laptop replacement: the kitchen computer

Starting Point

Our apartment was too small. 786 square feet can't properly house two adults, two young children, and two babies. One of our space-saving ideas was to replace our large desktop PC (which had a CRT monitor) with a laptop. In addition, a laptop's portability would allow us to use a computer at almost any time, almost anywhere.

We purchased a new Toshiba Satellite A60-1601ST, with a 2.8GHz Celeron, 768MB of memory, and a 40GB hard drive. While not exceedingly quick, it provided the performance and flexibility that we needed at the time.


The Problems

Over a year later, we moved into our current home; a much larger 2-storey house. The laptop was still in great condition, but its battery lasted less than 30 minutes, and the newly-mobile babies were drawn to any accessible power cord. While the laptop's speed had been acceptable, it lagged noticeably when working with large audio files (over 50MB), and when playing music sequencer arrangements. It also took AGES to start up and shut down. There was very little ambient noise in the house, which made the laptop's noise even more intrusive. We wanted something faster and quieter.


Requirements

The laptop was our main computer, and we had many uses for it, including:

- Web surfing
- Electronic communications
- Content management
- Financial management
- Photo manipulation
- USB device docking station
- Controlling other networked PCs
- Secondary multimedia player/viewer
- Shopping online (90% of our purchases are made online)
- Designing (interior, graphics, landscaping)
- Composing music

As you can see, we rely heavily on our computers. We have been using our computers as described above since approximately 1994. We have long been proponents of the idea of PCs being the 'central hub' of a household. Thus, we wanted the new PC to do more, including:

- DVD authoring and burning
- Backup storage (of replicated data)
- Gaming PC for our children (light games for young children only)


Exploring the Options

Since we were no longer renting, we had our choice of several computer and network configurations.

The first option we considered was to buy another laptop. Yeah, right. Compared to a regular PC, a laptop is too costly to upgrade, and it can't be upgraded to the same extent.

One option was to put the PC on the entertainment center in the living room, in an HTPC case. It could help to create continuity by looking identical to the existing HTPC. However, I have been working to minimize the A/V equipment in the living room (hence the HTPC), and I did not want to cut a 3" hole through the wall for cables.

Another option was to put a regular PC in the basement, and place the monitor and input devices on the main floor for easy access. Again, I didn't want to cut a 3" hole for cables; especially not in the floor.

At this point, it became obvious to me that the PC would have to be in the same room as the monitor and input devices.

Our house's floorplan defines its spaces clearly, so it's challenging to make any space multifunctional in an elegant, uncluttered way. We determined that the new PC wouldn't have to be portable, but it would have to be easily accessible. The centrally-located rooms on the main floor are the kitchen, living room, and dining room, which are all within steps of one-another. We wanted to keep the living room and dining rooms clean and elegant,without a busy atmosphere. My wife does a lot of cooking, however, and the kitchen is always a busy place; perfect for a computer. Where in our small kitchen could we spare the counter space? We decided upon a small counter surface, which is connected to the kitchen by form and colour, but which happens to be on the hub between the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

There wasn't enough space behind the refrigerator for a PC case of any size. I felt that it would be too visually intrusive to mount even a tiny PC case on the countertop, wall, or underside of the upper cabinet. The truly minimalist option was to place the PC inside of the one of the cabinets. I opted to use the lower cabinet, which is significantly deeper than the upper cabinet. I wanted very much to mount a swing-down monitor on the underside of the upper cabinet, but the cabinet isn't very big, so a monitor larger than 12" would look clunky.

The lower cabinet contains one adjustable shelf, which I wanted to remain usable. Only a micro-ATX (or smaller) case would fit comfortably at the bottom of the cabinet. Then it occurred to me that the cabinet itself would protect the PC from its surroundings; so there was no need for a case at all.


Cooling

It was time to plot the path of airflow through the enclosure. I had planned to cut intake and exhaust holes, but I was unsure of where.

The front and right side of the cabinet were visible, so they were ineligible for modification. The left side was against the refrigerator, except for the rearmost 8". The heatsink on the back of the fridge stayed warm, so that area couldn't serve as an intake. It would be a convenient place to disperse the PC's warm air, though.

The front of the cabinet protruded about 3.5" inches beyond the base, a few inches above the floor. This meant that the PC could draw cool air through an opening in the bottom of that protrusion.

I cut both openings using a Dremel, and I think that they came out fairly well, considering that it was my first use of such a tool. Why didn't I get one of these sooner? Anyway, I made the intake opening as large as possible, to maximize airflow and eliminate the possibility of noise caused by air turbulence.

The exhaust hole is considerably smaller, exposing most of the back of the power supply, but it's not big enough for a 120mm fan. That's right; I intended to use the power supply's fan as the PC's sole exhaust fan. I reasoned that ambient cool air from the intake opening would help to cool the PC considerably, and that the exhausted air would be relatively cool by the time it passed through the power supply.


