Can you build your own laptop?

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PCU

Hello,

I've always built my own PCs by buying all the components separately (the
case, the motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the video card, the sound
card, the network card, the CD drives, etc). I love being able to have full
control over the brand of the components, instead of buying from a shop like
Dell and either not having much choice or having no choice at all.

I have absolutely no experience with laptops. I am considering buying a
laptop now. Is it possible to buy laptop components separately and put it
together yourself? Or is it only possible to buy a laptop fully assembled?

Thanks.
 
Hello,

I've always built my own PCs by buying all the components separately (the
case, the motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the video card, the
sound
card, the network card, the CD drives, etc). I love being able to have
full
control over the brand of the components, instead of buying from a shop
like
Dell and either not having much choice or having no choice at all.

I have absolutely no experience with laptops. I am considering buying a
laptop now. Is it possible to buy laptop components separately and put
it
together yourself? Or is it only possible to buy a laptop fully
assembled?

Thanks.
Click to expand...


I'm not saying it CAN'T be done, but it will be a damn sight more
difficult, assuming its possible.
 
Hello,

I've always built my own PCs by buying all the components separately (the
case, the motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the video card, the sound
card, the network card, the CD drives, etc). I love being able to have full
control over the brand of the components, instead of buying from a shop like
Dell and either not having much choice or having no choice at all.

I have absolutely no experience with laptops. I am considering buying a
laptop now. Is it possible to buy laptop components separately and put it
together yourself? Or is it only possible to buy a laptop fully assembled?
Click to expand...

The problem you'd quickly run into is laptops aren't "componentized"
like standard PCs are. Many things on laptops are integrated into the
motherboard, which is why those boards are so expensive if they need
to be replaced. It can easily cost you half as much as the PC costs to
have one repaired or replaced.

Bottom line is if want to be able to tinker, stick with desktops. If
you want mobility, if your space is at a premium, then go with a
laptop. If you go with a laptop, buy the extended warranty. It's
pretty much the only item I'd ever advise that for, but believe me, it
can easily be worth it.
 
PCU said:
Hello,

I've always built my own PCs by buying all the components separately (the
case, the motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the video card, the sound
card, the network card, the CD drives, etc). I love being able to have full
control over the brand of the components, instead of buying from a shop like
Dell and either not having much choice or having no choice at all.

I have absolutely no experience with laptops. I am considering buying a
laptop now. Is it possible to buy laptop components separately and put it
together yourself? Or is it only possible to buy a laptop fully assembled?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I would say its only pre-assembled. But lets assume there are some
specialist suppliers somewhere, willing to sell you parts. You can bet
your bottom dollar that the prices will be 10x. In addition consider
the fact that laptop parts arent as widely available.

This is one of the reasons I dont like laptops. Not upgradeable (not by
much except RAM) and fragile.
 
PCU said:
Hello,

I've always built my own PCs by buying all the components separately (the
case, the motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the video card, the sound
card, the network card, the CD drives, etc). I love being able to have full
control over the brand of the components, instead of buying from a shop like
Dell and either not having much choice or having no choice at all.

I have absolutely no experience with laptops. I am considering buying a
laptop now. Is it possible to buy laptop components separately and put it
together yourself? Or is it only possible to buy a laptop fully assembled?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
The trouble with laptops is that all the major "bits" are proprietary in
nature, meaning that most parts will only go with a particular laptop model.

About the only things that ARE interchangeable between different laptops
are the hard drive, PCMCIA cards (obviously), and in some cases, RAM
modules and optical drives.

As you already know, this is not at all the case with desktops, where
pretty much everything is interchangeable (within certain hardware limits).
 
<PCU> wrote in message | Hello,
|
| I've always built my own PCs by buying all the components separately (the
| case, the motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the video card, the
sound
| card, the network card, the CD drives, etc). I love being able to have
full
| control over the brand of the components, instead of buying from a shop
like
| Dell and either not having much choice or having no choice at all.
|
| I have absolutely no experience with laptops. I am considering buying a
| laptop now. Is it possible to buy laptop components separately and put it
| together yourself? Or is it only possible to buy a laptop fully
assembled?
|
| Thanks.

Somewhat yes. You can buy barebones notebooks and buy all your components
(CPU, memory, HD, wireleess, etc) to go in it. Once you buy allyour
components, you are better off (a lot cheaper +warranty) buying one exactly
how you want it from a manufacturer.
 
I would say its only pre-assembled. But lets assume there are some
specialist suppliers somewhere, willing to sell you parts. You can bet
your bottom dollar that the prices will be 10x. In addition consider
the fact that laptop parts arent as widely available.

