Hello mates. So I recently watched a video from Dave Lee:
about modular system of new iMac Pro. Also please read about HP Elite Slice.
These are modular, mini PCs that as a idea is great for our purpose. Eve should built a mini PC as a base for this modular tower. Not as powerful as iMac. It should has standard i7 with 2-4gb mobile GPU card (as in surface book) with basic ports. Normal mini-pc. As a module there should be:
more ports module, slim one
battery pack - not for traveling but as a power backup
great audio DAC module
external HDD or SSD or maybe HDD with cloud
360 speaker
egpu card module
maybe QI charger on top for phone
I believe community will give you some ideas
If you want to travel you can take only mini-pc from this tower and you ready to go. Also you should consider to make a connection for old and new V to be as a base module. If you need V, you buy one, wait one year ( ) and you can connect it to this tower without mini-pc. Great system, great family of devices. There should be a stand for V on the top of this tower that will plug into TB3.
That is quite good idea for most of your new concepts. @Konstantinos please comment this.
EDIT for clean massage: All of modules can be sale and work separately but also they can create beautiful module tower for PROs. If your dream is DonaldDock believe me, i donāt want to destroy DD idea. My concept is to create common device environment. Main product should be mini-pc. It will define how big should be this module tower. If mini-pc will still be mini, mini will be also DonaldDock. All of modules will have same width and lenght. The height of the module will depend on the needs of the given module and its subassemblies. I believe that the base mini-pc will be higher than the DAC module. Thatās how it should look.
module with additional ports would be your dock. Every module can be used separately and they will look great. Advantage of this idea is that you can connect every module together also. This is not new idea, this is only an idea to create a family of devices solution.
Mate, my post is not so long! Read all stuff please.
Patrick, I didnāt write this as a: ābuild this stuff, no questions askā! I had an idea and I shared it with you. I believe that this kind of ātower of modulesā is better for future projects. You need only dock, buy one. Elegant box that will do what you need. Need better audio, buy one, connect to ports module and you have your own module tower.
I would like to have (dream of) on my desk (from top):
second gen of V
dock with ports module
egpu module
sound card with DAC module
I see all of them in black matt as V is. Same design. Yeeeessss. If I could do a photo from my brain it would definitely goes to fap folderā¦
Also I believe that there should be two kinds of eGPU, small one for graphics designer with mobile GPU as in Surface Book and powerful one for gamers etc.
Probably even better if they could be mounted (evenly) behind the Eve monitor, to give it an AiO feel. Or perhaps a VESA arm on top so the monitor could be mounted on the PC like the Surface-Studio
I really like this too. I live in a place where power outages are common and this would be a big selling point for me. I hate the clutter of having a UPS on/under my desk.
We could have a Kaby Lake G CPU with a Vega GPU in the mini-PCs part, which should be fine for those who need mobile cards, and have a larger eGPU enclosure which will give people the freedom to add any GPU of their choice, but I donāt think itāll fit with the other modules since this will be larger.
I like the āstaple dockā idea, very flexible. If possible make the āon the mini pcā elements usable for 2 in 1 / laptop too.
As such people who are not interested in a mini pc will be interested to add a dock (or two) to their existing V / laptops in order to beef them up for a lower price than buying a new laptop.
I know, but I was in the waiting room of the dentist when I started writing my post. I intended to add information later. Writing & reading isnāt great on mobile, and being called up didnāt help either
While I do like the idea, the possibility of it is another thing. Right now Eve doesnāt have the manpower to engineer custom solutions like this. Technically they are extremely tricky to do, and to my knowledge there is no āopen-source/standardizedā way to do it. If there is a already usable solution I (and many besides me) would love to hear it.
I really like the idea, Iām not so sure that Eve is the correct company to make it an reality (at this point in time).
The other issue is, where do you put the line.Is the CPU a module? Does it contain a DAC? if so, should we add an DAC module? Does the CPU module contain RAM? Should every module be standalone and compatible with other devices (like the eGPU module)? Iām not bashing the project, Iām actually curious about answers on those questions.
If something like this were to be developed and sold by Eve, it would be great if it were able to not only dock with the Eve and mini pc, but was able to utilize both the Eve and mini pcās CPUās together to boost performance. Dual cpu motherboards have been done before, and even older CPUās have been able to compete with newer models due to the fact thereās two of them. If the V and the mini pc were able to use say, dual i5s (which isnāt crazy given the Eve has up to an i7 already (and also are in some nuc variants). Imagine the draw of a computer you can take on the go, and then say some serious hardware is required for 4k video editing. Just dock the V and then within seconds you have a super powered computer at your finger tips. Unless thereās something I havenāt heard of, thereās nothing in the market that can boost a portable notebook to a powerful machine when the need requires it, except for expensive external gpuās, which donāt help much for CPU intensive tasks.
The implementation of this would be quite challenging, especially the software development required to achieve this, but given the thunderbolt 3 port on the Eve (and almost certainly the mini pc) thereās probably enough bandwidth for it to be possible. As I said before, eGPUās already exist, and they work well to boost the performance of laptops. An external CPU isnāt that different in theory.
One significant problem I see with a stacked system like this is thermals, which is already a problem for mini pcs. While I am all for modularity, and suggested it in a similar idea on the other thread, I think it would be unwise to vertically stack modules unless the highest power module with the greatest thermal output went on top with plenty of ventilation. I would suggest a CPU module with an I-GPU + ram and storage, and a GPU module go side by side with meaty triple slot thick heatsinks with inlaid fans on them for maximum cooling without too much space taken up.
I would love a module PC. However, another problem that other stacked PC has is the cost of the individual self-contained modules. They tend to be expensive due to their complexity. Also, the lack of people buying enough of the modules drives up the price. So, I worry that it would be too costly.
Edit ā
Need to stop trying to type on my phone. I suck at it.
) and you can connect it to this tower without mini-pc. Great system, great family of devices. There should be a stand for V on the top of this tower that will plug into TB3.
for my V
Itās an 
