Mount a laptop on a wall!

[poiihy]

I had a great idea to mount a laptop to a wall! Not like horizontally on a movable mount, but mount the bottom flat on the wall!

This would be great if you are like The iBook Guy, who mounts everything on his wall. You can use it as your server and connect it to other network stuff mounted on the wall! You can leave it closed, and open it to view console and stuff! And it also could be used as a TV!

It would be best to use some Windows PC with a different kind of hinge that can open up to 180˚. Apple laptops cannot open more than 135˚ or so, and when they are closed, the  logo is upside-down. If you were using an Apple laptop you would need to mount it high on the wall so you can see it, but it is not comfortable to reach your arms up to control it. It would be a good TV up there though! You could use a wireless keyboard anyway and control it remotely.

What is it like to type on a keyboard mounted vertically?

Do you think this is a good idea? Has any of you thought about it? If not, why not give it a try? I don't have any extra laptop to mount to a wall but I think this is a very good idea!

 

[weckart]

Waiting for your follow up post where you convert your broken wall mounted laptop to a usb hub.

I cannot think of anything less useful than a stationary portable computer but if that is what you want...

 

[jbarley]

I cannot think of anything less useful than a stationary portable computer but if that is what you want...

The statement quoted above might be a tad harsh.
My wife uses a 'portable' computer as her main go-to machine. It's never left her desk, so I'm sure that qualifies it as "stationary".
I'd hazard a guess there are many others using Laptops similarly.

 

[bunnspecial]

The statement quoted above might be a tad harsh.
My wife uses a 'portable' computer as her main go-to machine. It's never left her desk, so I'm sure that qualifies it as "stationary".
I'd hazard a guess there are many others using Laptops similarly.

The last laptop my dad bought was a beast of an HP with a 17" screen and an i7. He spent a bundle on it, too-enough to buy a similarly specced 15" MBP(he bought it right before the Retinas came out)

He's retired and when he leaves the house, he rarely has the need to take any sort of computer with him. If he does(such as traveling overnight) his iPad is the only thing he takes, as it does everything he needs.

In 2 1/2 year or so, that laptop quite literally never left the table beside his recliner, other than when he was using it(which was rare because, again, he can do pretty much everything he needs to on an iPad). Finally, we had some family friends who had a son going to college and was heavy into gaming.

My dad made them a great deal on the laptop, and after researching it(the dad is a computer guy) decided to jump on it. The son was ecstatic with it, until he actually got to college and discovered that it was too much to lug around.

This past fall, they bought the son a Surface tablet to take to class, and the HP beast has been relegated to "semi portable" status. Basically, he'll haul it in for a Comp Sci class where he needs a powerful computer, or to go to other friends' dorm rooms for gaming, but otherwise it stays parked. He has a good desktop that his dad built him in his dorm room, so it doesn't even get used there.

I see a lot of 17" PC Laptops that get treated similarly.

Another friend has an even bigger beast of an Asus(again, for gaming) that I think he said has 4 internal hard drive bays and four RAM sockets. He carried it around a while for shock value , but when he started riding his bike into school went out and bought the Asus clone of the Macbook Air. Since he has a home-built gaming desktop, he ended up passing the beast on to his dad for gaming at home-where, again, it stays parked. When the Ultrabook died, he finally came to the "dark side" and bought 13" rMBP.

 

[eyoungren]

Man. And I was regularly taking TWO 17" PowerBooks G4s out with me. Wow!

For the record…the idea that seems to have sparked this thread, my using an iBook G3 as a Time Machine server, that iBook was NEVER mounted on a wall or anything like that. It sat flat on top of a tall cabinet behind a stereo. It took standing on a chair or the closeby buffet to physically interact with the machine.

Mounting a laptop on a wall may be a thought, but certainly not one I'd ever seriously consider. At most I'd buy one of those desktop mountable laptop holders and put it in that inside a closet somewhere.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I see a lot of 17" PC Laptops that get treated similarly.

I don't think anyone seriously buys 17" laptops for their portability. Even the 17" MBP is.. hefty. I always thought people bought them as desktop replacements that happen to allow for a movable desk - e.g. from an office desk to a conference room, or a lazy chair to a kitchen table.

 

[poiihy]

Waiting for your follow up post where you convert your broken wall mounted laptop to a usb hub.

I cannot think of anything less useful than a stationary portable computer but if that is what you want...

Something less useful than a laptop mounted on an iBook-Guy-style wall running as a server and TV is a laptop sitting in a closet doing absolutely nothing for years.

 

[cocacolakid]

I saw a Lenovo 17" laptop in Fry's this week next to a 15", I couldn't believe how big the thing was.

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I had a great idea to mount a laptop to a wall! Not like horizontally on a movable mount, but mount the bottom flat on the wall!

Choose your model wisely, most have vents on the bottom.

 

[poiihy]

I saw a Lenovo 17" laptop in Fry's this week next to a 15", I couldn't believe how big the thing was.

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Choose your model wisely, most have vents on the bottom.

Most are designed to be placed on a flat surface. A wall is no different. Of course you must not cover any vents with mounts.

 

[fhall1]

Already been blogged about:
http://lifehacker.com/5177762/turn-an-old-laptop-into-a-wall-mounted-computer

 

[poiihy]

Already been blogged about:
http://lifehacker.com/5177762/turn-an-old-laptop-into-a-wall-mounted-computer

Already saw that, and that is not what I am talking about.

 

[redheeler]

My wife uses a 'portable' computer as her main go-to machine. It's never left her desk, so I'm sure that qualifies it as "stationary".
I'd hazard a guess there are many others using Laptops similarly.

I used a 2012 15" rMBP like this for several years (it left a few times since it was my only Mac). When I got a 13" rMBP I really did start to think of it as a desktop, which is why I got a desktop to replace it

 

[Gamer9430]

While I didn't attach it to a wall, I used an old netbook as a security hub and just stuck it in my closet. I had it running 24/7 and had a USB webcam attached. It was running a program called YAWCAM and it would email me if it detected motion. The computer kept crashing from no HDD space and if it unplugged the whole thing reset because the battery expanded and we removed it. However, the reason I'm mentioning this is because it's very similar to what Poiihy wants to do, put a laptop in a permanent place to have a certain usage, ie a security system. I didn't need the monitor (if it actually worked right), since all it needed was to have the Webcam plugged in and have the security software running.

Go for it Poiihy!

 

[poiihy]

While I didn't attach it to a wall, I used an old netbook as a security hub and just stuck it in my closet. I had it running 24/7 and had a USB webcam attached. It was running a program called YAWCAM and it would email me if it detected motion. The computer kept crashing from no HDD space and if it unplugged the whole thing reset because the battery expanded and we removed it. However, the reason I'm mentioning this is because it's very similar to what Poiihy wants to do, put a laptop in a permanent place to have a certain usage, ie a security system. I didn't need the monitor (if it actually worked right), since all it needed was to have the Webcam plugged in and have the security software running.

Go for it Poiihy!

If you had it on your wall then it would double as a TV.

I don't have a laptop or need for mounting on the wall, but I just made this thread because I thought it was a good idea. Most people throw their networking crap in a closet or on top of a closet or on a shelf with no organization. I like The iBook Guy's style. It's like your wall is a circuit board.

 

[Gamer9430]

If you had it on your wall then it would double as a TV.

I don't have a laptop or need for mounting on the wall, but I just made this thread because I thought it was a good idea. Most people throw their networking crap in a closet or on top of a closet or on a shelf with no organization. I like The iBook Guy's style. It's like your wall is a circuit board.

I love what the iBook Guy does as well. It's very unique.