 We've all got our reasons for needing a hidden computer that no one else knows about, but not everybody has the option of embedding a gaming rig in their ceiling. Well, remember that old monitor? You know the one. You retired it in favor of more pixels and a higher refresh rate? Well, what if you could solve two problems at once? Creating a secret hidden PC and keeping that old display out of a landfill. Well, that is just what we're going to do today. With a little help from our sponsor, iFixit. iFixit's ProTech Toolkit gives you the tools you need to tackle any electronics repair challenge. Visit ifixit.com forward slash Linus at the link below and get yours today. Meet our secret PC. Since our most recent scrap yard wars, this 24-inch Acer gaming monitor has been just hanging out in our warehouse, looking all lonely and forgotten. Which is a shame, because aside from its TN panel, it's actually still pretty decent. 144Hz, LED backlight, 1080p resolution. To turn this monitor into a stealth all-in-one though, we're going to need a very small computer that will fit inside it with minimal external modifications that would give it away. We chose the RockPi from RADSA. It's a single board computer that comes to around $75. Featuring a 6-core 64-bit ARM processor, 4GB of dual-channel LPDDR4 RAM, and all the wired and wireless connectivity you'll ever need, this is a serious little computer given the price tag. And get this, it supports NVMe storage with an M.2 SSD slot. So yeah, simple then. We just need to take this little guy and this monitor and smash them together. Back at the office, Colin popped the back panel off of our screen and there's definitely enough room to fit the RockPi. Not a ton, but enough. We really wanted to make use of the M.2 compatibility of the RockPi, but unfortunately adding the M.2 hat to the stack made it too tall to fit in the monitor. To get around that, we dug around for that mini Kyoksia 1TB SSD, and after a quick little zip tie mod to hold it in place, we're good to go. The SSD bit by the way was totally optional. The RockPi will run just fine off of an SD card, but come on guys, this is Linus Tech Tips. Where's the fun in that? With the test fit looking good, it was time to make permanent changes to the monitor's back panel. We marked it out with silver sharpie and went over to the workshop to cut an access hole for RIO. Now rather than making a mess with a dremel, a map gas torch and box cutter was used to slice along the marks, like a hot knife through, well, ABS plastic. From here, we ran all the cables and used double-sided tape to affix the Pi to the back of the panel. Video is handled by running a short micro HDMI to HDMI cable and then popping it out where the Kensington lock used to live. And that's it. Seal up the back of the monitor, install the stand, plug in our wireless peripherals for that clean look. Ehh, or so we thought. This is where we hit a bit of a snag. You see, the RockPi, while very capable, uses an ARM64 system architecture. Now it is technically compatible with ARMHF, which is what the Raspberry Pi uses, but there are some serious barriers to entry in order to get there. That means that outside of big ticket Linux apps that have an ARM64 version, we're sort of stuck without access to the broad Raspberry Pi app ecosystem. Yes, we could compile them with some elbow grease to make them compatible, but in the interest of making this DIY project actually DIYable, the decision was made to switch over to the Raspberry Pi 4B from here on out. The installation process, thankfully, is exactly the same for any single board computer, so we didn't have to reshoot anything. And as an added bonus for you guys, the Raspberry Pi is cheaper. We're not going to cover preparing the bootable SD card, but the Pi Foundation has an excellent guide, and we'll have that linked below and the card up here. All right. Now we're into Raspbian on what looks like a monitor, unless you look very closely to realize that this is in fact two power cords going into it, not a power cord and a display cable. Completely stealth. For the uninitiated, Raspbian is a great lightweight Linux distro that comes preloaded with plenty of software for education, programming and general use. So if all you wanted was a web browser and YouTube capable machine that's hidden away from prying eyes, you're already done and you've spent less than a hundred dollars plus that salvaged monitor. Let's give it a shot. Internet, Chromium web browser. Here we go. I'm using a fifty dollar computer right now, ladies and gentlemen. Let's check out some tech news, shall we? The latest on RTX voice requiring