Breifcase Computer Tips

[ShawnM427]

Hello!

I have a little project that I am brainstorming and would like some advice.

I have an old aluminium hard case (23cm x 30cm x 6cm) that I'm thinking of turning into a sleeper briefcase PC. So far I plan on using either an ASUS Q87T or an ASUS H81T Mini-ITX slim MOBO, with an i5-4460 processor, 16GB of DDR3 1600 RAM from G.Skill, and a Kingston 120GB ssd in the mSata slot.

Ideally this will all fit in a 17cm x17cm x 2.5cm square on the left side of the case. Most of the rest to of the case is unused. As a sidenote, the MOBO will be mounted sideways, to the CPU will be more towards the center of the case, due to not being able to machine the case's back side. Here is my crudely drawn floorplan, somewhat to scale:

So I have 3 major issues left:

1: Cooling

The i5 has a TDP of 84W, and I don't have much room to work with. I have 3cm of clearance for the MOBO and keyboard / trackpad, but a 14cm x 23cm rectangle to the right, as well as a 6cm through open along the front of the case. Some of that 6cm clearance will be occupied by front ports on the right. I'm thinking of possibly using a closed liquid cooling system, like the seidon 120v, but I'm not sure if that will fit in my ~2.7cm clearance, escpecially with the fixed-length piping. Another thought I had was to salvage a laptop cooler, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for to have a high enough TDP. I do plan on cutting breathing holes either way, and covering them with a metal mesh, so any suggestions here are welcome.

2: Power

Both the Q87T and H81T have a DC jack for use with a power brick as well as a 2-pin DC connector (2-pin ATX19V1 according to the manual). I would like to have the system be portable, so I was wondering if it would be possible to hack together a solution to power the system via the 2 pin connector via a battery, and how could I set this up to be rechargeable?

3: Display

Another feature of the MOBOS is the ability to directly connect to an LCD via a ribbon cable. I could not find any good documentation on this however. What type of display would I be looking for? How do I power it? etc... I've never touched this kind of thing besides in laptops, and am eager to learn.

This is my first "out there" build, so any tips would be greatly appreciated! Cheers!

 

[Lutfij]

1| Unless you can find a 5mm fan your project with a CLC will be a failed attempt since the rad will be 25mm in thickness and the fan will be at least 10mm in thickness. I'd suggest looking at cooling solutions like the Cryorig C7(has more TDP dissipation), Noctua L9i/Silverstone AR04(but that would mean you're going to have to downsize the CPU's TDP) or go for thin mini itx coolers like this and also drop down the CPU.

2| You can look into HD Plex's Nano Gold rated 250W PSU but you're going to need to ventilate it otherwise it's going to ruin everything it's connected to/in.

3| Regarding the display, the thin mini itx platform was designed for AIO builds or systems that you can find in kiosks that require to be tucked behind a display so chances of you finding a display outside of one that has the option to mount your mitx slim board in is little to none. You may also require to use a laptop's display.

Pro tip, if you don't know what you're doing then you should stop and be patient with the situation. Alot of times haste tends to ruin a perfectly functioning/ordered plan.