When YouTube blogger Marcin Plaza set out to repurpose a broken laptop into a portable gaming PC, he didn't expect the end result to be something like a Nintendo DS with an ultra-wide screen. After a lot of trial and error, the result is a surprisingly thin device that runs many games without any problems.
When YouTube blogger Marcin Plaza set out to repurpose a broken laptop into a portable gaming PC, he didn't expect to end up with something like a Nintendo DS with an ultra-wide screen. After a lot of trial and error, the result is a surprisingly thin device that runs many games without any problems.
Initially, the blogger's sole purpose was to replace the motherboard from a broken 13-inch Lenovo Yoga 730 2-in-1. However, after hours of searching, he found that the only portable screen compatible with the laptop's motherboard was the BOE NV127H4M-NX1, a strange 12.7-inch 3:1 LCD panel with a resolution of 2880x864 and a 120Hz refresh rate. For this, it was necessary to create a clamshell body design, similar to the old Nintendo portable systems or some GPD pocket PCs, writes TechSpot.
After testing the screen, the YouTuber tried out some 3D printed cases and built a keyboard from scratch, his first custom printed circuit board. Plaza used a matrix of buttons to control 42 inputs while housing a control module small enough to fit inside a portable device.
The resulting computer has a basic keyboard, a large trackpad, shoulder pads, and four face buttons for control, similar to the left Joy-Con joystick on the Nintendo Switch. Despite using a 2018 motherboard with an Intel Core i5-8250U processor with 8GB of RAM and Intel UHD 620 graphics — much older and less powerful hardware than the Steam Deck or Asus ROG Ally — the blogger's ultrawide laptop runs smoothly games like Stardew Valley, Portal and Half-Life 2.
Ultra-widescreen support is gaining momentum in modern PC gaming, and Valve recently added it to Half-Life 2 to celebrate the game's 20th anniversary. While this feature isn't universal, playing non-ultrawide games on an ultrawide monitor leaves enough screen space for another window that Plaza occupies as a browser guide.