RTX. Wow, that's a new insult. Tide pod. Where else do people go on the interwebs these days? Ah, yes. LTTstore.com. Oh, the classic stealth hoodie. You can get yours for just $59.99 US. Fun. They'll need more fun these days. What's fun? Photos of Brianna are classified as fun? Okay, the office cast. That sounds more fun. That's a pretty cool thing to do. That is fun. Seems like a pretty good channel. Good taste in apparel. Let's try full HD playback. Hey, that's a little stuttery, but I think it's doing it. And look at this guy pushing conspiracy theories. Okay, well, I'm pretty happy with the Raspberry Pi 4, but I'm very disappointed in this YouTube channel. Poor choice. Poor choice. Austin Evans YouTube channel. If you're more into the whole gaming thing than watching posers talk about gaming, what Raspbian doesn't have yet is Steam Link, which is effectively a software replacement for Valve's own in-home game streaming appliance. Fortunately, hey, it's Linux, so. To install Steam Link, all we need to do is open up a terminal and type sudo apt install steamlink. That's it. The Pi will pull all the dependencies and you should see Steam Link pop up on the desktop. So let's go ahead and give that a try. Slow connection. Uh-huh. 1064. How's your day? Chopping for furniture. Getting my steps in today, anyway. Hey, all right. Here we go. Let's play some game you wouldn't normally be able to play on a Raspberry Pi, huh? Well, there's your problem. Now, obviously, this isn't going to work that great if someone's on your main desktop while you're using the hidden PC. But with a network upgrade, this is a viable way to expand your gaming capabilities elsewhere in the house for really not a lot of money. And as an extra bonus, this is cool. If you close your way out of Steam Big Picture, you will actually be looking at your computer's desktop, which will allow you to run much heavier workloads on your secret PC than you would otherwise be able to. You know, fire up Adobe Premiere Pro. Obviously, my resolution is a bit of a mismatch, so I would have to adjust that. Hey, there we go. Please at least have the A-roll. This might be on the struggle bus a little bit. Okay, I'm going to give it the old reboot. Casually scrubbing around in video on a Raspberry Pi 4 running Adobe Premiere. So cool project, right? And all with the very most basic tools. But it does raise a couple of questions that we haven't answered yet. First of all, why use a Raspberry Pi instead of something that actually runs Windows like a Latte Panda? Well, one of the goals was to make this a project that people could replicate at home for under 100 bucks plus the monitor. And yes, there is a Latte Panda for under $100, but it one doesn't come with Windows, so that's an additional cost. And two, it only has two gigs of RAM, which does not make for a very enjoyable Windows experience anyway. If you have some quarantine cash lying around, upgrading to a top tier Latte Panda for around $200 would be a super cool spin on this project. Question number the second, why not just use a cheap VESA adapter or some more VHB tape to stick the Raspberry Pi to the back of the monitor instead of cutting it up and putting it inside? Well, that my dear boy is a very good question to which I will most assuredly have a satisfactory response after I will. Message from our sponsor, Linode provides virtual servers that make it easy and affordable to host your own app, site, service or whatever in the cloud. Other entry level hostings work to start up, but you'll eventually want something powerful, customizable and that can be used for cloud computing. With Linode, you can easily set up your own server with its one click apps and they've got the DIY option if you want to go for a full custom setup. You can deploy Minecraft, CSGO servers, WordPress and so much more. You can even spin up your own VPN and have plenty of space to host a website app or game server. They've got affordable pricing with no hidden fees that try to sneak onto your monthly bill. And the best thing of all is their 100% human 24 7 365 customer service via phone or support tickets. Get $20 in free credit on your new account with code Linus20 or by clicking the link in the video description. If you guys end up making something cool with an old monitor like this, be sure to post it on our forum, linustechtips.com. The links to all the files that we used here are down in the description. And if you want some pro tips on getting old hardware for projects like this, check out the Scrapyard Wars where we actually acquired this very gaming display on the very cheap. We're going to have that linked below as well.