StripeySnake

JANKTOP 4.1 - NOW WITH 4090 SUPPORT >:) The title is pretty self explanatory. Both the stock 4.1, and 4.1 halfrad designs are now ready for testing. Since my friend plans on printing one, I won't release the files until she's done that, assuming she still wants to, as it may help me iron out any kinks and design flaws. That said, the design is now vastly improved over the prototype, with better cable management, cooling, durability, aesthetics, and much more! And since the halfrad config supports up to 335mm long dual slot blower cards, there is now officially support for the new blower 4090 in theory, which should perform 1.5 - 1.75x that of a laptop 4090. Here are a couple of sample pictures of the new design: P.S. You know how the prototype had bad GPU thermals? Well it turns out I was wrong about that, as the 5700 xt model I have actually normally runs around 80 c, even with good airflow, which means even with the much worse ventilation on the prototype, temperatures weren't actually too much higher than an idea airflow case.

More to come soonish, but good news! I got access to my CAD software again, and design has resumed with the help of a newfound friend. I'll get more in depth othe 4.1 build I'm planning to have done in coming months, but for now, here's a sneak peek on the progress:

Just adding on, I have slotted Intel AX200 in M17x R4 using cable and slot adapters. It requires a small amount of chassis modification to fit, but worked fine and was pulling speeds in excess of 400 mbps.

Unfortunately, I'm running into the snag of needing to learn a new cad software, but I have a ton of QOL changes planned for the next iteration. First and foremost, I'm going to redesign the palmrest and skeleton chassis elements to give the radiators an extra 20mm of space without really increasing chassis size, in order to slot 60mm double radiators as opposed to 40mm triple. These rads are also a bit less wide, so that leaves more room for the power supply, and I may even be able to get rid of the "Flare" at the back of the machine. This will knock about 70 bucks off cost of radiators + fans, but will also increase cooling capacity significantly. I'm also planning to rotate the gpu slot 90 degrees with the I/O pointing foreward, and put the ports behind a folding panel to protect it. This change will also require a much shorter gpu riser cable of only like 250mm as opposed to 600 which will greatly improve cable cost rarity and stability. I'm also planning to implement a "trackpad" using a small touch display rigged to act as a pointing device for the large screen, while it's display may be used as a sensor panel or such. Finally, I'm going to redesign the display assembly to be compatible with modern EDP displays, and possibly add an optional locking mechanism. I will add the current design is quite sturdy, and the mini itx i/o doesn't really need covering, it's already recessed. (this revision may be delayed due to stated cad issues, and current lack of R&D funds, but I assure you it will continue once I have stable income) Also, as for the prototype, it has it's fair share of small gremlin issues, and I have yet to waterblock the GPU (might wait for bigger rads for that), but it's still going strong. I daily drive it without too many issues for work and gaming.

Super impressive build! I'm curious, what power supply did you use that can supply enough wattage for a 3090? I love the minimalist aesthetic. If you want an help with 3d printing, I'm happy to help. No pressure though.

I've done a lot more thinking about the concept, and i won't forget it, but it's getting shelved for now. I may redesign it around a framework laptop motherboard as well, as the lattepanda is quite weak. That said, I'm picking up the Janktop 4 once again, and I expect the 4.5 design to be finished around Christmas, which will include a fully custom display assembly and support for modern 17.3 inch displays. I'm also going to be getting my hands on my own 3d printer, so not only will the updated design finally be making it's way into a real machine, but I may be able to sell chassis kits on commission much sooner than expected, if there is demand.

I've been toying with the idea of designing a much smaller Janktop type machine with a battery, good battery life, and decent performance, but with some very cool and nice features that will come in handy during hardware development. I recently learned about the Lattepanda alpha single board computer, which has a decently fast efficient quad core CPU, 8gb ram, 64gb emmc, and two m.2 slots. The really cool thing about it though, other than the small size is it's built in Arduino and serial i/o pins. The reason I'm so draw to this is for one thing, it's actually possible to connect a laptop keyboard through that serial i/o and get it to input, meaning this Janktop could have the same massive keyboard compatibility as the 4.0. On top of that though, and Arduino can be used to program eeprom chips, so I could integrate a slot for a chip or test clip directly into the laptop. That's not all though, as the second m.2 slot is type b and can be adapted to pcie 16x. The idea would be to also have a pcie 16x slot somewhere on the laptop, that can be used to test and utilize desktop graphics cards externally. The egpu would be powered by a pico psu, and you would have to plug a big old 330w or so power brick into an auxiliary input jack in order to use it. That said, the rest of the machine would work fine without the second charger, it would just be needed for the EGPU. Ultimately, the goal with this concept is not to create something that's all that powerful, but rather a lightweight developer laptop with good battery life, decent modularity, and some really niche useful features for hardware developers such as myself. Additionally, you could use whatever keyboard you want, which is a big plus nowadays considering the god awful chicklet keyboards on most thin and light machines. Target size would be 14 inches, with extended rear and an inch or less thick. What do ya'll think of this idea? I know it's not as modular as the 4, and while I would like it to, certain sacrifices do need to be made for size and effeciency. It's not meant to be an improvement either, just kind of the other half of the project, a portable, efficient machine with decent modularity and niche developer features to go hand in hand with the giant clunky op beast. The 4 can always be remote accessed as well, and that's actually what I'm doing with mine right now in college most of the time.