Components

Here's a list of the components I used initially:

- MSI Micro-ATX Motherboard w/ 1 x AGP, 2 x PCI, onboard video, audio, LAN
- Intel P4 2.66GHz Prescott
- Thermalright XP-90 CPU heatsink
- Nexus 120mm fan (for CPU)
- Seasonic SIS-380 380w power supply
- Corsair ValueRAM 1 x 512MB
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB
- LightScribe combo optical drive
- Acer 17" LCD flat-panel monitor, 8ms
- AOpen laptop-style slim USB keyboard
- Logitech Marble USB trackball

The 80GB Seagate hard drive was quiet, and its heat should be manageable. For power, I selected Seasonic's SIS-380, which is efficient, quiet, and reliable. To save space and money, I chose a fanless MSI micro-ATX motherboard with onboard video, sound, and LAN. Intel's Prescott CPUs tend to be hot, but the Thermalright XP-90 is big and effective, especially when paired with a nearly-silent 120mm Nexus fan. I would have used Thermalright's larger XP-120, but I was concerned about its ability to clear the motherboard's components, and I didn't want the hassle of returning a product.


Installation

The vertical clearance inside of the enclosure was great for the PC, but it didn't leave me much room to reach towards the back of the space. The upper shelf was mounted using plastic retainers that must be broken in order to move the shelf. I couldn't be bothered to buy more of them at the time, so I left the shelf in place, and dealt with the smaller point of access.

Once I had decided on a layout for the components, I placed everything onto sections of foam to help minimize vibration. I didn't bother to spend any money on this at the time; the foam came from the retail and OEM packaging of various PC components.

The 17" flat-panel LCD monitor fit nicely on the selected countertop, but there wasn't enough room for a mouse and full-sized keyboard. We employed a spare Logitech trackball, and purchased a laptop-style keyboard, which fit perfectly.


The Initial Result

How did the initial venture turn out? Wonderfully! For the computer described above, all of our decisions were well-made, and our inferences were correct. We had an extremely useful and versatile PC, in the perfect location.

It's nearly silent; you can only hear it at about 2AM, when almost all ambient noise is gone, and whispers seem loud. Indeed, it is much quieter than a whisper under your breath. While I have not tested the PC with a decibel meter, would like to note that we live in a small city, and we have almost no ambient noise late at night.

Quiet usually means cool, so it should come as no surprise that the PC operates at very agreeable temperatures. I didn't use any stress-testing software, but the Prescott CPU idled at 32-34, and doesn't rise above 44 or so, even when running multiple heavy graphics and multimedia programs.

The only issue I encountered was that the PCI sound card was sometimes not recognized by Windows (XP Home SP2). I use the same card and OS in our HTPC without any issues, so I think that this might be caused by the fact that the card is held upright by the PCI slot alone. I haven't had time to address the issue, but I'll figure it out within the next few weeks.


The USB Hub

At first, I had installed a USB hub in the lower cabinet, in front of the PC. The hub would accomodate our iPod, digital camera, and whatever else, while ensuring that the motherboard was not moved at all. The concept was sound, but squatting to reach the hub became a bit of a pain, especially when we would upload just a few photos from the camera. The upload would take less than a minute, and we would end up squatting fully, twice in one minute. It wasn't a huge deal, since we're in very good shape, but it could be improved. Last week, I drilled a hole in the hidden side of the upper cabinet, and moved the USB hub into it. Around the hub, I left space to rest any connected devices. This relocation has proven to be much more convenient.


The Noise-and-Heat Machine

This past August, we were devoting too much attention to keeping hard drive space free on our HTPC. With only 180GB for TV, and four young children, we would fill the space within a few days, if we didn't constantly prune the hard drive. We decided to go all-out, and added two 250GB (232GB actual) Samsung Spinpoint internal drives. The Samsungs run about 8 degrees cooler than our 250GB Seagate 7200.9, and they sound more pleasant.

Our HTPC case, a Silverstone LC-13, only holds three hard drives, but we now have five in total. Not wanting to reinstall any software, I kept the 160GB Seagate in the HTPC, and installed the two new Samsung drives into it. That meant that the 250GB Seagate noise-and-heat machine had to move into the kitchen PC.

The kitchen PC didn't like its new team member. The CPU's idle temperature blasted up to 68, and both the 80GB and 250GB hard drives were roasting in the low-forties or high-fifties. The system was still running, but it actually overheated once, and had to be left to cool off for a few minutes before restarting.

I moved the 250GB drive to the front of the enclosure, right behind the intake. All temperatures dropped by ten degrees, and I could breathe again. It wasn't enough, though. I pulled out all of the components and removed any visible dust. I was shocked at the dust blocking the entire top of the CPU heat sink, but it's understandable, considering that the intake is at floor level. I need an intake air filter of some sort. Anyway, I removed the dust and repositioned both hard drives so that they stood upright just behind the intake. I also neated the cords, and placed everything onto higher-density foam, which had been used to package our new dining table. The new foam padding removed any trace of vibration, and the PC's temperatures are now back to normal, despite the presence of the hot 250GB drive. I can't quite say the same for the sound, but I still can't hear it now, at 22:00. If I open the cabinet, I can hear only the 250GB drive, but I can live with that.


What's Next on the Menu?

One day, we might want to watch recorded TV shows on the kitchen computer. However, I would prefer to build another HTPC in the basement, so that the kids could use that, and we could use the main TV and HTPC.

My wife and I have explored the idea of using a bar code scanner and PC database to keep track of how much food is consumed and needed. Now THAT'S tight, and I do mean strict! It sounds like a lot of fun, and it would only cost about $120 to implement such a system, but it would be challenging to make it accurate enough to be useful. What if you forgot to scan something, or scanned something twice? Whoops, another trip to the grocery store. The kids will get older, and I'm certain that they won't scan everything they eat. "Did you scan that water, young man?" Hahahaha! Maybe this won't happen, after all.

I'll post further developments as they develop.