My Wall-PC-Laptop-Ish-Kind of Device...

[PixelSpielkind]

Not the fastest one, not the fanciest one, not the most silent one, not (yet :D) an RGB-Beast - but maybe something unusual you like: 

What´s that Mess?
I was kind of fascinated with Gaming RGB Wall PCs and those "Teared-Down iPhone" Art Picture Frames (Gridstudio?), so I thought it would be nice to mix those Ideas and create something like a "Wall-Laptop" myself... 
Since I currently don´t have the budget for a big Gaming PC or something like that, it´s supposed to be more like a "daily driver approach"... Here´s the Hardware, some I had lying around anyway, some I bought: 

Mainboard: From a Dell Latitude 5290 (Core I5 8250u 4c/8t)
RAM: 24 GB (still had those lying around, that´s why it´s to different modules)
SSD1: Samsung 980 1TB (yeah I now, PCIe 4.0 SSD is kind of wasted with a Board that old, but I currently don´t have any PCIe 4.0 capable Mainboards) 

SSD2: 2 TB SATA Samsung 2,5" 

SSD3: 480 GB M.2 SATA (Goes into the WWAN Slot since I saw that it was listed as SATA in the BIOS)
Screen: Just a 5 inch HDMI-Screen with 480p Resolution (will be more like a 2nd Screen for Status Information etc...)

Wireless: M.2 WIFI 6 (Some AX200NGW Card) 

ESP8266 Mikrocontroller: This will take care of RGB later on, flashed with the (sooo coool) WLED Firmware, so it can be controlled via WiFI, the Laptop will only Provide
Power via USB

 

It was really nice to see that the Board can use M.2, SATA and WWAN SSDs at the same time...

The First Try:

Since the Mainboard is USB-C Powered, I just needed to connect a USB-C Dock, and configure the BIOS to start on AC. The Mainboard HAS a clickable Power Button onboard,
but it´s on the back the way i´ve build it (left side, at the white LED)... The connectors to the Monitor (USB and HDMI) where 90 degree angled and connected via flat cables (see first picture). Since the Screen
does not need that much Power, those were the most space saving connectors (originally for FPV drones I guess) and did not look like a classic "cable"...  

By the Way: See the SSD hanging from the SATA Cable? That´s all what´s inside a Samsung 2,5" 2TB SSD  

 

So it started - what´s next?

Well, I works, attached to a USB-C PD capable Monitor and I´m writing this on it and using it for Web, Office, Streaming Stuff with Windows 11...And it hangs on my wall
with a (quickly) 3d-Printed Frame (Size is about 40x30cm), The Speakers are currently not connected as I cut too much of the cable form the Original Speakers and would
need to buy a Speaker Set or a fitting plug and put everything together myself...

On the top left will be the ESP8266 Microcontroller and I still need to 3d Print some covers on the left side...

 

But will there be RGB?
Next steps will be the RGB, The 3D-Printed "Miss Minutes" (from the Marvel Series LOKI) will be illuminated AND work as a simple analog Clock (the outer Ring has 12 LEDs,
so I can at least Cover the hours and every 5 minutes) and behind each of the 2 SSDs and the Screen is a hole in the Backplate, were some kind of LED Strip will be. 

And all controlled via the ESP8266 controller with WLED . I even thought about putting an small "Infinity Mirror" behind the CPU FAN (the hole in the backplate is already there :D)
but I guess the effect won´t be as big...   

 

So If you´ve read until here:
1) "Thanks a lot, seems that it was not as boring", leave some comment on my strange Idea

2)  Any thoughts what Windows Software I could use for showing some Stats on the small screen? Something easy to configure and low power for
showing CPU-Load, Free-RAM, Available  "Disk"-Space, Temperatures etc.

 

Regards from Munich, Germany!  