Just letting everyone know, there is a new thread in Custom Builds, and the STL files are now accessible via GitHub.

That took longer than expected. GitHub link is now live and so are the files. I might have to use something like google drive for the autocad files, they are too large for github.

This is the initial public release of my open source project, Janktop 4. This will act as a hub post, not only explaining what the project is, but how to use it and where to access the files. To start things off, what is the Janktop? It's a custom hybrid chassis housing both laptop and desktop components, with the capability to make them work together. This includes Almost any laptop keyboard, (sometimes requiring a bit of modification) A display assembly from and Alienware M17x R3 or R4, although that can house any screen that will fit within it. Later on, I will be designing a fully custom display housing for compatibility with more modern 17.3 inch displays, including high refresh and resolution models. The chassis also houses an inverter board of your choice, as well as another open source project, not by me: https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-a-USB-Laptop-Keyboard-Controller/ Many thanks to Frank Adam for this wonderful project. Last but not least, the chassis is compatible with most MINI-ITX motherboards, flex ATX power supplies, and Dual slot video cards 231mm long or less. Especially "tall" cards may not fit properly however. Additionally, the primary cooling for the chassis comes from the dual 40mm Triple Radiators in the rear, on each side of the power supply. Currently the chassis is only designed around the Alphacool 40mm X-flow triple radiators, but if anyone can find another type of similar size, I may add compatibility in the future. The custom cooling loop has to be used to cool the CPU, as the chassis Does not have room for a low profile CPU cooler. The GPU however, can draw and circulate air from outside the case on it's own. A blower card under 230mm (if you can find one) should perform normally, but more traditional cards will struggle to cool themselves. Expect to see temps close to 50-60 c in light to mid gaming with this setup, and excess of 80-90 under synthetic workload such as FurMark. As I was not satisfied with those temperatures, I have purchased a GPU waterblock, and will update the post when I get temperature results with both the CPU and GPU in my loop. That said, The dual radiators have quite a bit of cooling capacity on thier own, they had no difficulty keeping my 2600x running at 110 watts under 70 degrees during a synthetic workload, and that was with heavily kinked soft tubing, which I will soon replace with nice clean hard PETG. Once again, I will update once I have results on this setup. Pros/Cons: Pros: More portable than most desktops More powerful than most to all laptops (depending on config) Modular and standardized, so repairs modifications, and upgrades are extremely easy compared to a laptop. Max spec configurations are generally cheaper than laptop performance equivalents. Lighter than most desktops Much cheaper to repair than a laptop Cons: Less powerful than high spec desktops A bit more difficult to assemble than a desktop Less cost effective than a desktop Much heavier than most laptops (Current config is around 18 pounds) No Battery or integrated pointing device (I could add the latter if there is demand) This design is certainly not for everyone, as it is extremely bulky and heavy, and requires AC power at all times. That said, if you need to bring your device from place to place, but plan on staying stationary for a decent amount of time and don't mind a bit more weight, the Janktop offers great performance and serviceability. The design is meant to fit into a middle ground between heavy, modular desktops, and light unfixable unupgradable laptops. Building a Janktop First things first, you're going to want some basic tools: A hardline watercooling kit, or at least tools to cut and bend tubing. A decent amount of fast bonding super glue for holding your nuts in place till assembly. A file for cleaning up 3d printed parts. Any paint, stickers, or vinyl wrap for aesthetics. And Plenty of time. While the case is only a bit harder to build in then more complex desktops, actually building the case itself takes quite a while, and it took well over 100 hours of printing to print all the chassis components. Optional: Soldering equipment to splice your fans onto one fan header. (yes you can technically use adapters, but there is not a lot of space in the chassis, and you want things to be as compact as possible. Splicing is as simple as connecting every lead to it's correlating color on another fan, except for the PWM pin, which instead should simply be carried over from one single fan. If you don't understand this part, just look at a fan header splitter, you're basically doing the same thing as that except more compact and permanent.) As of today, the Cad files for the Janktop design will be available to Print and manufacture. The vast majority of the chassis is 3d Printed, except for the palmrest and Bottom cover. The palmrest should be cut with either CNC, Laser, or Waterjet from 6.35mm (or .25 in) thick polycarbonate. I ordered mine from Xometry, and they did a fine job of manufacturing it for me. Just make sure to select Sheet Cutting for the process, and polycarbonate for the material. The final cost from them is around $140 USD. Next, the Bottom cover is the only other non 3d printed component. It should be ordered in 2.5 mm Aluminum, Xometry will do it in Aluminum 6061 T6 for around $135 USD. Note: You will have to bend the bottom cover yourself. It's much cheaper to order that way, and all you have to do is clamp it to a table and bend it around 3 degrees. The total cost of printing a chassis, if you do your own printing and order these two parts custom made will usually fall between 300-350 dollars. However, it will be considerably more expensive to order the printed parts, as having someone else print for you saves a lot of time but is noticeably more expensive. The rest of the chassis is 3d printed, but these two parts are required not to be for the sake of durability and ease of assembly. Next up, you'll need to print, or get printed, every 3d printed component that makes up the chassis. I would personally suggest PLA, as that's what I used and it was inexpensive and reliable. It should be noted that this is quite a lot of 3d printing, so I would only suggest doing it yourself if you know your way around a printer, and have one on hand, as it is quite a lot of complex printing. That said, all parts should be small enough to fit on an average sized 3d printer, I printed all of mine on and Ultimaker 2+. You will want to have a file on hand while assembling the chassis, as 3d printed parts don't always want to fit together perfectly first try, and a bit of light filing is sometimes needed to achieve a good fit. A simple nail file does quite well. Finally, the chassis is held together via a combination of m3 Screws, Nuts, standoffs, and a couple of m2 screws for the one component that doesn't have holes big enough for m3. I would suggest buying both shorter 6mm and longer 12mm screws, as different parts of the chassis require different lengths to connect. The mechanism that holds most of the chassis together consists of a screw hole on one element, that then passes through another and into a socket in which an m3 nut should be glued. These sockets are hexagonal, and pretty easy to spot. Before assembly, m3 nuts between 5 and 5.5 mm in diameter (which is standard size) should be glued into these sockets with super glue. The super glue is not the thing that ends up holding the nuts in for more areas, however it is good to use to prevent them from falling out before you screw into them. It is worth noting that there are a LOT of nuts and screws in this build, and it is fairly time consuming to build the first time around. With that said, the nature of having all of the components attach to one another via nuts and bolts means that the machine can be disassembled fairly easily in comparison to a normal laptop, and individual 3d printed parts can be replaced without having to replace large portions of the chassis. Non Choice Components As of right now, these are the parts that are not reconfigurable and have to be a certain model: 1. The display assembly has to be from an m17x R3 or 4, as no other display's hinges will properly connect to the chassis. 