TABLET PC

 

Welcome to my Tablet PC page

My ongoing desire to build interesting computer based projects together with my need for a portable computer
led me to construct what I loosely refer to as my Tablet PC.

For some time I have wanted to build a portable PC using the Mini-ITX motherboard format
introduced to me by Michael Scanlen a few years ago.
However, I did not pursue the venture as the Via processors on these boards were not very powerful.
But now Intel have started fitting their popular ATOM processors to the little Mini-ITX boards.
It is therefore possible to build a small PC with an acceptable amount of power at a most reasonable price.

Hence, the homemade Tablet PC

 

 

My apologies to those who enjoy instructables, that I did not photograph each step as I went along.
But I feel that the project can be understood by the "finished product" photographs.

 

 

The components of the PC Power supply and Monitor are all built onto the back of an Acer 19 inch 4:3 LCD monitor
which was stripped down for this purpose.

 

 

The motherboard is the Intel 945GCLF board which uses the Mini-ITX form factor and a 1.6Ghz Intel Atom processor.
The board includes onboard network, video and sound.
It has 4 (+4) USB ports, 1 serial port, 1 parallel port and 2 PS2 ports
There are 2 SATAII ports and 1 IDE.
The maximum amount of RAM usable is 2Gigs of DDR2 800Mhz.
1 standard PCI expansion slot is included.
An all round winner.

 

 

 

The housing is made 16mm Superwood with black paint on the inside and rubberizing on the  outside.
The fans are strategically placed and recessed into the wood. The speakers are from the Acer monitor which sacrificed itself for this project.

 

 

The 4 red buttons are wired into the keyboard controller wrapped in the black tape.
These give me up, down, enter and backspace keys to move through my photographs without a mouse.
The other side has a multiple card reader, a network port (10/100), 2 USB II ports, an on/off switch and a power socket. Internet connectivity can be achieved by plugging a 3G modem into the USB port.

 

 

These photos show the PC in the housing without the front trim and then with it.
These photos show the PC in the housing without the front trim and then with it.

 

 

2 views of the monitor booted into windows.

 

 

Front view.
Back view.

 

 

The PC being used primarily to view movies...
...as well as photographs.

 

 

 

Thank you for viewing my Tablet PC page.
Please visit again soon to see my next project, whatever that may be.
If this project is of interest to you, please email me for any further information.