The ULTIMATE Computer for The Apocalypse - A Cyberdeck Review. 

Definitely can be built for MUCH cheaper. The main selling point for it is that it's a pre-built package. The biggest barrier to entry for devices like this is the time associated with learning how to build it. FPV drones are currently experiencing the same market change; previously, you could only get into the hobby building a quad yourself. Now, it's commonplace to buy pre-builts for any expertise. I do recommend for those who have soldering and technical skills (as well as time and a little bit of programming might help), to just build one yourself! Though, if you're like me that is fairly busy and rather just trust someone with more experience to do it, then I might recommend a pre-built.

@@josehnegrete well but one of the points of an apocalypse pc is actually the 3d printed parts. Stuff will eventually break so preferably you want a package that can easily be fixed and printing spare parts as long as there is power or even just having the stl files is kinda in the same line of thinking. F.e. often cyberdecks have often redundant connections if something fries so as long as the SBC survives you can salvage everything. But great video though keep up the good work :D

@@hinnifreaxxx i agree with all of that! redundancy is important. I would say that having 3d printed parts isn't great. rather, i would prefer having parts that CAN be 3d printed in the future. nothing too complex, durable so you won't have to worry about replacing but replacableif you need them to be.

@@josehnegrete yeah so having the stl files / a blue print would be nice. I saw someone building a cyberdeck with wood in a pelican case which is basicly the opposite side of the spectrum. Personally i wanna build one eventually that has a lot of connectivity runs a small linux package has all the info that yours has and has some redundancy basicly so that if it breaks you can repair it if it fries you can make a new one so maybe a system on an SD card makes most sense.

Some people don't have access to tools, hardware stores, and the extra space to create one from scratch. Doesn't mean they can't make it theirs through customization. Building a gaming pc will always be cheaper than buying a triple A gaming console.

NEAT. I’m guessing you just gotta make sure it’s in a safe case (as all cyberdecks need), but it running on 18650s is a huge deal.

Definitely agree if you’re not moving, this isn’t as necessary. It’s a solution to a portability problem, though the built-in battery bank isn’t a terrible idea to have at home for charging items in a power outage.

I think the prospect of having it in a pelican case makes it essentially weatherproof and one less thing to worry about. If not, then a rugged dell laptop would also be just as useful

Ooooh I hadn't even thought about maintainability. That's a great way to go about it.

Currently learning to one day do my own :)

There's definitely space in it to hold items inside! I would say that I don't LOVE the idea of having built-in solar panels. What makes them effective is surface area, which this device doesn't have. I definitely would consider solar panels, but having them stay static or in a pack where they can be accessed when needed, but put away when not.

@@josehnegrete yup. Exactly why i said "foldable solar panels". 7-8 inch 4pcs pannels should be sufficient enough to recharge it.

NICE, best of luck :D

🫡

my personal stc

bro this comment got me the energy to post more, THANK YOU!!!

Avantgarde Labs, the creator of the device, does a faraday bag that fits the device to protect against EMPs. I would love however yes, if backup memories were provided in case of data corruption. Outside of that, I thing having LoRa would be a perfect improvement to this, as other devices such as the Base Station mentioned do provide this.

Bro, EMP is as good as fictional. Although it is possible to make one, having a good range than can effectively damage electronics would require an insane amount of energy to produce and a crazy huge coil size. This is exactly why you never see this weaponized anywhere in real world. And its very easy to counter - a simple faraday cage will protect any electronics inside.

@@randominternetviewer166 there are specific yield nukes which can be configured specifically for EMP burst, AFAIK China has an unknown number of such devices but others probably have them as well. Chinese doctrine apparently mentioned conditions under which they would be used - this may include intentional infrastructure destruction to power grids and communications infrastructure, probably mainly focused on civilian disruption. If they had "hot war" against a near peer they may be tempted to use them

From my understanding, Kiwix OS runs also on window, Linux, Mac, etc. The issue here is that the raspberry pi device is limited to certain repositories, meanwhile the PC OS versions have full rein on what they can install (assuming there’s a .zim file for them). I actually installed a zim reader on my personal computer, so I also have huge amount of info saved there.

Ahh my bad!! Thanks, yes I will be using trilateration from now on :)

Language models sound so freaking exciting, but I know I'll fail. When I was in high school I had trouble in the electrical section of my automotive class. In college I had trouble with comp sci 1 & 2. I will let other more experienced people figure out the details so I can make subpar review videos online lol

Question, what's that ai llm thing you mentioned?

@@mdredheadguy1979 a "local language model", so something like ChatGPT but run on my device.