2. The watercooling radiators must be two of the Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper X-Flow 40mm Triple Radiators. 3. There isn't really another keyboard option other than building Frank Adam's open source Teensy Based keyboard controller. I will provide a teensy script compatible with the Alienware 17 r1 keyboard, which can be loaded onto the teensy to utilize the keyboard over USB. 4. Keyboard. This is a grey area, because while the keyboard support area on the Janktop can be modified to support pretty much any keyboard, and Frank's controller works with the vast majority, it is only currently configured for the 17 R1. If anyone wants to test other keyboards with the teensy and they work, then send me detailed measurements for the keyboard's size and shape and I will happily make an alternate set of supports that are compatible with the keyboard in question. 5. Riser cable. You will need a segmented PCIE cable 500-600 MM long, which can be quite hard to find. This is probably the hardest cable to route, as it is massive and very important. 6. An FPC HDMI cable. You want to get a very compact HDMI cable to run back into the chassis in order to feed your GPU output to the internal display. Ideally you want 90 degree connectors, and to cover the whole cable in something durable such as strong tape, as they are fairly fragile. Choice Components 1. Most to all MINI-ITX motherboards should fit in the case and function, just make sure the VRM heatsinks don't get in the way of your waterblock. (by extension any CPU is supported so long as a working ITX board exists for it.) 2. Pump. I would heavily suggest going with a hybrid waterblock pump combo, such as the alphacool Eisblock XPX, but be careful, pumps that are too tall or have inlets and outlets on the "top" will not fit because of clearance. The internal chassis clearance around the motherboard is 50mm vertically, but some of that is taken up by standoffs and the motherboard itself. 3. Storage. The current design has a small intake on the palmrest that provides airflow to most back of the board NVME drives, as such setups are common on ITX boards. There is enough clearance under the board for a small M.2 Heatsink as well. Sata Drives may be mounted in free space around the chassis, and connected to the motherboard. Using a GPU waterblock opens up quite a bit of valuable space for more SATA drives. 4. GPU. Most desktop Dual-Slot GPUS will fit, so long as they are no more than 231 MM long, and only extend 10 mm or so past the lip of the GPU I/O shield. (in a standard desktop this would be facing towards you when looking through a side panel.) I will update the post on whether or not the cooling can handle a waterblocked GPU alongside CPU. 5. Fittings/ Tubing. I would strongly suggest going with tubing at 16mm OD or smaller, due to size constraints. Soft tubing is easy to set up, but gets heavily kinked in this chassis. Hard tubing is strongly recommended for the sake of reliability. Keep in mind there is a fill port on the right hand side of the chassis, so you can top off/drain the loop without disassembling anything. 6. Power supply. As of right now, only Flex-ATX is supported which comes in up to at least 600 watts. However, there are server power supplies of similar size that may be possible to modify to work with standard PC components, in which case the threshold would be well over 1000 watts. 7. A screen and inverter board. You will need a screen that will fit in your m17x Display assembly (the stock screens are fine), and a matching inverter board to convert the signal to HDMI. Since the board uses external power, get a MOLEX to DC12v converter, and you should be able to power it off of your internal PSU, which will make it turn on and off with the computer. Most inverters come with a button board for controlling the display, this will screw into the 3d printed side panel next to the GPU I/O via two M2 screws. 8. 40mm FANs x6. I would strongly suggest using Noctua PWM fans, as while they are more expensive than alternatives, bad 40mm fans can be very loud and annoying, and the noctua ones are quite soft except at full speed, while moving a decent amount of air. Picture Gallery: Something to note: these images are of the prototype, Janktop 4 Alpha looks very similar, but is considerably stronger, and more compatible. This however, is a schematic of the Alpha Chassis, with improved durability, compatibility, and aesthetics. FAQ: (will expand with time) Will kits be available? Currently, I am just starting college, so I don't have a way to manufacture 3d printed parts on my own; so kits will not be readily available from me for quite a while. However, if anyone else wants to make and sell them, that is fine by me. With that said, that's not a complete no, printing can be outsourced to a third party company, however this would have to be done on a commission by commission basis, and it is significantly more expensive. I would also only be able to sell the chassis itself with none of the electronics save for the keyboard controller. (as I didn't design it, I'll happily solder one, but I will only charge for the cost of materials on that component.) If this interests you, shoot me a DM on this site, or Discord. Will there be more Janktop designs one day? The only thing I have planned for certain is finally finishing the 4.0 into the 4.5, which will include a fully custom display housing, which will house standard 17.3 inch panels. That said, I have had passing thoughts about designing an ultracompact Janktop,(perhaps 4.5-S) cut down to a 15.6 inch chassis, and about 10-15mm thinner. The current 4.0 is around 70mm thick, so that would make roughly 60 - 55mm thick. Still very chunky, but such is the limitation of MINI-ITX. The other side model would be some form of performance Janktop, with a slightly larger chassis, and improved PSU wattage, as well as cooling. I'm not sure if it's possible, but being able to cool a 3090 in a laptop-ish chassis would certainly turn some heads. Closing Thoughts First and foremost, if you see an issue with this Post or project, don't hesitate to shoot me a DM, either here or on my Discord server. (That said, please be respectful) If you build a chassis, and something doesn't fit, I will happily adjust the CAD model to negate the issue so that you and nobody else will have to deal with it again. https://discord.gg/Uey5drgDnw If anyone wants to modify one of my part designs to achieve a different function, be my guest! In fact, if you send in an alternate design, I will add it to the Alternates file repo on my GitHub(so long as it is a viable part), and you will be credited alongside the part in a text document. As is the nature of Open-source, I am and always will be the original creator of this project, but if anyone wants to modify, manufacture and even sell copies of the chassis, then they are free to. GitHub Link:https://github.com/StripeySnake/Janktop-4.0 (all STLs are in mm) Until Next time, StripeySnake

