rays"....

 

I came here for tips on building a PC. It's the product lines & modules for PC parts that I'm not familiar with, not engineering, physics, or hardware mounting.... You can leave that to me.

 

I'm not a trucker, I'm not a cop, I don't use bungees to mount electronics. You can tell yourself I'm not even driving an inch, pretend I'm just off grid in a shack somewhere.... This aint my first rodeo, but it is my first time buying PC parts individually.

 

Inb4 one of you guys asks me how I poop or if I get laid, again....

No I’m really really not.  You are not the first person to do this stuff.  there is years and years of data. It’s a vehicle with wheels.  It drives on a road. It vibrates.  Look in your own engine.  You want to pretend is a shack that makes sense.  Shacks don’t move.  If the vehicle doesn’t move and you’re willing to pack the PC if it ever does that’s a completely different thing.  You can get away with removing any heavy cards and packing them separately and you’ll need to either have self parking heads on any hard drives (most have such these days) or park your heads first before moving the vehicle.  Water coolers are also a good idea for this because the weight is mostly screwed to the frame.  Got to do all this before turning on the engine though.  As far as DC goes running a computer off DC is pretty easy.  The only issue is they use extremely clean DC. There are “nanoPSUs that will turn standard DC into stuff usable by a computer.  They’re even not that expensive.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Bombastinator

[Somerandomtechyboi]

7 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

No I’m really really not.  You are not the first person to do this stuff.  there is years and years of data. It’s a vehicle with wheels.  It drives on a road. It vibrates.  Look in your own engine.  You want to pretend is a shack that makes sense.  Shacks don’t move.  If the vehicle doesn’t move and you’re willing to pack the PC if it ever does that’s a completely different thing.

Heres a stupid idea for solving the kinetic damping

 

Buy some packing foam or whatever it was called thats soft and just put the pc ontop of that

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Heres a stupid idea for solving the kinetic damping

 

Buy some packing foam or whatever it was called thats soft and just put the pc ontop of that

My understanding is it’s been tried but isn’t enough. 

[Guest]

Want to chime in here about PC in a car.. or truck.. doesn't matter.

 

They have been putting computers in cars and trucks for many years. EcM would be the most common name of a computer inboard a vehicle.

 

But a gaming rig, minus the cpu heat sink mounting with all solid state hardware would be no different than running the car off an ECM. Should be mostly a non issue imo.

[maartendc]

 

12 hours ago, treefroggy said:

-Route 2-

Building a PC, aka what this forum is for. I'm totally new to this but it doesn't seem hard at all. The only hurdle really is that I need a custom power supply. I can get any voltage and amperage from my 12v using step up and step down converters. Again, we started discussing this somewhat over here, but I don't think it went over very well because most of the users on this forum have no idea what I'm talking about, getting hung up on voltage drop, which is totally erroneous when I've already got my setup providing proper voltage wherever I need it.

I would not recommend going with the external GPU. I have spent some time in the past tinkering with external GPU's over thunderbolt PC's, and it just didn't work reliably. Also, having the GPU outside of the main enclosure seems delicate for your usage, you'd be better off with everything inside of the enclosure.

 

Gaming laptops I am not a fan personally, and you don't seem to be either.

 

I could recommend a good Mini ITX build such as this: (you dont mention a budget, this is kind of middle of the road)

 

Ncase M1 (12 liters) is a very compact case that fits full size GPU's. The CPU cooler should be low profile, such as the Noctua L12S. You can also go with an AIO watercooler, but I would not recommend that for durability. You could go even smaller with the Dancase A4 (7 liters). You might need to double check your GPU dimensions for that one. The Louque Ghost S1 case (8 liters) also comes to mind. These cases are not cheap. (around 200 USD)

 

There are many other ITX cases out there, but most are not that small actually. You can get a cheaper / more mainstream case in the Cooler Master NR200, but that is already 18 liters.

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($272.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12S 55.44 CFM CPU Cooler  ($54.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B550M-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  ($127.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($68.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB Founders Edition Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: NCASE M1 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($210.00)
Total: $789.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-09-03 10:40 EDT-0400

 

Not sure about the power supply, but I found this page: Seems like all you would need is a DC-DC distributor if you already have DC power, since PC's run on DC power. https://lazer3d.com/dc-dc-power-supply-guide/

 

Good luck!

 

 

[wONKEyeYEs]

12 hours ago, treefroggy said:

most of the users on this forum have no idea what I'm talking about

Have you been to the Level1Techs forum?

https://forum.level1techs.com/

[treefroggy]

Anyone pushing the kinetic dampening rhetoric: I’ve already said multiple times I’m not interested in what you have to say about it. You are missing the point, that’s not the purpose of this thread. From the OP it was already shown via links that a previous pc I used was even suspended on a gas spring arm— you’re not going to get more shock absorption than that. But even that is not necessary. You do not know what you are talking about.

 

Thanks everyone with CPU suggestions.

 

The issue with using a gets 1080 is that 175 watts is going to drain my battery significantly more than the 60watt gpu I was using prior.

[Bombastinator]

26 minutes ago, treefroggy said:

Anyone pushing the kinetic dampening rhetoric: I’ve already said multiple times I’m not interested in what you have to say about it. You are missing the point, that’s not the purpose of this thread. From the OP it was already shown via links that a previous pc I used was even suspended on a gas spring arm— you’re not going to get more shock absorption than that. But even that is not necessary. You do not know what you are talking about.

