Creating a "FrankenComputer"

[swbarrow]

Hey guys! I hope all of y'all are having a great day.

So my girlfriend's mom gave me her old MacBook pro. It's a Mid-2012 13" with the non-retina display (sorry, I don't know the technical term). The display is cracked, the body is in pretty bad shape, and the hard drive isn't worth a darn. I don't really need another laptop because i already have a fully functional MacBook of the same year and model. I thought it would be kinda cool to make it into a desktop computer running solely on an external display and to upgrade the hard drive to build a more powerful machine.

My question to y'all is: can I remove the lid to create a kind of computer tower that is hooked up to an external monitor (possibly mounted on the back of the monitor) to create a homemade all in one computer type thing? Would this cause any issues with the computer or would it still be able to function normally?

I know this is pretty redneck, but what else would you expect from a kid from a small town in south Texas?

Thanks in advance to everyone, any and all help is appreciated

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

Upgrading the hard drive won't make it a more powerful machine, an SSD will allow it to access/write files a little quicker but it's not going to be hugely impressive.

However you can just bolt it to the back of a monitor if you want, just run a display cable out, you may want a USB extender for the ports and obviously external keyboard/mouse. You could remove the display but it wouldn't make any difference to the performance so for the effort and potential issue of messing something up I'd just leave it as is.

A solution you may consider is to just build a little box from MDF, leaving the rear open. Put a few computer fans in there and run them off the power of a USB port (On the monitor if it has one). You can leave a cut out on the side to access ports. Then you can paint the box and just put the monitor on top of it and use it as a stand. That way you can easily remove the laptop should anything go wrong and it still has that permanent fixed appeal without having to completely dismantle it and bolt it to the back of a monitor (Which would add weight to a usually flimsy plastic frame, causing it to tip over easily or potentially putting extra strain on the display).