PC Portable

[wiplash1]

Hi. I'm sorta new to the forum and I have a question/request. I've always wanted a handheld pc for gaming, and no I'm not someone looking to play GTA V, or The Witcher 3 on this. Before you go in the comments and type, "Hey, there's this thing called the NVIDIA Shield..." I just want to say it's for older games. I want something where you can play games like: Assassin's Creed 1, Battlefield 1942, Bioshock 1, Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Fallout 3, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, ect. These games defiantly wont run at ultra settings or 60fps, but they will be playable. I want a device like this: (I't won't come out till Mar 2017 so.)

I want to be able to have a device that can play older games, on the go. Here are the specs:

I want hardcore specs so don't focus on the lite.
In conclusion I know that the people of this community are legends at modding. So what I would want is a device that looks really similar to this. I know it's not impossible but it's defiantly difficult. So my request is to ask if this could be built, and if I't could I would buy it. I't doesn't have to have everything that's listed there. But it needs to be close. I hope this can happen and if it can comment or PM me. Thanks - Wiplash

 

[XCVG]

It's basically impossible. Try Kickstarter.

Though if you're going to go all-out, use a Core m7 or wait for something from AMD instead of an Atom.

 

[samjc3]

Well, it's definitely possible to build - and it's getting more and more viable every day. Myself and Kyo spent a lot of time experimenting with the idea 4 or 5 years back, and it was a nightmare then, since the smallest motherboards money could buy* were 5x5". Thank to intel pushing the NUC/UCFF form factor so heavily, we now have a pretty wide array of options for small, but still reasonably powerful hardware. However, anything built with off the shelf hardware and modded is still going to be pretty heavily compromised compared to what the concept you've posted above shows.

The three configurations that come to mind immediately are as follows:

1: Use an intel compute stick, STK2MV64CC as the base. This is the smallest option. It won' be a powerhouse by any means, but it will be able to play a fair chunk of games - indie stuff and pre-2013 ish 3d games at low settings should be mostly playable at 720p low. Obviously older stuff like Oblivion or Bioshock, or such should run better. Notebookcheck's GPU page should give you a fair idea on performance. In terms of size, a 4.3-5.5" LCD would seem to make sense to me, though finding one that could take HDMI input, and had both touch and reasonable resolution would probably be a chore. Overall, I'd expect a competent builder could manage something little larger than a playstation Vita or such.

2: Use a Iris NUC, or if you're feeling cheap, one of the AMD based UCFF PCs. This would invariably be bigger, but it'd also be more powerful, needless to say. Assuming you used a NUC5i7RYH, you'd be looking at Iris 6100 for graphics, which would have a fair bit higher gaming potential. That said, it's still no beast by any definition. Again, assuming a competent builder, I'd expect this to be around a 7" touchscreen, with controls on the sides. Think heavy WiiU gamepad.

3: Use a Skulltrail NUC, or one of the Gigabyte Brix models with 45w Iris parts. These, again, would be bigger, and in this case, battery life would be a challenge without getting heavy. These would be pretty much too big to make sense, and you'd be better off buying a nice 13-14" gaming laptop. But it is possible.

Ultimately though, it makes less sense than ever. Streaming is more viable than ever before, more and more games are available on more and more platforms - and if microsoft keeps pushing UWP, it's not gonna be too long before we see the windows phone xbox app running games - cellphones are already pushing past Xbox 360 levels of performance and everything, so Heck.

As for waiting for the various kickstarter projects talking about handheld PCs, I wouldn't hold my breath. Those reek of the same deal as the old OpenPandora - if they do come out, it'll be a year or more late, and will have serious issues. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I have no faith.

 

[ttsgeb]

Oh man, OpenPandora.
Have they caught up on pre-orders yet? I really wanna get one, but don't want to wait a decade or three.

 

[Kickback]

I swear I see about 4 different 3D renders a year of a 'ultimate pc portable' that I know for a fact isn't coming out.

You can make a handheld PC though, in fact it's been done, but you're probably looking for a bigger form factor than a PS Vita.