Hey fellow enthusiasts! I know I've been silent for a while, but progress on the chassis design is back underway, and I expect to be able to alpha release my files by Friday after next, the 12th. Design elements I am currently working on include: - First and foremost, mechanical part compatibility. This is the biggest hurdle, and will likely not be completely fixed by alpha. However, a couple of hours and a file were enough to correct my mistakes on the prototype, and Alpha should be a considerably smoother fit. - Next up, Chassis integrity. The prototype is fairly sturdy, but I was unsatisfied by the amount of flex on the hinges, as well as the wobbliness seen between some side panels when the bottom cover is installed. I've made changes to greatly reinforce the hinges, as well as made it so that every single adjacent 3D printed piece interlocks together with M3 screws and nuts. - Thirdly, Cable Management. This will never be easy in such a small chassis, but I have begun adding features such as zip tie channels in the printed parts to allow for easier securing of excess cabling. - Last, but not least, Ease of use. I've begun labelling each segment of the chassis with text engraved .2mm into the plastic, as to be readable on the print, but not requiring of support material to fabricate. Additionally, I've added a fill port opening into the right side of the Radiator Bays, that will allow the user to flip the machine on it's side and have direct access to the Liquid cooling loop without having to disassemble the machine at all. This will come in extremely handy, as the loop will require a top off every once in a while. I will not be able to test print the alpha design as I lack printer access right now, but I should have reliable access again this coming school year, and will likely completely replace the prototype chassis through ought the first semester or two.

