If you’ve ever wanted to see a Mini ITX motherboard converted into a working laptop, you’re in luck— SFF.Network memberAPU_enthusiast posted a completed build projecthighlighting just that, andFanlessTechbrought it to our attention because it is also passively cooled. Unlike active cooling (fans + heatsink or radiator), passive cooling relies entirely on a heatsink and natural air dissipation to get the job done, so generous breathing room is typically nice to have.
The actual build specs are fairly modest but still within usable ranges for basic computing and lightweight gaming/emulation. ASRock’s N100DC-ITX board is used alongside 32 GB of Mushkin Essentials DDR4 RAM clocked at 3200 MT/s and is connected to a 1TBMushkin Pilot-ENVMe Gen 3 drive.
The CPU in use is theIntel N100, which is integrated into the ASRock N100DC-ITX motherboard and offers 4 cores and 4 threads of Intel’sAlder Lakearchitecture. It also uses the Intel UHD graphics engine, which will limit it significantly compared to current-gen Intel iGPUs.
Those caveats stated, it’s still impressive to get all of this up and running off of a battery inside a custom enclosure that turns it into a dual-screened laptop. It can at least emulate Nintendo 3DS games, so can it really be that bad? Sure, something likeAyaneo Flip DScan emulate Switch in a yet-smaller form factor, but people make these projects for fun, not practicality.
Besides being a fully functioning Mini ITX laptop project, the use of dual screens here is particularly creative. As showcased in the images above and the original gallery, the bottom screen can either be used to further enhance emulation/media consumption or repurposed as a full touchscreen keyboard. Considering the design is being demoed with 3DS emulation, it seems this dual-screen choice was likely shaped by that workload.
Overall, it’s hard to really critique this project since it pretty much achieves everything it sets out to. The final result looks almost clean enough to be a consumer laptop (in a retro-futuristic 90s way, but still), though, of course, it can’t be expected to perform like a high-end gaming laptop.
The success of this project also makes us wonder how performant a “proper” Mini ITX laptop project could be, leveraging active cooling and newer board/CPU combinations likeASRock’s Core i9-capable MITX board. While chances are any such projects will require sizable external power bricks, the proof of concept for Mini ITX laptops is already here! Another SFF.Network guy already did it with “Thin ITX”, too.
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Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.
