Odds of getting other keyboard to fit onto this centrino barebone notebook?

[Naruto]

I need a laptop now that I am going to college in fall. I might be able to get a barebone centrino laptop for a nice price, but it lacks a keyboard and optical drive. The optical drive should be easy to add, any QSI dvd/cdrw combo drive will be suitable. But the keyboard might be troublesome. It has the same basic shape as many other laptops with 88-key keyboards, and I can modify the plastic tabs on the edges to slot in right. The laptop is the Aopen 1557GLS. Link Here

 

[jschuk]

Find me a better picture. Spec-wise, it sure sounds similar to the Acer Travelmate 800 (made by Inventec I believe). The cables on those keyboards are near impossible to alter. If the cable doesn't come out of the kybd in line with the connector then you probably will not be able to get it in the socket unless you find a keyboard with a long enough cable that you can somehow bend into place. I had to repair a cable that one of my techs accidentally melted. That is a pain in the rear. The contacts are basically painted onto the plastic cable.

 

[ForceCalibur]

Try powernotebooks.com and see if your estimated fully built system compares in price to theirs.