Building a pocketable X86 handheld "gaming" PC

I’m still looking at screens, but I want to keep going with this project so I’ve put everything extremely roughly together, and I’m going to start messing with control options.



I’ve got a Pi Heatsink on it, and that seems to do a fantastic job. Keeps it under 62c with 100% CPU load. The laptop heatsink kept it under 35c with the same test. Lol

Honestly with as big as it’s turning out I’m kinda thinking it would be better to go with a 7" screen, also the pictures made the battery bank look like it had 2 cells, but unfortunately it’s one big sucker.

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7" would be closer to a Switch too and far more and better options for screens. Looking good, also more room on the back for activities.

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Got a little bit more done.
I tried this…


I see potential here, but this trackball is a cheap one with lots of slop, so it’s hard to use unless the handheld is laying flat. I think I could fix that with some Teflon pads or strips in the ball cup to keep the ball tight but still easily moved.

I also gave it sound since my amps came in.

Unsoldered the 3.5 mm headphone jack (holy crap, I did an Apple).

Here it is next to the amp.

Hot glued the amp to the PC stick, and wired it up.

And put it back together, aside from the trackball.

These speakers really suck unfortunately. I got them because they resembled (but smaller) the ones in my Asus Zephyrus which are really amazing, but these… No, they’re crap for what I need. I’m going to play with them a bit, but I’m probably going to get something else.

I also ordered in a screen. After looking around off and on for 4 days. The one I ended up going with a 1440x2560 5.5" LCD. Out of all the displays I looked at this was the best option that was between 5" and 7" that didn’t have abysmal resolution, or was far too expensive. Unfortunately it’s coming from China, so yeah… Hopefully I’ll get it this year (should be here within a month)


(Bottom one are the speakers I got for it)

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Looking good.
Are you going to build a case for it? (wood, metal, 3d-print, Vaccu form?)

Eventually yes. I’ve got to figure out all the parts I’m going to be using first though. It would help if I stopped being so picky and just threw what I had in a case.

The current plan is a carbon fiber 3D printed skeleton with a plexiglass front and back. I want to leave some of back clear to see the guts, but the rest of the plexiglass will get painted on the inside. I’ll also be desoldering any connector that will permanently be plugged in like the HDMI, and micro USB power plugs, they’ll get ribbon cable solder to them. I’ll also have a type-c plug for charging the device.

plans subject to change :grin:

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I once built a body for my model car from carbon fiber.
The way I went is to build a frame with carbon fibre tubes (bends can be faked by glueing in steel wire) and then glueing real carbon fibre to it.
Have to see if I can find it or pictures of it.

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Send this prototype to China and start mass production. :wink:

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Have you thought about using standard 18650 Batteries? It’s what most Batterybanks use and what’s in all the vaping stuff. Depening on the case you plan, those could fit one each in the Handles/grips. I think you’d want to make the grips a bit more bulky anyways, for ergonomics.
Those Cells are rather cheap, readily available and you can get Batteryholders for those, so, potential to do a swappable battery for those loooong days on the road :wink:

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I’ve thought about trying to make and sell these things, but I would need to source, and probably have a custom motherboard made. This computer stick works for what I’m doing, but it wouldn’t work if I were to sell them.

Someone say 18650?


I have, and they’d be super nice, but they’re just too thick. I’m trying to keep this thing as thin as possible. It should be pocketable when I’m done.
(18650 next to the handheld PC)

I would love for the battery to be swappable, but I think that’s going to have to wait for a different build. Besides it has an 8000mAh battery, so I’d think it would run for over 8 hours easy.

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Sapphire has embedded boards, if they offer OEM type services, that may work to customize one of the boards.
Example board

I bet it would be extremely expensive to have Sapphire make me custom boards. If I were to produce these, I’d be contacting some Chinese board maker.

Man. I would love to use AMD’s 7nm chips, but those mobile chips aren’t out yet that I’m aware of.

Edit: Oh crap there’s more on that site if I scroll down. Looking into those smaller ones.

Sapphire is in China?
image

Yeah, but they’re not “some Chinese” company, they are name brand. Still it wouldn’t hurt to check with them about making a custom board, and they do already have boards that might just need a few smaller modifications to work.

Edit: If this does happen, it’s going to be a long way off. Got to make something reasonable as a prototype first.

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You don’t understand how Kickfarter and IndieNoGo work, do you? Just need fancy video and you are entitled to 5x your funding target.

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Hahaha. I’ve noticed that. Lol
I’m no good at videos though. :cry:

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I speak from experience. I made the video for the Chronos 1.4 Kickstarter and that raked in SO MUCH.

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Alright! This project is back!
I got in a Screen for it yesterday, and some different analog sticks, and a Gyroscope for it on Thursday.

I’ve been playing with this screen since I got it and I feel pretty confident this is the one.

It’s a 5.5" 1080p capacitive touch screen, and for better or worse it’s an OLED.

(Scratches are on the screen protector it came with)


It plays Halo MCC… at like 15fps.lol

Settings and res all the way down. The cooling setup is pretty crappy right now, but I don’t think this game will be playable with an appropriate cooling setup either.
It’s so much worse than it looks in the video. Lol

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Alright, I’ve got a couple updates. I put the overkill cooling setup on it, and tried playing Halo again. It was better, but nowhere near playable by my low standards (30+ fps).

Since I really want to be able to play Halo on it, I’ve decided to ordered another more powerful PC stick, and hopefully that’ll get me to a somewhat reasonable experience.

I’m also modeling the parts in SolidWorks, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep it small, and maybe make a billet aluminum body for everything.

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I would imagine that the aluminum body would help with cooling as long as it is not hot where you would hold the thing.

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That’s the plan. If this Celeron is anything like the Atom it needs to stay ice cold to stay in full boost. I was also able to keep the Atom heatsink at a temperature that would be comfortable to hold, but with more power comes more responsibility heat, so I’ll have to run more tests.

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