Wonder computer

Wonder 1

Everything we do most come from some reason. This project was born because I like to build things, and also because I don't think that the price of a good laptop is correct. Probably a good laptop costs more than 3 months of work, being the average earning of a Portuguese of about 600 Euros per month, so a new idea was needed.

After doing a small research, inquiring colleges, I've found that about 80% of work done with a laptop was in home or in work/school, were 90% have another computer, normally an older one. So the main idea was: build the smallest and also beautiful case I could, spending the minimal money possible, making the computer simple to transport and with a better performance than the majority of the laptops available (at the moment of this project - April 2002).

All those objectives were accomplished.

Materials

As you can see, the case was made of acrylic (4mm). The rest is only some imagination and the need to put all together in the smallest space possible. Here are the specifications, the prices in Euros, in April 2002:

• AMD Duron 1.2 GHz (100E)
• Pc Chips 810LR motherboard (115E)
• 256 Mb SD RAM ()
• VGA on Board (SiS 630/730)
• LAN on Board
• Sound on Board
• 145 W mATX Power Supply (30E)
• 1 CDROM drive (40E)
• 1 HD 40G 7200 RPM (130E)
• 1 Flopply drive
• Custom bag !

This is a good performance computer except in 3D - the SiS 730 is a very bad chip. It is very good for work, and the motherboard is (was in April 2002) a very price/quality remark.

Wonder 2

Since my computer had a poor 3D performance and the bag was scarry I decided to build a new wonder. The same principle was applyied and a better result was achieved this time. Look at the material:

• AMD Athlon 2600+
• Chaintech 7NIF2
• 512 Mb DDR 400
• VGA on Board (NVIDIA nForce2 IGP)
• LAN on Board
• Sound on Board
• 145 W mATX Power Supply - same of Wonder 1
• 1 CDROM drive - Wonder 1
• 1 HD 40G 7200 RPM - Wonder 1
• 1 Flopply drive - Wonder 1
• Laptop case (small)

This is a complete computer for a small price, and good performance. Look at the photos !