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PC TV?
I have a TV hanging on the wall of my kitchen. It’s nice, but it’s not a computer. How can I get a microcomputer glued to its back panel with Bluetooth connections to a keyboard and mouse? I was thinking about stripping down an old laptop, attaching its working parts to the back of the TV, and using a wireless mouse and keyboard with it. It would need Wi-Fi, as well as Windows. — Gary Dent
THE DOCTOR RESPONDS:
The problem with stripping down a laptop is that its parts have been custom designed for that specific model and manufacturer, and the case designed around it.
While some laptops are easier to disassemble than others—Google your manufacturer and model with the words ‘service manual’ to find a detailed manual— there’s still the question of what to do with the bespoke components inside. You won’t, for example, be able to rehouse them in a standard or mini form factor case; in fact, you’d almost certainly need to build your own custom case designed for the components you’ve plundered.
Long story short, the costs, expertise, and time involved in such a project—with no guarantee of success at the end of it—are prohibitive in the Doc’s eyes. Depending on the size of the TV and the strength of its mount to the wall, you could consider simply fixing the laptop behind it with the lid permanently closed.
If you go down this route, you’ll need to disable any power controls such as sleep or shutdown associated with closing the lid, plus configure it to ignore the built-in display in favor of the TV. Then pair an external wireless keyboard and mouse to it via Bluetooth and hey presto: a clunky, but working PC behind the TV.
Perhaps a better approach is to consider investing in a mini-PC—one designed to be
affixed to the back of a display using its VESA mounts. These are surprisingly affordable, if low-powered. The Intel
NUC 10 series is one to look out for—these barebones systems require you to add your own RAM, storage, and copy of Windows, and come in a staggering number of configurations to suit every pocket and purpose.
Better still, NUC 10s use laptop-friendly SO-DIMMs, so there’s a possibility you could marry up a system to your old laptop to enable you to salvage the RAM and storage from your old system. For example, if your laptop supports the older DDR3L RAM, then an Intel NUC BOXD3401 system is a good budget choice, sporting a 4th generation Core i3 processor for just $289, but it’s a bit bulky for sitting behind a wall-mounted TV and there’s no built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Search newegg.com for ‘Intel NUC BOXD34010WYKH’.
The newer Intel NUC 10 BXNUC10i3FNKN1 costs just $329 (also newegg.com), supports SO-DIMM DDR4
2666 RAM, and has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi built-in. It’s also powered by a newer 10th generation Core i3 processor, and more powerful i5 and i7 models are available for a premium. This also has a much slimmer case, making it more suitable for placing behind a wall-mounted TV.
Win11 SSD slowdown
First of all, thank you for your awesome magazine and talented authors who write informative articles. I was reading about SSD slowdowns related to Win11 and Samsung SSDs in your latest issue.
I just conducted a performance benchmark of my Samsung 970 EVO Plus and have noticed that it is slightly slower than before I updated to Win11. I’m thinking that this might be more of a firmware issue rather than an issue with Win11. What do you think?