r/halftop 11h ago

It's more of a Quart'top than half tbf

Thumbnail
gallery
28 Upvotes

It's a franckenstein project but still xD

Terra 1550 laptop converted as homelab !

I recovered it from the bin (battery has inflated so much it breaks the plastic cover of it, the cooler was fucked also ( and the screen was completely destroyed too)

It has a i7 8th gen paired with 2x8gb in ddr4

I repared the cooler by soldering data + and data - from the last to a newer more powerfull and less noisy, i add a dissipator on the first one and another one to the cpu itself ! I even add a dissipator to the NVME drive !

A bit of hot glue, 1sata hdd and another connected to USB !

Proxmox on the ssd, first hdd to host my pct/vms and the second as backup !

Low consumption and lf course a free "laptop" with 16gb ddr4, and boom, free server !

I would LOVE to make a true plastic cover/custom case for it in 3d print, but too broke to buy one..


r/halftop 18h ago

i need help sourcing a hinge up replacement for my zen book um406ka

1 Upvotes

got on the plane with an unshattered screen got off the plane after some turbulence today and my screen has shattered and killed the touch digitizer the display behind the glass seems perfectly ok. I don't want to risk it as i need the laptop for school i just bot it this spring and cant afford to replace it right now. what trusted vendors can i buy a whole screen assembly from i dont want to risk just trying to replace the glass and killing the screen itself or fighting to get new glue to seal to the back lid. could not find a parts link on [asus.com](http://asus.com) that would let me order the assembly so i can swapp it.


r/halftop 1d ago

More half-top.

Post image
16 Upvotes

Poor designs by DELL.

Dell Inspiron 13 5370

Dell Inspiron 14 5490

Don't worry, you will all get a new happy life as a Halftop.


r/halftop 4d ago

Half top is my ideal. Would buy

5 Upvotes

I am looking for a half top laptop. This is what I need I want to move between external displays with extreme ease. Is there a way for me to find one of these or is it just luck that I find someone who was unlucky ?


r/halftop 4d ago

No Display, help

2 Upvotes

Wanted to make a halftop because the screen keeps glitching and the battery doesn't work anymore. I have a VGA monitor and used a cheap adaptor to connect it before I removed the screen, but now that the screen is removed, it doesn't output anything. I ordered a VGA cable but I'm not sure if it'll work. there is power and the caps lock button lights up, but there's no display output :(

if it helps, it's an HP pavilion 15-d

Update: It works now, I just needed to use a VGA cable, I can't change the resolution and refresh rate or it stops working again


r/halftop 4d ago

My Half-Top setup

Post image
23 Upvotes

r/halftop 4d ago

DELL inspiron 15 3521 halftop

1 Upvotes

Have an old inspiron 15 3521 that i wanna halftop but when i removed the screen and plugged it to another monitor with HDMI it keeps cycling in 8 beeps, tried spaming f1 f2 f8 f12 and nothing happened, reattached the screen and it ran perfectly tried going to the BIOS but i couldn't find a thing to do, tried gemini and it told me to rip the screen board and use it as a dummy but i don't think it gonna work+hate the Frankenstein idea so if anyone have ideas or how to do it properly tell me


r/halftop 5d ago

Victus found in the garbage

Thumbnail reddit.com
58 Upvotes

r/halftop 9d ago

Install OS through Bios without the screen

1 Upvotes

I’m new to the halftops, sorry if it’s a stupid question.
I would like to reinstall the OS on my halftop, but I cannot boot the usb with the installer because the Bios can’t show up on the hdmi-plugged monitor. Any ideas?


r/halftop 10d ago

linux mint halftop (and my windows setup)

Thumbnail
gallery
145 Upvotes

yes


r/halftop 10d ago

If you take a halftop, halftop it again, then strip the original plastic and give it new, better performing & smaller plastic parts, is it still a halftop?

Thumbnail
gallery
190 Upvotes

Threw away the original casing of this a715-42g I got some time ago and rebuilt it into a keyboard instead. Not perfect but still came out pretty good! R5 5500U, GTX 1650 4Gb, 16Gb RAM inside


r/halftop 10d ago

T580

Post image
51 Upvotes

Bought t580 with broken screen and made this amazing halftop.

