Barebones Notebook

Gsurface writes "The first barebones notebook makes its appearance. The barebone notebook features no display, no CPU, no RAM and no HDD, but only the case, with keyboard and touchpad."

Comments

No Display?

[rprata]

Where would one buy a display?

Re:No Display?

[BorgDrone]

I think these are meant for OEM's, so they choose a display, cpu, hdd, etc.

Re:No Display?

[Eccles]

while videos look awsome, applications look like carp!

If you got one of those amber displays, would they look like goldfish?

Re:No Display?

[zurab]

Try laptopparts.com here. Those are brand name displays, search found 903 of them, and no way to sort by price.

Interesting, but

[InterruptDescriptorT]

Where, I wonder, would one buy individual parts for a notebook?

It's pretty easy to go to your local dealer and pick up an Athlon, mobo of your choice, some cheap RAM, hard drive, etc. I have to say that I've never seen notebook parts available a la carte like with regular computer paraphernalia.

Besides, even if you could get those things, I have a hunch it would be far more expensive than getting a brand-new notebook from Dell or Gateway. They buy their parts in bulk and can therefore pass the savings on to the consumer.

I'm totally in favour of self-building, don't get me wrong, but I wonder if the economics of the whole deal doesn't favour just buying a new notebook outright and spending the savings on some accessories.

Re:Interesting, but

[ComputerSlicer23]

If buying in bulk was really all there was to the price, I wouldn't be able to build a machine cheaper then Dell. As a general rule, I normally can (I haven't tried lately so maybe I can't). The difference is in who does the labor. The really big savings is that you get no labor, and you get no replacement parts, you get no support. So build your own can be cheaper if the bulk parts discount, doesn't overcome the labor/support issues.

I wouldn't build my own laptop, just because laptops are touchy little beasties. Heat and airflow are really important. Docking stations, and port replicators are nice. Not to mention the wear and tear due to abuse, and move moving parts (the hinges on the screen), and the various clips that I wouldn't get the right kind for, especailly not if I'm buying on the cheap. Batteries and removable parts are a problem. Power consumption, and LCD quality. Just lots of little issues that I wouldn't get right, that Dell would.

Kirby

Re:Interesting, but

[bytesmythe]

I have a hunch it would be far more expensive than getting a brand-new notebook from Dell or Gateway. They buy their parts in bulk and can therefore pass the savings on to the consumer.

Actually, they buy them pre-assembled and slap a name badge on them, then screw you with a huge mark-up.

Re:Interesting, but

[Zach Fine]

I've built many a system for waaaaay less than a Dell, Gateway, or the like (comparisons to the cost of a prebuilt LCD screen [purchased with stacked coupons and discounts] to a fictitious homebuilt large LCD screen is amusing but, um, I don't get it). It's laughable to think that I'd have been able to buy a AMD 1.4Ghz Dell with 40Gb hard drive, Radeon dual-monitor support, CDRW drive, DVD-Rom drive, and a half gig of ram 2 years ago for around $500 from Dell, Gateway, or any of the majors. But with parts bought from Fry's, Compgeeks, Newegg, and other vendors I was able to cobble together a nice little system for that price. I added a KVM switch and used the 19" LG 995 monitor, mouse, and keyboard from my Mac to complete the project. For someone lacking those parts they could have been purchased (sans KVM) for under $300 altogether. I'd guess that an equivalent system from Dell would've cost more than $800 before the addition of a 19" monitor.

In general, you can buy all the parts and spend an hour putting it all together for at least a few hundred dollars less than a prebuilt system. You can also save extra by using equivalent but less costly parts, and by skimping on parts that aren't important to you. Find a local or online computer parts store that's reputable and has good prices, and there's no way the parts will cost as much as the total of the parts included in a prebuilt system from Dell or whoever.

The value of buying a prebuilt is not that you're getting any of the benefit of Dell's bulk orders of computer hardware (they keep that benefit in the form of profits), but that you get support and a single warranty provider rather than having to deal with all the different manufacturers when encountering a problem. You're not just paying for the brand name, although that's part of it.

Since I can build and support my own, none of my computer's parts were defective, and I don't think it's that big a deal to work with manufacturer's warranties, I will probably never pay extra for Dell brand equity and support. For my Grandma I'd probably recommend she buy from one of the majors, I'd advise her to go with Apple but she already bought herself a Gateway.

