Building a Luggable PC

at first glance this might appear to be a suitcase but taking a close look at the intricate web of ports and connectors on it you'll probably conclude that a suit this does not contain and that's because it is in fact a transforming pc that unfolds into an ergonomic triple monitor setup that's stuffed full of ultra high-end hardware for uncompromised performance and in this video i'm going to be showing you exactly how it was built this video is sponsored by kiwiko more about them later thanks to the unit's ability to fold away it can be taken pretty much anywhere for either work or play with the goal of having no compromises compared to a traditional desktop setup a great deal of effort has gone into making it ergonomic and comfortable to use with a wide range of height adjustments and room for a full-sized keyboard and mouse to be stowed in the back going along with its uncompromised nature it also features a powerful speaker system with an internal subwoofer and all three of the displays casually support a 144 refresh rate as well for super smooth motion these displays are where the build begins as everything is centered around the middle one the panel for this itself is actually from a full-sized desktop monitor the outer casing of which first needs to be pried apart once inside we can see the main control board which is surprisingly large but this needs to be put safely to one side for now as we just need to focus on the lcd panel as you can see it's thin and light which is ideal but mounting components to it at first seems a bit tricky as there are no screw holes or mounting points on it anywhere but i have a plan you see taking a close look at the edges we can see that it has some support brackets in the form of plastic strips that clip onto these folded metal tabs so to take advantage of these i've designed my own brackets to replace these strips with which can be printed off on a 3d printer now i've got a massive project in the works by the way that extensively uses 3d printing so make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it now the whole point of these little brackets is to add some threaded holes on either side of the tabs themselves which of course gives me some anchor points that the rest of the framework can be built around those of you who are familiar with the channel will be unsurprised to find that i'm using aluminium angles to start this off which can be screwed directly to the new tabs using thread lock on every screw to make sure that nothing comes loose over time which is a process i'll be repeating throughout the build the cool thing about these is that they fit perfectly around the monitor and end up being flush with the front which looks quite professional particularly because they're polished now on the back of these next to the 3d printed clips you'll notice that i've added some threaded inserts to the aluminium here as well these allow a back plate to be mounted directly to them to tie everything together and as you can see it's got a lot of holes and cutouts in it for the components these were all made very carefully by hand using a drill and a jigsaw which is fairly easy to do accurately thanks to the workability of aluminium as you can imagine though it took ages to make sure that everything was catered for before proceeding as i can't modify it once it's in place and there's a lot of components that need to be fitted to it from the motherboard and card readers to the graphics card and speakers and a whole lot more in between when faced with something daunting like this it's always a good idea to focus in and work on one bit at a time so i'm going to start with the speakers audio quality is hugely important for this build and i want to achieve a full and rich sound that absolutely obliterates any other all-in-one pc in existence so after much research the units i've settled on all have their own tuned and sealed enclosures which makes things a lot easier on my part as they'll sound their best without much work at all the main drivers themselves are harman kardon units that sound fantastic for vocals and treble detail but as they don't have much bass themselves low frequencies can be catered for by this tang band t3 2190s subwoofer as it's pre-tuned to powerfully reach bass notes as low as 50 hertz which is insane considering its small size mine was sent to me by sound imports so do check out the link in the description if you'd like to use one for your own builds i'm mounting mine in place using some 3d printed d couplers to absorb some of the vibrations that the unit generates at louder volumes preventing them from being transferred into the rest of the build to amplify the audio for it all i've made this little homemade amplifier cube which is basically just three high power mono amplifiers one for each speaker mounted on top of each other for a small footprint now the two main drivers will later be mounted at the bottom of the backplate where these slots are but before that i need to mount the core pc hardware as i mentioned earlier i'm going with really high power parts here with the processor being my trusty amd 5950x with its whopping 16 cores it does generate a lot of heat though so i'm using a water block to take heat away from it using a water loop which i'll be setting up later to go along with this crucial have sent over a 64 gigabyte ram kit that works at 3600 megahertz perfect for a ryzen build and it really does take it top end considering it's an itx setup mounting all this securely to the back plate leaves one last core component which is of course the graphics card i'm using an rtx 3080 with a water block here and as these surprisingly are still in short supply i am like the rest of the components reusing this from a previous pc build now all of this hardware at full load will pull approximately 600 watts so powering it all reliably requires a fairly special power delivery system what i've got for this is a pair of ac to dc adapters which deliver power to a central block that regulates this power down to provide the various voltages required by the system up to a maximum of 800 watts total draw this split functionality is the primary reason these parts have been chosen for the build as the block itself can accept a dc power input of anything between 16 and 63 volts it's because of this that the final system is capable of running directly off a dc circuit when required as the ac to dc adapters can be completely bypassed now these power units can be mounted to the bottom of the plate along with the remaining parts such as a pair of soft mounted