Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (
More info?)
I think that you are correct. This then leads to the question as to why
the standards don't exist. Gateway / Dell / etc want to buy the parts
as cheaply as possible. This then leads to several possible thoughts:
a) Not enough laptops are sold to make price the big discriminating
factor. Price is important, but features and name brand still play a
major role.
b) The technology is not mature. There are still several ways to make a
laptop and standards / design do not drive a cost advantage.
c) No one sub-assembly manufacture has the resources to provide parts
for multiple major laptop end item manufactures. Therefore, each
manufacture (assembly and end item) are bound together.
All in all, I expect that it will only be a matter of time before an
approach wins out. The big boys will want the standards, someday.
Should we take bets, when we will be able to start building laptops?
Glenn
In article <10afl92baovfb83@corp.supernews.com>,
brewingNOisSPAMloving@hotmail.com says...
> I think what it comes down to is that there would be too many form-factor
> standards with laptops. In addition, you would need to have the screen
> integrated into the case with all of these different sizes. The way that
> dell and gateway and Sony mount their motherboards, hard drives, and other
> components differs, even among laptops of similar size.
>
> The point I guess I am trying to make, is that once you get so small, you
> would see something like a small form factor PC, where the motherboard comes
> with, and is designed only for that specific case, pushing prices up. It
> doesn't really cost that much more, per laptop, to have someone slide in a
> hard drive, stick of ram (sometimes even this is built into the
> motherboard), and cpu.
>
> Having one standard for a specific size would limit creativity, although it
> would be nice for homebuilders. Whitebox notebooks, therefore, where you
> add your own ram and hard drive, seem to be the closest thing to building
> your own notebook that we'll have for a while. There are, as far as I know,
> no plans for laptop case standards. If we had the standards, though, it
> would mean being able to build a laptop quite easily, but just not a cutting
> edge laptop.
>
> Dave
>
> <glnmathis@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:MPG.1b1042ca744cc626989684@news.west.earthlink.net...
> > Thanks for the response. You make several good points, however, there
> > was a time people thought the same about the desk top units.
> > Additionally, I would have thought that the motherboard manufacturers and
> > and the companies that build the cases, displays, keyboards, etc. would
> > have wanted to expand their markets. We know that Dell, Gateway, and IBM
> > do not make all their own sub-assemblies.
> >
> > Yes, the sizes are small and the tolerances tight, but that is where the
> > real enthusiasts find the challenge. If everybody could do it, where is
> > the fun? However, not being able to get the parts, makes the question
> > mute, unless parts manufactures are tracking the newsgroup.
> >
> > Glenn
> >
> > In article <10abjnelt745ae5@corp.supernews.com>,
> > brewingNOisSPAMloving@hotmail.com says...
> > > The closest you can get are OEM laptops that you add your own hard drive
> and
> > > ram to.
> > >
> > > When people learn that I build computers, they always ask me to build
> them a
> > > laptop. I think that the way they are manufactured, with everything
> > > integrated and built together, would mean that you'd either need a
> factory
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