How to repurpose old and broken gaming laptop?

[AncientPistol]

I have an old MSI gaming laptop with GTX 1060 and 8th gen i7 processor that was abused a lot during its lifetime and now has a broken body, screen, fan, battery and keyboard. Even though it isn't really a portable device anymore the guts of the system (CPU, GPU, memory, main board, storage) are still in working condition, any way I can DIY it into a "desktop" by strapping a desktop cooler on it or something?

 

I tried to look for some guides on youtube doing something similar but couldn't find anything useful. I have an AMD stock cooler lying around that I'm not using in my pc but I can't figure out how to mount that to the laptop motherboard since it doesn't have the appropriate mounting holes or a backplate.

[whispous]

If you want to "strap" a desktop cooler to it, you'll need to make your own custom mounting to make it reliably hold itself tightly to the correct part of the CPU and GPU.

 

Every laptop has it's own bespoke design, and there won't be somewhere handy to plug said fan in.

[BondiBlue]

Attaching a desktop cooler to it will be something you'll just have to figure out on your own unless someone else has already done it with that same laptop model in the past. You'll want to consider anything that the board might need to operate - sometimes laptop boards won't work unless all the fans are plugged in and working. 

[thrasher_565]

3 minutes ago, AncientPistol said:

I have an old MSI gaming laptop with GTX 1060 and 8th gen i7 processor that was abused a lot during its lifetime and now has a broken body, screen, fan, battery and keyboard. Even though it isn't really a portable device anymore the guts of the system (CPU, GPU, memory, main board, storage) are still in working condition, any way I can DIY it into a "desktop" by strapping a desktop cooler on it or something?

 

I tried to look for some guides on youtube doing something similar but couldn't find anything useful. I have an AMD stock cooler lying around that I'm not using in my pc but I can't figure out how to mount that to the laptop motherboard since it doesn't have the appropriate mounting holes or a backplate.

well first would be able to get a cooler mounted or get a replacement. you can pull the rest out and mount it in a case with stand offs. you might need to do some wirering to get it to boot with out the monitor. use a keyboard, mouse and monitor .

[BiotechBen]

30 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

well first would be able to get a cooler mounted or get a replacement. you can pull the rest out and mount it in a case with stand offs. you might need to do some wirering to get it to boot with out the monitor. use a keyboard, mouse and monitor .

If you can extract the main board and screen, the screen uses eDP so it would just be a matter of finding a controller board to get it to an external connector.

[VicBar]

For anything DIY the yt channel DIY Perks is second to none. Check out these videos if you're looking for examples of what you can do. His projects tend to be really sophisticated, but he does always have actual DIY in mind so he keeps in mind the cost of the project a lot.

 

1 hour ago, AncientPistol said:

I tried to look for some guides on youtube doing something similar but couldn't find anything useful. I have an AMD stock cooler lying around that I'm not using in my pc but I can't figure out how to mount that to the laptop motherboard since it doesn't have the appropriate mounting holes or a backplate.

So if you don't have mounting holes... all the build youtubers have shown us that a smart use of zipties goes a LONG way.

 

[8tg]

I still wonder how people do these types of things to their computers.

Like, accidents happen and all but damn, did you toss the thing into the driveway and run it over a few times?

[BiotechBen]

2 minutes ago, 8tg said:

I still wonder how people do these types of things to their computers.

Like, accidents happen and all but damn, did you toss the thing into the driveway and run it over a few times?

Airports and unsecured poorly protected tech

[AncientPistol]

1 hour ago, 8tg said:

I still wonder how people do these types of things to their computers.

Like, accidents happen and all but damn, did you toss the thing into the driveway and run it over a few times?

College + a lot of traveling and loaning it to my friends