I built a Handheld Gaming PC! (2021) 

Hey guys! I hope everyone had a happy holidays and new years. Just a reminder this is still a work in progress and less about being a practical device and more just to see what I’m able to put together. I have big plans for 2021 and a lot of ideas, but if there’s something specific you’d like to see let me know. -Matt

Nintendo sweating bullets rn

FINALLY, was waiting for this 👌

It's a switch on steroids

This guy took the quote "fine imma do it myself" to a whole new level.

I can only imagine how awesome this would be with a 3d printed case!

This is awesome :)

Awesome work!

I've been wanting to do something like this, very cool!

Awesome work! Looking forward to the next one!

Awesome dude! Do you need help with 3D designing? I have multiple year of experience in fusion 360 I can help you with the basics or maybe design the case

Interesting build, love the initiative. This looks like a real DIY alternative to all those mini PCs on the market.

Despite the amount of difficulty you went through to build this, this looks like a super sun and inspiring project to make!

I thought this was one of those “gta v iOS free” tutorials from like 3 years ago lol

Nintendo: "PLACE HIM ON THE TERRORIST WATCH LIST NOW!!!" Great stuff, you deff have Tony Stark DNA.

Working on and modding retro consoles and PCs, board level or otherwise, has taught me more than anything about electrical engineering topics, repair, power delivery, AV and more.

This is like Iron Man 1, dude is just getting started making awesome tech. Well done sir. 👏

This is absolutely incredible. Who cares if it isnt "perfect" or doesnt have a 3d printed case, this is a rad 1st step. Keep doing these awesome projects

Bro you’re crazy (in a good way). This was really interesting to watch

You’re my favorite tech channel. There are a lot of other good channels but they typically only stick to the mainstream stuff of building pcs using the same steps. You step out and push what you can do with pcs. Making a handheld gaming pc, making a super small gamecube pc, and cramming itx builds in to small modified cases are what bring me back

Matt! Please build another one using a newer APU maybe the upcoming 5th gen apu? It would be sick a handheld device. Keep up the good work!

This man’s 100 steps ahead of us.

imagine taking this to an airport to play while your bored and the security sees that.

Dude this is better than every handheld gaming system on earth right now bro.

Dont mind me i just want this vid to be in the algorithm cause this is freakin cool

Damn i underestimated firstgen ryzen so much Looks like ryzen 5000H and u version is gonna be 🔥 720p60 shud be no brainer

This is pretty cool. It's nice to see other people making portable PC gaming solutions. I'm currently using a HP ProTab 608 G1 which gives me enough juice to play games like Skyrim, Tomb Raider 2013, Rocket League and Mafia 2 at no higher than 1024x768. For storage I have individual games installed to SD cards similar to Switch game cards. As for controls, I'm using a iPega PG-9167. It's small enough to keep the whole thing from looking like I'm gaming on a laptop but probably as big as the Wii U GamePad. Today I had to change my docking solution as my official ProTab dock lost USB connectivity today :( -aside from that My whole setup makes for lots of fun hours, PC gaming on the go!

This is so cool, I love seeing builds like this. amazing just amazing.

People like you are changing our world. "Cyber punk 2021👀👀"

you build Steam Deck before it was mainstream :D

This! Is a genuine DIY handheld PC not just a monitor! Excellent work

11:05 now i know his last name.

I swear this was exactly what I had been planning with lattepanda SBC. Great project subscribed.

This is gonna be difficult for everybody including me, Matt.

One of the Most realistic DIT on youtube if I ever seen one. Since He said "It just works" is when I knew this is a real one

Hey awesome stuff! I’ve done some handheld projects, know 3D modeling and learning pcb design. Would be interested to know what improvements you have in mind for this!

08:40 dear my suggestion is maybe you should try put everything in the square box just like the Mini PC that's attached at the back of LCD, make a custom square box , fit everything necessary inside it, both the controllers at sides , mount LCD panel over it. Will look much better. Take example of Ryzen Handled, how all ports n stuff are managed inside.

dude, u a genius.

This dude has researched so much great determination

Dell at CES 2020: look at our Alienware UFO handheld gaming PC, cool right? (Silence for a whole year) TechByMatt: Fine, I will do it myself!

