laptop mod

[dontdoit54321]

hi,
ive taken my old laptop apart as the fans were so noisy and motherboard hissing so much that it was almost unusable.
my plan is to stick it in a bigger box with some large low speed fans and turn it into a desktop.

my problems so far-

the cable from the motherboard to lcd is way too short, no idea where to find the connectors to make an extension and arent too keen on cutting all 20 tiny wires and splicing.

the fans ive got are 12v but will run at around 3-4v ish producing much less noise but the power input for the laptop is 20v and have no idea how to step this down without using 5 fans in series


as you can see from the pic ive stuck on a spare cpu heatsink to the top of the cpu which seems to work pretty well as alot of heat is transferred to it, ive also cut up an old gpu heatsink and stuck it ontop of 2 large chips that were on the motherboard that were heating up pretty bad and seems to be doing a good job.

ive also found that one 90mm fan running at 3-4v is plently to keep both heat sinks cool whilst idling / playing mp3s which would be the main use of the computer.

oh ye the reason im making this is cos whilst my desktop is great for gaming etc the fans are abit noisy and so really want to make this one as quiet as possible.

and also i have no money to spend on this, literally none! everthing ive got for this apart from some wires and wood are in the picture!
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7915/img28461024x768ld6.jpg

[Luke122]

Is that a Lego mouse? :D

I tried to do something similar with a laptop, and faced the same challenges as you. I ended up mounting the mobo behind the LCD, and putting the whole thing onto a little frame. Cordless kb/mouse combo makes a nice input, and a 12v wall wart type plug runs the fans for the system. Yes, it sucks that it takes up 2 plugs rather than one, but it was honestly the easiest way I could come up with to power the fans.

[dontdoit54321]

cheers mate, reckon thats what i'll end up doing. do you know if theres anyway of getting rid of the hiss from one of the processors? it really gets on my tits!

it is indeed a lego mouse, my desktop is totally lego check out http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2335/1639930539_51e62129e4_b.jpg
or http://www.flickr.com/photos/skag/1639930539/ for the flickr of it, its all had abit of modification from those photos now tho

might try and get abit of lego into this new one, im starting to run abit low now!

[Luke122]

Go with larger fans to reduce the noise.. they can move more air at lower speeds, so they end up being quieter.

If you are talking hiss through the speakers, the only real solution is to go with an external (usb) soundcard. I use an M-Audio Mobile Pre USB with my laptop for excellent output. :D

[nevermind1534]

or a pc card

[Luke122]

or a pc card

Possibly... I'm a big audio nut, so for me, moving the soundcard as far from the source of the noise as possible is best. :)

I'm looking into some new hardware right now too.. Pro-Ject Audio makes some neat toys!

Back to the OP's topic though.. extending the ribbon cable can be a major pain. If you are wanting to mount this thing into a case anyways, just mount the mobo up directly behind the LCD. (Like the new iMacs) There should be enough cable length for that, and it'll even end up taking up less overall space. :)

[dontdoit54321]

nah its just one of the chips in the mobo, possibly the cpu itself [p4 2.8] thats hissing, the sound isnt plugged into anything and the speakers have been removed

[Cerberus]

I didn't think a CPU would be able to hiss. Its just a bunch of transistors. If its hissing I'd say its either broke or about to break.

Seems strange that the input is 20v, I thought all PC hardware ran on 12v (12v,5v and 3v). You could use a resistor to step down the voltage couldn't you? Just put a resistor in the fan wire and that'll slow it down.

[nevermind1534]

All of the laptops in my house take either 120VAC, which is brought down to a usable voltage, or they take 20V from the power brick, which I was surprised to see. I think the hissing, if it's not a fan could be the power supply.

[Luke122]

I have actually heard hissing power supplies before, usually a bad sign.

Most laptop power supplies step down the mains voltage (110v, 220v) to 15-20v DC.