Building a Custom Laptop like a PC.

[Coragin]

My Dad asked me tonight, why we dont put Windows XP 64 on our HP laptop.  I had to reply with, I tried.  But everytime the install menu comes up, the system reboots itself.  We then got into a discussion as to why building your own PC is better than buying HP, Compaq, Dell, ect.  The OEM Windows and drives you need.  And most of the time the montherboard is only compatable with their case.  Now this got me to thinkin.  With laptops your stuck with name brand.  I mean there arent any "White Box" laptops.  Your pretty much stuck with a hp, compaq, dell, ect case and mobo minimum.  No updating the mb ect.

Unless my observations are wrong, can you buy a "generic" laptop case?  One that fits the monitor size you want, then add in a universal mobo, memory ect?

I have never heard of something like this, but we would be 100% on board with building our own laptop as we can with our PC's.

Any input?

[Khameleon]

I haven't heard of anything like that myself.. but this is the best I can Do.


Tiger Direct

[Superslayer]

The closest I've come to building a laptop was 2 instances. One was my own Dell Latidude D610. For a bit of fun, I wiped the HD completely, bumped the memory to 2 gigs, popped in an 80 gig HD and installed Apple's Leopard OS. Using the Vanilla kernal, and a bit of user experience, I successfully had a Mac Laptop running a top of the line OS.

Another time came when a client desperately wanted his Dell (*model) to be an XP Pro instead of the 2005 Media Edition. That too took a bit of time since the hardware was still physically there, and continually wanted to be installed. It worked, but not without alot of force.

Bottom line, I believe laptops can *almost be anything you want them to be, but I have yet to find (and would love to) a barebones dealer for laptop's including the guts.

[Masscre]

I will have to look again but there was a few dealers around that made custon laptops.  You could not more or less build it your self but you could tell them what kind mb, CPU, and other items you wanted and then you got a plain case laptop with there logo on it.  I have also seen a few build oyur own kits around but they where a little expensive.  Let me do some home work tommorrow at work and if i dont forget I will post here.

[12TimesOver]

Well if you are looking to burn a lot money for no good reason really I say go for it and have fun!! On the other hand, you could just take the same money and pay for some of our UO accounts and get even more satisfaction out of it

Unlike building your own PC to specs you want, building a laptop is expensive and risky. You are MUCH better off simply purchasing a known brand with a good warranty. I've built my own PC's for roughly 15 years but I would never waste time trying to build a laptop from scratch.

Like Superslayer, I have mod'd and/or upgraded laptops plenty of times. In fact, I just overhauled my old Dell Latitude C800 and gave it plenty of new life.

I certainly don't want to deter you from exploring a potential hobby though, just figured I'd throw in my .02.

X

[Endless Night]

Ditto .. what 12x said.

Dont waste your time or money .. unless you have plently of both to spare

[Coragin]

Okay so how come my HP laptop with vista home, reboots itself every time I try to install XP or XP 64?  But it dont reboot when I try to install a non oem vista ultimate or win 7?  I dont want those memory hogs lol

[Masscre]

Have you tried removing the full os from the laptop by going through dos and removing everything and also fdisk and formating it before you try to install XP?

[12TimesOver]

Okay so how come my HP laptop with vista home, reboots itself every time I try to install XP or XP 64?  But it dont reboot when I try to install a non oem vista ultimate or win 7?  I dont want those memory hogs lol

Do you have a 64-bit supported laptop?

[Masscre]

Okay so how come my HP laptop with vista home, reboots itself every time I try to install XP or XP 64?  But it dont reboot when I try to install a non oem vista ultimate or win 7?  I dont want those memory hogs lol

Do you have a 64-bit supported laptop?

DOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!
I should have asked that question first !! Don't believe that one got past me !