[SOLVED] Converting my monstrous desktop to something portable

[bigdummy675]

Hello everyone, I have a question for all of you.

Back at home, I have myself a monstrous gaming desktop that I miss terribly, but because of it's size I wont really be able to keep it with me for the next five years (I'm in the military). I bought a laptop a year and a half ago planning to use that, but I have discovered it's essentially a $2000 paperweight, and is pretty soon to have a fist sized hole through it. So with that said, I was thinking about possibly using what I have at home to make something more portable that I can take with me, and something I know will work.

So with that said, what I have back home;
The case: Corsair Graphite Series 780T, a huge case making transport nearly impossible, and keeping in the barracks a pretty big issue

GPU: 2x https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126116
I'm linking this for the size (11.73" x 5.28"). I know being able to keep using both is unlikely, I'll probably hold onto the second one in case the other dies on me or something.

Motherboard: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132830
Once again for size. (12.0" x 9.6").

I also have the https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181100 in there.

CPU: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117649

I also have disk drive, an hdd, ssd, and all of the other stuff needed. If you need any more specifics I can provide.

So how much of this should I be able to utilize converting to a much more portable build? When I built this I had much more money to play with, my current situation leaves me pretty low on income I can play with, so I would like to keep this as cheap as possible. Ideally, only needing a new case. I'm just not sure about sizing, and how those smaller cases work with airflow and all of that. I was looking at

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?reviews=all&Item=N82E16811119265&Description=case&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=case-_-11-119-265-_-Product

But even that might be a little on the big side. Any input is appreciated!

 

[USAFRet]

There isn't really much you can do with a desktop, and keep performance but smaller/more portable.

Sure, you could build something in a smaller case. But the other stuff is what kills the portable concept. Monitor/keyboard/mouse.
And you can only go so small with the case, because of the larger GPU and PSU required.

 

[bigdummy675]

There isn't really much you can do with a desktop, and keep performance but smaller/more portable.

Sure, you could build something in a smaller case. But the other stuff is what kills the portable concept. Monitor/keyboard/mouse.
And you can only go so small with the case, because of the larger GPU and PSU required.

Thanks for the reply! I'm not to worried about the extra stuff, since really everyone has a TV for their consoles. And as far as the Keyboard and mouse goes I have both of those with me anyways.

 

[USAFRet]

There isn't really much you can do with a desktop, and keep performance but smaller/more portable.

Sure, you could build something in a smaller case. But the other stuff is what kills the portable concept. Monitor/keyboard/mouse.
And you can only go so small with the case, because of the larger GPU and PSU required.

Thanks for the reply! I'm not to worried about the extra stuff, since really everyone has a TV for their consoles. And as far as the Keyboard and mouse goes I have both of those with me anyways.

So drop down to a regular size case, and lose one of the GPU's.
Going any smaller would mean changing to a microATX board, for not any more portability.

 

[bigdummy675]

There isn't really much you can do with a desktop, and keep performance but smaller/more portable.

Sure, you could build something in a smaller case. But the other stuff is what kills the portable concept. Monitor/keyboard/mouse.
And you can only go so small with the case, because of the larger GPU and PSU required.

Thanks for the reply! I'm not to worried about the extra stuff, since really everyone has a TV for their consoles. And as far as the Keyboard and mouse goes I have both of those with me anyways.

So drop down to a regular size case, and lose one of the GPU's.
Going any smaller would mean changing to a microATX board, for not any more portability.

Awesome, thanks for the answer. Do you have any specific recommendations? Do you think that one linked would work? Thanks again

 

[USAFRet]

Awesome, thanks for the answer. Do you have any specific recommendations? Do you think that one linked would work? Thanks again

I see no reason why it wouldn't.
You could even DIY a handle on the top.

 

[assasin32]

Maybe swap to air cooling too, I’m not too trusting of a water cooler if you have to keep moving. Also a tv tuner for the computer so you can watch/dvr your shows. Make your computer/monitor pull double duty. Same with your monitor if you don’t have one with multiple inputs a switch so you can hit a button and switch to a console may be nice to have.

But in all honesty, atx or micro atx board with an appropriate new case and possibly heatsink would be required to go smaller.