Just a small update, but I've actually been working on the prototype, because while the final design is important, I am going to be using to for college, and it needs to be reliable for the first year till I have the time to print the final chassis. Anyway, I got a rough final weight for my prototype, keep in mind this is with a fancy x570 board with big vrm heatsinks, full custom watercooling, and a fairly large 2 fan gpu. It weighs 18 pounds! Certainly not light, but to be honest I was expecting the thing to be much, much heavier with how much is packed into it. That's also with a steel bottom cover, despite the fact the final design will use aluminum. I'd estimate with a lighter motherboard, gpu and aluminum bottom cover, you actually might be able to bring the entire machine below 15 pounds. Still quite heavy, but 2-5 pounds above the weight of an m18x is actually not that bad for a full on watercooled desktop.

With respect, I'm not going to try either of those things. You all are free to when I release the files. My reasoning is that firstly, the cooling system already seems to be quite powerful, I have yet to test it with proper not heavily kinked tubing, and yet with like 3 pinches in the loop it was able to hold off 110 watts of cpu power at under 70 c indefinitely, without the cpu fans being loud at all. Also you are completely wrong about the fans. The small 40mm fans are made by noctua, and while not completely quiet, the make a very low, quiet and not annoying sound that's really not all that loud. Even at full tilt they are quieter than some gaming laptops I've worked with. as for the second Idea, I did actually consider using Pico PSUs when I designed the build but there are a ton of problems with that idea. Firstly, there aren't really high enough power pico psus, so it would likely need to use several at once. on top of that, an external power brick is more size and weight to carry anyway, and there's no benefit to having more of the size on the outside when you have to bring both parts everywhere as well. On top of that, Flex atx is a niche but standard form factor, that should still be reliably manufactured in some capacity for a long time. I can't say the same about Pico PSUs, which are very uncommon, as well as quite janky, and frankly I have a lot less confidence in their continued function. Ultimately, the flex psu fits very neatly into the case, and is in just the right place for cables. I'd have to replace it with two flex psus, which might take up less space but are going to be much harder to work with. On top of that, replacing them in the future could be difficult, and having to lug several external AC adapters would suck. Finally, having the ability to plug in with a standard 3 pin wall cable is really nice, because you can find one basically anywhere.

Yesterday my AW 14 started randomly freezing for several seconds, and repeating the same chunk of sound, as though it was hard crashing. However, it would recover within 10 or so seconds. This was really worrying me till I learned my friend's M17x R4 started having the same issue at the same time! Long story short, Dell just released an update to SupportAssist on Jun 23 that is unstable, at least on older machines. Here's how to fix it: 1: Open task scheduler 2: Locate SupportAssist task 3: Disable it Next, open Services 1: Scroll down to the Dell Services 2: Right click on all the services beginning with "Dell" and click disable, one by one. Restart your computer, and it should work fine again! EDIT: I've now done this with four machines, 2 have been fixed, one still has less bad issues, and one reinstalled supportassist. I'm going to try and fix the last too, I'll get back to you if I find a way to fix that. Known affected models: M17x R4 M17x R5 15 R3 14 R1

P4000 is a great card, only pulls 65 watts in furmark and still outperforms some 1060s. If you look up quadro p4000 mxm on ebay, sort by price and shipping, you should find it. Seller is the chipstore remarket, and I can vouch I bought a p4000 from them two years ago and haven't had a single issue with it. P4000 should also fit your heatsink if you have an m17x r4, as long as you lay out your thermal pads right.