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An LCD Display for an Ultra-Portable Desktop?

Posted by Cliff on from the hardware-with-the-right-set-of-connectors dept.

dark_requiem asks: "I've just built a new system based on a Shuttle SN45GV2 XPC, and it's a great little system. However, I'd like to make it more portable by attaching a flip-up LCD display (preferably with speakers) to the top of the case. My video card has TV Out, so connecting via composite or s-video is no problem. The case is just under 8" wide, so the width of the LCD cannot greatly exceed this (it wouldn't fit in my carrying bag then). Thus far, I have been looking at the various 5.4" displays for console systems like the Gamecube, but all of these connect to the systems via proprietary connectors that stick out of the front of the displays and would interfere with mounting it to my case. Has anyone from Slashdot ever attempted a mod like this, or does anyone know of an LCD display that would suit this purpose well?"

3 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Re:New Technology by kagaku · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Most people who buy Shuttle's do so because they frequently goto LAN parties and don't wanna bring all of their shit. Laptops aren't the solution to this problem, because most integrated video solutions on laptops are.. lacking, and that's saying it nicely.

    --
    everyday is another shooter.
  2. Re:One word: upgradability by DarkZero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, the upgradeability argument is slowly ceasing to hold water. What is a concern is heat dissipation, cost, and (as a side effect of those two) raw power of your components. You simply won't get the same performance from a notebook as from a desktop, comparing highest end notebooks and highest end desktops.

    One word: Cost.

    If you want to upgrade your laptop, you have a to pay a serious premium on every part. The hard drive costs more, the video card costs more, the RAM costs more, and if you want to add any kind of special functionality that isn't already there, like a higher-end DVD burner, a video capture card, more ports, or virtually anything else, you're going to pay at least 20% more for it, if not much, much more than that.

  3. Why didn't you buy an iBook? by Nice2Cats · · Score: 1, Insightful
    It is too late now, but to anybody who finds themselves in a situation like this: Buy a 12" iBook or PowerBook and avoid these kind of headaches. So far, my experience has been that attaching any external monitor is a difficult as plugging the damn thing in -- "It just works" indeed.

    Note that I am a Linux person at heart and have my gripes with Apple -- the stupid spanning block in the iBooks, for example -- but this is one thing they do very, very well.