Tips for building my Own Laptop.....

danielclifster

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Jun 20, 2011
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Hi Guys,
I was thinking of building a new laptop for myself..I would have little/no experience building one and was wondering if you could direct me in the right direction with parts etc to get... Any suggestions? Should I wait until next year or would now be a great time to try this project of mine... All help greatly appreciated.. Daniel
 
Hello danielclifster;

Not much to building a laptop. Usually you get a barebones chassis, add the CPU, RAM, a HDD and thats it. You'll end up spending more to get it done yourself.
You'll be buying everything at retail prices.

What budget are you working with?
 

danielclifster

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Hmm rite ..wot sites wud I be looking for for all this ...?? I would have a nice budget to work from as I'd be building it and want it to last a nice period of time ...and then probably update again ... Is this possible?
 

robojin

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interesting, i don't know much about laptops yet but i think this is possible.
honestly, just by asking people here at toms you'll learn a lot about laptops. you my friend posted in the right forums.

i'll check on this thread if you are succeeding on making one.
 

AntiZig

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yeah, I have to agree with someone else I read on this forum. "Laptops are a technological dead-end" it's not completely true, but biggest part of a laptop, as well as desktop is the motherboard. Problem is that, laptop casing design is a lot more limiting than a desktop casing desk in terms of motherboard selection. So, if you find a motherboard that will fit your desired hardware today, chances are that same motherboard will not work 2-4 years when later when you want to upgrade major components like CPU/GPU. And also you will have trouble fitting a newer motherboard to the same casing. So, if you wish to build your own laptop, that's nice and all, but don't count on upgrading it like a desktop system after a few years.
 

danielclifster

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So my best bet/thing to do wud build a desktop... what wud i need to begin this?? Is now the right time or is there new developments happenin later in the year? Any help appreciated ..
 

ram1009

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There will always be something better coming out in a month. You must decide when. Just about anything you would beuid today will be powerful enongh to run nearly all software for years to come. Unless you specifically need portability a desktop is what to build. Laptops are high maintenance toys and will never be capable of the same kind of performance of a desktop especially on a dollar for dollar comparison. Do you have a budget in mind?
 

AntiZig

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you get started by figuring out your budget and doing research on which parts are available and which ones you can afford.
 

ram1009

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List in preferential order what you will do with the computer, such as, play games, steream video, edit video, e-mail, 3 D graphical work, etc.
 

gondo

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You buy a chasis. The video is included so you don't get to choose that. Add HDD, CPU, Ram and that's it. The best chasis is the clevo. It's regarded as the best notebook in the industry. Unfortunately you can't just buy a single chasis. There are however companies that use this chasis in their builds. No unfortunately Dell isn't one of them :)

Sager is probably the best and most well known. Check out their website. You choose the series based on video card and screen size. The rest you customize right down to even the hard drive. You can go regular, hybrid, or SSD. Great prices and the best notebooks in the world. You can't go wrong here. There are several online dealers of Sager notebooks so shop around.