An Oddly Specific Project............

[Lesgoooo]

I want to build a laptop with an 18 inch screen, good keyboard and trackpad, good speakers, but with the specs and thickness of a thin and light. The idea for this project came from the fact that I wanted a laptop with enormous screen real estate and a good user experience but didn't necessarily want the weight or the cost of a gaming laptop with an 18 inch screen (think Razer Blade 18). 

 

The idea is to 3D print the external shell, add an 18 inch IPS screen, but I don't know what to do for the internals and the keyboard, trackpad, speakers and so on. It should be noted that I don't want a Briefcase PC thing going on here since I need it to be portable and light (however I do understand that an 18 inch laptop is heavy).

 

So kindly give me suggestions and thoughts, or even prebuilt laptops I can buy!

[BentleyOwen123]

weird ass request, lemme look around

[BentleyOwen123]

budget?

[BentleyOwen123]

17.3 inch ips 144hz, a 12th gen i5 anda 3050 on clearence for 750

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-nitro-5-17-3-full-hd-ips-144hz-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i5-12500h-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3050-512gb-pcie-gen-4-ssd-black/6507908.p?skuId=6507908

[manikyath]

there's two problems here...

1: building a laptop is not a thing. the best you can do is buy a laptop, and find a bigger screen with the same connector.

2: an 18 inch thin and light laptop will be flexible even with the most high end chassis manufacturing options... 3D printing is not the best of options.

 

as listed above.. just buy a 17 inch laptop and call it a day.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

why not just run a 2nd screen with a portable monitor? think thatd be quite abit cheaper + less time consuming compared to recasing a laptop and having to find a compatible display

 

as for internals probably just rip em out of some random laptop and you do want to make sure the board has one of those standard display cables or something like that where theres alot of screens including 18+ inch thatd fit, i dont particularly look at laptops that much but i do know that theres a standardised display connector or something like that, and specs wise do whatever you want here as long as the budget allows though id reccomend something ryzen based as theyre alot more efficient and have much better igpus than intel if you arent gonna go for a dedicated gpu

 

trackpad speakers etc probably from the same laptop youve decided to use as a donor though you might have to extend some ports cause you are stretching the laptop out

 

basically what youll be doing is recasing a laptop and swapping the display

 

Just now, manikyath said:

as listed above.. just buy a 17 inch laptop and call it a day.

^^^

you are just going 1 inch bigger, maybe itd be worth it if you wanted a 20 inch or something

[BentleyOwen123]

Just now, Somerandomtechyboi said:

why not just run a 2nd screen with a portable monitor? think thatd be quite abit cheaper + less time consuming compared to recasing a laptop and having to find a compatible display

 

as for internals probably just rip em out of some random laptop and you do want to make sure the board has one of those standard display cables or something like that where theres alot of screens including 18+ inch thatd fit, i dont particularly look at laptops that much but i do know that theres a standardised display connector or something like that, and specs wise do whatever you want here as long as the budget allows though id reccomend something ryzen based as theyre alot more efficient and have much better igpus than intel if you arent gonna go for a dedicated gpu

 

trackpad speakers etc probably from the same laptop youve decided to use as a donor though you might have to extend some ports cause you are stretching the laptop out

 

basically what youll be doing is recasing a laptop and swapping the display

 

^^^

you are just going 1 inch bigger, maybe itd be worth it if you wanted a 20 inch or something

its even 17.3, .7 more inches............

[Electronics Wizardy]

LG Gram has a 17 in thin and light laptop thats pretty close to these needs. 

 

This seems like its gonna be a lot of effort to DIY as there isn't a standard board. Probably best to use something like the framework board, and then make a custom case and some extensions to get the cables to the other side. Basically a framework 13 but with more empty space and cable extensions.

[Lesgoooo]

9 minutes ago, BentleyOwen123 said:

17.3 inch ips 144hz, a 12th gen i5 anda 3050 on clearence for 750

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-nitro-5-17-3-full-hd-ips-144hz-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i5-12500h-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3050-512gb-pcie-gen-4-ssd-black/6507908.p?skuId=6507908

I don't want to have a dedicated GPU since it always leads to extra heat

[Lesgoooo]

8 minutes ago, manikyath said:

there's two problems here...

1: building a laptop is not a thing. the best you can do is buy a laptop, and find a bigger screen with the same connector.

2: an 18 inch thin and light laptop will be flexible even with the most high end chassis manufacturing options... 3D printing is not the best of options.

 

as listed above.. just buy a 17 inch laptop and call it a day.

I am okay with it being a bit less premium build quality wise, and building laptops is a thing atleast in the enthusiast space.............

[Lesgoooo]

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

LG Gram has a 17 in thin and light laptop thats pretty close to these needs. 

 

This seems like its gonna be a lot of effort to DIY as there isn't a standard board. Probably best to use something like the framework board, and then make a custom case and some extensions to get the cables to the other side. Basically a framework 13 but with more empty space and cable extensions.

Looked at it, but was put off by Alex's ShortCircuit on some other LG Gram

[Lesgoooo]

8 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

why not just run a 2nd screen with a portable monitor? think thatd be quite abit cheaper + less time consuming compared to recasing a laptop and having to find a compatible display

 

as for internals probably just rip em out of some random laptop and you do want to make sure the board has one of those standard display cables or something like that where theres alot of screens including 18+ inch thatd fit, i dont particularly look at laptops that much but i do know that theres a standardised display connector or something like that, and specs wise do whatever you want here as long as the budget allows though id reccomend something ryzen based as theyre alot more efficient and have much better igpus than intel if you arent gonna go for a dedicated gpu

 

trackpad speakers etc probably from the same laptop youve decided to use as a donor though you might have to extend some ports cause you are stretching the laptop out

 

basically what youll be doing is recasing a laptop and swapping the display

 

^^^

you are just going 1 inch bigger, maybe itd be worth it if you wanted a 20 inch or something

I'm not sure how to get my hands on a good donor laptop, most of the listings on EBay look unpromising........ A second display wouldn't be as streamlined as if it were built in, and a 20 inch screen seems a bit too big for something portable.

[Lesgoooo]

21 minutes ago, BentleyOwen123 said:

budget?

I just need it to not be more expensive than a gaming laptop of similar size (like the Razer Blade 18). I think around 1600 USD should be fine.

[manikyath]

18 minutes ago, Lesgoooo said:

I am okay with it being a bit less premium build quality wise, and building laptops is a thing atleast in the enthusiast space.............

"bit less premium" < = > "wet noodle that shatters when you hold it wrong"

 

and maybe it is in some spaces, but those spaces are not the thin&light space.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

This seems like its gonna be a lot of effort to DIY as there isn't a standard board. Probably best to use something like the framework board, and then make a custom case and some extensions to get the cables to the other side. Basically a framework 13 but with more empty space and cable extensions.

forgot about framework laptops

those should be easier to mod than a regular laptop whilst being upgradable

 

59 minutes ago, Lesgoooo said:

I'm not sure how to get my hands on a good donor laptop, most of the listings on EBay look unpromising........ A second display wouldn't be as streamlined as if it were built in, and a 20 inch screen seems a bit too big for something portable.

i mean you could just attatch it to the back of your laptop screen

 

and yeah i guess 20 inch is too big to put in a bag but im the guy that wants to build a briefcase laptop pc thing and looking at 24 or 27 inch screens

 

just buy a 17 inch laptop and save yourself the time and effort needed not to mention the cost then you can just add a secondary portable display if you really need more screen space