This is an awesome device, and I'm glad you showed so much of the construction. A device with a newer APU could work, but I was thinking that an MX250-equipped Dell Vostro 5390 mobo could work in its place.

holy shit this is sick, would buy this

Looks great dude. I admire people like you who do shit they think of. If you can build a nice case for it its basically something i would buy .

whats the controller you used?

I just love this platform it's not just meme or reaction based but also filled with lots of genius whom watching alone inspires lots

Run Yuzu on it! Just curious to see how emulation would work.

I can't wait until this idea becomes a real marketable product. This type of product would allow me to game twice as much at times such as car pooling to work when a laptop would be very impractical to use.

Switch, but it can play warzone

I like this alot. No need for expensive parts or hardcode 3d modeling/printing to get an idea started :) The route is the goal^^

what are the dimensions of the temp casing

this is one of the coolest videos ive seen in the pc modding community in a very longtime! this is super cool and cant wait to see an update when you make it even more refined!

Smach Z be like: *Immediate sadness*

Here I am DIY-ing a laptop to AIO and this man... put a whole laptop in the palm of his hand AWESOME content as always matt

you should build a really powerful pc in a Xbox series x chase

Now this is something i don't really see people doing. This is amazing! Hope to see more off the wall projects like this

can it run cyberpunk?

That’s pretty freakin awesome, I’d like to see more laptop board projects like this, all sorts of things you can do.

Gonna put a RTX 3090 on the back of my phone so I can run RU-vid at 99999999 FPS

Just a few days before seeing this video I had an idea of doing the same thing you are. I am glad that you are able to make a working handheld. Good luck

*"I'll pay 50 dollars for one"*

Omg, I just started thinking seriously about it yesterday, and here you are!

What an amazing video, I've been wanting to do this exact thing with my 13" touch OLED I was given at christmas I was too nervous... But you've inspired me to finally do it but I wanted a razor or tuff laptop with Rtx and t so a can increase the battery size...much love from the UK thank you for the inspiration!

this is my favourite video on youtube

This is awesome! I hope that you can eventually find a board with an Iris XE, and maybe collaborate with a 3D modeler to build a case.

How has this not gone viral?

This is clever as hell. Great prototype build. If the battery power is fried, you could look into getting some batteries to match the output of the power adapter and have power input through that for portable mode. It Will probably add more bulk than you want, and probably require some sort of BMS for charging. Looking forward to seeing more.

Dude thats pretty cool, hope your battery, wifi card & speaker can work well

A very proud build I must say ! Jumped from watching a raspberry pi custom build to this. I am not leaving disappointed lol

thats 1 awesome gaming console!!!much better than any handheld device out in the market now.you"ll be rich once you own the patent for that.

This is amazing. It makes me appreciate companies like gpd to make triple A games viable handheld like this

Nice achievement mate, a great start to handheld building. I'm sure with some reading and trial and error, you will sort a printed case. Mad hobby bench setup, tool's etc.

Bro... You genius.... I've been looking for ideas

This is awesome Matt! Your skills keep improving and it's fun to watch, keep up the great work!

I would love to see and updated video after you "fix" the battery and make it actually perfect. As far as i can see this is a great machine so keep going 🔥👍

If you really want to get the cables to take up less room, you could always unsolder the ports and solder the wired directly to the board.

You made what I have been imagining of building

Just needs a nice cleaned up case to finish it off, really awesome build!

I want to start off by saying this is quite impressive. Not many people have the drive and the wherewithal to figure out what components need to be sourced, source them, and figure out how best to put them together to wind up with a handheld gaming device using all off the shelf components, just on a whim. That said, there are a few things I would change. That fan mount is ... horrifying, and it looks like it could break at any second. Personally I would have put the fan off to the right over the power delivery section of the board rather than over the RAM so that it could lie flat. I know heatpipes are made of copper and therefore fairly durable but it still looks like it's going to snap or something, to say nothing of what if you need to replace the RAM? I understand that keeping the RAM cool could be an issue, but most laptop enclosures don't bother with RAM fans and they seem to work fine, and putting a blower style fan fan over the RAM probably isn't going to do all that much since it sucks in from the bottom and out the sides. As for USB-C not working, some USB-C cables are directional. Most cables are wired to allow the computer to do auto-detection, but with some, one end is fixed to be the host and the other end is the device, and since with USB-C both ends are physically the same, it's not always obvious which end is which, especially if the manufacturer doesn't go out of their way to tell you. Sometimes you need to bridge a solder pad on the breakout board at the end of the cable to indicate to the computer that it's supposed to be the host end before it will detect any connected device. As for the battery, all HP laptops, everything from gaming laptops to chromebooks (don't ask me how I know) will refuse to charge a battery if they can't communicate with its internal circuitry to make sure its charge history is okay and that applying power to it isn't going to literally end in fire. If the chip on the battery (or the circuit on the laptop mainboard that communicates with it) was fried by connecting battery voltage to a communication pin, the system will force itself into discharge-only mode. It could be either that was damaged, and you should definitely try replacing the battery, but unfortunately given that batteries ship pre-charged to around 50%, and the laptop board doesn't output power for charging until it's sure the battery is in place, it's more likely you fried the I2C controller on the mainboard.

