This will either kill me, shock me, or something else painful....

[iluvtruenos]

I desperately need a laptop.

I need one for MasterCAM, and it's kinda hard to take a PC with you anywhere you go. Hell, even a portable PC would do.

So why not make one?

Last night I took apart an old AT power supply. Apparently all the colors are grouped together by voltage, and all have either positive or negative signs on them. Complete cake.

Now. Since I love ghetto rigging, and I have a few briefcases in the basement, I thought about making my own laptop. I would use an Intel Celeron processor running at 333mhz. (Don't laugh because:
A. This is my first attempt.
B. Slower processors use less power....right?
C. I'll kick your butt if you don't agree with me :devious:
D. It's the smallest motherboard that I have (Came from a tiny Sony computer)
E. Ehh.. I'll finish the list later.)

So anyway, running 10 cells and some resistors, it should work. Anyone want to point out any obvious mistakes? Any links? I tried google searching it, but found nothing.

If this is successful, then I have the ability to creat 3.4 ghz laptops for about 500. Market price.

[James the Great]

d00d

Thats an awesome Idea.
:bling:

edit: what's masterCAM?

[MetalMan]

Mastercam is a cad-type program that outputs to a cnc machine (I think). Pretty crazy idea if you ask me. Don't forget that heat is the enemy.

[iluvtruenos]

Yea, I just checked. The briefcase is an older model type that's a hard plastic, and a felt liner inside. Cutting into it with a Dremel shouldn't be too hard. I was thinking of mounting a fan on either side to provide cross flow, and put an acrylic or some other sheet-type protection over the motherboard/power supply. I have a basic idea on how to incorporate a switch that will allow either battery or A/C power to power the briefcase. As for the screen, in the metals room they have plenty of old PCs that are for parts. There are a few monitors that either are really old (B/W) or bad color, stuff like that. I just need a way to be able to transport large amounts of files easily (~1gb) without the use of a floppy, or a usb memory chip.

MasterCAM is a CAD/CAM software that I use to cut pieces out on the mill at school.

Is it possible to hook up a laptop LCD monitor to a PC output? The mobo that I have has incorporated everything, so it's only about an inch thick without any cards. If I can find a way to be able to mount an LCD, then it'd be really sweet. Probably get jacked though.

Eh. If I can do it, then sweet. I can have a top of the line laptop for about $300.

Fry's Electronics has a P4 3.4ghz/mobo combo for 179.99 and I've seen replacement laptop screens for about 100.00-150.00. This will be one hell of a project because as everyone knows, necessity is the mother of invention.

-arif

[FrogmanNH]

http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/attacheserver/

I've yet to hear of someone doing this with a full size mobo (then again, I don't care too much about computers). If I remember correctly, the mini-itx ones are only 17cm x 17cm. Plus, they are quite a bit faster than a Celeron 333mhz, and probably use less power.

I'm sure it's possible to do it with a laptop LCD, but I am also sure that it will not be easy. If you look around on the internet long enough, you can probably find sites that sell items like this - http://www.mp3car.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=33 - which should simplify the process by quite a bit.

[bubba069]

far as I know you can't yank a lcd out of laptop and hook it to a mobo, laptops use a ribon style hook up. 9 out of 10 times the to replace a lcd in a laptop its cheaper to get a new machine.

I would just hit up a pawn shop or ebay for a used laptop.

I have how ever seen guys convert briefcases into PCs for lan rigs and got a nice flat panel just for the ease of transport.

[iluvtruenos]

Wow, I saw that site, and now that I look at it, I think it's possible.