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Originally posted by OneAngryDaisy
All of you guys talk about building computers.. but anyone ever build a laptop? I slightly recall someone talking about making one in one of those old metal suitcases- but never heard a definite word on that one..
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It's possible, but not practical. Any home-brew laptop would have to be concocted from various name brand parts. That said, most, if not, all name brand components are proprietary, meaning a dell motherboard will only fit a dell enclosure, with a dell lcd, dell keyboard, etc. I've assembled and disassembled more laptops than I can count at work, and all brands have their own "special" features which in one way or another make them completely incompatible with other brands. It's been said Intel is trying to develop a laptop standard (same concept as ATX motherboards/cases) to broaden the market while reducing costs for laptops. Granted, some components, e.g. memory, CPU, hard drives, cd-rom drives (in most cases) are already standard, and can interface with virtually any modern notebook, the motherboards, video cards, monitors, keyboards, pointing devices, the chasis/cases themselves are at present still proprietary, and can only be obtained directly from the manufacturer. To sum up, yes, laptops can be home built, as long as all the components are purchased individually from the manufacturer, which 99% of the time, the cost of components will be double the cost of the laptop itself retail. (Big brands in particular charge an arm and a leg for any component, e.g. keyboards for $45, motherboards for average $800, enclosures for anywhere from $150-$300, LCDs for $500+)