It always feels weird to name these inanimate objects, but maybe it's the constant hanging out on F150forum.com that I've gotten used to the practice.
In all seriousness, this ol' girl has a name because we've been up to 30,000ft like it's a second home, to all different places over yonder and helped me see through the (not particularly enjoyable) events of the past few years. Sometimes being able to come back and fire up a game or movie or music or just sit there and stare at a webpage was all there was between me and something very, very rash.
Now, after years of hauling a Pelican 1510 that would weigh between 25-30lb through distant airports, all while sweating bullets (in addition to sweating normally because it's damn hot lugging that thing around) and fearing for what the gate agents on shift that day would say about my 1510, I think it may be time to wrap up that life. Yes, I do have a short stint remaining at school, which means I will need to fly there and back again with something that is not a laptop, but that will most likely be something along the lines of a Hades Canyon NUC; whether it's a HNK or HVK is something I have not yet decided, but all I know is that you will not find me twiddling my thumbs waiting for the debut of Intel's new dGPU, which will most likely be the centerpiece of the Hades' replacement - the Ghost Canyon NUC. That would also mean the retirement of my 1510 in its current role, as my new and miniature (in relative terms) Pelican 1300 in screaming yellow fits the bill far better for such a compact machine; I would just be putting the
dividers back in padded dividers and using it to house my camera gear.
This frees up Ol' Beastie to move to a roomier case, without the constraints of the 1510. While a Caselabs Mercury S3 or Nova X2M would have been an impeccable choice at this time, as my luck would have it, Caselabs no longer exists. With that in mind, the choice of case for the near future is still very much in question. I'm also having trouble deciding if I really want to give up the ability to take Ol' Beastie, fully protected, around town to friends' houses.
I think it's an elitist thing, lmao. The M1 is a little more premium than most mass market ones and I'm having some trouble accepting the prospect of going back to an NZXT (which still makes damn fine cases, by the way) or a Silverstone, kek. It's also a nice little case, and if I'm gonna be honest, nothing else is really pulling me in and giving a real reason to ditch the M1 as of yet.
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In the beginning, I was just tossing ideas around. In that warm spring of 2015, I had long since come to realize that I could not survive without the familiar feel of a desktop PC.
So at that point, the conclusion was that whatever I would use, I’d have to bring with me.
So I started with the Pelican 1510, ubiquitous amongst photographers everywhere. I picked pluck foam to start.
But what to make and how to make it? There were no guides on building a PC specifically to endure the rigors of air travel. What protection would I use? What case could I fit? Would air coolers and GPUs be safe, or would they transform into unrestrained weapons ready to tear through their sockets and slots at the slightest shock? Most AIOs might make it through security on a round trip……but
mostly wasn’t going to cut it, I was going to have to make it through CATSA/TSA/Border Force every single time, without fail, on my 4-6 flights a year.
Hell, even if you queried a forum for suggestions, they’d mostly just laugh and tell you to buy a laptop or build one at the destination. With the rise of SFF and uSFF, followed by the continuous revision of the M1 design and introduction of the SM550 and DAN-A4, it’s incredibly easy nowadays. There’s even a dedicated shoulder bag for the M1 and A4. But that sure wasn’t the case back then.
The SG08B-Lite popped up as a reasonable candidate, given its ability to fit the D9L, while still being under 15L in volume. The build came together as a i3-4160, H81I and R7 265 with a XFX Core Edition (Seasonic S12II) providing power, as for much of the time before my departure, it would only function as a secondary HTPC to my main rig. Sadly, Dropbox had a big fustercluck about a year later and deleted nearly all the photos I had of that setup.
September came, and off we went. It was the first time I was flying with such a thing. I very quickly discovered what many a photographer had at their chagrin – the stock plastic wheels on the 1510 are
horrible. If air travel wouldn’t break my PC, those wheels would make sure the PC would be shattered by the time it reached its destination. But carrying it was also heavy as hell (the SG08B-Lite has a full 10mm thick front panel made of
solid aluminium), so I did this awkward combination of wheeling it gingerly over smooth surfaces and carrying it the rest of the way.
I was so jumpy going through CATSA – not good vibes to have at airport security. The guy was nice and all, as well as curious to the components I had chosen, but out of the subsequent dozen opportunities, that first flight marked the one and only time my rig was ever swabbed for explosives.
Next challenge was the size of the carry-on. Air Canada had introduced these stupid “check your carry on size for fitment compliance” crates constructed from steel tubing, and it just so happened that the Pelican 1510, despite complying with literally every major airline’s standards, was slightly out of spec for Air Canada’s on one axis. Furthermore, it was also a couple of pounds too heavy. The gate agent was less than understanding at first, but after I explained everything at stake and that I simply could not accept checking it into the hold, he put a red tag on it and I got on. There were no further hiccups on that flight.
Things went well until 1) I got tired of carrying around 28lb in Heathrow Terminal 2; 2) my H81I started giving up on life. Given how the board looked by the end, I wagered that the horizontal motherboard placement and the weight of the D9L on top of it had done it in. As to the first point, little did I know, it was about to get a lot worse. Air Canada flights are generally ushered into Terminal 2 gates, a large, modern complex that manages to be airy and refreshing; most importantly, the floors are smooth tile. I switched to BA for their standard dimensions and generous 51lb carry-on allowance. British Airways flights to Western Canada come into Terminal 3, a literal fucking hellhole on Earth, where the floors were designed to destroy PCs like mine and the walk from the check-in to the lounge is a Long March in itself, while the lounge to whatever gate they announce is another Long March. The gate is always fluid and changing, only announced an hour prior to departure. Have fun getting 25lb to the gate within 20 minutes!
Over the next half dozen flights, I quickly learned to arrive at the gate early and get on early. Some lady might be trying to keep her Coach purse from contacting the filthy floor of the cabin, but my stakes are much, much higher – sorry ma’am.
And thus, next in line was a SG05. This drastically reduced the size of Ol’ Beastie and her weight as well, but meant a downgrade to a Silverstone 450W SFX as well as a L9x65. By this time, I had swapped in my 4790K instead, so major thermal problems were to be expected. From this time to my Ryzen 3000 upgrade in August 2019, that 4790K was underclocked to 3.5GHz.
The R7 265 also departed in favour of a GTX 750 Ti from EVGA. It was technically a downgrade in graphics performance, but Maxwell held two significant advantages – it was incredibly efficient in thermals and power consumption, and being EVGA, it supported a backplate, which I purchased for $15 extra. Given the nature of this computer, I take any extra rigidity and strength I can get. As for the dying H81I, a H97N-WIFI was substituted instead, with integrated 802.11ac MIMO WIFI being a breath of fresh air compared to the shockingly terrible USB 802.11n adapters of old.
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to be continued
. Just remember your hearing protection, ahahah. That thing gets loud.