This is one of the reasons I dont like laptops. Not upgradeable (not by
much except RAM) and fragile.
Click to expand...
Yeah, isn't it about time that some manufacturer somewhere came up with
some generic parts that homebuilders could use to assemble their own
laptop. Admittedly it's more difficult at the moment, but surely home
PC's were regarded in the same way at some early stage. Now, everyone
and their granny is able to, or knows someone who can, handbuild a PC.

Home PC components are only cheap now because they are so easy to get
hold of. I'm sure there's a market out there for laptop homebuilds if
only someone would be prepared to take the plunge. Come up with 2 or 3
generic case/displays with various slots for different I/o ports on them
and based around some popular laptop mobos and you're halfway there.
All that's required are the add-on components, some additional cooling
help and hardware and you're almost there.

I know I making it sound much more simplistic than the reality, but if
someone got the ball rolling I'm sure it could end up being that easy.

My 2 cents. ;-)
 
PCU wrote in
Hello,

I've always built my own PCs by buying all the components separately
(the case, the motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the video
card, the sound card, the network card, the CD drives, etc). I love
being able to have full control over the brand of the components,
instead of buying from a shop like Dell and either not having much
choice or having no choice at all.

I have absolutely no experience with laptops. I am considering buying
a laptop now. Is it possible to buy laptop components separately and
put it together yourself? Or is it only possible to buy a laptop
fully assembled?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

The quick answer is no.

The slow, tedious answer is maybe, if you're willing to fabricate
the case and live with a laptop that is slow, physically large,
and clunky.

So, you want to try it anyway, Here's the overview. First, go to
www.mini-itx.com. They offer motherboards of the mini-itx size,
and possibly smaller. Mini-itx motherboards are about seven inches
square and come with most of the ports you will need, including
(on some models) pcmcia card slots. They also (I think) have
mini-power supplies.

With this in mind, design a case. My suggestion is to first look
at aluminum briefcases. The case will need to hold the motherboard,
hard disk, floppy and/or optical drive, power supply, plus the
screen. You will have to cut lots of holes in it. Don't ignore
cooling.

Find a screen that will fit in your case. Figure out how to mount
it.

Finally, consider a battery. I don't know where to go for this,
but some power suplies will take 12V DC.

Voila, a laptop that, if you are really good at this, is only
about twice the volume and weight of a regular one, but at
least it's yours, and it's upgradable.

By the way, if your case design is good, market it.

Just an idea.

..wk.
 
Hi PCU,
Yes you can buy the parts necessary. And they aren't going to
cost you an arm and a leg, or your first-born son. We offer laptop
cases, including the motherboard, CPU, and screen, etc. We also offer
the parts to complete the system. However, you may actually want us to
build it for you so we can include a warranty. Overall, having us
build it for you won't cost you much more.
We only sell these items by request so, if you are interested in
them or want us to configure and build one for you, contact us by
phone or e-mail.

Silicon Alley Computers
www.siliconalleycomputers.com
 
Peter said:
Yeah, isn't it about time that some manufacturer somewhere came up with
some generic parts that homebuilders could use to assemble their own
laptop.
Click to expand...

That's IMHO a million-dollar idea.
 
Silicon said:
Yes you can buy the parts necessary. And they aren't going to
cost you an arm and a leg, or your first-born son. We offer laptop
cases, including the motherboard, CPU, and screen, etc. We also offer
the parts to complete the system. However, you may actually want us to
build it for you so we can include a warranty. Overall, having us
build it for you won't cost you much more.
Click to expand...

Could you be more specific?
 
I've always built my own PCs by buying all the components separately (the
case, the motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the video card, the sound
card, the network card, the CD drives, etc). I love being able to have full
control over the brand of the components, instead of buying from a shop like
Dell and either not having much choice or having no choice at all.

I have absolutely no experience with laptops. I am considering buying a
laptop now. Is it possible to buy laptop components separately and put it
together yourself? Or is it only possible to buy a laptop fully assembled?

Thanks.
Click to expand...


YES, You can build a laptop provide that you are willing to:

1) Spend the next 10 years looking for all the parts and coming up
with a way to put them together.

2) Might as well become an expert in low level programming languague
so that you can write the BIOS code for your components.

3) Might as well picking up a degree in electronics so that you can
design circuit board and whatever need to make your components works.

4) Prepare to spend lot,lot,lot of time trying to get the thing to
work (if it would work at all).

5) Prepare to spend BIG, BIG $$$$ to get all the necessary components.

So IF you can say "YES" to all the above then YOU can definetely can
build a laptop.
 
Hello,

I've always built my own PCs by buying all the components separately (the
case, the motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the video card, the sound
card, the network card, the CD drives, etc). I love being able to have full
control over the brand of the components, instead of buying from a shop like
Dell and either not having much choice or having no choice at all.

