Nice one! Have a boot drive or two off USB and that’s sorted.
FreeNAS is very particular about hardware and probably wouldn’t like it. Openmediavault is not…
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Updated as of yesterday (2021 11 07): Complete PC in a Mechanical Keyboard! Retro Concept, Modern Hardware. - YouTube
Looks like the “Cyber Deck” theory is confirmed operational!
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I would like to see a small battery option as well. Something that only lasts a few minutes. All of my network equipment, and VM host have a battery of some kind already. UPS or laptop with built in battery. I think a small form factor battery (options of long tube, nice and flat, or something in between that would fit well against the board). Should not be a requirement, but it would be a value add when its upgrade time I would think.
I like the ideas of supplying power through the battery connector long term. Is there any issues that would occur by doing so? (firmware updates check if the laptop is plugged in, for example) and eventually maybe some kind of “shore power via battery connector” setting. That may be a laptop v2++ design issues, but would be interesting. You’d get an extra port back, and not be at the mercy of USB / TBolt for providing power.
This reminds me of how the Dell Vostro 3468/3568 and 3478/3578 shared the same exact board, with just the processors being different (Skylake/Kaby Lake 6th-8th Gen).
Back then, it was the closest to being a budget all-rounder, with the fewest flaws (not necessarily the least problematic, just the fewest) and a hot-swappable, user-replaceable battery (which from my testing, the smaller 41Wh battery lasted about 6-8 hours of normal usage, though there is a slightly larger battery that Dell switched to later, with 48Wh).
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And the Dell 9343/9350/9360 which cross from 5th gen to 8th gen. The chassis is the same, too, so you can get your old touchscreen (and fingerprint sensor) on the new models. In fact, you could just get the new one by getting a new motherboard and putting it in the old one.
They are keeping this trend in Latitude 5520(and more) and the Precision 3560(and more) sharing the chassis (and therefore motherboard and parts). Simplifies design but make the entry spec look half-baked when you can stuff those very-high-end silicon into the same chassis.