Laptop Motherboard Standards?

[TheGhzGuy]

Just a random thought. Would it not be cool to see motherboards for laptops for people to be building their own laptops? (Because lets be honest here, laptops are starting to catch up to desktops, and pretty soon, they should be about equal)

 

What do you think? Good? Bad? Silly? Cool? Would you build a laptop?

[TheRandomness]

'Pretty soon, they should be about equal' Nope. Thermal throttling or massive laptop.

[daniellearmouth]

If we had laptops the size of the MacBook Early 2015 Edition with the power of the highest of high-end laptops and was capable of utilising it to its fullest potential without thermal throttling itself, this would kinda be a moot point.

 

But y'know...computers can't exactly defy physics.

[-iSynthesis]

I would love to see standards like on PC. However i guess the form factor and cooling etc. would be a problem. Stuff's so crammed together

[flibberdipper]

I don't think anything like this will happen for a good long time. Even then, manufacturers will still want to make their laptops stand out in the crowded area known as laptops, so there will probably never be a real "standard" among them all.

[Coaxialgamer]

Enthusiast grade chips require huge radiators or heatsinks to cool.

 

Laptops chips being manufactured on the same archtecture/process, they dissipate about the same amount of heat as a desktop chip of the same specs.

 

Binning might slightly improve this , but this is rarely the case.

 

I don't think we will see any thin laptops with the power of desktops any time soon, unless there is a MASSIVE leap inefficiency , and intel abandons us enthusiasts by deciding not to make high power chips.

[TheGhzGuy]

Enthusiast grade chips require huge radiators or heatsinks to cool.

 

Laptops chips being manufactured on the same archtecture/process, they dissipate about the same amount of heat as a desktop chip of the same specs.

 

Binning might slightly improve this , but this is rarely the case.

 

I don't think we will see any thin laptops with the power of desktops any time soon, unless there is a MASSIVE leap inefficiency , and intel abandons us enthusiasts by deciding not to make high power chips.

Well there is the upcoming Pascal and Polaris Arcitecture.

So we'll see. There's also clever use of heatsinks.

[Coaxialgamer]

Well there is the upcoming Pascal and Polaris Arcitecture.

So we'll see. There's also clever use of heatsinks.

yes , we will see small "m" series chips in laptops , we won't see chips as powerful as high end desktops though. The bigger chips will be exclusive to desktop.

 

Then again , you could argue about the laptop gtx 980 , but it's basically a mini itx build with a jet engine as a cooling fan . And it lasts less than 30 min on battery.

 

It's huge .

Its noisy.

 

It runs hot.

 

Far from practical.

[TheGhzGuy]

yes , we will see small "m" series chips in laptops , we won't see chips as powerful as high end desktops though. The bigger chips will be exclusive to desktop.

 

Then again , you could argue about the laptop gtx 980 , but it's basically a mini itx build with a jet engine as a cooling fan . And it lasts less than 30 min on battery.

 

It's huge .

Its noisy.

 

It runs hot.

 

Far from practical.

980M is pretty much the same as the 970, correct?

[TheGhzGuy]

I don't think anything like this will happen for a good long time. Even then, manufacturers will still want to make their laptops stand out in the crowded area known as laptops, so there will probably never be a real "standard" among them all.

That's probably true. It's what happened with desktops after all.

[TheGhzGuy]

'Pretty soon, they should be about equal' Nope. Thermal throttling or massive laptop.

Thermal throttling isn't as much of an issue as it was.

[TheGhzGuy]

If we had laptops the size of the MacBook Early 2015 Edition with the power of the highest of high-end laptops and was capable of utilising it to its fullest potential without thermal throttling itself, this would kinda be a moot point.

 

But y'know...computers can't exactly defy physics.

That would be a fun project though. I would like to try doing something like that.

[SilicateWielder]

'Pretty soon, they should be about equal' Nope. Thermal throttling or massive laptop.

Small less-powerful rig that gets really hot and possibly thermal throttles, or big massive rig that weighs two tons and pulls 1000+ watts from your wall.

 

This is irrelevent. More power almost always means larger size and more heat in terms of computers. It isn't even on topic.

 

Op thinks it's about time we standardize laptop hardware so people can build their own; and I agree with op. I'm sure a lot of people would be happy to build a laptop that's at least small enough to fit in their backpack when going to a LAN party or going someplace instead of carrying around a heavy metal box from their car to wherever, hoping that they don't drop it. And then coming back to get their monitor, keyboard and mouse.

 

A laptop is more practical and i'm sure that we could use standardized hardware that people can buy and build a laptop with.

[TheGhzGuy]

I would love to see standards like on PC. However i guess the form factor and cooling etc. would be a problem. Stuff's so crammed together

Maybe they could use a chamber system? Like on the Air 540, 240? (But obviously much smaller)

[TheGhzGuy]

Small less-powerful rig that gets really hot and possibly thermal throttles, or big massive rig that weighs two tons and pulls 1000+ watts from your wall.