alpha cool water pumps and the various circuit boards that are required by the monitor which has of course been screwed to the back plate by this stage now as you can see it's already looking rather jam-packed especially once the wires begin to be added as none of this will be visible later though all i need to focus on is making sure that everything is secure so that nothing will vibrate or come loose so with that done it's time to start working on the next stage of the framework which consists of making some more aluminium panels with various vent holes drilled into them and any ports catered for here for example i've cut some slots for the card readers making sure that they're nice and precise by using a small file to get rid of any leftover burrs from these and to give them an even texture a good sand down finishes them off nicely and they look surprisingly professional for something handmade i was in two minds whether to leave these as raw aluminium like this or to paint them but in the end i figured that painting them would give them a more completed appearance let me know in the comments below what kind of finish you'd have chosen yourself now these panels also support the side wing monitors for which i'm using a pair of laptop lcd panels and accompanying control boards this isn't just any panel combo however as both the panels and the control boards support a true 144hz refresh rate just like the main screen now one of the biggest challenges with reusing laptop lcd panels is that they're quite fragile so need a decent frame to keep them safe as you can see on the back there's a raised section which not only makes room for the control board on the inside but also provides adequate ventilation for its heat sink as the sides are open allowing for free airflow which is fairly important for keeping the control board cool before mounting the lcd panel inside this frame though some really small hinges can be used to mount it to one of the side panels that was made earlier so with that all of these side panels can be added to the main unit to make its outer frame mounting all of the ports and connectors in the process such as usb ports a couple of card readers yes that is a cf express card reader there ethernet dc power input and a switch for it audio inputs and outputs and of course a high spec wi-fi antenna that can be hinged out for a better signal away from the aluminium framework not forgetting of course the main speakers which face forwards from underneath the display i've also mounted some 3d printed brackets which have been designed to allow some aluminium rods to slide up and down these rods are going to be the system's support legs so to make them adjustable they can have some holes made through them at regular intervals with the intention being to use them with a latching peg system these can be locked back allowing the leg to be adjusted when the desired height is achieved the peg can be released to clip it securely in place there is a little more play in these than i would ideally like so i'll probably make them out of metal sometime in the future but it'll do for now the intention for these legs by the way is to have them sit inside some little polished aluminium u-channels to widen their footprint for more stability there is of course room for improvement to make these quicker to deploy but they're remarkably sturdy and allow for a wide range of height adjustments so that perfect ergonomics can be achieved with a variety of desk heights but wait what's that on the top that is a leather handle made with my favorite method of folding over a length of it to make a loop and then wrapping a thin strip around it this makes for a very strong handle that's super comfy to grip which is of course important as the whole idea is for this to be somewhat portable so with the build nearing completion the last big job is to finish the inside by adding the water cooling components as there's going to be a lot of heat to deal with from these i'm going to be using four of alphacool's low profile radiators coupled with my trusty noctua fans some of you may recognize these from my invisible pc build and upon seeing them again i have no idea why i settled for such messy cabling let's fix it much better now one of the problems i encountered last time was managing the speed of these fans correctly so this time round i've got some thermal probes that can be screwed into the radiators to monitor the temperature of the coolant flowing through them sometimes motherboards have ports to read these probes but as mine doesn't i'm going to be using a corsair commander pro to manage the speeds with software based on what the probes are reading but more on that later so with everything plumbed up it's so jammed in here that adding the coolant and discovering a leak would be pretty disastrous so i'm going to test the loop's integrity using a little pump and gauge this can be used to pressurize the system up to 0.5 of a bar and left for a while to see if it maintains pressure if the pressure drops that means that there's a leak but if not he's good to go so i've left it for about an hour and thankfully the gauge hasn't moved at all which means the system is completely leak-free and i can confidently fill it with coolant without risking damaging anything now there are a few other things i need to do such as a back panel and also a storage option for the feet system but before i get on with all that it's time for a quick add from this video's very special sponsor kiwiko kiwiko makes super cool hands-on projects and toys that are designed to expose kids to all sorts of interesting topics in science technology engineering art and maths with a goal to help them to learn some very important skills such as problem solving and innovating through ideas this is all part of kiwiko's small today big tomorrow campaign with the idea being to inspire young people and help them to create and learn so that they can grow up to change the world tomorrow doing kits similar to these when i was small for example is one of the main reasons that i developed an interest in designing and building things so i know from personal experience how important this kind of thing is even if it's just to keep engaged during the school holidays they offer eight subscription lines for different age groups and each monthly crate which includes everything needed to make it has its own theme to teach its core concepts with an educational magazine included that's filled with extra content to learn even more about it they ship to over 40 countries and they've got a great deal on the moment where