building a laptop

Well i'm a person that likes to build their own computer. I have only had desktops however. Now that i'm in college i'm thinkin about getting a laptop but i wanna build it myself so it won't cost as much and i can buff it up in the areas i want and perhaps make it cheap in the areas i don't care about. I'd like to buy most of my products from newegg however i don't know if you can even build your own laptop. I don't see any laptop cases on their site and since it's a small compact computer can someone tell me if it's possible to build a laptop from scratch like a desktop? and if it is how to do it.

May need to add the to the sicky: It is not possible to build a laptop in the same way as a destop. Generally, with a notebook your options are limited to processor, hard drive, amount of memory, what to put in the mini-pci slot. Exceptions are notebooks having an MXM connector (you can change the graphics) and manufacturers reusing similar* (you can swap the lower chassis and reuse existing drives, memory, pci cards and top parts) or the exact same** (you swap the different system board) chassis for various models.

If you're really adamant to "build" your own, you can still get bare notebooks of brand MSI, Compal, OCZ, ASUS, or ECS from various sources around the web: Newegg, ZipZoomFly, Alvio, ect.

Or you can scour Ebay for parted machines or off-lease types that may be missing a few parts (usually the drives, battery, and powr supply) and re-assemble it. I've had very good luck with IBM ThinkPad machines (T series). So-so luck with Dell (Latitude better than Inspiron except where they are the same chassis) and Toshiba (P series are a major PITA) and down right rotten luck with HP / Compaq (unless its the latter Armada Series)


* For instance, I have a ThinkPad T23 with a keyboard from a T21, a keyboard bezel from a T22, LCD from a Compaq EVO N160 and LCD cover and hinges from yet another T22.
** this is actually quite rare. The closest I've seen is older Dells like Latitude CP series and Inspiron 2500 / 8000 series / Latitude C800. Watch out for chassis that look the same but have subtle differences such as the Inspiron 1000 versus the Inspiron 1200 / 2200 and the IBM T20-T22 versus the IBM T23