As for building my own 19" LCD monitor, I suppose that might be a worthwhile endeavor if the cost of LCD monitors were high enough to justify the millions of dollars of R&D I'd need to spend before manufacturing one.

Who needs a screen?

[Grim Grepper]

Why back in my day, all you needed were some LED's.

And why use a hard drive when you have perfectly good cassette tapes laying around?

Re:Who needs a screen?

[Wobin]

You had tapes? I used to have to insert 28 punch-cards only to be able to play tetris...

Re:Who needs a screen?

[phoenix_rizzen]

You had punch cards? Talk about spoiled.

We, my friend, had to input our code using dip switches, 1 byte at a time. And heaven forbid that you make a mistake near the end of the program, 'cause then we had to start all over.

Re:Who needs a screen?

[loucura!]

You had TAPE?! I had to make do with paste... which was fortuitous, because it could double as a tasty-tasty buritto substitute.

Re:Who needs a screen?

[mihalis]

You had punch cards? Talk about spoiled.

We, my friend, had to input our code using dip switches, 1 byte at a time. And heaven forbid that you make a mistake near the end of the program, 'cause then we had to start all over.

You had dip switches? You were lucky! We had to ... no, I just can't bear it any more.

AKA

[endoboy]

etch-a-sketch

Finally something that ISNT a beowulf cluster

[siberian]

Finally, something I don't WANT to make into a Beowulf cluster..

Re:Already /.'d?

[Soul-Burn666]

I'm sorry, but I must....

In Soviet Russia, the sites Slashdot you!

Keyboard? Keyboard?

[burgburgburg]

Why in my day, we used to get up at 2:00 am, eat a plate of hot gravel, crawl to the office over broken glass, and when we got there, we'd have to pound on the computer with our foreheads in place of typing. Keyboard? Kids today have it easy.

Re:Already /.'d?

[daddymac]

I'm surprised it lasted this long.

Considering the web server has no display, no ram, no hard drive...

Re:Call that barebones?

[SlightlyMadman]

-1 Redundant

Didn't you read the article? They have that exact same picture up.

Re:ok.....

[kfg]

From an electronics jobber. Where you'll also find everything you need to design, build and test everything from an old fasihoned crystal radio set to a mainframe computer.

You need only supply your own money and intelligence.

These days the answer to "Where do I get. . ." is almost always, " At the store."

You want a small particle accelerator? People sell them over the counter, or all the parts to build your own.

The only trick is to find the store. Trust me, it's there.

KFG

Barebones laptop without a display?

[g_adams27]

I'm all for bare-bones, but I at least want all the bones!

Wow

[Strange Ranger]

barebone notebook features no display, no CPU, no RAM and no HDD,

And the damn thing STILL runs Linux. Wow!


Oh. nevermind..

Re:What?

[MoonBuggy]

No CPU, no screen, no HDD ... Are you sure they're not charging you $$$ for an empty cardboard box?

Of course not, they're charging you $$$ for a plastic box ;-)

Hey, I used to have one of those...

[Archie Steel]

...if I remember correctly, it was called a ZX81... :-)

google

[gearheadsmp]

google cache for Xbit labs home page

Asus

[dlur]

Actually it's been possible for some time to get an Asus notebook similar to this, with just the case, motherboard, and LCD on it. I'm not sure Asus really wants you to be able to get them this way and they come in a "white box".

One of the guys at work got one of these, went to Intel's channel partner site, got a PIII mobile CPU for next to nothing, snagged a decent 2.5" HD from one of our retailers, and threw in some SODIMMs that we had in stock and he got a really nice notebook for hardly anything (this was a year or two ago).

He was even able to call up Asus and tell them the stickers wore off his notebook, and they sent him out some new ones for free, so you can't even tell it's not the real deal.

On the other side of things, I do believe from opening up quite a few notebooks for repairs that the vast majority of notebook components are somewhat standardized. The batteries tend to be the most varried components inside the notebooks. Consider that there are only a very few manufacturers of notebook computers that are outsourced by the major computer vendors, and that makes for some pretty standard stuff. It's even possible to get the "white box" version of most of Dell's notebooks direct from the company that manufactures them for Dell, last I checked anyways.

Interesting...

[Junta]

I wonder what the deal is. I've hated having to buy laptops as a whole system bought from a single source. I've came to just accept that I have to live with it...

