Intel i7 Ultra AIO/Tablet Idea Build and Thoughts

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I have been wanting some sort of laptop or surface type thing for a while. My phone is great for communicating but that is about it.

Thing is I don't want a laptop, too expensive, ugly, under powered, bad form factor and bulky at least for high power ones.

A tablet like the surface pro or something is just not powerful enough or expandable for my liking. Lots of "Built for the landfill" in the design.

So I came up with a solution/compromise.

Their exists a high powered NUC. 6th gen i7 6770HQ CPU, 4 core 8 thread hyperthreading, 2.6Ghz and turbo up to 3.5, up to 32GB DDR4 2133 RAM, up to 2 m.2 SSDs, an SD card slot I think micro, AC WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, wireless dispaly and all sort of other potential good jazz like Thunderbolt 3 for external GPU and plenty of USB 3 and even IR.

In have been using a 9.7" iPad screen as one of my main displays on my desk top for a year or two now and love it. DisplayPort 2048x1536 4:3. There are also 10.1" 1080p screens in nice cases with touchscreen working. So one of those as the screen and there are a few more options and sizes too.

So a NUC on the back mounted to a Tablet display potentially with touch capabilities. Huge speed and options. All in a little cluster I can easily whip in and out of my bag and have on in about 7 seconds.

I all ready have the keyboard part down, The Keyboard Guy, so I can have a wireless Bluetooth mechanical 60% keyboard to carry with it if I need one. The mouse would be taken care of by a Steam Controller, I have had one for a while now and have a desktop/chrome config that is super easy to use as a replacement for my mouse, I all ready do use it as such to be lazy in bed on my desk top. The NUC has 3d printing files so I can look up the dimensions and make a bracket for the screen to mount super secure to and compact, metal too if I can help with heat dissipation.

Potentially a one cable plug in and full power desktop on the go.

The Intel ark page for the CPU: http://ark.intel.com/m/products/93341/Intel-Core-i7-6770HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz

The NUC in question: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-nuc6i7kyk-features-configurations.html

Screens: 10.1 inch 1080p screen HDMI. https://m.aliexpress.com/s/item/32678036130.html

10.1 inch 10 point touch 1920x1200, INA little frame already to be mounted. https://m.aliexpress.com/s/item/32707476010.html

A 13.3 inch 1080p IPS 10 point touch panel. https://m.aliexpress.com/s/item/32673376620.html

I could go completely crazy and mount a 15.6 inch 2160p panel to it. Would be nuts but less portable than I want. https://m.aliexpress.com/s/item/32698667247.html

So with the technical and parts out if the way. Like I said I need something with some power and usefulness out on the go. I use my phone and it is great but not a power user type thing. I like music and have Ableton and its Push MIDI controller which is large but thin and easy to carry. I get random music ideas all the time but frequently have to drop them and forget as I have no way to take them down in any useful quality or medium. So this powrrtable powerful tablet thing would be perfect to just take out, plug in and get the stuff done quick. With a keyboard to take notes quick or do emails and what not. The steam controller as a wireless mouse, make no mistake this is not a gaming aimed machine at all but it can game, the controller is solely for mouse functionality not gaming. The CPU has enough power to run Linux a few times over and windows easily. I would like to see if Mac will play nice as it is all stock Intel, some hackintosh searching might be the thing for it.

It would be like an upgrade to Wendel's original iPad screen PC with the Lian Li case. Smaller, more portable and plenty powerful.

This is something I would love to do but would take time, quite a bit of it. But it is also something I intend on following up on in some form, maybe less powerful or large, but shoot for the moon I guess. Cheaper than a comparable laptop power wise and user serviceable/upgradeable. I really like the idea.

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You could buy an AsRock Deskmini 110 and put in an i7 6700 which is more powerful, can mout 32GB of RAM aswell, M.2 PCIe SSD and standard HDDs for mass storage all in something almost as slim as a NUC. I don't know if the GPUs inside are comparable but I guess you don't really care about it from what I can see.

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Yeah this just the first and mist powerful thing I found and am open to other ideas. I will totally look into this but I am in a friends house right now on a mobile so not right now.

