Bossnass

My laptop has died a long-overdue death. I want a portable lan comptuer to replace it. I can't afford a new laptop at the standards I want so I might put together a desktop. Mobility is important so I'm thinking of a suitcase mod.

My question is about the durability of components. Are portable parts (those designed for laptops) built to be more durable, or just built smaller/maybe cooler?

I'm not talking about dropping hard drives or throwing the computer into the parking lot after I've been caught cheating. More like shock concerns. Laptops are carried in padded bags and I never had to hesitate when I lightly tossed the bag into the back seat of the car or packed it into the trunk. It seems to me though, that with the more ridgid feel of a desktop (everthing seated on the mobo, mobo firmly screwed to case tray, case tray connected to rigid frame and panels), that a much smaller shock impact would damage components.

Say I set a suitcase PC in the trunk of my car and I start driving to my friends house. I have to slam on the brakes, so the computer slides forward and impacts the front of the trunk. Is my hard drive likely to be damaged? Has the mobo been shocked enough to quit on me?

Or is it a case where I should wrap the case in a blanket, and very carefuly put it between the back seat and the passenger seat, nice and secure, because they are so damn delicate?

shadowalker

I kept the box and foam padding thay my case came in, so when ever i go to a lan to take my pc to a remote location i put it back in the box, but frist i remove my video/sound card any my heat sink, it rather large and i dont take the chance of it comming off and falling on something. I have a Pelican case that the cards go in that i also use for my paintball marker, its all nicely foam padded, shock proof, water tight and floats, The pc box goes behind the passanger seat like you stated so it dont shift. The cards and such go in the passanger seat if i'm alone or in the back seat also.

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sailor

I think you are going to have to worry about the heatsink more than anything else. Hard drives will actually take quite a bit of shock--enough to deal with the situation you described. Heat sinks however are quite heavy and are usually only attached with a couple of tabs--imagine what that one pound block of aluminum and copper would do flying around the inside of your case...

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bal8664

I think laptops are more durable in those situations because theres literally no room for anything inside to move around, very compacted. I would try to get a case and components that fit together as closely as possible.

Rawb

I second the motion on the heat sink being the most dangerous bit inside of your computer.

When you are moving a "mobile" computer like that, your hard drives and CDROM drives are all spun down and off (hopefully), when they are off, they have an extremely high shock rating. It should be fine for most auto accidents, because people tend to have a much lower shock rating.

Now, I have driven my computer around to many a lan party, and even moved it a few times from apartment to apartment using the help of professional movers. Not once did I ever take my heatsink out, and I have never had a problem. Both a Slot-A Athlon (which once did give me problems and I had to reseat the processor) and an Athlon XP (no heat spreader, big heatsink) have survived many, many moves this way, in fact, the Slot-A has spent over 600 miles on an uncarpeted floor of a suspensionless trailer.

Basically, you should be fine. If you choose to be paranoid (an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure), the heatsink is the first thing to remove and place someplace safe. The second thing is your video card, if it has a big cooler on it. Other than that, you should be pretty safe.