Why, you ask, do I care so much? Is it just to be 'elite'? Hell no, it is because I *hate* dealing with any problems that crop up in the warranty period. In dealing with my desktops, a part breaks under warranty, I contact that particular company, send in that *one* part, and have a replacement back in short order. Some people say they are afraid of hardware manufacturers trying to blame other pieces of equipment to avoid servicing, but that has never happened to me. I send it in, they test and verify that it is broken, and they fix it or send a working part. Has always been smooth for me, thankfully.

With the whole systems approach, something under warranty breaks. I call and say 'this portion of the laptop is broken, I want to send in this part, or at least remove the hard drive so some idiot tech doesn't see Linux, freak out, and reformat with Windows'. They say 'Linux isn't supported, you must include the hard drive, it *will* be wiped and replaced with Windows so we can run our test software to verify the problem is fixed, and if we cannot do this we will not repair it'. I've been fighting for weeks to get warranty repair without losing data. The problem is easy to test, if you press the power button and the power light comes on, the problem is fixed, end of story. If the power light stays off even though AC is connected, it is still broken. The problem with it has *nothing* to do with the drive, and they don't need to run any software to figure out if they fixed it or not. Why should it be any of their business what I run, when it clearly didn't cause the problem? Guess I got spoiled when I would call this same company regarding a business laptop and had them bend over backwards to kiss my ass regarding the very same request about not shipping a hard drive.

Also, come a year and a half after purchase, say my memory has a problem. Well, the system is out of warranty. With my desktop, the memory happens to have a lifetime warranty. Having a system where everything is at least a year warranty, with some parts longer is much better than having the whole thing end after a year.

A memory manufacturer has never threatened to deny me service because of the software I run, as long as I don't overclock. A video card manufacturer has never said they can erase my drive contents if they want to run tests. Why should I have to deal with this treatment for laptops? Why is it that I can even build PDAs from parts, and to this day I cannot build a real laptop from parts?

Text of the Story

[daddymac]

First Notebook Barebone Ever

Posted 2/28/03 at 10:00 am by Anton

ECS announced recently its DeskNote i-Buddie A980 mobile desktop PC, the first ever mobile barebone computer. It features no display, no CPU, no RAM and no HDD, but only the "case" with keyboard and touchpad. The indisputable trump of the novelty is that you are free to install the most high-end and cutting-edge hardware, or you may buy not really expensive components that are enough for your needs.

Here is the list of i-Buddie A980 technical peculiarities:

* Supports Socket 478 Pentium 4 / Celeron processors with 400/533MHz FSB with 3.06GHz clock-speed and above;
* SiS650 chipset with SiS962 I/O controller;
* 1 DIMM slot for up to 1GB of PC2100 or PC2700 DDR SDRAM memory.
* Integrated graphics core, ability to install NVIDIA GeForce4 Go420 mobile graphics card.
* 2-channel ATA-100/66/33 integrated controller;
* Includes an 8x DVD-ROM drive;
* Free bay for 2.5" HDD;
* 4 USB 2.0 ports;
* FireWire (IEEE1394) port ;
* IR port with transfer rate up to 115.2Kbit/s;
* 10/100Mbit/s Ethernet adapter and connector;
* Integrated 56K modem;
* 6-channel audio solution and built-in speakers;
* Size: 342mm (W) x 300mm (D) x 34mm(min)/50.5mm(max);
* Weight: 1.8Kg.

End-users have a lot of opportunities to expand and configure such computers, they even now can choose between 14" and 15" TFT panel, what should allow ECS' customers to get the most cost-effective solutions possible.

According to this French web-site, such barebones will be priced at $300. Not expensive, I believe, but remember that you will need to get a display, a microprocessor, a memory module and a hard disk drive to make it functional. It seems that the DeskNote i-Buddie A980 will hit the stores quite soon, as certain European local resellers of DeskNote computers already promote it and it seems that the only thing that stops them from starting the sales is the absence of appropriate LCD displays for such computers.

Last year ECS did not achieve its full-year shipment targets on the DeskNote line of products (see this news-story). Elitegroup Computer Systems decided to follow its usual strategy of offering the cheapest products possible and in order to achieve this it needs to buy as few expensive devices as possible. Since LCD panels seem to be the most highly-priced parts of DeskNote systems, the Chinese company decided to sell the DeskNote PCs without LCD panels in order to keep the inventory level of such units low. This seems to be the right idea in order to keep the lowest prices possible; however, I doubt it will help ECS to skyrocket the sales of its DeskNotes in Europe or the USA, because not a lot of customers want to build notebooks on their own. On the other hand, a lot of companies sell already functional DeskNote computers, which purchase seems to be more interesting.

