Can You build your own laptop?

[lorthus]

I was wondering, how hard is it to upgrade a processor on a laptop??
I mean it seems pretty easy to change hard drive/ram/dvd
I was wondering if there's any companies arround there that would sell a laptop barebone.
I would save so much money by getting something like an Inspiron 6400 with nothing in it and buying ram/hard drive separately

 

[michaelahess]

Check out MSI barebones, get a good chassis and put what ever the hell you want into it! CPU's are just as easy to upgrade if not easier as the cooling solutions generally come off quicker, but they tend to have a more limited range of what they will support.

The best thing about building your own is that you can get a REAL hard drive not those shitty 4200rpm ones dell and others build with. And since HD's tend to be the biggest bottleneck in a laptop that's a double bonus. Plus you'll save yourself a few hundred bucks.

 

[KWH]

Great for performance but hard on the battery. I bought a desktop replacement last year or so, 7200 rpm, 9800 pro(has own memory), AMD 3000+, widescreen, 1 GB pc400, dvd burner, etc etc and it eats battery. I knew it would but wanted better performance. It does perform. A friend ordered one similar but got the 4200 rpm drive, he's regretted it since. Always pays to think ahead about what you really want. Do your research!

 

[michaelahess]

Yeah, I only need an hour at most if I'm out at a remote microwave site, I almost always have ac available, inverter in each vehicle! But bulky is bad and some of the msi's are around 6lbs so I'm looking at building one right now in fact. Looks like I'll be saving almost 300 dollars over some of the companies that do build to order versions of the msi chassis' and even more over dell's subpar offerings.

 

[KWH]

Go for it. I had mine built per my specs. I've been rather happy with it and I take it everywhere. I also have the inverter in my car, don't know how I've lived without it.

 

[INeedCache]

You can build your own, but it's nearly impossible to build one for less than you could purchase a comparable one.

 

[lorthus]

Is it really impossible to build it cheaper than buying it at dell lets say?
I mean dell charges like $100 to upgrade from 512Ram to 1024MB when you can pretty much buy 1gb ram for less than $80...
Samething goes for hard drives and etc... so I thought If I got a barebone lets say just Mobo, Monitor and Processor or no processor, it would only cost me a few hunderd dollars to add everything else and it would be a much better laptop than the ones from dell.
Anyway can anyone provide me with links from the websites with the barebone systems?

 

[lorthus]

One more questions, If battery life isn't the issue do I get better performance with an AMD Processor or Intel ?? and which ones should I look for or avoid, thanks

 

[alphakp295]

personally, i want to recoomand ASUS barebone.
asus whitebox laptops (barebone laptops) seems do really a good job imo.
for the laptops, in mobile processor, intel is BETTER.
AMD hasn't been focused on mobile system as much as intel did;
simply Pentium M killed Turion; core solo or duo will do same to turion 64...
of course it will be different if you put the desktop CPUs in the laptop;
but as long as you use mobile cpu, pentium will perform better.
pentium will save battery too; they use centrino tech.

edit: building a laptop w/ barebone is not any cheaper than buying a prebuilt.
well.. maybe couple of dollars... cheaper... just go for the prebuilt one for laptops...

 

[michaelahess]

ASUS has always made awsome laptops, I used to sell them to beer distributors cause the took quite a beating in their trucks, never had one die.

Now for the naysayers, build it yourself saves you money, proof:

From AVADirect I configured an MS-1029 with a Turion 64MT-37, 1gig ram PC3200 UNKNOWN CAS! and a Hitachi, 100gb 7200rpm drive, with a microstar wireless g card, cost: 1542.75

Now, via newegg I got the same cpu, 1gig ram with a KNOWN CAS 2.5 same HD and an MSI wireless adapter with BLUETOOTH for: 528.36

The barebone from Page computers is: 724.14

Total of MY build is: 1252.50

Total savings: 290.25 (dam close to the 300 I estimated)

The one from AVADirect has a one year warrnaty on everything, the new egg purchase has a 3 year on the hard drive, lifetime on the memory, the cpu only has the 30day oem but if you're really worried add the $50 for a 2 year and you still save money. The barebone has a 1 year warranty, you can extend that via MSI directly, not of pricing on that.

So build your own and pocket $300!

 

[godlyatheist]

I'd say Asus for barebone laptops, but DIY laptops will be at $1000+ range to say the very least. So if you have less than a 1 grand to play with, get Dell or any other company's.

 

[Akifuddin]

Response to title: DUH! Where do you think you get laptops? The same way you get a baby? WRONG! :lol: