Boredom-bred Tech Ideas

In Part 1 of the Pi-based Laptop, I have mentioned that I needed to look for an SBC that is more powerful than the Raspberry Pi 3B+ to power the laptop. Do refer back to that particular post to check out what I am looking for. Since there are so many SBCs in the market now, I have decided to be very strict in my elimination process. As long as the SBC does not hit one of the core criterias that will affect performance, it will be dropped. I will, however, make some leeway for criterias that should not affect the performance too much such as the WiFi not supporting 802.11ac. After searching around (admittedly it got boring very quickly), I have narrowed down my search a little by including major boards that run on the RockChip RK3399 (hexa-core, 4-cores @ 1.5GHz, 2- cores @ 2.0GHz). I have also included boards that seem powerful enough on paper. The budget I'm looking at? SG$180 for the SBC and its components (~US$140). So here are the final contenders: Rock64 RockPro64...

Following up from a previous post, I have started to source out components to build a Pi-based laptop. As mentioned, using a Raspberry Pi 3B+ is out of the question, as I want a faster laptop that I am able to tolerate using as an everyday carry. I feel that the laptop needs to fulfill the following criteria physically for me to use it as an everyday carry:- Item Requirement Lightweight < 1.5kg Small form factor A4 paper (30cm * 21cm) Thickness < 1.8cm Connectivity Minimum 2 x USB Type A ports, Ethernet jack, HDMI output, Headphone Jack, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Battery Life Minimum 4 hours Thus far, I think the hardest requirement to meet is the 1.8cm thickness as I plan to integrate a keyboard and a trackpad into the main body itself. Neither of which are easy to fit into such a thin form factor. Additionally, I need the laptop to be operating smoothly (so that I won't throw the laptop on the floor after completing it, in rage). As such, I also...

For some time I have been wanting to build my own PC. What's stopping me is the lack of living space to actually have a PC and its spare parts laying around. Then I thought - why not custom build a laptop? It's much smaller in form factor and footprint, and at the end of the day we get a portable machine that is (hopefully) lightweight. Reality struck me. x86-based boards are... Murderous in pricing and form factor. It is impossible for me to be able to build a compact all-in-one system, keep the price low, and make it portable at the same time. Looking to alternatives, ARM-based SBCs seem like a better choice to help make this build come true. So the first device that came to my mind was... The Raspberry Pi 3B+. And it got turned down quickly within for reasons discussed in  a previous blog post . So I went on a quest to find something suitable for my build. Subscribe to the blog to keep up with this build as well.