Modder Builds "Slurptop" Cyberdeck with Full Height Keyboard, Swappable Tool

The concept of a cyberdeck is to customize hardware to better suit your specific needs and use cases, and a modder who goes by "Slurp Burgers" online has taken the concept to something of an extreme, with their take on a laptop, the Slurptop. Unlike many DIY cyberdeck builds, which are based on Raspberry Pi computers, the Slurptop uses a full-fat AMD Ryzen 7 7730U in the motherboard from a GMKtec M5 Ultra mini PC. As a result, it has somewhat better I/O than a traditional laptop, although the mini PC's three front USB Type-C ports were all used to connect the display and peripherals internally.

The modder took the GMKtec innards and built a custom 3D printed shell around them, replete with a columnar-stagger ergonomic keyboard using MX-style switches and SA profile keycaps, a central num pad, and a trackball mounted at the bottom of the cyberdeck. Perhaps more interesting, the modder designed custom circuitry to be able to run the device off a 24 V Kobalt power tool battery, which is swappable in the event that you need an emergency charge. The modder says that, with light productivity use, like word processing, the battery lasts around five hours, but that could be increased with a bigger 8 Ah battery. Read full story