 

Thanks everyone with CPU suggestions.

 

The issue with using a gets 1080 is that 175 watts is going to drain my battery significantly more than the 60watt gpu I was using prior.

You’re machine.  Do as you will.  I predict fast wear and cracked solder joints eventually.  It would be nice if I was wrong.  Might do better with a motherboard with less “sticky out things” because leverage is reduced. The major worry would be things like pcie cards and coils that stand tall from the motherboard. The “flatter” the motherboard the better.

[treefroggy]

It feels so wrong to me, but a laptop might actually be the way to go.

The economy of sales for laptops has it so for the same price as one of these new mini gaming pcs, you can get a lot more bang for your buck in the graphics department. It just feels stupid having all that stuff hanging off which I will never use. But really, these are also some of the most power efficient components on the market..... and the 1080 uses a whopping 175 watts, which is kind of too much for my use on the solar setup.

So I'm looking at laptops.

Screens, keyboards, and battery life are irrelevant. Wattage and gaming capabilities are the metrics I'm looking at. Also, 2.5" sata bay is important, since currently all my data is residing on a 4TB 2.5" SSD.

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-IPS-Type-i5-10300H-Keyboard-FX706LI-RS53/dp/B08ZLFLF7L/

Here's one a friend sent me.

[Bombastinator]

4/8 cpu, 8gb ram 1650 mobile, which is NOT the same as non-mobile.  There will be massive wattage differences for one. Mobile GPUs are always weaker than desktop ones for this reason.  Bigger stuff uses more electricity though and that could be a major factor.  Could work for a lot of 1080p gaming.  Enough power for what you want to do?  I would call this weaker than my current rig which I assembled in 2014.  Perhaps more powerful cpu, but the gpu is weaker.  I suspect my machine takes a LOT more electricity to do what this one does though. 

[japers]

I wonder if the new NUCs might be of use to you. Compact form factor, Lower voltage parts. Enough room for a full size GPU and expansion for your m.2. You can configure NUC's at time of purchase to suit your needs and then upgrade everything in future if you wanted to as its pretty modular.

 

Ive thought for a while that a nuc might be the ideal van life PC as ive recently found the potential need through my work to have a portable setup potentially in a van.

 

https://simplynuc.co.uk/9i9qnx-full/

[Bombastinator]

Nucs are generally stuck with iGPUs generally except for beast canyon which is arguably larger than a SFF machine.  The question with those is have they been tested for vibration?  Their motherboards re often quite small and have components on both sides.  If they get along well with shock and vibration it might be an option.

 

if there’s a milspec nuc (there might or might not be. I don’t know.  It’s the kind of thing that might happen though) the rating would at least be known. Lots of different milspec ratings though. Water and dust resistance is pretty unimportant in this application.  It would be the shock and vibration resistance that matter.

[IkeaGnome]

On 9/2/2021 at 6:30 PM, treefroggy said:

-Route 2-

Building a PC, aka what this forum is for. I'm totally new to this but it doesn't seem hard at all. The only hurdle really is that I need a custom power supply. I can get any voltage and amperage from my 12v using step up and step down converters. Again, we started discussing this somewhat over here, but I don't think it went over very well because most of the users on this forum have no idea what I'm talking about, getting hung up on voltage drop, which is totally erroneous when I've already got my setup providing proper voltage wherever I need it.

What sort of specs would you be looking for? 

[treefroggy]

I settled on a 17" Acer Nitro 5 with an RTX 3060 in it. It was on sale on amazon for $1200. Was talking with my friend who is a PC building expert, makes setups from all generations all the time as a hobby, and he recommended it after we spoke at length about my situation. Since it's going to be used as a desktop, plugged into my external monitor and stuff all the time, I went with this most bang for the buck deal. I love it. Been playing Dark Souls III and Sekiro at 60fps max settings, and at incredibly low wattage, around 100 watts while gaming. Going to get back into DQ11, and eventually get on FFXV and Nier Automata, and Red Dead Redemption 2, which will probably be my biggest load. I feel confident that I'm ready for the next generation of games too, such as Elden Ring when it releases. Overall I think I made the best choice possible save for buying something used. Also, I may eventually do an open case mod for ultimate cooling, and then I can overclock this baby to get near-desktop-like performance out of that 3060 hopefully. That is, if I ever need to. I'm on a 1920x1080p monitor still, after all. I wish I had gone with the 27" monitor instead of this 24" though. 

[treefroggy]

Got a 27" 4K monitor. Feels good. Now more power would have been nice, but running on solar battery array in my van with direct dc conversion going to the charge port on my laptop, the 80watts GPU is the most I could handle on an average day. It's been somewhat cloudy and I'm still doing fine! Playing a lot of FFXIV. It plays anything I throw at it at 1440p 60fps, older stuff like dark souls remastered is playable in 4K 60fps which is awesome. I've preordered Elden Ring. Now, I'm toying with overclocking for the first time. The laptop is always vertical with the vents right next to my "air conditioning" intake so it's getting plenty of ventilation. If I really push it I could get 60fps 4K in more taxing games like Dark Souls 3, FFXIV, etc.. and I'm sussing out some open-case mods as well if I go the route of perma-over-clocking and need better cooling.

 

All in all, I finally feel settled with the right setup. It's not the best, but for the year 2021 while I am living in a van, watching my stocks climb, waiting for the day I have enough to buy land, this is a great setup. We'll see how Elden Ring runs when that comes out in Q1 2022.