Build your own laptop?

[Gambit]

Here's a question for the technically inclined: have you ever built your own laptop? I assume that the answer will be a resounding NO from most, but if anyone out there has actually done it, I'd be grateful if you could send links (or just plain non-Internet information) to hardware, cases, etc. Thanks in advance.

[kinoons]

I've always looked for parts to build my own desktop, and in the process I've never come across parts to build laptop system, I really dont think its possible....

[Sultan Kinkari]

I opened mine up to switch out the RAM and everything was built onto the motherboard to minimize space. Unless you can custom build a motherboard I think your SOL. Good luck but I don't think it's worth the time or effort that it would require.

[warmgun]

I built a Sinclair from a kit (scratch basically)once, does that count?

[Gambit]

I read once that laptop parts are so hard to find because none of them are standard--a Compaq motherboard, for example, won't fit in an IBM laptop case. It's just another way for the manufacturers to screw us, I suppose. I would still like to try building one, and any additional information would be welcome.

[scr4]

It's just another way for the manufacturers to screw us, I suppose.

I think that's a very unfair statement. Laptops use propriatory parts because consumers demand small, light, powerful laptops. If you try to standardize laptops parts, you'll end up with much larger laptops. For example, if you define a standard motherboard size, that size needs to be big enough to allow the most complex motherboard people want to build. The standard laptop case will then have to be big enough to accomodate this big motherboard. Same with screens, drives and keyboards. Yes, you could set up several standards, but standards will always get in the way of optimizing size and weight. Also, many connectors, even external ones (mouse, printer, etc.), are soldered directly onto the motherboard to minimize size and weight. And you need a cooling system for the CPU. This means that you really want to designe the case and motherboard together.

I seem to recall that some manufactuers tried to sell "upgradable" computers - many parts of the laptop were separated into modules so you could, for example, replace the CPU module with a more powerful one. None of them sold very well, as far as I know. I think the reason is obvious - people want a powerful machine for less money NOW, not one that CAN be made powerful later.

You could hack together a laptop if you want, but it'll be nowhere near as powerful, compact or light as a commercial laptop. If you still want to do it, I suggest you look at wearable computing related web pages (the MIT page is a good start). Since there are very few commercial wearable computers, many make their own.

[Duck Duck Goose]

Not a computer tech, but a quick check of Google under "build laptop" brought this page of links up.

http://209.204.185.236/

[astro]

You can goof around with spare parts per the interesting link DDG provided but the real world answer is "no". To make a laptop portable, functional and affordable everything has to be very highly integrated and this does not allow for easily upgradable or swappable MB's, video CPU etc. Memory and drives and (battery types occasionally)can typically be upgraded in most notebooks.

IIRC in the two inch thick "Computer Shopper" era (about 5-7 years ago for the little geeks) there was an attempt to market a somewhat klunky "generic" laptop that could easily take CPU and drive upgrades but this was five years ago and I suspect that this company has faded into oblivion.

There are (or were) small, "luggable" clamshell cases you can buy with TFT screens and built in video and MB to which you can add CPU, drives, CD drives and PCI And ISA cards and memory that will run off 12v or 120 (no battery) for specific applications that require custom machines. I assume high end networking and some military uses might be applicable in these cases.

I searching I found out good ol' Brick Notebooks was still in business! They must be injecting monkey glands or something! They were the hottest think around for a while in the early 90's.

Here's an interesting machine.
http://www.brickcomputers.com/nth2.htm

"The ThunderBrick2 comes equipped with a 24X CD-ROM drive, 3.5-inch floppy drive and a choice of 7200 RPM hard drives. The ThunderBrick2 also includes a fast infrared port (FIR) of 4Mbps (compared to standard 150Kbps) for wireless connection to peripherals. Nine additional I/O ports for serial, parallel, etc., are also included. Two Type II or one Type III PCMCIA slots support a 32-bit PC CardBus architecture and Zoomed Video. For fast Web accessibility, the option for the 56Kbps-v.90 modem is through the PCMCIA or PCI add-on slot. The 10/100Base-T LAN is provided as an expansion module, leaving the PCI and PCMCIA expansion slots free.

The ThunderBrick2 measures just 13.8 (H) by 14.9 (W) by 7.0 (D) inches (350x378x180 mm), weighs only 16 pounds and features an easy-grip handle to enable the unit to be easily transported from one desktop or meeting location to another. In addition to occupying one-third the space of a traditional desktop PC and consuming only 91 watts."

etc etc