- We've all got our reasons for needing a hidden computer that
no one else knows about, but not everybody has the option of embedding a gaming
rig in their ceiling. Well, remember that old monitor? You know the one. You retired it in favor of more pixels and a higher refresh rate? Well, what if you could
solve two problems at once, creating a secret, hidden PC, and keeping that old
display out of a landfill? Well, that is just what
we are going to do today with a little help from
our sponsor, iFixit. iFixit's Pro Tech Toolkit
gives you the tools you need to tackle any electronics
repair challenge. Visit ifixit.com/linus at the link below, and get yours today. (upbeat music) Meet our secret PC. Since our most recent Scrapyard Wars, this 24-inch Acer gaming monitor has been just hanging
out in our warehouse, looking all lonely and forgotten. Which is a shame, because
aside from its TN panel, it's actually still pretty decent. 144 hertz, LED backlight,
1080p resolution. To turn this monitor into a
stealth all-in-one though, we're gonna need a very small computer that will fit inside it with minimal external modifications
that would give it away. We chose the ROCK Pi from Radxa. It's a single board computer
that comes to around $75. Featuring a six-core,
64-bit ARM processor, (computer clatters) four gigs of dual-channel LPDDR4 RAM, and all the wired and
wireless connectivity you'll ever need, this is a serious little
computer, given the price tag. And, get this, it supports NVMe storage with an M.2 SSD slot! So, yeah. Simple, then. We just need to take this
little guy and this monitor, and smash 'em together. Back at the office, Colin
popped the back panel off of our screen, and there's definitely enough
room to fit the ROCK Pi! Not a ton, but enough. We really wanted to make use of the M.2 compatibility of the ROCK Pi, but unfortunately, adding
the M.2 hat to the stack made it too tall to fit in the monitor. To get around that, we dug around for that mini KIOXIA one-terabyte SSD, and after a quick little zip
tie mod to hold it in place, we're good to go! The SSD bit, by the way,
was totally optional. The ROCK Pi will run just
fine off of an SD card, but come on guys, this is Linus Tech Tips! Where's the fun in that? With the test fit looking good, it was time to make permanent changes to the monitor's back panel. We marked it out with silver Sharpie, and went over to the workshop
to cut an access hole for RIO. Now, rather than making
a mess with a Dremel, a MAPP gas torch and box cutter was used to slice along the marks
like a hot knife through ... well, ABS plastic. From here, we ran all the cables and used double-sided tape to affix the Pi to the back of the panel. Video is handled by running a short micro-HDMI to HDMI cable, and then popping it out where the Kensington lock used to live. And that's it! Seal up the back of the
monitor, install the stand, plug in our wireless
peripherals for that clean look. (record scratches) (groans) Or so we thought. This is where we hit a bit of a snag. You see, the ROCK Pi, while very capable, uses an ARM 64 system architecture. Now, it is technically
compatible with armhf, which is what the Raspberry Pi uses. But there are some
serious barriers to entry in order to get there. That means that, outside
of big ticket Linux apps that have an ARM64
version, we're sorta stuck without access to the broad
Raspberry Pi app ecosystem. Yes, we could compile them
with some elbow grease to make them compatible,
but in the interest of making this DIY
project actually DIY-able, the decision was made to switch over to the Raspberry Pi 4B from here on out. The installation process, thankfully, is exactly the same for
any single board computer, so we didn't have to re-shoot anything. And, as an added bonus for you guys, the Raspberry Pi is cheaper. We're not going to cover
preparing the bootable SD card, but the Pi Foundation
has an excellent guide, and we'll have that linked
below and in a card up here. All right. Nope, doesn't come off. Now we're into Raspbian on
what looks like a monitor, unless you look very closely to realize that this is in fact two
power cords going into it, not a power cord and a display cable. Completely stealth. For the uninitiated, Raspbian is a great
lightweight Linux distro that comes preloaded
with plenty of software for education, programming,
and general use. So if all you wanted was a web browser and