@@josehnegrete oh, okay. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

The base station now features LLMs

I will definitely consider doing an impact resistance test in the future lol

@@josehnegrete I would like to see this, especially if you keep the test reasonable

I know a lot of people are making quick faraday cages for their devices with copper lining. That’s for future me to figure it out lol

Avantgarde sells a faraday bag that fits the ACID on their website; just found that out recently :)

Those toughbooks are great! I just liked the full waterproofing of the pelican style cases, but I did mention those laptops are killers and are a great consideration when looking at the ACID.

I dont see any for that price, as much as I would like to

Thank you so much!!!!!

The owner of the device sells a faraday cage for it! I've just been too busy to buy it lol

Thats a massive oversimplification. For one, the plague of unreliable capacitors that we tend to think of was largely due to specific manufacturing defects. The Xbox clock capacitor is known for failing, but playstation capacitors of the same age are more reliable for instance. For two, capacitors tend to wear out more if they aren't used/charged, i.e. any device that you're actually using will last *_far_* longer. For three, the 10-20 years estimate is like most dates and undersold, heavily weighting harsh, high temperature conditions compared to more favourable ones. You can buy laptops from 2001 that work fine even despite being kept in pretty piss conditions electrically. (Battery left at 0%, caps left at 0%, likely left in some dank basement, etc.) For four, different types of capacitors have wildly different wear rates. Electrolytics are the more infamous ones, but those are growing increasingly rare in consumer electronics. (Its entirely possible there isn't a single one in this entire box, though it probably does use them in the power supply it may not ) For five, if you're really concerned its not that hard to stock extras, though be mindful of proper storage procedures if you do since, again, electrlytics wear *_more_* when left uncharged. For six, harvesting caps from other scrap devices is always possible. For seven, if you're genuinely of the belief that you wont have any other computers more than two decades on then at that point your concerns ought to be cancer, congenital heart failure, etc. Even benign things like diaherra are killers without modern developments, so when you're pushing retirement age without any medical care that should probably take priority. For eight, printers exist. If there are any issues with this its the lack of proper wired connectivity for file transfers and backups to and from other devices, not cap failure.

If anything, the battery bank would likely fail after a few years. Though to be fair, it is a fairly easy part to replace in the build :)

Pi 4!

@@josehnegrete thanks for the video and thanks for the reply. Hopefully they're working on a pi5 version

@@phillipperez3358 the creator is sending me some parts that he considers an "upgrade". We'll have to see how those perform!!!

@@josehnegrete sweet. I'm looking forward to it. I subbed

I think the whole point of this giant suitcase is the huge Wikipedia back-up inside it. Really, think of this luggage-looking thing as a local encyclopedia, compared to a website that you need internet and an internet-capable device with a battery, just to access it.

@@Pickelrye That's my point - you could put a local copy of those files on a phone just like you could on this contraption. You can get 1TB microsd cards now, and you can also supplement with an external SSD if you feel you need more than that. Wikipedia (compressed articles with no media) is 22.14 GB. There's just nothing this device can do that can't be done more reliably with a phone, at a fraction of the size, weight and cost.

Essentially, this thing IS what you described. The Pi board is about the size of a cellphone. You can easily copy the files from the current SD card into others for backup. From there, you mentioned adding a keyboard which this already has, and portable chargers, which this is currently running but you can always add more. The device has space inside for upgrades, but you are mentioning the exact same thing, just a stripped-down version of it. I like the ACID because it's easier to read material off of it than a iPhone; it's the same reason people buy Kindles over reading books on their mobile devices. Screen size and ergonomics are great. Yes, I will definitely still have my phone on me when SHTF, but in the meantime, I think this ends up being a good alternative. There's nothing wrong with the phone method you described! But yes, some of us like the cyberdeck Fallout fantasy, especially since all roads lead home :)

@@josehnegrete It just seems to me like it would be less reliable. I am a big fan of the Pi; i was an early adopter in 2012, and currently own about 15 of them. The Pi itself is very reliable, but when you cobble something like this together, it's not going to be a finely tuned package like a phone. I'd rather take out the guts of that case and just fill it with several identical phones. Don't get me wrong, it's really cool, it's just not what I would want if the s really did hit the f.

Also, I would prolly try to use a numpad as the keyboard to save space. You know like them old phones without the keyboard.

@@euroclydonftw9676 That's a good consideration, and I'm tempted to try it... I guess my biggest worry is that you add more points of failure with a second pi?

@@josehnegrete With a single pi, can you download info with a flash drive?

