[FEB MOTM WINNER] LANDO - A Suitcase/Briefcase Computer done right

LANDO - "The fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy"

March 1st Update: Project (Almost) Complete!

Here's a link to the post with some images of the nearly complete machine.



With LED ambient backlight



Hello there OCN, I am back with another OCN exclusive modding project to start off the new year. With my last portable system Project Kestrel off to a new home and not enough money at the moments to buy a kick-ass gaming laptop to replace it right now I have decided to build a portable system with junk and stuff I have lying around my shop. It will be my LAN party rig for the foreseeable future, that combined with my love of all things Star Wars led me to one possible name for the project: LANDO.



I am sure that by now everyone has seen lots of suitcase and toolbox PC mods on here and around the web, I took a good look around for ideas before starting.
Pretty well every single one falls into one of two camps:

1. No built in monitor but features a discrete GPU and is basically a poorly ventilated and crowded tower with a handle on it
2. Features a small built in monitor but uses on-board video because there isn't clearance for expansion cards and also has poor ventilation

Lets be honest. On board video sucks, and who wants to have to carry a monitor around with their LAN machine when on the go? Not me, I want desktop performance and a descent display in a cool running quiet machine.

So this really started at the local Home Depot where I grabbed a Plano toolbox for $5 from their discount section as someone had trashed the interior of. No big deal, I'll likely trash it some more before this project is finished.





I found a monitor that would fit inside the lid of the toolbox perfectly, an Asus VH197D LED backlit 18" with a resolution of 1366x768. This was also a discount purchase $50 lightly used.



Keeping everything low profile is a must so my trusty but lightly used Scythe Big Shuriken will be called back into service.





I picked up a Zotac H67 Mini-ITX board, a Core i3 2100 and 8Gb of memory a few months ago for building a Minecraft server but never got around to it, so those parts have found there way here.







For GPU duties I have a slightly modded Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1Gb that was not in use, it should offer plenty of power for my games at 1366x768.



And here is the component that will let me use the 5770 while keeping a low profile: a right angle PCIE X16 bracket from my server parts bin.



Drive wise, I am sticking to just a single internal 750Gb 2.5" SATA. I don't use optical drives often at all, and if needed I have a USB one back at my workstation. And I lucked out picking this up back before the floods in Thailand jacked all the prices way up.



I have a bunch of 80mm Antec fans for moving air around inside the case.



And more than one PSU to choose from in my parts pile.



So with introductions out of the way I am off to choose and mod a PSU, updates to follow as I go.

Thanks guys, and now for the first update.

I picked out the Corsair 400W for this project as it has seen some use and I know it works without issue, and it is closer to the end of it's warranty than the other PSUs.



Speaking of warranties, I will be voiding several more from here on in.



With the cover off.



Look how much space I just saved by removing the bulky stock enclosure!



The power plug and switch are built so that they can not be easily disassembled. So I just cut them out of the back of the original enclosure.



I then reduced the number of cables coming out of the PSU as I won't be using them at all.



And here we have the PSU after going on a diet.




And I even had a couple of minutes to put the components together in the case to figure out spacing and where I need to start modding the case.





Next step will be to remove most of the cheap rivets from the case and replace them with socket caps and locknuts while reinforcing the entire case by adding some aluminum to it.