What kind of motherboards do laptop use?

[stevens]

do they use microATX? Can you by laptop cases and things like that? I know that building a desktop is alot cheaper than getting one from a place like dell, so would it be the same for laptops? If so where are some good places to get the parts?

 

[DaveSimmons]

No, because of heat, space, and power requirements laptop motherboards are custom-designed with virtually all parts built-in and soldered in place.

Usually the only removable parts are drives and memory, and possibly proprietary modem/ network/ wireless mini-cards (which are factory-installed).

When Dell or Toshiba offers similar models with different graphics chipsets, they are actually different motherboards with integrated graphics, there is no "graphics card" plugged into a mini-agp slot that you could swap out for something better.

 

[stevens]

Well is the mobile ATI 7500 a built in graphics processor?

 

[DaveSimmons]

<< Well is the mobile ATI 7500 a built in graphics processor? >>

yes, both the ATI and Geforce chips are integrated on the motherboard. It's done by adding extra parts to the motherboard (like with RAID or SCSI controllers on desktop mobos) as opposed to an intel i810/i815 chipset mobo where the graphics are part of the "main" motherboard chipset ("north bridge" and "south bridge" chips).

 

[stevens]

Is there a company that i can buy a motherboard with the ATI 7500 in it?

 

[DaveSimmons]

<< is there a company that i can buy a motherboard with the ATI 7500 in it? >>


As far as I know, you just can't buy laptop parts except as replacement parts for a specific model (like a Dell 8100-xxx-yyy). Toshiba, Dell, etc. each make custom-sized mobos for their own use and for specific product lines and years -- the 1999 toshiba laptop mobos will only fit in the 1999 toshiba laptop cases. You can't put a 1999 toshiba mobo in a Dell case or even a 2000 toshiba case.

So no, you can't really mix-and-match parts to make a perfect custom laptop the way you can with a desktop machine. You have to look through what the vendors offer you and settle for the closest match.

 

[texaspctech]

contact sandia computers...they make "clone" laptops and you may be able to buy just what you want...ask for Stewart and tell him Robert Gorelick sent you...

http://www.sandiacomputers.com/

 

[stevens]

Well i dont know if i can buy one. What i wanted to do is see how much it would cost to make one, then make the decision.