With a working keyboard at the ready, I had to chose what kind of computer this would be. I already had a Pi4 and 7" touchscreen on hand, and while the Pi4 is a really impressive amount of computer for the size and it's totally able to run as a desktop, it's ARM based architecture is limiting for software. I wanted something I could run regular desktop software on, and maybe do some light gaming. With as much time and effort as it's taking I wanted a truly usable computer, not just something that looks the part.

In the compact computing space there's the likes of the Intel NUC, which uses normal laptop ram, and there's dedicated single board computers. x86/x64 SBCs have come a long way in the last few years, compact and powerful machines that'll give low to mid-tier laptops a run for their money. There's about a dozen of them from various manufacturers, each with some pros and cons. I felt the best fit for me was a Lattepanda Delta. It's not too expensive, powerful enough to use as a normal PC, has a built in arduino for microcontrollery stuff, and is nice and compact.

As an added bonus, this board has a pretty cool touchscreen that can be seen and adjusted in windows 10. I mocked up what a 7 and 10 inch screen might look like, and decided a 7" looked more fitting to the scale of this machine, and help keep it looking sleek and asymmetrical in a believably "designed that way" way.

With all the major bits and pieces decided on, onward to the bits-and-pieces that glue it all together!