Hope someone here can help with this.
I travel around a lot + I need my high-end desktop PC with me (+ i upgrade my hardware every once in a while)
= I need a case-mod solution to make my desktop PC portable.
No, not battery powered
The idea is it should remain as upgradable as any regular l33t rig (all hardware components easily replacable by unscrewing/rescrewing stuff), and yet portable (and as durable as possible) enough to carry over airplane flights and to LAN parties etc. A case mod that would end up looking something like this
So I went ahead and tried to do it myself. I planned it out with Google Sketchup
Then I went and bought that Zeikos case from amazon, a Envision G19LWK which i stripped down to the core, a PEXP16-RX2 riser card, and tried putting it all together with my PC hardware.
To make a (very) long story short, I did successfully fly and travel around with it several times (don't ask what happenes at security
)But- it was an ugly mess.
Things were'nt holding in place, both deployment and packing-up was taking way too long, PSU wires were strewn all over, the system would mysteriously refuse to power-up... it was a real pain to utilize. I realized that if i dont do this professionally its not gonna serve my purpose.
What do you guys suggest? Can any of you modding gurus make a case mod like this for me? I dont really have too much to spend but I really need this kind of mod... I wouldn't mind doing all the planning and sketching and acquiring the materials etc. So long as it ends up as i need it.
Here are the fundamental features i need;
- Quick Plug-n-play deployability. Something Like - 1) Unpack (see 3rd image) 2) pull out the retractable power cord 3) power up.
- Size and Weight are not (really) an issue. I'm perfectly fine carrying a gynormous heavy case around.
- As Durable as possible. I'd like to carry this around with a shoulder strap, handle, or wheels, on bumpy flights (as carry on) and through rainy streets.
- Well cooled (i'm playing crysis on this
). Water cooling doesnt sound like a good idea... but i dunno - Relatively easy access to hardware in order to replace parts. So nothing should be welded or permanently closed in or such.
- Mechanism to easily unpack/packup the LCD screen outside of the mod, as shown in the 3rd pic (see more details later)
The mod should accomodate the following hardware:
- ATX form factor motherboard [Optional: EATX if possible]
- 19" or larger LCD Screen. (Depending on how the rest of the hardware will be modded and arranged, the LCD will either be 4:3 or widescreen, 19" or more, etc)
- 2 HDDs
- NVIDIA GPU (the nowaday huge monsters)
- ATX [or EATX] sized PSU
- DVD drive
- AC Power cables (PSU and LCD),
- (if possible) Room for Keyboard / Mouse / headset. see below for more details
- I always unpack/deploy on a desk. It would be awesome to figure out some mechanism to easily and quicly remove the LCD screen (with its custom cables already connected to the case's gpu/power) out of the case and set it up on a stand of its own (see 3rd pic) and then quickly packing it back into the case when done. Because otherwise, using this case-mod as a laptop (as in 2nd image) - literally atop your laps - would be extremely inconvenient.
- It would be great if we could fit a keyboard/mouse/headset into the case and easily unpack it during deployment and pack it back into the case when done. Otherwise i'd just carry these in a seperate bag or something (which defies the whole purpose here a bit, besides for increasing deployment time to plug/unplug them). Integrating these items directly into the case would once again be quite inconvenient for desktop usage.
- Because of the rain-proof factor, it would be awesome to have covers for the external openings (like the DVD tray / USB ports / all other I/O ports) much like a cellphone battery cover.
Any advice?
) wich you can flip up to remove/change the hardware, have all the cables connecting and then all you need is to carry 2 power leads for the PC and TFT,
Just give me some brainstorming time, I'll see if I can draw something up.