This is a mad lad move. Looking forward to where you go with this!

Matt is super underrated and i don't know why... it kinda makes me sad.. matt deserves more

Jesus man watching this has sparked some crazy ideas for me. Thanks for the upload!!!

Dude you are an absolute revolutionary genius. Good show!!!!

Dan good job man. Better than anything I could build.

Crude but dope! Don’t stop what you’re doing, you’re heading in the right direction for sure. Microsoft or Sony should hire this guy, I would! This would be his video resume’.

This is so awesome dude, I always wanted to try something like this

For the usb, disolder the usb for from the main board, do it also for the cable then solder it together

He is the only guy doing this I can’t wait for the final project

Love this idea, always love these unorthodox PC builds! If money wasn’t an object I probably would have grabbed a ryzen 3000/4000 based embedded SoC and 3D print a shell that fit the controller pcb too just for rigidity. If you do another like this in the future maybe try a NUC board or tiger lake based system that has the horses for 1080p. Keep up the good work!

Great job. I’m really impressed and you inspired me for my DIY projects.

This should be mass produced. Imagine playing Warzone on the go. It'll super dope!

Kid me always wanted to play Xbox, or PS2 games on the go. Switch is definitely the closest I can get to that by playing Assassins creed or Witcher wherever, but this is the next level

Great video buddy. It was fun to watch.

This is so cool. 3D printed case would really bring the project home.

This is actually insane

Very nice! I think a 3D printed V2 would be nice to see. I'm currently working on a similar project but it's using a PS4 Slim motherboard, a custom USB Type C power supply, custom cooling solution, a modded Dualshock 4 controller and a 3D printed case. And an 11.6" IPS display. Sadly, I don't think it would be feasible to make it battery powered. The PS4's power draw is just simply too much for anything with decent battery life. If I really need to, I can still power it from a beefy powerbank for ~1h. A small advice: Ditch the USB ribbon cables and either solder directly to the PCBs (specifically the laptop motherboard) and/or use USB breakout boards and normal cables. It will work for peripherals since it's only USB 2.0 anyways. Also, a great way to get started with 3D CAD modeling is Autodesk Fusion 360. It's fairly straightforward and VERY well documented. When making a case for electronics, it's usually a good starting point to take a high quality picture or to make a scan of your PCB (straight down from the top) on a white surface. You can then import the image and scale it 1:1 to the real dimensions. This makes it very easy to get stuff like mounting holes just right without having to measure everything.

I was wanting to make this for years. But my method would have entailed an asrock desk mini with a ryzen apu and noctua low profile mobo. I thought of just mounting it someto the back of a touch screen small enough to fit in one of those switch style controllers and use m.2 for storage. Still yours is way better and looks pretty professional. An acrylic back to show off the internals would be wicked. Good job and I'd love to try it some day.

So, basically turning a laptop into a Switch. Very nifty.

Great vid! Your USB C ribbon cables gave me a great idea to run a Gameboy Advance Lipo battery mod to the rear or even top of the console instead of the bottom. Was looking for a USB C right angle that bent along the longer side of the USB C connector instead of the short side so that the cable would run to the right or left, if that makes sense lol. Look forward to the next iteration! :)

Bro you did a awesome job I love it looks roughly around the edges but still wow 🤩 I can only imagine if you had a way to make like a aluminum shell around it great job I look forward to hearing more about it as you go 👍🏼🔥🔥🔥

Well this project just earned you another subscriber.. great work. I am motivated to try this out for myself now