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Sure, no rush. Btw you could even buy a break out cable to convert the M.2 PCIe connection into a standard PCIe slot to add an external card (less espensive than buying an external bay like the Razer Core that uses Thunderbolt 3 and may have issues).

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Oh hell yeah the more hands on and a bit mad scientist I can make it all the better. The GPU would still be a stationary thing even then because it would also need a PSU and such but the mounting and connecting mechanism is a cool idea.

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Also you can buy the motherboard alone and make yourself the case to put it in, if you really enjoy getting your hands dirty.

P.S. I love brainstorming projects, even just for fun.
P.P.S. I'm at friend's house too but I guess I'm not connecting too much with them at the moment lol

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Yeah I have seen then little 5x5 style boards they have put out but also not looked into this much as you can see. Super interested in the idea though. So yeah I will totally check it out.

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I hope to see more updates on the thread soon than (: Also you can message me if you'd like.
Have a nice time with your friends!

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Yeah once I get to my desk top and look up some of the alternatives I will update things.

You too happy new year.

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Happy new year to you too!

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I took a lookninto the DeskMini 110, pretty good. Would be perfect for one that is a little less of everything. A great all rounder, even a bit cheaper as the Skull Canyon thing is barebones. Part if me wants the mad power of Skull Canyon though even if it does cost more. Some really good options and features on it.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10404/asrock-deskmini-110-ministx-pc-review/3

Still onlynlight browsing on my phone.

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The i5-6500 does really good against the 6770HQ mobile. I guess that if you max that out with the 6700 the Skullkanyon NUC gets demolished lol.

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This is true. And I looked at the spec and features on their website. http://www.asrock.com/nettop/Intel/DeskMini%20110%20Series/ it can take desktop i7 6700 and such. That would monster the 6770HQ. But the ports and options on the skull canyon NUC are way better. I can live with the slightly lower power it does not need to be the absolute best pocket x99 thing, as cool as that would be. The conecteveity with it being portable would one of the most important thing. The USB C on the Desk Mini is only 3.0 and not thunderbolt. The Skull Canyon is 3.1 and full 40gb thunderbolt 3.There are other things too it is just a little better on all the connectivity stuff.

For a more permenant home box the DeskMini is great with the 2.5 inch support and the 1 m.2. That was another thing. The Skull Canyons WiFi and other stuff is all on board. So the the 2 m.2 slots are both for storage on the Skull. On the desk mini one is keyed for the WiFi module and the other storage. All the little betters on connectivity adds up.

Edit: I am still in mobile so I will check at home. If there exists something with the 5x5 style of the deskmini and the CPU socketing with the level of connectivity of the skull that would be the best. And that slick form factor, ultra backpack portable.

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I thought of doing something like this, but I might wait until Zen or Coffee Lake (depending on when I get to it or if I get to it), gotta have some GPU power, Intel HD 4400 hardly cuts it for me seeing new games come out.

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If it's going to be mobile, then a desktop CPU is probably a bad idea unless it's like a 6700S or something.

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Well the 6700 doesen't do that bad thermals wise. But surely, as you said, a lower TDP CPU will feel more comfortable for that purpose.

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To be honest I think that all the options the Skull Canyon NUC offers are not really crucial, at least to me (a part from the Thunderbolt 3 port). One PCIe SSD is way more than enough for what that machine could do so even two of them is overkill. The AsRock is available with wifi and BT module installed so I guess that's also not an issue. Everything I said are all my personal opinions and I'm not paid by AsRock lel

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Having 2 SSDs ain't so bad. The ASRock option is okay though.

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Oh no everything you put forward is great and totally something I would use just in a different setting. I have kind of gotten an idea into my head now and am really sold on it. It has to be something drastically better to get my to switch.

Though if this project ends up taking too long or being to expensive I do definitely have a use for the desk mini at home in another role.

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18 days... it it done yet? lol

Kinda in line with my lust for a mobile pc, am interested in the outcome

my motto is "help you to help me be lazy" so I will help with a comment of

lol also this

I think both are streamed to it
but it does have a cool base, idk about transfer speed, to add a SSD or small HDD