 

This is irrelevent. More power almost always means larger size and more heat in terms of computers. It isn't even on topic.

 

Op thinks it's about time we standardize laptop hardware so people can build their own; and I agree with op. I'm sure a lot of people would be happy to build a laptop that's at least small enough to fit in their backpack when going to a LAN party or going someplace instead of carrying around a heavy metal box from their car to wherever, hoping that they don't drop it. And then coming back to get their monitor, keyboard and mouse.

 

A laptop is more practical and i'm sure that we could use standardized hardware that people can buy and build a laptop with.

I can attest to both situations, actually. I think if manufacturers get clever with their heatsinks it could be better.

 

I would think making standards makes it cheaper for manufacturers as well?

[KemoKa]

There are no standard sizes for laptop motherboards, because there are no standard form factors or layouts for laptops. Each series of laptop from one manufacturer might be completely different from another. They all have their own ways of cramming hardware into as small a space as possible.

Standard form factors just make things bulkier. We can deal with that in desktops because most of them are just air. But when you compact a computer into something the size of a laptop, you're greatly restricted, and you can forget modular parts as well. They have an "Open Source laptop" already, and it looks like a lunchbox put together by an 8-year-old power-ranger fan.

[SilicateWielder]

I can attest to both situations, actually. I think if manufacturers get clever with their heatsinks it could be better.

 

I would think making standards makes it cheaper for manufacturers as well?

Possibly, at least for the manufacturers selling the laptops; it would certainly make it cheaper for companies like HP, Dell, or Compaq to design new laptops as they wouldn't have to design their own hardware.

[TheGhzGuy]

There are no standard sizes for laptop motherboards, because there are no standard form factors or layouts for laptops. Each series of laptop from one manufacturer might be completely different from another. They all have their own ways of cramming hardware into as small a space as possible.

Standard form factors just make things bulkier. We can deal with that in desktops because most of them are just air. But when you compact a computer into something the size of a laptop, you're greatly restricted, and you can forget modular parts as well. They have an "Open Source laptop" already, and it looks like a lunchbox put together by an 8-year-old power-ranger fan.

Thats very true

 

Well, not entirely. It just says "Here's were the IO, CPU, RAM and GPU go. Go crazy"

 

[SilicateWielder]

There are no standard sizes for laptop motherboards, because there are no standard form factors or layouts for laptops. Each series of laptop from one manufacturer might be completely different from another. They all have their own ways of cramming hardware into as small a space as possible.

Standard form factors just make things bulkier. We can deal with that in desktops because most of them are just air. But when you compact a computer into something the size of a laptop, you're greatly restricted, and you can forget modular parts as well. They have an "Open Source laptop" already, and it looks like a lunchbox put together by an 8-year-old power-ranger fan.

You mean Novena? It's still better than nothing. It's a hell of a lot better than those luggable computers from the 70's and 80's. Keep in mind that while they will most likely start out big and bulky, there is no reason why we can't make the hardware thinner. You don't just expect a new technology to be this perfect slimline design right out of the box. Likely it will be a few years before we master it and get the edges smoothed out.

[KemoKa]

You mean Novena? It's still better than nothing. It's a hell of a lot better than those luggable computers from the 70's and 80's. Keep in mind that while they will most likely start out big and bulky, there is no reason why we can't make the hardware thinner. You don't just expect a new technology to be this perfect slimline design right out of the box. Likely it will be a few years before we master it and get the edges smoothed out.

The problem isn't that. The main reason it isn't a thing is because there's no demand for it. Modular laptops are probably the nichest market that there ever was. People just don't want to dick around with all the parts in a PC that they will likely just use for browsing the web or checking their emails. With large desktops and workstations, it's a different story. I don't have to lug my 50lb tower around with me to work. it just sits in my room all the time, so of course I can spend time making it faster. But when it's something that many people use for common, mundane tasks, you're not gonna want to bother doing anything to it, even if you're a tinkerer like me.

Even as desktop enthusiasts, we're a tiny minority. At least there's a market for that, though. With tablets and laptops, the expense that manufacturers would have to go to would never be recouped by sales. So they just won't take the risk of making modular, portable computers.

[ApolloX75]

MSI tried this a long time ago. They made a chassis with motherboard and screen that you could buy. The end user could then customize with a MXM 2 GPU (8600M GT and 8800M GT were about it), their choice of CPU (usually a Core2Duo or Quad) and RAM. They had different storage configurations depending on the chassis as well.

AFAIK they abandoned the "white book" program after a couple years due to lack of sales and general interest. I'm not sure if any other companies did this, it's entirely possible. MSI is the one that stands out to me. I know Sager and Clevo have configurable laptops, but they aren't ones you can build yourself.