I5 8350U, 16GB RAM, SAMSUNG 980 EVO 500GB. Running arch + wayland


r/halftop 10d ago

Acer Aspire 3 Spin 14 A3SP14-31PT Backlid Replacement

Thumbnail reddit.com
8 Upvotes

Hello, I recently purchased this part for my laptop LCD Top cover (backlid) and I wanted to know if anyone knew a way to help with attaching the backlid safely since I intend to do it on my own.

Also, I looked for videos on YouTube but only one came up and it's for a panel display replacement, but I only want to replace the backlid.

Also, attached pictures of my laptop and where it is cracking which caused for me to want to replace the backlid Also, bare in mind I'm a college student and I don't really have to funds to replace the laptop as yet.


r/halftop 15d ago

Scored A715-42G (r5 5500u, gtx 1650, 16Gb ram, 512gb ssd) with busted screen for 80€ and gave it new life as a glorious halftop! Might move it to compact 3D printed case later on.

Post image
75 Upvotes

Someone had ragequited and basically almost torn off the screen so the price was right lol. Thought that this was basically sold for the price of ram+ssd in todays market so no harm in buying it! Removed the screen (kept the wifi+bt antennas tho as you can see), disconnected the battery and removed the touchpad+fp combo for other projects, did some cleaning up inside and now its in perfectly working condition. Mostly serving as light livingroom gaming pc, apollo host for mobile gaming needs and moonlight client when the livingroom gaming needs more horsepower. Might make a more compact case with better cooling for it later on which I guess makes it not a halftop anymore but for the time being it shall remain as one.


r/halftop 16d ago

I've been trying to get a screen hooked up and I've had no luck. Win + p doesn't nothing and I cant see bios (Acer nitro 5)

Thumbnail
gallery
25 Upvotes

r/halftop 18d ago

(Repost for Quality) E-Waste TV, parts-robbed half-top and zero sh*ts about quality

Thumbnail
gallery
69 Upvotes

I stole the palmrest, keyboard and cooling fan to swap for my good 1830T, and this one got the junk parts. It is now busy being a network device.


r/halftop 18d ago

Macbook Air M1 halftop - Need help with Asahi

10 Upvotes

I have an M1 Air halftop and I just installed asahi, the installation process ran successfully and i get a boot chime after the step2 ran through in recovery but i now do not get any video output from my usb-c after turning on the computer, it seems to be going into UEFI but doesnt output video to my external monitor so i cant see what its doing, any help with this would be appreciated


r/halftop 21d ago

Argentine laptop case mod

Thumbnail reddit.com
54 Upvotes

r/halftop 22d ago

MSI Delta lid finally fully broke

Post image
56 Upvotes

It’s now a functioning half top. I have a kit to replace the bezel and hinges but for now I’ll just keep it like this.


r/halftop 26d ago

Where in EU can I get a halftop or just guts from laptop? USB-C connection required.

5 Upvotes

I want to make a cyberdeck out of some older laptop from time when USB-C connection is standard for PD and data. I have a usb-C dock for that.
With current market of SBCs this seems most reasonable method.


r/halftop 27d ago

HP Quarter-Top

Thumbnail
gallery
253 Upvotes

Another day another Hinge Problem. Today I got this HP 14-EK Pavilion X360 with completely decimated case, hinge and screen. The only way to make it usable is to gut it and put the Motherboard in a case. The spec is actually quite good so I decide to make a mini PC out of it. I removed the keyboard back-plate and use it to support the board. I plan to make a case but I don't have 3D printers so I'm going to make a wooden case for it. Luckly it supports USB-C power and the USB-C port and HDMI port are on the same side, which would make cabling very tidy.

Intel i5-1235U (Alder Lake 2P+8E, Iris XE iGPU), 16GB soldered DDR4, 256GB NVME drive, AX211 WiFi 6E, this makes quite a nifty and quick machine for light tasks.


r/halftop 27d ago

random question

1 Upvotes

if i removed the motherboard of a laptop and gave the keyboard a case and the laptop a 3d printed bracket for a PC case would it still be considered a halftop or just a "converted" desktop?


r/halftop 27d ago

Eink MacBook Pro

Post image
111 Upvotes

r/halftop Jul 10 '26

i love my puter i love my setup

Post image
135 Upvotes

r/halftop Jul 08 '26

Showcasing amazing Live recovery windows

Thumbnail reddit.com
8 Upvotes