How to translate “Wishlist” into “hardware”, or semi-ideal semi-mobile semi-desktop

Good day to you, dear geeks and sympathizers! Want to have the perfect mobile computer? And I want it too. In general, do not look: they are not. Generally. Well, or there is, but only in dreams. But instead of lying down and lying in the direction of a dream, I decided to release my imagination from inner Holland and indulge in the joy of creativity. Everyone who is not afraid of the prospect of seeing something strange - welcome to cat.

In those days when computers were large and programs were small, I got myself a cool assistant with the proud name of Sony Vaio. Core2Duo was definitely cool, and everything was magical. Then everything became not so fun, and modern programs like DesignSpark Mechanical increasingly began to send my shabby companion to knockdown.

So, voices began to sound in my head more and more. I gave them names, made a classification and inventory, and created a list:

1. Audiophilia: tired of the squeaky sounds of regular laptop speakers. I want high tops and low bottoms, juicy middle and frisky dynamics. And hardware volume control.
2. Videophilia: a good monitor. Great good monitor. Matte, with large viewing angles, with accurate color reproduction.
3. : , USB! USB, , DVD — , eSATA …
4. : . .
5. : , . , .
6. : , . , . , . Unixway, .

Since it is unrealistic to buy such a device for sane money, it was decided to simply sculpt it.

We begin to understand in order, that is, from the end. Modern laptops / ultra - and laptops are remarkably mobile and relatively convenient. Thus, the concept of a monitor screwed to a computer is recognized as sound and taken as the basis for the future device.

Computer components will be selected from standard and easily accessible.

The keyboard will be standard with a USB connection.

Motherboard chipset, front panel - all components are selected taking into account the maximum number of communication connectors. By the way, the monitor I selected has on board a USB hub with two slots on its side.

IPS monitor will be with a diagonal of 24 inches. I am a bespectacled man, I see so.

Sound: you have to tinker and pile something satisfactory on your own. It happens. On the other hand, if the sound comes out decent, then it will not require an immediate replacement.
Case: the realm of pain. Compact, durable, lightweight, technological ... In general, there is no such thing in nature. First, let's determine the size: the Dell U2417H monitor that I liked has a width of 54 cm. This is the width of the case. The depth of the case is determined jointly by the keyboard, motherboard and acoustic subsystem. It was 46 cm. The depth could be reduced by 6 cm if the acoustic subsystem was abandoned, but this is not our method. The height of the case, taking into account the folding monitor, is 15 cm.

The beginning was made by creating a rough 3D model of the desired device (after that my psychiatrist stopped answering questions about the discharge):



It was decided to make the case out of winged metal, and generally apply aviation technologies such as thin metal + stiffeners + rivets in it, because since the creation of the LED lamp this technology has been a trembling love for this method of connecting structures. Cheap, reliable and practical (C).

In fact, it cost quite inexpensively, I was pleasantly surprised. A large bathtub with two-millimeter walls is the basis of the body.



Its stiffness should be ensured by the acoustic subsystem, the central tunnel and the massive transverse T - shaped stiffener. After fitting, marking, curses and lonely happening, the hull began to take shape.



There is something bewitching in the rows of rivets:



The loop and leg for folding the monitor is a separate song. The native monitor stand - a complex structure with many degrees of freedom, was separated and dusted safely on the mezzanines. A used leg was purchased from some other Dell monitor, sawn off, ringed and spliced ​​with a door hinge with a 90 ° design opening limiter. All this stuff was screwed onto a P - shaped thick-walled central tunnel with a curved neckline.



Manual disclosure of the monitor? No, this is a low class, unclean work (C).

Furniture gas stops saved the giant of thought, solving at the same time the issue of fixing the monitor in the open position.

At the same time, the point of attachment of the stops is made far back beyond the axis of the loop, which ensures the greatest lifting force of the monitor from the lowest point. I have two stops of 60 Newton each, which in total gives 120 Newton (11.7 kg at the surface of our planet) efforts at the point of attachment of the stops. The mass of the monitor is 3.18 kg. We calculate the shoulders of the lever: from the axis of the loop to the point of attachment of the stops 60 mm, and from the axis of the loop to the point of attachment of the monitor arm 230 mm. We calculate the moment necessary to raise the monitor from the bottom point: (3.18 kg x 230 mm) / 60 mm = 12.19 kg. Despite the fact that, according to calculations, the emphasis is not enough, the monitor rises independently, and even too briskly. Apparently, the manufacturer slightly increased the gas pressure to ensure compliance with the specifications.