YouTube-capable machine that's hidden away from prying eyes, you're already done, and you've spent less than $100
plus that salvaged monitor. Let's give it a shot. Internet. Chromium web browser, here we go. I'm using a $50 computer right
now, ladies and gentlemen. (keyboard clacking) Let's check out some tech news, shall we? The latest on RTX Voice requiring RTX. Wow, that's a new insult: tide pod. Where else do people go on
the Interwebs these days? Ah yes, lttstore.com. Oh, the Classic Stealth hoodie. You can get yours for just $59.99 US. Fun, we all need more fun these days. What's fun? Photos of Rihanna are classified as fun? Okay, The Office cast,
That sounds more fun. That's a pretty cool thing to do. That is fun. Seems like a pretty good
channel, good taste in apparel. Let's try full HD playback. Hey! It's a little stuttery,
but I think it's doing it! And look at this guy
pushing conspiracy theories! Okay, well I'm pretty happy
with the Raspberry Pi 4, but I'm very disappointed
in this YouTube channel. Poor choice. Poor choice, Austin Evans YouTube channel. If you're more into the whole gaming thing than watching posers talk about gaming, what Raspbian doesn't
have yet is Steam Link, which is effectively
a software replacement for Valve's own in-home
game streaming appliance. Fortunately, hey, it's Linux,
so to install Steam Link, all we need to do is open up a terminal and type "sudo apt install steamlink". That's it. The Pi will pull all the dependencies, and you should see Steam
Link pop up on the desktop. So let's go ahead and give that a try. Slow connection, uh-huh. 1064. How's your day? - [Woman] Ugh. - [Linus] Shopping for
furniture, that's tough. Getting my steps in today, anyway. Hey, all right, here we go! Let's play some game you wouldn't normally be able to play on a Raspberry Pi, huh? Well, there's your problem. Now, obviously this isn't
gonna work that great if someone's on your main desktop while you're using the hidden PC. But, with a network upgrade, this is a viable way to expand
your gaming capabilities elsewhere in the house for
really not a lot of money. And, as an extra bonus, this is cool. If you close your way
out of Steam Big Picture, you will actually be looking
at your computer's desktop, which will allow you to
run much heavier workloads on your secret PC than you
would otherwise be able to. Fire up Adobe Premier Pro! Obviously my resolution's
a bit of a mismatch, so I would have to adjust that. Hey, there we go. Please at least have the A-roll. This might be on the
struggle bus a little bit. Okay, I'm gonna give it the old reboot. Casually scrubbing around in video on a Raspberry Pi 4 running Adobe Premier. So, cool project, right? And all with the very most basic tools. But, it does raise a couple of questions that we haven't answered yet. First of all, Linus,
why use a Raspberry Pi instead of something that
actually runs Windows, like a LattePanda? Well, one of the goals
was to make this a project that people could replicate at home for under $100 plus the monitor. And yes, there is a
LattePanda for under $100, but it, one, doesn't come with Windows, so that's an additional cost, and two, it only has two gigs
of RAM, which does not make for a very enjoyable
Windows experience anyway. If you have some quarantine
cash lying around, upgrading to a top-tier
LattePanda for around $200 would be a super cool
spin on this project. Question number the second! Why not just use a cheap VESA
Adapter or some more VHB tape to stick the Raspberry Pi
to the back of the monitor instead of cutting it up
and putting it inside? Well that, my dear boy,
is a very good question, to which I will most assuredly
have a satisfactory response after I, uh, ah well... (computer chimes) (bleep) Message from our sponsor! Linode provides virtual servers that make it easy and affordable to host your own app,
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in the video description. If you guys end up making something cool with an old monitor like this, be sure to post it on our
forum, linustechtips.com. The links to all the
files that we used here are down in the description, and if you want some pro tips on getting old hardware
for projects like this, check out the Scrapyard Wars where we actually acquired
this very gaming display on the very cheap. We're gonna have that
linked below as well.
