this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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As useful as any mini PC. Unless it's one that refuses to boot without a working battery or requires you to jump through hoops to get display out blindly.
Self-hosting aside, I had one during the work-from-home times. I wanted to easily move my setup from room-to-room, but not worry about the built-in screen being in the way of my nice monitors/CRT/TV or ruining the battery by leaving it plugged in all day.
@monovergent how do you boot a PC without looking into the monitor ?
The halftop I used was a Thinkpad and Lenovo has an online BIOS simulator. I followed it to the display output settings and set it to default to HDMI out instead of the internal LCD. Which then let me do everything including BIOS configuration on an external monitor.
@monovergent you did it by tinkering with the hardware ?
Not strictly, that was just a BIOS option. Can't guarantee every laptop comes with it. The power button was situated on the lid though, so I had to bodge it into the lower chassis.