@@euroclydonftw9676 idk to be honest with you D:

Mainly aesthetic, but also for their durability. Due to the way the layers are placed, and depending on the material, it's really not a good idea to use 3D printing for longevity. 3D printers are mainly for prototyping, not manufacturing. There is unfortunately a 3d printed part in this device, but I forgot to talk about it in the video :(

Definitely thinking about just doing this lol

The creator does sell a faraday case that fits the device on his website, which is linked in the description! From my understanding, that will survive EMP :)

Definitely for those not technically included. I had a rough time just installing Raspberry Pi OS lol. Even though I got it to run, I couldn’t imagine installing triple boot OS, cyber tools, and .zim repos :(

This is what most people do I feel like, especially if you use Kiwix. Backup servers for the end of the world can be lifesavers.

​@@josehnegrete ru-vid.com70jGsivx4zI?feature=share here is sneak peak :) but i have issue with heat management, i can only run for like 9 hours completely closed :) before i start getting overheating issues. but you know not easy to solve with out water cooling loop. i wonder how acid does after 9 hours or so ? i don't see any vents there.

:(

I think the Pi runs fairly good even in hot environments; even if, it's generally rated to only throttle to 1GHz, or even 750MHz worst-case-scenario. It's more likely to run hot if it were running advanced programs, to which the ACID has done. Doing read-only should keep it fairly safe and comfortable. However, I do wish it could run off more than just the built-in power. 12V power is nice! Does it run for a long time on it's own power, or does it always need external?

No!!!! That's what this will hopefully counter :)

Absolutely. The Pi itself is $45, memory card probably $25, Nanuk case $75, screen probably $50~, keyboard probably $25, battery bank also probably $50-75. I think for those who don't have the tech skills to put it together, as well as want something that's a CLEAN build with good cable management and custom face plates, then this is why you would buy it. I definitely encourage those who can build it to do so! If anything, you'll learn a lot about maintenance and can customize it to your own liking. I however don't really have the time to spend, since I have tried and failed in the past and ultimately burned out on the project.

books aren't waterproof :(

I think 300gb still might be a little tiny if you wanted everything, plus faraday cases aren't even that expensive :) But definitely! I mainly wanted this for the cool look, the waterproof when closed, and it being all set up.

Hopefully there'll be an option to just have an upgraded one installed :D

i think the creator sells a faraday box on his website :D

God dammit, no you’re right. I definitely need to reduce the key light. I’ve got a PC monitor that doesn’t reproduce highlights in editing too well, so I always end up guessing. I gotta watch those wave forms!!!! And yes on the script tips. I’m having issues when I try bullet points because I feel as if I miss things (hell, i missed things on this specific review anyways), so I tried writing full script. I definitely prefer bullet points more lol

@@josehnegrete I know its nitpicking, but i recently got into photography and editing photos and I have started to notice these things more. any way GLHF.

⁠@@battleforevermoreno I’m 1000% about it. I’m actually a full time professional photographer and I know the only way to improve my work is to accept good criticism, which yours is. Thank you :)

I've also got some survival books and general maintenance manuals, but I think the big reason for stuff like this is the amount of space it takes up is minimal compared to all of the information you can put on it. It's a big reason why Kindles outsell both printed hardcover and paperback combined. I still think classic paper is the way to go in most cases, but I can't carry around a bookshelf most of the time unfortunately. I'll still be carrying one or two on me at all times however.

"Ah yes, let me make sure to grab my 357 different books in survival, medicine, etc when SHTF" 🫵😑

I don’t understand this 😭

Honestly after I’ve watched this video 10 times, I realized how cringe the intro was and how badly it was delivered sorry :(

No worries, I'm a picky bastard anyway. Good luck. 👍

Topic like this, with the ultra-soothing music, prevents me from watching much of it at all. Thanks

@@kwokallsafe5642 If you don't mind me asking, why does ultra-soothing background music and this topic made this unwatchable? I'm hoping to get better at editing and making videos, so I'm genuinely curious. Sorry the video didn't meet the expectations :(

@@josehnegreteIf talking about "the end of world scenario" - It would be jarring (to me), to have this ultra-soothing music in the background - indicating that everything is ok. Sorry but unable to watch the rest of your video - got to vid-count 3:39. There might have been something really good in there, but never going to see it, or heard it. Thanks for your efforts. There just might be something wrong with me.

I can't make one because I'm dumb! This is the reason I ended up spending more money buying a pre-built device instead of just building it myself to save money. However, I do believe that anyone can give their opinions on things without having to be experts. I am voicing my concerns in the hopes that this device can improve in future iterations, because I would LOVE for it to perfect on the cyberdeck aesthetic. I don't know how to do it on my own, and I know that when I've tried, I've failed. The video is not to bash on it, but to hope it improves.