 

P.S. that would be such a cool Wall-Art project with a Mainboard from the Framework Laptop... Smaller, "cleaner", much faster - not as much SSD Connectivity (but with PCIe 4.0 Support).. .:D 

 

[IBM_THINKPAD_R51]

4 minutes ago, PixelSpielkind said:

Not the fastest one, not the fanciest one, not the most silent one, not (yet :D) an RGB-Beast - but maybe something unusual you like: 

What´s that Mess?
I was kind of fascinated with Gaming RGB Wall PCs and those "Teared-Down iPhone" Art Picture Frames (Gridstudio?), so I thought it would be nice to mix those Ideas and create something like a "Wall-Laptop" myself... 
Since I currently don´t have the budget for a big Gaming PC or something like that, it´s supposed to be more like a "daily driver approach"... Here´s the Hardware, some I had lying around anyway, some I bought: 

Mainboard: From a Dell Latitude 5290 (Core I5 8250u 4c/8t)
RAM: 24 GB (still had those lying around, that´s why it´s to different modules)
SSD1: Samsung 980 1TB (yeah I now, PCIe 4.0 SSD is kind of wasted with a Board that old, but I currently don´t have any PCIe 4.0 capable Mainboards) 

SSD2: 2 TB SATA Samsung 2,5" 

SSD3: 480 GB M.2 SATA (Goes into the WWAN Slot since I saw that it was listed as SATA in the BIOS)
Screen: Just a 5 inch HDMI-Screen with 480p Resolution (will be more like a 2nd Screen for Status Information etc...)

Wireless: M.2 WIFI 6 (Some AX200NGW Card) 

ESP8266 Mikrocontroller: This will take care of RGB later on, flashed with the (sooo coool) WLED Firmware, so it can be controlled via WiFI, the Laptop will only Provide
Power via USB

 

It was really nice to see that the Board can use M.2, SATA and WWAN SSDs at the same time...

The First Try:

Since the Mainboard is USB-C Powered, I just needed to connect a USB-C Dock, and configure the BIOS to start on AC. The Mainboard HAS a clickable Power Button onboard,
but it´s on the back the way i´ve build it (left side, at the white LED)... The connectors to the Monitor (USB and HDMI) where 90 degree angled and connected via flat cables (see first picture). Since the Screen
does not need that much Power, those were the most space saving connectors (originally for FPV drones I guess) and did not look like a classic "cable"...  

By the Way: See the SSD hanging from the SATA Cable? That´s all what´s inside a Samsung 2,5" 2TB SSD  

 

So it started - what´s next?

Well, I works, attached to a USB-C PD capable Monitor and I´m writing this on it and using it for Web, Office, Streaming Stuff with Windows 11...And it hangs on my wall
with a (quickly) 3d-Printed Frame (Size is about 40x30cm), The Speakers are currently not connected as I cut too much of the cable form the Original Speakers and would
need to buy a Speaker Set or a fitting plug and put everything together myself...

On the top left will be the ESP8266 Microcontroller and I still need to 3d Print some covers on the left side...

 

But will there be RGB?
Next steps will be the RGB, The 3D-Printed "Miss Minutes" (from the Marvel Series LOKI) will be illuminated AND work as a simple analog Clock (the outer Ring has 12 LEDs,
so I can at least Cover the hours and every 5 minutes) and behind each of the 2 SSDs and the Screen is a hole in the Backplate, were some kind of LED Strip will be. 

And all controlled via the ESP8266 controller with WLED . I even thought about putting an small "Infinity Mirror" behind the CPU FAN (the hole in the backplate is already there :D)
but I guess the effect won´t be as big...   

 

So If you´ve read until here:
1) "Thanks a lot, seems that it was not as boring", leave some comment on my strange Idea

2)  Any thoughts what Windows Software I could use for showing some Stats on the small screen? Something easy to configure and low power for
showing CPU-Load, Free-RAM, Available  "Disk"-Space, Temperatures etc.

 

Regards from Munich, Germany!  

 

P.S. that would be such a cool Wall-Art project with a Mainboard from the Framework Laptop... Smaller, "cleaner", much faster - not as much SSD Connectivity (but with PCIe 4.0 Support).. .:D 

 

Bro i did the same thing with a dell office PC

[IBM_THINKPAD_R51]

im just missing an ssd

[Kilrah]

This looks neat, cool idea!

[PixelSpielkind]

On 2/9/2022 at 7:46 PM, Kilrah said:

This looks neat, cool idea!

 

And now it even has RGB and a Working Miss Minutes Analog Clock, well at least as much clock as you can get from a Ring with only 12 LEDs 
Not really that visible on the video though (Blue LED is hours and Green LED is Minutes)

[Kilrah]

Sweet!