NB: I know that units are not written in formulas, and efforts are counted in Newtons.

But in this case, it was such a way of presenting the calculations that seemed more obvious to me.

This is how powerfully the monitor finishes upon opening. We have to restrain the impulse by laying hands:


Now go to the sound. To begin with, test cases of megalaptope speaker systems calculated in online calculators were made. Fibreboard and a glue gun are our everything:



They showed the sufficiency of extremely small (5 cm) dynamic heads for acceptable sound reproduction quality. Of course, larger speakers would provide lower and more saturated bass, but this would mean an increase in the already impressive dimensions of the device. Kind, but strong orderlies were also against.

Deadly trick: an aluminum tin speaker system on a huge aluminum tin dish! Hurray, comrades, the commission recommended treating me with electricity.
In fact, everything is not so terrible. From the inside, the walls of the speaker assemblies assembled on rivets are completely glued with alubutyl and felt. Alubutyl was also glued to all surfaces that could enter into resonances and other nuances, the entire lower side of the case was glued with three-millimeter felt. Cherry on the cake - coating the entire body with special rubber ("from the spray can") instead of painting.



As practice has shown, the solution is so-so - the rubber coating is very soft, my children slightly picked up this coating on the first day of tests.

Of course, from the point of view of acoustics, the location of the PC components directly in front of the speakers is a hell of a hell, but I could not find another way. Alternatively, you could use a monitor with built-in acoustics, but they all have a much worse sound. Although the depth of the hull would have decreased by as much as six centimeters. In general, I don’t know what’s best - I did as I wanted.

Separately, I want to mention the extremely high-quality speakers Fountek FR58 EX with an aluminum diffuser and a neodymium magnet. Excellent performance and very accurate, detailed sound.

A 300 W TFX power supply unit was installed in the central tunnel; to reduce the number of sockets for connecting power cables, I “implanted” the monitor cable into the power supply unit through the side wall. I also had to poke an eight-pin connector for powering the motherboard. This, of course, reduces the “plug and play” - maintainability, but increases usability. I am for convenience, especially since such power supplies break extremely rarely.

To the right of the central tunnel, there were holders for two 2.5 ”HDD / SSDs, a front panel and a“ laptop ”DVD drive with slot-in loading.

Custom power and reset buttons, with backlight. "Reboot" lights up during disk activity.

Sound power amplifier is a Chinese module on the TDA7297 chip, located in the center in front of the power supply. I don’t like it too much, with my stationary amplifier these speakers sound much better. Probably, I will decide something. But first you need to find out / listen to what exactly is wrong.

To the left of the tunnel: my charm (C). The mini motherboard is an ITX Aorus B450 I Pro WiFi with a Ryzen 5 3400G processor, 16 GB of Patriot Viper 3600 RAM (I was able to achieve stability only at 3500 MHz) and a Samsung Evo 512 Gb M2 NVME drive.

Cooler - Alpenföhn Silvretta lying around in my bins. I bought this cooler six years ago. Lovely Austrians sent me a free kit for mounting this cooler on an AM4 socket. The level of service is god.

On the issue of fan noise: the power supply is not heard at all. After tuning in BIOS, the processor fan rustles quietly at night and is almost invisible during the day. In games, the fan hisses significantly, but the audio sequence completely covers this sound.

The biggest problem was the lack of short cables with angled connectors in the right direction. We will search, as Comrade said. The hunchbacks.

In general, there are a lot of flaws in this uberdevice (just the crookedly shredded cables are worth it), but I decided to first accumulate experience / negative / ideas, and only after full enlightenment take up the final version, with preference and poetesses.
And yes, if there are ideas for improvement - we can’t hold back, the head doctor reads comments!

As they say, it’s better to see once:









Compared to the 15 "Sony Vaio:







Boring you self-isolation, dear coplanters!