Semi PCp idea

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vskid
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Semi PCp idea

Post by vskid » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:38 pm

This is my idea for making a PCp, some would consider it cheating in a way. :P
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(Parts in picture are not to scale, and those of you using gray-scale for some reason, you're not missing anything :D)
Ok, so my idea is to get a laptop (without a screen would be best because it would be cheaper, or sell the screen), move the keyboard down, and put a smaller screen and the touchpad in the upper corners. This would be a nice alternative to a tablet pc, because it would be cheaper and would have a real keyboard instead of an onscreen one (it could even have touchscreen abilities if you wanted to spend a bit more). It would save battery life over a full-sized screen, and be easier to whip out and use because the screen wouldn't have to be opened. I might try this, if I can find a reasonably priced laptop.

[sidenote]If anyone has a laptop with about a 0.8-1ghz processor, 256 or more ram, a cd-drive, and at least a 20 gig hard drive (windows not needed, I'll use linux) that they'd like to sell for cheap, I might be interested. Without a screen would be prefered, because it would give me more motivation to do this, but with a screen will be fine, they sell for a good amount on ebay.[/sidenote]

Any ideas or comments will be appreciated, theres plenty of stuff about this that I might not have though of.
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Post by vskid » Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:13 pm

Come on, any comment would be good, even saying that this idea is stupid (ok, don't really unless you think it is).
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Post by tom61 » Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:16 pm

Most laptops don't have enough space inside for a screen, as they are packed really tight.

Your idea reminds me of the TRS-80 Model 100.

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Post by vskid » Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:27 pm

tom61 wrote:Most laptops don't have enough space inside for a screen, as they are packed really tight.

Your idea reminds me of the TRS-80 Model 100.
I was thinking of having the screen raised slightly, because of the lack of space. I was also thinking of instead of moving the keyboard forward, I would just turn the keyboard around and use the laptop backwards, with the screen and touchpad in the upper (previously bottom) corners still.
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Post by Sparkfist » Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:29 pm

Honestly stick to the clamshell style. You have more room for a screen, you don't have such a thick object to wrap your fingers around (when open) and with the clamshell style you have the screen protected from most damange.

If you want a good size and look for a PCp go with something like a mini-itx, if you can afford it a nano. Build off that and I'd suggest getting a screen that would be about 6-9", and LCD, LED modded and if you're going to use it for more emulating and playing older games 800x600 resolution is plunty.

Also the TRS-80 Model 100 is the best text best laptop out there. Runs on 4 AA batteries, lasts for 16 hours, really durable. I'd own one if I had the money a couple years ago, I really don't need one now, two laptops are more then sufficent.
vskid wrote:Nerd = likes school, does all their homework, dies if they don't get 100% on every assignment
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Post by vskid » Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:43 pm

I'd rather do this, because everything is done except for the rearranging and adding the screen. Now that I think about it, for the price of the laptop and screen, I could get a pretty good laptop (this $500 one from tigerdirect is pretty good).
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