Can you build your own laptop?

May 31, 2009 | self

[Netizen]

Is is worthwhile to try and build your own laptop?

Our son is going to college in the fall. The college sent out a flyer and you can purchase a Dell Latitude from them for $1054.00. It would have Vista Office pre installed.

I had spoken to one of my cousins and we went through the Dell website and the same system would have cost an additional $600. So, $1600.00

Now, a the high school graduation, the father of the son that our son will be sharing a dorm room with says that he built his son's laptop and that he can build one for son too, if we want to save money.

My cousin who also does this sort of thing says building your own laptop isn't feasible. Parts or too expensive and everything is too proprietary.

[FRForever]

Very simple answer: if you don’t know how to do it already, the answer is “no”.

There’s certainly no way you could get a reliable, reasonably compact, reasonably powerful device together any more cheaply than a large company — and for the trouble you would go through to do it, it’s worth just buying off the shelf.

I happen to like Dells; I’ve had three of them now (two Latitudes and an Inspiron) and barring some really spectacular reason to go elsewhere (like you can get one for free) it sounds like a great deal.

If money is an issue, you can spend less on a netbook (e.g. $4-600) but it will be very much less powerful. If there’s already a desktop machine to hook into over the network, that’s OK, but I wouldn’t want a netbook as my only computer.

[yazoo]

“My personal suggestion? Look into Apple’s MacBook line. Starts at $900 for the white plastic MacBook, $1100 for the aluminum series.”

I would agree. With the Apple care plan you can pretty much be guaranteed he will have a working laptop for all or almost all of his college years. Not so with most PC laptops.

[mamelukesabre]

Sounds about 500 bucks too high to me. But if it comes with a top level version of office and some kind of service plan, maybe its an ok price.

[Jet Jaguar]

LOL!

[tophat9000]

No it not practically to build your own laptop ... at this cost point I don't even build my own desktops any more..

FYI Im a computer / network engineer since 1980 and built and repaired hundreds and hundreds of pc... Don't even begin to dig in to a laptop unless you really know what your doing other then install mem, no prob or upgrade a drive, maybe

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

You don't have the test equipment nor knowledge to troubleshoot defects. You don't have the experience nor knowledge to know how to fit parts and balance a design (or you wouldn't be asking). You are not going to save money. In fact when you are done. you will have spent more time putting it together than its worth.

When I was a kid, anybody with mechanical skills and a small toolkit could learn how to fix their own car. Nowadays, your nuts if you try to maintain a modern car by yourself. It's worse with computers. You might replace a broken part with a new part in kind by yourself. But building your own system is a receipe for trouble.

[Netizen]

Ok then. :)

So far, we can eliminate the friend’s father building one! LOL

I want to thank everyone that took time to supply info and or jokes and pictures. All were appreciated. :)

The flyer the university had sent out had very little information regarding the laptop and that bothered me. I’m looking at the Dell outlet store and may opt for going that way.

We have to go to the university for orientation in late June so maybe we can find out more on the laptop they are pushing and make comparisons then.

[dayglored]

> ... the father of the son that our son will be sharing a dorm room with says that he built his son's laptop and that he can build one for son too, if we want to save money.

And the warranty is... what? and the service contract is... what?

That's just crazy. Laptops are extremely specialized designs and are not for the homebrewer, unless they are prepared for it to spend more time being repaired than used.

And $1600 for a college-use Windows laptop is insane. You can get a decent one for half that, or go with the college supplied one.

[Concho]

Exactly right. This one I am using is such a machine, and it cost less than $600. Dual core HP, AMD and the works. Look at your big box stores and get an extended warranty and forget Dell. Apparently the school is writing themselves a nice commission on that deal.

Places like Tiger Direct sell parts and kits that you can get to build your own puters if you are so inclined.

[Krankor]

It is relatively easy to build a laptop- if you know what you’re doing. Thousands of employees from Silicon Valley have been laid off due to the recent economic slowdown and are now living on the streets. The smart thing to do is to offer the next homeless guy you see 500 bucks to build you a computer. It will help some poor soul get back on his feet and save you a pretty penny, as well.

[wally_bert]

There are some resellers of used gear out there like epcusa and they have an Ebay store of stuff.

[claude_merchant]

As a self employed individual who builds PCs and servers for a living let me emphasize: Do not bother to build one, just buy it. Laptops now days are very cheap. Besides, most colleges and universities have hardware and software agreements where a student can purchase them for steep discounts on campus

[Netizen]

Our son will be studying plant dna/genetics. He was accepted to the Honors College at MSU and he has a professorial assistantship. He wants to be a scientist like they have at the Ames Laboratory in Iowa. (The lab that’s 14 stories underground)

We too wish we knew what sort of specs he will need. The flyer the univiersity sent gave very little info and when I thought we might build one I threw it away.

It mentioned that it was a Dell Latitude. I think 5400
The screen size was 15.4 and had anti glare
It had WIFI No modem was mentioned so I guess it didn’t have one.

My cousin was frustrated over the lack of info given.

I don’t understand why they are using Vista business.

I did a search and found what specs they listed in the flyer

Dell Laptop - bigger screen

* Dell Latitude E6500
* 2.40GHz Dual Core, Windows Vista Business (32 Bits)
* 2.0GB memory, 250GB hard drive, built in 8x DVD+/-RW
* firewire port, USB port. Intel wireless card
* 15.4” Wide aspect Screen, 5 lbs

[ItsForTheChildren]

OMG LOL!

[jtonn]

Build your own? Those days are long gone.

Save everyone lots of grief and buy a Macbook:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/campaigns/back_to_school?cid=WWW-NAUS-BTS20090507-00101

[JimSEA]

LOL reminds me of one of my precision endeavors from years past.

The Dell price sounds pretty good, vista unfortunately included.

[Netizen]

Yes but there’s really no point. And not to be snarky but if you has to ask you probably shouldn’t do it.

Not to be snarky but, if you had read my post you would have known that I wasn't planning to build it. Someone else was, and they have done so in the past.

I was asking about the feasibility of it.

[SeafoodGumbo]

Acer Aspire AS5535-5452 Notebook PC - AMD Athlon X2 QL-64 2.1GHz, 3GB DDR2, 320GB HDD, DL DVDRW, 15.6" WXGA, Vista Home Premium

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4545456&Sku=A180-15610

If necessary, buy MS Office w/ student discount for not much money.

[Netizen]

Upgrading, on the other hand, is possible with laptops, and that might be what he was talking about.

That is what my cousin thought he might be doing.

[Netizen]

Someone in another thread purchased a laptop a few weeks back and they posted a link. I grabbed the link for a ‘just in case’.

http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/A300/A305-S6905