Alternative to a standard case? Consider the Carbon Fiber edition

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I do like the "official" X16 case and have one. But I also wanted a sort-of "arcade cabinet" feel variant of an X16 - and also one that was "portable" ("carry-able?") in that it didn't have any dangling wires.

So, I came up with this. No screws, all carbon fiber (except a few magnets also).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sNIyPpBPqM

And it last over 10 hours, including with screen on and audio blasting. A Boom Box like this would have been great in the 80's! Jam away, then flip down the keyboard and program the thing too.

Have fun ya'll !

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Attached high rez for reference.

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2nd set with annotations

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Some notes on putting this together:

Tools: Table Saw (straight cuts and 45deg angle cuts) and a Drill Press. I used masking tape to help mark the spots for the ATX holes. A few holes are sort of deep (far into the board), so a larger drill press helps. Be patient with the holes, do start with the pilot and work your way up to the larger diameters. And maybe its my imagination, but placing some tape over the holes as they are being drilled seems to help (at keeping the edges of the holes cleaner). Some soldering and heat-shrink tubing was needed to size of the cables more appropriately, but having the 1-inch stand off for the X16 board gives a lot of room for shoving cables behind the board (especially gamepad cables, since I'll have a 4-port gamepad setup on this).


Carbon Fiber: I had hoped to just use a single 300x400 sheet, but I ended up using two (the second one being slightly smaller 200x300mm). The second piece was needed for the center "sprites" cover between the speakers and the "mouse cup" (both are magnetically attached, since gluing them would then block access to ever being able to disassemble the board for future changes) - so it is optional, but does make it look much better. I went with 5mm thickness, since I wasn't sure how top-heavy the monitor was going to end up being. If I ever make another, I might try 3mm or 4mm thickness to try and shave off some weight. A little sandpaper (or "sanding sticks") of various grits can help soften up some of the sharp edges, or little burrs after drilling holes.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DZPY8WR
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GCYG6L5

USB spitter: I sacrificed one of these to connect the single-USB male end directly to the 5V pin on the I2C port (can use the 5V on the FP pins also, if want even more USB power plugs).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LGCT8XC

Reset Button: 12mm, note it comes with heat-shrink wrap, so you still have to apply that yourself also.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W9JGZVM
Power Button: 12mm. This one comes with the heat-shrink wrap already on.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PPD7LWB

Tape: 3M VHB Mounting Tape 1-inch square, 30 piece set (and I did end up using all of them). I didn't want "too strong" but also not weak tape. For things like the SD2IEC, the battery, and SD-card reader. I didn't want to mess with any bolts or screws (except for the X16 mainboard itself).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PBKTRHF

Glue: Starbond 4 oz. Medium CA Glue. I'm no expert about modeling glue, although I did use some CA glue to help secure the string tightening pins in an old piano I had restored. This glue worked well for me on bonding the carbon fiber pieces together. It does bond very quickly (<15 sec) and a little bit goes a long way (I used a tad too much in a couple places and it did end up running after tilting the board). The really-thin tips this comes with helped a lot. I ended up just gluing down the PS/2 connector extensions also.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1WD4JHP

Magnets: I had some better magnets, but looks like I used most of them on my MiniPET case and other projects. In the 80's, magnets near a computer were a no-no because of the magnetic disk drives and hard drives. These days, solid-state data medium gives us a lot more flexibility. I found these 0.8inch magnets and, in groups, they do a decent enough job at securing the central cover between the speakers and holding the "mouse cup" in place. I didn't want to bond them into place, because the ATX screws are behind these areas, and I may want to access those in the future.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K7KT4R5

Power: Iesooy DC 12V 300W 24Pin ATX picoPSU. Since I also wanted to power the monitor, I went with the 300W. Also, it's subtle, but pay attention to which side the cables are on. I wanted one where the cables are on the same side as the 24-pin ATX connector "clip", or facing "out" from the X16 board (instead of facing in and covering a bunch of stuff on the X16 board as all the cables circle back around). And this is where some soldering is needed, on those 12V lines to adapt to whatever barrel input the monitor ends up needing for power. I was also a little proud that I used the drill press to make a "beveled-hole" (just using a slightly larger diameter bit to go about halfway through the board), allowing the power connector to be completely flush (so maybe a 5mm thick board is better for that).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHS14Q6B

