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Portable Bartop that cab used at LAN Parties
WhereEaglesDare:
I want to make a Bartop that is portable and could be used at LANs. So I can carry it in, plug in , and if I wanted to play some Call of Duty I just hook up a mouse and keyboard and I am off.
The main reason I want this is for when I do LAN people can see the MAME machine in action and I can still play on it, taking a Bartop on it's own just to be a bartop would be kinda pointless.
I got a 775 socket Motherboard, a Geforce 8800, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB WD HDD, Joysticks, and Buttons already. Need a new dual core processor but that is only 50 bucks off of NewEgg and a new Power Supply, again shouldn't be too expensive on newegg.
It is going to have a compartment that comes off and can store my headset, keyboard, and mouse, etc. but on it's own it can be a bartop and would look like a bartop. The compartment would be great to protect the joystick and the screen too.
I may put in a marquee and light but it will sit right over the screen because I dont want the protruding marquee.
I dont know if I should put TMolding on the sides, maybe just round off the sides with a router, but if I put TMolding there I may not be able to get it to close tight.
Any Ideas or Suggestions?
leapinlew:
I don't see much difference between doing this or building a bartop and carrying a gym bag with the accessories. Seems a big square box might be more difficult to handle than 2 smaller boxes (or a box and a bag).
IG-88:
Nice ::)
WhereEaglesDare:
--- Quote from: leapinlew on July 31, 2010, 03:30:31 pm ---I don't see much difference between doing this or building a bartop and carrying a gym bag with the accessories. Seems a big square box might be more difficult to handle than 2 smaller boxes (or a box and a bag).
--- End quote ---
Yea, I thought about that.... I really just want to make something unique and was fresh out of fresh ideas... Plus I saw the Bomberman Bomb Arcade that someone made a while back, cant find the link, but it was a box that had 4 players and was in a self-contained box, with a lid and it was really well done. I would make that except it would be awkward to LAN on.
saurian333:
I think it's a reasonable idea; it actually wouldn't be too awkward if the PSU and such were all at the back of the cab portion, to counterweight your box on the front. That way, you could put the handle width-wise on the top, and it wouldn't be too hard to carry.
For the PSU, look for mATX ones. I'm getting one for a PC I'm gearing up to build that's 420W; I'm sure they go higher than that if you shop around. You'd save a lot of space inside that way. Also, you might want to consider fitting a slim DVD drive into it (not sure if you thought of including one or not); or a slim external could be toted around in the box of stuff (comes up often at LAN parties that you want to install something, or burn a disc for someone else, etc.).