Time will tell if ECS is able to boost its sales of portable desktop computers by selling display-less DeskNotes.

You may find this useful...

[djkitsch]

Here's a direct link to the manufacturer's website:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/a980.htm

and here's a mirror for the ineviatable slashdotting:
http://www.meatspace.co.uk/ibuddie/

Wear & tear is the beauty in this concept

[Mephiska]

For most people it's not so much the electronic bits on a laptop that go out, but it's screens that get cracked, keys that start sticking, touchpads that get, well, touchy and on and on. If there was some sort of laptop spec that manufacturers built parts to fit inside some specific dimensions then when a key breaks or hinge gets loose you don't have to ship it back for an expensive repair. You can just go down to Fry's and pick up a newly updated shell.

This would also be great for just keeping a laptop system up-to-date. With the way motherboards and hard disks and cd drives have been shrinking now's the time when I hope we'll see home built laptops of the same breed as home built PC's.

Re:Wear & tear is the beauty in this concept

[ComputerSlicer23]

Yes, and no. Wear and tear is a lot of why it doesn't achieve critical mass, they break down way to easily. In fact, I'd conjecture that cheap desktops, and fast internet everywhere, are why a lot of people I know don't have laptops. Most of them just spend $300 put a machine together, and put it everywhere they would want a computer. One in the living room. One in the bedroom. One at a friend's house (I have several computers at other peoples houses to make LAN parties easy).

Laptops are nice, but they will never be as cheap as regular desktops due to space, heat and power consumption constraints. The wear and tear, and high replacement parts is what drives people to desktops. They aren't as fast. They can't store as much, you can't put as much RAM in them. They can't do a lot of things a good PC can. Now if they become terminals to bigger faster stationary equipment, now your talking. Then, I'm still not building my own, all I need is one with a good screen, a good video card, and a decent keyboard, nothing else matters on a terminal.

If laptops became extemely common, I could see a vicious cycle of increased sales, which increased production volume, which lowered prices, which increases sales. I don't see a way to transition to there as long as desktop PC's are a cheap as they are. A good laptop is also a lot harder to put together, especially out of commodity parts. Running cabling the right way, and using thin bundled cables instead of ribbon cables is a good idea. Having fans that turn on at the right tempatures, and blow on the right parts is critical. Getting the LCD cable snaked thru is important. Getting the tension right on the hinges. Ensuring that the screen didn't weight too much to put too much stress on the plastic while sitting open. A dozen little things. It'd be simpiler then having DIY car's, but I'm not sure there is that much public interest in it. Most people simply don't need laptops. I've never needed one. I don't travel, and when I want a computer there is one handy. I can't use one in my car while I'm driving, and most other locations I go that don't have a computer, I'm going there to get away from my computers!

Kirby

Ill sell you one - good price too.

[_ph1ux_]

Totally Bare bones System BLOWOUT!!!!

For only a nice even $1000.00 !!! You get the following Barebones Laptop:

No Display!
No RAM!
No Battery!
No Extra Battery!
No CPU!
No Keyboard!
No HDD!
(1) Laptop Carrying Case.

You get to pick all the compnents you want in your barebones system - and each can be added at an additional cost.

ACT NOW! While supplies last!!!

Re:Barebones Laptop

[OneFix]

CPU: 1.8 GHz Mobil P-4 $445.00
Yes, but you can get a Northwood 1.81 GHz for $136.99 from pricewatch (this is the low-ball figure)...I'ld never buy from a low-ball vendor, but it should put you in the ballpark

RAM: PC133 128MB $37.97
Don't forget it has to be SO-DIMMs...

But...close...$33.05 from Axion Technologies...

HDD: 20GB $149.00
$105.00 for an IBM 30GB ATA100@4200rpm

DISPLAY: 14.1 LCD Screen $749.00
$589.00 for a Sony VAIO PCG-FX370 15.0" TFT LCD or $395.00 if you're willing to go with a 12.1" Compaq

TOTAL: (APPROX) $1380.00
More like $670.00 - $864.00

One Small Problem...

[OneFix]

This is a "DeskNote"...not a Notebook...there's a small difference

This product differs from a notebook in that it does not include an integrated battery. An optional external battery is available. (emphasis mine)

I don't think so...