Monitor: Eyoyo 12 Inch HDMI Monitor (also with BNC, VGA, AV, S-Video) and is a 4:3. It's not a super great monitor (in terms of contrast ratio), but is versatile (on inputs) and works with 12V. My biggest complaint is that this monitor takes a very long time to power up, which is very unfortunate since the X16 itself boots up so quickly. The X16 is under 3 seconds, while this monitor takes like 8-10 seconds to finally get in sync and start showing stuff. But the mounting base works out, two large bolts and you can slide this monitor as desired (that's what the central "sprites" cover is covering, is those two large bolts). Note that I proportioned the board so that you can lay it flat to work on the X16 board (see below), and tilt this monitor up (except on this prototype, I goofed a little and am about half an inch too low on the mounting holes- I have to disassemble it all to correct that, but have some other ideas on how to address it also). This "tilt-mode" is why the buttons are arranged how they are. Another note, this monitor itself has speakers but I'm not using them. I noticed this monitor would give off some noticable high pitch noises, but I found just plugging ANYTHING into the 3.5mm audio jack would eliminate that noise (so I have just a dead plug in the audio input of this monitor).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N6B5EA5

PS/2 Extensions: PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard Extension Cable 6 Pin 1.64 Feet Male to Female for PC. These are kind of optional, but I didn't want anyone needing to mess around with the back side of the X16 board (because of the tilted monitor support). Actually, what I do need is some nice 90degree angle PS/2 adapters. They are hard to find since I imagine they are very niche request item. I did end up finding one eventually, but they were more expensive than I wanted to pay just yet. Having these would help give a little more clearance in tilting the monitor back.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTHSV5K5

Speakers: Some generic "RGB-enabled" USB powered speakers. Not the best, but not too bad - I especially like the little control-fob that it comes with, for volume, lights, and a quick mute button. I don't have the best audiophile ears, but even I noticed a bit of odd noise -- either from the X16 itself or these speakers. I noticed when dialing the volume down pretty low. So I found that adding a "ground loop noise isolator" absolutely made a difference in making that noise go away (thanks to MooingLemur for suggesting these). But another benefit is that this is a way to extend the audio port too, into a more friendly "headphone" kind of jack (or if you want to pipe the audio over to a more substantial speaker system). I've been wondering, my battery pack has a 9V port, what if I just juiced these speakers to 9V instead of 5V? (or even if the power source doesn't have that, there are these small "DC-DC step-up converters" that I've used in other projects to get those other power levels)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CL3XVDLS
Ground Loop Noise Isolator:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XQYN77L

Battery: Talentcell Rechargeable 72W 100Wh 12V/8300mAh 9V/11000mAh 5V/20000mAh DC Output Lithium ion Battery Pack. This was intended for a different project, but the size and capacity worked out for this. Keeping it at the base counter balances the weight of the monitor. Comes with a "splitter" so I can charge while also using the system. Decent pack, only issue is I've been trying to think of an easy way to relay the power-remaining LED indicators more forward (such as by using fiber optic "glow" cables, or maybe a slant mirror that also magnifies). And while it would be a little extreme, but longer term an SMC mod or something where we could use the "OS-key" maybe to cycle-power using the keyboard would be nice (I think this was discussed in the Discord once, and maybe ended up as not very practical over PS/2?). Anyway, it's been about "3 hours per LED power-remaining light", so with 4 lights I'm thinking this might go 12 hours on a full charge. Even half that is plenty good enough for me.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01337QXMA

SD-card extenders: Self explanatory, to extend the SD-card like all the other X16 rear ports.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SYFCG17
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M22RI5U
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086MWCTWG

Carrying-Strap: I did try making my own strap, such as with a rubber "rope" in a nylon sleeve. But it's actually really important for a strap to be secure at the ends, with no chance of unraveling, or a button coming undone, and that you really trust to carry the equipment. It's still about 20lbs altogether. I tried a few variations, and eventually settled on this leather strap, that wraps nicely around the stand of the monitor with a buckle that I fully trust. Note, I verified the buckles themselves are non-conductive, so no chance of shorting the X16 board.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09V5CQ45Y

The main last finishing touch is I plan to extend all 4 gamepad ports to the "front", and also some plans in extending the user-port for some ideas down the road. And, looking into some options for some slide-adjustable arms or a tray, to hold a keyboard in place while also carrying the system (might also use magnets there too). Meanwhile, looking into wireless PS/2 options.



BELOW: The "shelf" support at the "front" of this mounting board was sized so that this board would stay level when tilted 90 degree, so you could work on the X16 side conveniently while the monitor was tilted up. It still fully runnable in either mode. I'd call this more the "desktop" mode, versus the "standing/carry-able" mode (or maybe "arcade mode").