I have absolutely no experience with laptops. I am considering buying a
laptop now. Is it possible to buy laptop components separately and put it
together yourself? Or is it only possible to buy a laptop fully assembled?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

There have been some informative posts and some ignorant posts here. But it
truely depends on what you are starting with.

Some laptops you can buy a whitebox system and buy your own componets and
put them to together. As someone else sugest the asus m6ne you can do this.
I am looking into getting a compal CL56 and doing this also. But everything
is smaller and more breakable so YMMV.
 
Root said:
There have been some informative posts and some ignorant posts here. But it
truely depends on what you are starting with.

Some laptops you can buy a whitebox system and buy your own componets and
put them to together. As someone else sugest the asus m6ne you can do this.
I am looking into getting a compal CL56 and doing this also. But everything
is smaller and more breakable so YMMV.
Click to expand...

I don't suppose it's actually going to save any money, is it?
 
ToolPackinMama said:
Root wrote:




I don't suppose it's actually going to save any money, is it?
Click to expand...

Kind of depends on what you compare it against.

The thing about laptops/notebooks, and why the 'whole thing' isn't
standardized with 'interchangeable' parts, is that the basic goal is to
cram as much stuff as possible into the smallest form factor, and that
means being 'creative' with the packaging. Even so, some things are
interchangeable: hard drive, CDs, memory. But having 'plug in' cards with
spare slots just eats up space so the 'motherboard' is going to be a custom
fit, all in one, proposition. And, since that's where the main
'flexibility' to a desktop resides, you just lost 90% of the 'custom
configuration' advantage right there: 80% due to the fixed board
configuration (which is going to include the LCD drivers) and 10% because
there aren't any 'spare holes' to mount things in.

Next worst problem is a socketed processor with a conventional heatsink:
BIG. So you (typically) have soldered in processors, often in a smaller
form factor package, with more exotic heatpipe cooling mechanisms so they
fit in the smallest space possible. You CAN, actually, find 'bare bones'
laptops that allow you to 'plug-in' the processor of choice but you can see
you've traded off at least some of the space advantage of the true mobiles
for the luxury of doing it.

And then building in 'spare' watts in the PSU for 'add-ons', or a gaggle of
different mobo guts versions, or 'which ever processor' you pick, doesn't
optimize size either.

The point is, besides explaining why it's done the way it's done, is to
again ask, compared to what? A larger, 'bare bones', self configured laptop
to a smaller, lighter, more compact one? If you don't care about size then
you might consider it 'cheaper' but if size is the purpose then it isn't,
really.

Frankly, I doubt it would be cheaper simply from being 'self built' anyway
because there just aren't enough places where you have a choice with which
to save money. If it were cheaper I'd say it's more due to the same kinds
of reasons why brand Y is cheaper than brand A to begin with, or because
you don't really end up with the same thing, but not because 'you built it'.
 
PCU said:
I've always built my own PCs
Click to expand...

When faced with a similar desire when I was unemployed & needing a
portable system, I looked at several options including used laptops.
Unfortunately all used laptops I found either couldn't be upgraded to
my ram requirements or were priced very near to new laptop cost.

I ended up buying a Shuttle XPC, a used processor, used 512Mb ram, &
used 80Gb harddrive. I added a mouse, zip, & cdrom, which I already
owned & purchased a HappyHacker keyboard. For a outlay of about $500,
I had a quite powerful system the size of a toaster I could lug
around.

It worked for me since the only places I used it had monitors
available for me to use. It's not an ideal general solution, but it
was 1/3 the cost of a comparable laptop.
 
The slow, tedious answer is maybe, if you're willing to fabricate
the case and live with a laptop that is slow, physically large,
and clunky.

So, you want to try it anyway, Here's the overview. First, go to
www.mini-itx.com. They offer motherboards of the mini-itx size,
and possibly smaller. Mini-itx motherboards are about seven inches
square and come with most of the ports you will need, including
(on some models) pcmcia card slots. They also (I think) have
mini-power supplies.

With this in mind, design a case. My suggestion is to first look
at aluminum briefcases. The case will need to hold the motherboard,
hard disk, floppy and/or optical drive, power supply, plus the
screen. You will have to cut lots of holes in it. Don't ignore
cooling.

Find a screen that will fit in your case. Figure out how to mount
it.

Finally, consider a battery. I don't know where to go for this,
but some power suplies will take 12V DC.

Voila, a laptop that, if you are really good at this, is only
about twice the volume and weight of a regular one, but at
least it's yours, and it's upgradable.
Click to expand...

I'd like to see someone try to get this past airport security!
 
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