prototype The Lantop.

[CircuitBear]

       I present The Lantop prototype.

 

 

This is a custom built fully modular and fully upgradable AIO that can be carried around far better then other AIO out there, eblaztr comes to mind here. It will perform on par if not better then most very high end gaming laptops while providing a full 22 inch monitor.

 

A little History on the project.

A while back, in fact a couple years back, I started a project to make a large version of a laptop that would be around the same size as this project is now. However over time, I came to the conclusion that integrated keyboards just suck and would rather have a separate keyboard. It was then decided, I would go the AIO route. It was a DIY AIO. Couple years go by and the shutdown of everything had me realize that parts would take forever to arrive and gave me the idea to completely start from scratch. So after figuring out what size monitor was best suited for portability I went with a 22 inch monitor, the GFV22CB from VIOTEK .

This gave me the size that I would then built the chassis around.

 

The Build.

The concept of an AIO is not new however, the ultra compact nature of SFF systems and full modularity and upgradability is something that is still to this day lacking in the AIO department particularly when it comes to how thin they are compared to todays very high gaming laptop market. So I set out to figure the bare minimum how thin could I actually go and after coming across a very specific type of server motherboard the Asrock Imb 1222, I found out that you could practically reach the sub 1 inch or 25.4 mm height and still have everything installed, with one little caveat, you need to be comfortable making 90 degree mods to atx pin connectors. This is not something that is impossible nor I would say dangerous either. Soldering is quite a simple process, just make sure you have the right tools and you should prevail.

 

The next thing in mind was how to power such a device. It turns out that within the Small Form Factors forums exist a bunch of low to high end Psu units in both AC to DC and DC to DC. The Dynamo 360 and Hd plex 400w DC-ATX come to mind. Amongst these however exist the current pinnacle of small form factor psu from HD PLEX, the GaN 250w psu.

 

 

This psu can provide most mid range system with plenty of power for everyday use and so I chose this to power my system and is only 25mm thick. I realized that anything gpu related is just a matter of removing the massive heatsink and fans and place a custom cooling solution which I did for my cpu as well. I picked the D series of coolers from Streamcom with 6 heat pipes each.  From there I made a simple MOD on my motherboard and Psu atx pins to a 90 degree to allow for ease of connections as well as a quick custom mount for the D series cpu cooler which allowed for an extra 1mm of clearance.

 

 

Once I got the majority of my components ready, I began building the chassis itself. The chassis contains the monitor and the computer in one small form factor size being a total of 36mm thicccc slim and is 520mm long by 320mm wide. It is built all in aluminum and since I have access to welding equipment, I was able to weld together 1/2inch square tubing together to make the outside frame and then weld and formed sheet inside to house and mount the components and bridge the wiring for the monitor from the other side through some cutouts. I then proceeded to acquire some carbon fiber tubing mostly for both looks but to keep weight down. They have slots that allow spring pins to hold the legs in place in both upright and collapsed mode and the rear leg stores in a slot of the 1/2 square tubing.

 

 

The final two pieces the front and rear covers are simply aluminum sheets of 1.6mm thinness and provides the securing of the monitor along with some screws and double sided foam for tension and retention for the monitor, whilst the rear cover is a perforated sheet that allows for cooling and connection of the DB series cooling solution from streamcom to radiates the heat into the perforated sheet which is then cooled by blower fans mounted at lower portion of the chassis.

The top portion of the chassis has perforation for added ventilation and cutouts for access to the motherboard IO.

 

The future.

The build is completed and I am currently running test and also enjoying the computer for gaming and other everyday computers things including cad work. I for one am currently looking for some new blower fans that are better suited for my build, getting some nice heatsink for the VRM and also improving the build in terms of things like the push pins that are a bit janky to actuate and maybe the legs could be even sturdier. In theory I could also make a new chassis that is smaller by replacing one side of the square tubing for a channel shape or formed piece of aluminum. Perhaps in the future. Also improving the cooling system to also cool the Psu would benefit this system as well.

All in all I believe that this is an excellent proof of concept and called it "The Lantop" as it suits that role quite well for what is has been built for.

 

 

I hope I will have more to add to this build and hope you are all inspired, take care out there.

 

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

That's awesome. I love how tall it is compared to other AIOs; height of a screen is something too many people overlook.

How stable is it? The 3 legs don't particularly strike me as being the most stable, but I'm probably underestimating it.

 

I'd love to know what kind of hardware you're rocking in there. The motherboard is particularly intriguing, as well as the board next to it with the HDMI and DP ports.

[CircuitBear]

6 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

That's awesome. I love how tall it is compared to other AIOs; height of a screen is something too many people overlook.

How stable is it? The 3 legs don't particularly strike me as being the most stable, but I'm probably underestimating it.

 

I'd love to know what kind of hardware you're rocking in there. The motherboard is particularly intriguing, as well as the board next to it with the HDMI and DP ports.

Do you mean how high the screen is to a person looking at it? It is around 9 inch high but that is my personal preference. The legs hold just fine. It does wobble abit, but that is kinda difficult to fight. If I do find some nicer legs I might put them in. Currently I am rocking a i3 10105 and a 3060, hopefully as I go on I will be able to fit a i9 10900 in there 16gb of ram. The board next to the Mb is actually the controller board for the monitor.