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Building a Custom Laptop to Your Specifications?
swordsaintzero asks: "I am not happy with the options presented to me in the laptop market. The system that comes closest, Alienware, costs more than my last car, and still doesn't have exactly what I need! Even Google didn't seem to come across any sites detailing anyone who had built a laptop from scratch. Does someone out there know of such a site? If not, does anyone know the motherboard brand being used in the Alienware Exteme series? If I can get some decent leads, I will post the ensuing mayhem, as I attempt to build my own."
Custom laptops? Can't help there.
It should be noted, however, that Alienware actually buys their laptops from a company called Clevo, paints 'em green, and resells them for $600 more. You can buy identical laptops for much cheaper from other Clevo resellers, like Sager. Check pctorque.com and powernotebooks.com for "Alienware" laptops without the expensive paint. Of course, they're still ridiculously expensive.
Scratched Emulsion
alienware sales sager notebooks at a 90% markup. A lot of other peolpe sell them. powernotebooks for example . Just google them.
Oh really?
I think the Alienware laptops are mostly built by Clevo (story here, brochure or press release here). I had someone come in with a Clevo quote recently. They look like capable machines.
Intel Pentium(R) M, 1.4GHz,14.1 SXGA+
1GB,DDR,266MHz 2DIMM
60GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
2x CD/DVD burner (DVD+RW/+R)
Intel Pro 2100 Wireless Card
Now that's a fine system, even considering the obligatory Microsoft tax and WinXp Home pre-installed. Check place like SlickDeals.net for Dell coupons and you should be able to get your system within $2,000-$2,500.
There are places you can go to get CUSTOM BUILT laptops, they are just not online stores or common chains. You need a plane ticked to Taiwan, or somewhere else in SE Asia.
A friend of mine picked up a custom laptop in Malaysia with 3GHz P4, with DVD burner, 1Gig Ram, and a slew of other features he wanted... for under $2500 Australian (that's ~$1700 US!!!)... The kicker is that this was back in February!
So it can be done... You just need to be holidaying in the area at the time...
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
Excellent collection of info, btw.
Regarding newer laptops and CPU sockets:
I upgraded my Sony GRX570 (1.6Ghz) to a 2.0Ghz because it's a socketed P4-M platform.
Before CPU removal.
After CPU removal.
The entire post is at Vaio Village for those curious. (Yes, same username)
-- I'd say your post was about 3 monkeys, 18 minutes.
Apple aren't just style and sophistication.
... could never find something like that for Dell/HP/Alienware laptops, anyway, so it seems like a plus for the pbook to me. The pbooks aren't upgradeable, but at least with pbparts they are pretty much user serviceable ...
I've had a Rev. A Powerbook (rev _A_) for about 4 years now, and it is a solid computer. It has survived two complete trips around the planet, had its case replaced 2 times (not easy to do, though) and had umpteen keyboard swapouts, and it still keeps on ticking.
Incidentally, speaking of part swapping on laptops, I don't know where I'd be without sites like pbparts.com, though
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Cheers,
Bill
bamph
Dell laptops are typically some of the most upgradable PC-based laptops out there. (Although it's an increasing trend in upgradability in general.)
The Dell Inspiron 8000 series allowed upgrades to:
CPU (socketed)
Video card (Socketed in a special package)
RAM (SODIMMS like everyone else)
HD
Optical drives
They had multiple display options, but that was something you could only choose at purchase time.
Compatible laptops in the C-series 8000s were the 8000, the 8100, and 8200. A very common upgrade (which made Slashdot) was to upgrade an I8000's GeForce 2 Go to the GeForce 4 440 Go (GF4 440MX) from the 8200. You could also buy socketed P4-M processors to upgrade the 8200. I've heard rumors that the "Precision" variant of the I8000 had a Quadro option that was the equivalent of a GeForce 4 4200 Go (i.e. a Ti4200), so the 8x00s might be upgradable to GF4Ti specs.
The new 8500 is not socket-compatible with the previous 8000s, neither is it media-bay compatible. The CPU socket might be the same, the video cards are a new form factor though. It will probably be upgradable with parts from one or two successor generations, like the 8000 could accept many parts designed for the 8100 and 8200.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
If you check out my journal you will get a detailed description of what I've been doing and why. In a nutshell: I'm trying to build a handheld computer that delivers adequate performance with maximum flexibility and battery life. The target design will have a small (7-8 inch) VGA screen, a moderately slow processor (100-200 MHz ARM), moderately sized hard disk (10-20 GB, 2" IDE), a moderate amount of RAM (32-256 MB), and run off of conventional rechargable batteries (8 AA NiMH cells) for at least 8-hours on a single charge.
Just to build the prototype will take several months and cost at least $1000 (probably several times that, when all is said and done). If I go to production, I can probably get the cost down to $300 per unit (not counting NRE costs), but the selling price will still be up in the $500 range.
The only way I am able to do any of this is that I am abandoning any kind of PC compatability: This device will never be able to run Windows or play flashy games (though it will run a regular, non-embedded, version of Linux). I've had to give up on all kinds of features that seemed like they should be simple: I don't have a clamshell case because the engineering is too complex for me to do myself and I don't have a keybaord because I couldn't find a source for laptop-style keyboards. I'm still holding out for polymer-LiION batteries, but I haven't found anywhere that builds them on contract, yet.
This is not the same sort of task as building a desktop computer from white-box parts (which is only slightly harder than plugging together lego blocks). This is much closer to actual engineering: I'll be constructing some of my own breadboards to connect the SBC to the LCD and the IDE hard disk, as well as custom hardware to charge and monitor the batteries.