Building a Laptop

[VishKapish]

So I'll be going to college this fall, and was just curious if its possible to build a laptop. I know desktops are really easy, but really I haven't really found very much info on laptops. Will it be as cheap as building my own desktop (meaning, will the ratio between the DIY cost and manufacturer cost be roughly equal)? How hard is it, if not impossible?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Build a desktop. Save yourself many headaches and money.

 

[joelm3103]

Always wondered also but never heard anyone who built their own laptop. This might be a task IF its possible being that you have to build the chassis to the exact fitting of the motherboard (different laptop models have different designs to compensate for the ports and locations). Also you may have to sort how exactly you gonna place the parts inside in order to get proper airflow and yet compactness. So it may be more difficult and costing to build a laptop compared to manufacture's cost.

 

[MindoverMaster]

There are what you call Barebone laptops available. Search on Google. they come with the board and LCD only. You must provide the CPU, HDD, DVD (in some cases), RAM and OS.

 

[wafflehammer]

There are what you call Barebone laptops available. Search on Google. they come with the board and LCD only. You must provide the CPU, HDD, DVD (in some cases), RAM and OS.

This is true BUT they are NEVER cheaper than just getting a pre-built :| sadly the laptop part market isn't up to par with the desktop market so nothing is as cheap :\

 

[Lexluethar]

It isn't possible. You can custom build your laptop from a website like HP or Dell, but you can't purchase individual parts like you can with a desktop. Reason being the form factor. Every motherboard is shaped a little different and have things like USB, ethernet and other jacks in different locations. So the case has to be specially made for those motherboards.

It may be possible if you did a ton of digging, but you have to purchase a casing that is made for that motherboard, which is exactly what you do with a custom made one from a website.

As everyone said do yourself the favor of just custom building one from a website.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

You CAN buy parts from ebay or from parts wholesalers and build a laptop piece by piece by piece.
BUT
Using this method, you could build a Thinkpad T60 laptop for $300.
Mind you, this is a 3-4 year old laptop.
The outcome of building it piece by piece for $300?
100-320gb hdd
15" screen
dvd burner
1.6ghz-2.0ghz cpu
intel gma 9XX
1gb of ram
no battery
take the cost up to ~$400
add on a 9 cell battery for 3 hrs batt. life at full settings
BUT
YOU GET NO WARRANTY
"NO WARRANTY"
'NO WARRANTY'

You're better off just buying a decent mid range laptop $650~ with a dedicated graphics card...
Or...
Building a desktop with nice specs and buying a low end laptop/netbook.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

If you were really adventurous though, you could in theory... Use desktop components...
I'm talking really low power draw stuff... Mini-ITX ITX Micro-ATX low low wattage everything...
Make your own case for the motherboard and monitor in a briefcase style, and find a way to hook a decent battery to it, **** maybe even some solar panels >
And a small as possibly PSU.

You could in theory build a "laptop" though it would probably be quite bulky, if you did it right, you could make it way more ****** than a conventional laptop.
Keep in mind that would by a DIY build from the ground up.
Only do it if you're really really serious about building your own.