Building a laptop

[ker2015]

My friend is thinking of getting a new PC and I offered to help him build it and save money. The thing is, he really likes laptops. I told him that it would be fun to try to build a laptop and save as much money as possible. So I need some suggestions on building a laptop. Should I use an APU to save room? Will desktop mobos fit? Is this even a good idea?

Thanks in advance,

Chickenpuffball

[The_Stig]

Nope, cant build laptops. Almost all parts are tailor-made to fit/work with the chassis by OEMs. Not like desktops with standard ATX specifications

[trag1c]

No.....

[MatthewEnderle]

You're looking for a barebones laptop

[Vercii]

Think you're better off with having your own built PC. If he wants it to be portable, maybe a mini PC. 

[Piemanfood]

You can't build any kind of laptop, you have to buy them 

[ker2015]

Nope, cant build laptops.

You can if you already have one. Just use the case and display and build the rest.

[comicsansms]

Building a laptop will be very hard.

You will have to source:

Laptop barebones kit,

Laptop Ram

Laptop GPU if the kit supports it

Laptop CPU, 

SSD.

 

Some of those things will be easy to find, like the ram and the SSD, but the rest will be very hard to find and also hard to check compatibility. 

[Cwazywazy]

I've built laptops out of parts before. Hell, I used to have a Latitude E6500 that I upgraded piece by piece until I had a Precision M4400. (Workstation version of the E6500, more powerful.)

 

An actual custom laptop would end up looking like a bunch of computer parts taped into a briefcase. Probably.

[2001blader]

You can build a laptop, but you probably shouldnt. Chances are you arent going to save any monney, and end up with a really bulky and thick machine.

[Oshino Shinobu]

The issue with building laptops is the amount of proprietary connections and form factors used. There's basically no standards for parts like the GPU connector, as most are custom made for different systems. 

 

While it may be interesting, it's certainly won't be cheap or easy. Going for a portable mITX rig is about as close as you'd get without going through a big ordeal of sourcing compatible parts. 

[TheKDub]

My friend is thinking of getting a new PC and I offered to help him build it and save money. The thing is, he really likes laptops. I told him that it would be fun to try to build a laptop and save as much money as possible. So I need some suggestions on building a laptop. Should I use an APU to save room? Will desktop mobos fit? Is this even a good idea?

Thanks in advance,

Chickenpuffball

 

No.

[xiej]

My friend is thinking of getting a new PC and I offered to help him build it and save money. The thing is, he really likes laptops. I told him that it would be fun to try to build a laptop and save as much money as possible. So I need some suggestions on building a laptop. Should I use an APU to save room? Will desktop mobos fit? Is this even a good idea?

Thanks in advance,

Chickenpuffball

 

A laptop would be even more expensive...

[ker2015]

Building a laptop will be very hard.

You will have to source:

Laptop barebones kit,

Laptop Ram

Laptop GPU if the kit supports it

Laptop CPU,

SSD.

Some of those things will be easy to find, like the ram and the SSD, but the rest will be very hard to find and also hard to check compatibility.

Would it work if I took an older laptop and upgraded every part of it?

[ker2015]

You can build a laptop, but you probably shouldnt. Chances are you arent going to save any monney, and end up with a really bulky and thick machine.

Why would it be bulky? If I do everything right and use an old shell + correct parts it should be as heavy as a normal laptop. Or is there something I'm missing out on?

[TheCaptain53]

Would it work if I took an older laptop and upgraded every part of it?

Look mate, trying to build a laptop isn't feasible, both in terms of fitting the hardware and financially. Laptop hardware is purpose made for the chassis it's designed for, so laptop parts aren't really swappable (with the exception of the RAM and storage). Building a laptop in the same way you would a desktop just isn't going to happen.

Then we get onto the heat of the components. This is something laptop manufacturers really have to consider, they have to be able to design a cooling system which is both compact and good enough to cool the CPU and GPU. 

The harsh reality is that you won't be able to. There are some decent laptop options on the market. LTT recently did a video on the Inspiron 7559, which ALMOST made me consider buying a laptop. Almost. There are other options as well, but that question is better asked of @don_svetlio

The alternative is building a small form factor rig.

What will your friend be using the PC for?

[don_svetlio]

Look mate, trying to build a laptop isn't feasible, both in terms of fitting the hardware and financially. Laptop hardware is purpose made for the chassis it's designed for, so laptop parts aren't really swappable (with the exception of the RAM and storage). Building a laptop in the same way you would a desktop just isn't going to happen.

Then we get onto the heat of the components. This is something laptop manufacturers really have to consider, they have to be able to design a cooling system which is both compact and good enough to cool the CPU and GPU. 

The harsh reality is that you won't be able to. There are some decent laptop options on the market. LTT recently did a video on the Inspiron 7559, which ALMOST made me consider buying a laptop. Almost. There are other options as well, but that question is better asked of @don_svetlio

The alternative is building a small form factor rig.

What will your friend be using the PC for?

Quite a few more recent laptops have MXM GPUs so they are also upgradeable. If you can get a MQ CPU that will also be upgradeable.

[2001blader]

Why would it be bulky? If I do everything right and use an old shell + correct parts it should be as heavy as a normal laptop. Or is there something I'm missing out on?

 Immagine this, you have a full tower pc. It has a ton of extra space in it. That extra space is to accomodate big graphics cards right? Say you get the smallest case you can find, and it supports a 8" GPU, and u have a 4" GPU. Thats space wasted, making your pc bigger then needed.