you can get your first month completely free and you take advantage of this by signing up at kiwico.com diy perks which you can also find linked to down below in the description so again to get your first month completely free visit kiwico.com diy perks so with the loop confirmed to be leak free it's ready to fill up now unfortunately this isn't a super easy loop to fill as there's no reservoir to aid the process but bleeding the radiators bit by bit has allowed me to get out all of the air and close the loop successfully so before adding the back panel the storage can also be added which is in the form of two eight terabyte ssds for a total of 16 terabytes of drive space having such a vast amount of space within the system is ideal for the type of work it's going to be required to do no more external drives or uploading to the cloud everything self-contained with instant access nice as you can see the back panel has plenty of air intake holes and is of course hinged to allow access to the keyboard and mouse when they're stowed so with the internals completed the last thing to do is mount the laptop panels into the frames that were added earlier for this i've 3d printed some bezels which can clip around the border of the screens although not particularly strong themselves these bezels are reinforced by the outer frame of aluminium with some countersunk screws helping to hold everything together being on just basic hinges though they are floppy and don't positively lock in any particular position but thankfully the bezel of the larger central monitor is actually magnetic which means i can simply mount some magnets inside the outer wings so that when they're closed they lock in position stopping them from swinging open randomly to keep them open the intention is to use a little leather strap with preset holes in it so that the angles can be adjusted as required as this leather matches the glossy grey of the system so well i've decided to also use it for the covers for the front speakers which i think adds a lot of interest here with a bit of a retro vibe as the middle screens don't quite meet in the middle when closed i've used leather not being pretty available as for the system itself when its use is required deployment takes a matter of moments with even the keyboard and mouse being quick to retrieve from their storage area with the screens open it looks very impressive and it just hits you that this is a full no compromises multi-monitor desktop experience with fantastic ergonomics to boot as everything is internal there's only a single power wire required to use it keeping the desk area clear of cables a vast improvement compared to a typical desktop i'm sure you'll agree after configuring the fan curves with the corsair commander pro software the system is very close to silent during normal use take a listen not bad at all during demanding workloads like gaming the fans do ramp up a bit but overall it's still very quiet this is exceptional performance and matches much larger desktop builds for quiet operation so again no compromises in this department either and it means that the fan noise will never get in the way of enjoying the speakers which sound almost like an independent sound bar pretty cool so it really is a powerhouse of a system but one that's invaluable for situations requiring regular use in different areas even remote ones yes that's right because of the special internal power system the unit can be easily powered from a battery with seven hours of gaming manageable with my particular homemade power bank but gaming isn't its only purpose my main goal is to use it for editing videos because my current setup which is my old brass and leather pc can't be moved easily from this desk and as i've only got two desks in the studio it's not that big it will make a big difference just being able to lift the pc off and then i've got a whole free desk area on which to work and film and of course when i do take the transformer pc with me when i leave the studio i've got all of my files there so i can edit on the go or edit at home and things like that so it should make a big difference to my workflow now some of you might think that it's risky to have a lot of important data on a portable rig but whenever it is in the studio i've configured it to automatically back everything up to a 100 terabyte nas that synology have sent over for the channel which has its own internal data redundancy so that everything is kept safe i'm pretty sure that they decided to send this over after having seen my tweets of despair during the three catastrophic data losses that have had over the past few years particularly when they found out that my backup system consisted of a bunch of external usb drives which is far from a good way of doing backups so upgrading to a nas has been a bit of a revelation it's a huge relief to have all of my work stuff safe at last and if you feel you need something like this for your own work it's definitely worth checking out this is one of the reasons why i made sure to include a proper ethernet port on the unit by the way as it makes for speedy read and write operations for large file transfers when required so all in i think it's quite an impressive machine and although it's been a lot of effort to actually build it i think the result speaks for itself now one of the things i have been wondering is where does this idea have potential to go if a manufacturer was to take it and really do it justice imagine the sides panels for example they could actually be really thin if you think about how thin a laptop screen is that's how thin they could be and a manufacturer could commission a different aspect ratio as well so instead of these 16 by nine vertical aspect ratio they could be much wider which would be great for desktop use and when closed they'd actually meet in the middle the entire bodywork could be a lot thinner as well because i've had to stuff desktop class hardware inside here and if a manufacturer were to actually custom make various things like the motherboard and a better cooling solution it could be a lot thinner than what i've made mine so there's room for improvement there and i would be very excited if other people took this design and really uh improved upon it but other than that i'm matt you've been watching diy perks and i hope you've enjoyed this video and that i see you next time goodbye for now you

Channel: DIY Perks

Views: 2,523,470

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Id: dSJZ7MtKe1w

Length: 21min 48sec (1308 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 31 2021