Mini-ITX Laptop

First of all I would like to say a huge thanks to everyone at Mini-itx.com, Linitx.com and others including of course, the great companies who make all this fabulous hardware, for giving all of us all the opportunity to make these projects. Certainly a lot of these cool computers that are out on the web and in use today, built by fans of mini-itx would not be possible without the components available from these companies. Most certainly with the positive design/building community that mini-itx create on their site.

I have built a few projects, including a carputer for my '79Camaro and a small computer out of radio controlled car shell with flashing lights on HDD activity etc , all of which ideas I have taken from other great creative minds who list on mini-itx.

My first original computer design comes out of frustration and I hope one day we will see a case that takes the idea from mine and allows people to bolt together their own laptop in a weekend and not have to spend days in the shed annoying the neighbours with my angle grinder and learning how to mig welding aluminium like I did. There are 'bare bones' kits from some manufacturers, but to get a similar spec to mine, you are still expected to pay around 1500 to 2000 pounds, or worse! To have one designed around mini-itx components would be great for most people, and we do not all want a laptop that we can fit in an envelope, but rather a unit that we can use all around the house for a decent price.

The original remit of this project was thought about due to my frustration of buying a laptop three years ago for over 1500 pounds, only to find that with a few updates from Microsoft, and a couple of new games, the pride of my computer collection was rendered completely useless as it spends most of its life hanging while the hardware catches up and displaying blank, white windows.

I decided to create a laptop that at any point, I could upgrade various components as they grew too old. For very little money, I have created a 2Ghz processor laptop with 1Gig Ram, and a graphics card that any laptop would be proud to have, an ATI radion 9200 128Mb. Ok, so it is a PCI and could be bigger, but I am still waiting for Mini-itx to have a nice mainboard with PCI express for me to buy/trial. However, as again, it will all be upgradeable in my laptop.

The size of this could have been a lot smaller, with a nano mainboard, and no external graphics card the size of this could almost be as small as a regular laptop, but that was not my plan. It needed to be as powerful as a regular desktop or I could not use it every day for office applications and games.

I first got all my components together, measured them and checked the layout in a cardboard box, left it on the kitchen table for a few weeks and generally annoyed my girlfriend.

You can see, the battery under the DVD drive I had it lying around for ages and was originally purchased as an 'external laptop UPS', however I lost all of the connectors and had to crack it open to access the 12v circuit. I would not recommend this, but rather keep all the adapters and just wire it in parallel to your charging circuit.

You can purchase that kind of battery here or here or just Google for 'universal laptop external battery'

The Morex cubid PSU which I took from an old case I got from mini-itx.

The floppy cable riser card is fabulous; it sits the ATI 9200 card nicely in the case.

I made my own vga cable as all the monitor cables I had seen were too bulky, this left lots of soldier blobs rolling round the floor for ages as the vacuum cleaner refused to pick them up!

With the monitor stripped I played around and made sure it all worked.

This was the keyboard that I bought; it came with a mouse integrated, a little more expensive than the USB wireless version; however I prefer a PS2 connection as it always works. The aluminium was important as I feel if I made it totally of ally, then it would reduce heat build up, much better than a steel case.I chopped about half a metre of cable out and re-soldiered the wires.

the same layout with the keyboard cut-out to allow components to fit. This was later cut away altogether, and the components taped to the underside.

Once I had welded the surrounds on to the keyboard, I measured it on the case, trimmed it and bent it to shape. You will also see the power and reset buttons which came off the same case, morex I think.These basically show the case, halfway through the welding.

The usb wireless, it was moved in to the monitor section and a plastic back screwed over it, to improve reception. But in this picture you can see it here slipped down the side of the mainboard.

On the right, a new layout =>

A view of it closed, with the plastic cover in place. he The hinges were quite a bit of work and are all hand made from sheet mild-steel and some stainless nut and bolts, welded together. The nyloc nuts give enough friction to hold the screen in place. You can also see I have a key lock switch that isolates all power with the turn of the keyswitch.

Cables and wires? The layout as it is now, although I have tidied the wires up somewhat. One IDE drive and one SATA. A 2 GHz mainboard with 1 gig of ram. You can see the fan controllers at the front, and the new Pico power supply which saves me so much room.The keyboard removed and prior to the network RJ45 socket screwed in place

You can see the speakers which I took from the monitor I dismantled and the plug and socket which is the 12v supply to the monitor.

The rest are final shots and a picture of the rear cover removed so you can see the wireless and where the plastic cover sits.

Ok, so it does look a bit ‘Rufty Tufty!’ but I worked on armoured tanks in the military and most of my spare time is spent grinding the rust of my old Camaro... my tools in the shed are more ‘industrial’ than pokey little ‘dremel multi-tool’ size. It was also my first time Mig-welding aluminium.... jeeze I could be a racing driver with all these excuses!

 The future of this project includes a new SATA drive so I can use the hardware raid, a new keyboard and top, if I can find a 'nipple/trackpoint' mouse unit, I will cut a sheet of aluminium with space for a nice ultra flat keyboard and mount the nipple nicely on the cover. I would also like to mount a 19" screen and better speakers, but I want to be careful that it doesn’t turn out to look like a desktop computer on its side!... oh, and I put a dremel multi tool on my Christmas list.

Further to this, I have just been browsing things regarding, using a laptop screen with the itx board instead of a regular monitor. I was quite happy with the monitor as it is thin, small and runs from the same 12 volts, however i was originally steered this was because of an article i read online stating that you need an expensive converter from RGB graphics interface, to the laptop screen which does not work in the same way. However acording to this article http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.php/cPath/78_72/products_id/396 it does not seem to be the case. I will look into this some more, but it does give a good case for using a laptop screen in you have one lying around, or you are building this project because your old laptop is just a bit too slow.

I have been toying with the idea of using a virtual keyboard, basically a laser projector which shows a picture of a keyboard in laser light, however the little keyboard projector I have is quite a tall unit, and would get in the way of the monitor. Nice idea though. Last night I found an IBM keyboard with a trackpoint mouse and trackpad mouse. it is 2 cm thick, so i think the grinder might come out again on that one. Look for some new pictures soon.

I have mounted the new keyboard, and have also added some powered speakers in to the new keyboard top to the case, it is looking nice, I will post some new pictures in a day or two.

If you would like to see some better quality pictures of the laptop prior to the new keyboard, Click Here

Here is a picture of the latest keyboard setup.....

I have also added a microphone and 1 watt speakers which are USB powered, and you will also notice, all the air vents are on the top. This is so it does not overheat when I am using it in bed or on soft furnishings. I think most manufacturers forget this design when they are thinking about laptops, like we all use them on a desk or something :-]

J

Last updated 31/01/07