Custom water-cooled 'gaming laptop' shell supports mini-ITX motherboards, RTX 5090 graphics
UHPILCL T1000 Kickstarter page flaunts 720W of Cooling TDP with maximum fan noise of 55 decibels

Yesterday, a Kickstarter campaign page for an upgradeable liquid-cooled laptop design dubbed the UHPILCIL T100 went live, paired with a YouTube video demonstrating one of these watercooled laptops in action. The UHPILCIL T100 and its slightly larger T100 Super variant (identical dimensions except for an extra 7 mm of cooler height on the Super) both resemble extra-thick 17-inch laptops, with lots of additional ventilation (and extra bulk) behind the screen to account for a liquid cooling radiator and pump. Since this isn't a closed loop, end users will need to provide their own de-ionized water to add to the loop before the laptop can be used.
What's extra interesting about this UHPILCL T100 laptop design, though, is that the large form factor and dedication to full-blown open-loop liquid cooling allows for fully-fledged desktop PC hardware to be used inside. The build not only supports up to 720W TDP of heat dissipation across the CPU and GPU, it also supports full Mini-ITX motherboards from AMD and Intel, and can even be saddled with an RTX 5090 so long as you opt for the T100 Super model.
So, all that's pretty cool...but when and how will the UHPILCL laptop designs be sold? This much is not yet clear, since the Kickstarter campaign hasn't officially "launched" at time of writing and thus even early bird prices are not yet available. It's also unclear if UHPILCL will be providing the T100 and T100 Super laptops as barebones Mini ITX PC kits or require buyers to pick starting specifications before it is built and shipped to them. Flaunted support for top-end Mini ITX motherboard chipsets and CPUs from AMD and Intel alike seem to exhibit confidence from UHPILCL that this solution should just work with standard Mini ITX hardware, though.
This take on laptop liquid cooling isn't actually the only one of it's kind, though it's certainly unique— and if funded fully and executed properly, could certainly prove promising for those who want truly powerful on-the-go workstations and /or gaming rigs without needing to compromise with lesser-performing hardware.
But it might just be more practical to opt for solutions like XMG's Oasis MK2 Laptop Liquid Cooler, which instead offers liquid cooling performance enhancements with an external radiator and pump while still using a hybrid air-cooled design on the compatible XMG laptops. But of course, as practical as solutions like XMG's are, they still tie you down to a docking station and mobile hardware — not like UHPILCL's T100 and T100 Super laptop designs, if they truly work as advertised or ever even come to market.
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Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.
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ezst036 I sincerely hope we can find ways to get to a place of building your own laptops entirely from scratch one day. Piece by separate piece.Reply
Laptop power supply: Seasonic
Laptop clamshell case: InWin
Laptop LCD/OLED: ROG
Laptop form-factor motherboard: Gigabyte
Laptop (integrated) keyboard: logitech
Laptop-designed (internal) CPU cooler and fan: Noctua
(It probably needs to be said for some - none of the above listed items currently exist) Some other components for this build do actually already exist today. M.2 SSD, SODIMM/CAMM, mini wifi chip.
One can dream! -
ezst036 Just got done watching the video, I find the car alarm in the back ground both annoying as well as really funny.Reply
I would definitely buy one of these, but with only one caveat. What is the situation with a battery?
I wonder if they will make a case almost the same as this but with one change: keep the space that would have been for the GPU, maybe not so many fans, and instead use that space for the battery.
This motherboard or one just like it would be perfect for fairly reasonable battery life, so this would be very doable.
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/amd-mobile-cpus-power-new-mini-itx-motherboards -
DingusDog
It would be pretty pointless to even include a battery until solid state laptop batteries are a thing. No battery currently available will power 720w for long enough to be useful.ezst036 said:Just got done watching the video, I find the car alarm in the back ground both annoying as well as really funny.
I would definitely buy one of these, but with only one caveat. What is the situation with a battery?
I wonder if they will make a case almost the same as this but with one change: keep the space that would have been for the GPU, maybe not so many fans, and instead use that space for the battery.
This motherboard or one just like it would be perfect for fairly reasonable battery life, so this would be very doable.
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/amd-mobile-cpus-power-new-mini-itx-motherboards -
bill001g Will be interesting to see what happens when someone tries to take this on a plane. They already don't really like laptops and now you have one with liquid in it.Reply -
ezst036 DingusDog said:It would be pretty pointless to even include a battery until solid state laptop batteries are a thing. No battery currently available will power 720w for long enough to be useful.
Having that AMD mobile chip/mobo I linked to and no RTX video card would very likely stay under 100w consistently.(or around 100w taking some variables)
That would be very sensible on current battery technology. -
Kindaian For the battery: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inverter-Portable-Generators-Converter-Emergency-Black/dp/B0CQT5YKPZ and 4x https://www.amazon.co.uk/DEWALT-DCB547-XJ-Battery-Yellow-Black/dp/B06WWLT1Z7 battery pack, it will last quite a bit of time, and you can have more batteries and hot/swap.Reply -
Notton Judging from the keyboard width, that looks like a 17.3" screen?Reply
And then the base extends far beyond the back and is more like a square.
I know you can fit a 12L shoebox style case or 17.3" rectangular laptop into a 18~20" suitcase, but IDK if something of that dimension would fit.
And then you can't carry on more than 2 to 4 100Whr lithium batteries (depending on carrier).
I guess you can always carry it in a thinner and less protected tote bag for under seat storage?
As for the liquid, I don't think the liquid cooling is an issue, unless TSA decides to incompetently open it up, which is like 99% chance they will.
I assume this format might be popular for someone who operates a long haul semi-truck.
or as a PC you can drive to camp or cottages.
or maybe a crew on a ship out at seas for weeks?
Yeah, I just can't imagine flying with this thing. -
das_stig
True, but use it as a UPS of sorts makes more sense.DingusDog said:It would be pretty pointless to even include a battery until solid state laptop batteries are a thing. No battery currently available will power 720w for long enough to be useful.
Calling it a laptop is a bit of a stretch, more of a luggable, desktop replacement pointless.