This Luggable LAN Party Machine Packs Its Own 24" Monitor
Chunky portable-ish PC includes desktop hardware, a portrait-or-landscape monitor, and hinges designed for kitchen cabinets.
Pseudonymous maker "Sroka0" is bringing back the luggable, with an all-in-one PC designed for ease of transportation to and from LAN parties — with a built-in 24" display so the visuals aren't sacrificed in favor of portability.
"I attend plenty of LAN parties so I wanted a setup that is easy to carry and has a comfortably large screen," Sroka0 explains of the inspiration behind the project. "I can be used with screen in both landscape or portrait orientation. If you don't want to use the built-in screen you can just close it and place it on its side to not take too much space and connect external monitor."
While the portability problem in computing was solved with the invention of the clamshell laptop, Sroka0 was looking for something with a little more power. The maker's LAN party rig is based on desktop hardware, including an NVIDIA RTX 3070 graphics card and an Intel Core-i5 11400 CPU — with plans to upgrade to an AMD Radeon 7900XT and Ryzen 9 9900X processor in the near future.
As a result, the custom case includes plenty of cooling: air intakes are exposed when the case is opened, with removable mesh filters to let the user choose between dust protection and maximum airflow. "On the back of the case," the maker notes, "there is one really brave 60mm Noctua [fan] trying to get air moving through the case, but I'll probably add one more slot for [a] 60mm fan on the GPU side."
The highlight of the case has to be the sizeable 24" monitor, which can be used in portrait and landscape modes and draws its power from the PC's own power supply — meaning everything can be driven together with a single mains cable. A slot at the front of the case provides storage for said cable, along with a mouse and a 75% or smaller mechanical keyboard.
"Most of the stuff is 3D printed," Sroka0 says of the build, "but the main chassis (the one you connect all the PC components to) is cut out of 1.5mm thick aluminum sheet and bent. The hinges on the monitor are just standard kitchen cabinet (lol) hinges from AliExpress, just because they are easy to source and have adjustable torque. How is [the] GPU secured and how are cables routed? Zip-ties! You can even find reusable ones on Amazon."
More information is available in Sroka0's Reddit post.