Building a LapTop?

[barlav]

How feasible is it to build a LapTop? I would be interested in building one from scratch like I do with PC's. Has anyone ever done this? If so, are there some good resources out there with info on this subject?

Thanks!

 

[AndyHui]

Not possible. Most laptop parts are proprietary, require precision engineering and perfect interaction with other hardware in the system. Generic parts do not offer this.

 

[Endymion]

about all you do yourself is add ram or a network/modem card!

 

[Migroo]

It would still be nice to have a try though 🙂

Thinking about it, aslong as the critical components are from a single system, it MIGHT run. Something to experiment with. I have a few old laptops at home (386 baby) so i might rip one apart! 🙂

I'll let you know what I find.

 

[Conroy9]

i'm guessing you'll find a proprietary motherboard with proprietary connectors to proprietary cd-rom/etc ...
so where will you go from there? 🙂

 

[RobMerritt]

Done it. Its not that hard. You just aren't going to end up with anything thats light. At work we started with a suit case, shieled it, then started adding parts. We ended up using extra power packs from an HP laptop but everything was basically off the shelf. There was no cd drive, or floppy drive. We used a K6 333 and a MB with everything built on. A 12 inch flat touch screen, a micro keyboard, and a few other things.

 

[JohnnyPC]

Back when laptops were ALL extremely pricy I used to drem about this too. I looked into and I found that there are no good sources that you will find things like empty cases, MBs to fit those emty cases, LCD to fit that empty case etc. Even adding up the component prices of some of the used/excess chassis, cases, components, LCDs you can find on eBay, it totalled more than what you could buy a second hand unit for, if not brand new these days. Take a look here for instance... http://www.tigerdirect.com/ you can find a couple model for around $800. Yes refurbs but in my book that isn't a negative term since they still come with warranties. Look around you WILL find some amazing bargains...

 

[JellyBaby]

Boy I sure wish you could do this. As it stands you're limited to memory, hard disk and maybe CPU upgrades. It's a closed architecture for the most part and the Gateways, Dells, WinBooks of the world would like to keep it that way.



<< Most laptop parts are proprietary, require precision engineering and perfect interaction with other hardware in the system. Generic parts do not offer this. >>

I don't see why that can't change. In fact it should have happened by now but laptop sales are lucrative...and, of course, there hasn't been much demand for home-brew lappies.