MNT Research Brings the Open-Hardware Reform to a Whole New Form Factor: Ultra-Slim Desktops

Open hardware specialist MNT Research is branching out, announcing a desktop machine built around the same core as its MNT Reform family of laptops: the MNT Station.

"MNT Station is a quiet and space-saving, future-proof, universal open hardware computer for your desktop, homelab, or mounted on a wall as an edge device/router," MNT Research founder Lucie Hartmann explains. "It's also a robust enclosure for your existing MNT Reform mainboard(s) and can be turned into a standalone desktop PC, silent home NAS, or low-power entertainment center. As usual, this MNT Research device is fully open source hardware with all sources publicly available. As a modular, general-purpose computing platform, MNT Station is the most flexible MNT device yet designed!"

MNT Research is best known for the MNT Reform, MNT Pocket Reform, and MNT Reform Next, a family of fully open-hardware laptops. It's possible to download design files and source code for everything from the chassis to the motherboard, to tweak and remix — or even to build your own from scratch, as some in the community have done. All models in the range share one thing in common: the use of a custom-designed computer-on-module (COM) that lets users upgrade their laptops, with every model able to use any COM.

That cross-device compatibility now extends to the desktop, with the MNT Station designed to adapt an MNT Reform motherboard and COM into a display- and keyboard-less slimline form-factor. "With MNT Station you get a machine that's designed to be stationary while maintaining the energy efficiency of a laptop," Hartmann explains. "Connect a monitor and a keyboard, hook it up with a USB Type-C cable for power delivery, and you’re good to go!"

The chassis — open source, naturally — is CNC-milled from aluminum, though can also be 3D-printed at home, and is designed to lay flat, stand on its long edge, or be mounted behind a monitor or on a wall via VESA-standard mounting points. All classic MNT Reform motherboards — versions 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 — fit inside, and benefit from access to a new "Electronic Port Cover" which offers 10 programmable LEDs and a power button under the control of a Microchip ATtiny microcontroller. There are holes for SMA panel-mount connectors so the metal case doesn't affect Wi-Fi and Bluetooth reception, and plans for stackable expansion cases to follow — including battery backups, storage, and even external GPUs.

Design files for the MNT Station, formerly known under the working title of the MNT Desktop Reform, are already available on the MNT Research Git repository; the company is preparing to launch a crowdfunding campaign for the case plus bundles including the latest MNT Reform Motherboard 3.0 and a choice of COM, with interested parties invited to sign up on Crowd Supply to be notified when it goes live.