Help Building a Laptop?

English Open Chat
1

After reading Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother for the umpteenth time, I have decided that a good Summer project would be building my own laptop. I know that building a desktop is much more common, and a quite a bit easier, but frankly, I would be much more apt to use and care about a laptop than a desktop.

The trouble then comes down to a few things:

1: Does anyone know a good brand of well-supported barebones laptop shells?

2: Howsabout a site that offers parts for said barebones laptop?

I have put a bit of time into googling these things, and have come up with sites selling barebones books with little-to-no information about compatabilities and whatnot, alongside less-than-trustworthy seeming sites selling processors and the like. Does anyone have any experience with building laptops? I’m excited, but a bit clueless.

Any help is appreciated.

2

So I found one hit here:

MSI Whitebook MS-1675-ID1 - No CPU - 16″ - 0 MB Ram - 0 GB HDD

I must say that this is not what I would do. In my opinion I would build a good desktop and perhaps look for a good used Dell Laptop between $300-500. A good laptop should last five years if taken care of. Generally you should not consider buying a laptop over three years old and two would be better. You can learn just as much building a desktop and not potential waste so much money on trying to build a laptop. None the less, I wish you very much luck and ask that you keep us informed of your choice in this matter.

Thank You,

3

Well, I’ve decided, (for the time being), to go for making a laptop. Once I research it more, I’ll see if I’m really going to put any money into this. For the laptop, I’m not going for speed or power, just the experience of building it. I found this barebones book:

MSI Whitebook MS-1651-ID2 - No CPU - 15.4″ - 0 MB Ram - 0 GB HDD

Which is plenty cheap. At some point, when I really need more power, I’ll go for something pre-made, but this just seems like quite a bit of fun.

Thanks for pointing me to msi! They seem to be one of the few providers of barebones laptops out there.

4

Well, I’ve decided, (for the time being), to go for making a laptop. Once I research it more, I’ll see if I’m really going to put any money into this. For the laptop, I’m not going for speed or power, just the experience of building it. I found this barebones book:

MSI Whitebook MS-1651-ID2 - No CPU - 15.4″ - 0 MB Ram - 0 GB HDD

Which is plenty cheap. At some point, when I really need more power, I’ll go for something pre-made, but this just seems like quite a bit of fun.

Thanks for pointing me to msi! They seem to be one of the few providers of barebones laptops out there.
I am happy to hear that the link was useful to you. By all means keeps us informed of your success.

Thank You,