Project idea: Custom build a laptop

[John Heitmuller]

I have watched you build several desktops. How about custom building a laptop. It does not have to thin and light. I am imagining something modular and maybe even a little bulky. But, I think mobile custom build projects would be interesting.

[Imbellis]

Building a true laptop (even jankily) isn't really possible due to most parts being proprietary; however, if you mean something like a SFF briefcase build (or something similar with an included monitor and keyboard) in a similar manner to this, then I think it's an interesting idea.

[Wh0_Am_1]

2 minutes ago, John Heitmuller said:

I have watched you build several desktops. How about custom building a laptop. It does not have to thin and light. I am imagining something modular and maybe even a little bulky. But, I think mobile custom build projects would be interesting.

Welcome to the LTT forums! I will assume that you were talking to Linus, and you should know that he rarely if ever gets on. Ok, building a custom laptop is very difficult expensive and impractical, I would just recommend buying a prefab, because a ton of time and money goes into the development of a laptop, and you would need to start from scratch to get something on the level of your standard laptop.

[palespartan]

Isn't there that new form factor that was released like a year ago now that used mxm cards and external psus? I think it would be possible to build a system like that into a large laptop case like the gt80 or something similar sized. And now that Linus has real "engineers" they can figure out like the battery and milling and stuff.

[Imbellis]

1 minute ago, palespartan said:

Isn't there that new form factor that was released like a year ago now that used mxm cards and external psus? I think it would be possible to build a system like that into a large laptop case like the gt80 or something similar sized. And now that Linus has real "engineers" they can figure out like the battery and milling and stuff.

3

There was a new form factor released a year or so again (It may be called STX)

 

In regard to the actual creation of a laptop - ignoring all issues ( proprietary connections, unreleased standards, and requirements for custom-form-factor cards, issues of thermals, drivers, etc.), designing a laptop takes hundreds of manhours - hell, even just trying to throw components into that form factor would be quite the challenge due to the parts being intended for other use cases (connections attached 90 degrees to mainboard rather than parallel to ).

[Arika]

you're better off buying a clevo laptop from your country's reseller and just putting in what parts you want. they are some of the most "modular"/customizable laptops on the market

[W-L]

-Moved to Laptops and Pre-build Systems- 

[kennethnakasone]

34 minutes ago, John Heitmuller said:

-snip-

Unfortunately, I don't think there's an official avenue for suggesting video topics on the forums here (However, if you have suggestions for Tech Quickie, you can find the thread for it under Home > The Hub > LTT Official > Thread for Tech Quickie Video Suggestions). 

 

Also I feel this topic would be better in "New Builds and Planning" or "Case Modding and Other Mods" considering OP specifying a custom solution. 

 

Regarding the idea itself: I'll just leave you with some of the information I've obtained from looking into the subject. Maybe it'll pique your curiosity, maybe it wont. Maybe Linus will see it, maybe he won't.

Spoiler

The cheapest way of dabbling into something like this would probably be using an Intel Compute Stick, a Moto Lapdock, and an external power bank. Unfortunately, you lose out on any modularity beyond what USB already provides.

 

Going a bit further up in budget, you could probably get an x86 SBC (companies like UDOO offer them), and swap it in for any of the Raspberry Pi Laptop kits that exist (or even the Lapdock mentioned above). Some SBCs offer mPCIe, which can be adapted to full size PCIe, giving you some more modularity.

 

In a similar vein, you could adapt an existing laptop with the aforementioned mPCIe to full PCIe adapters to give it more functionality. Personally, I use it to switch between an HDMI Capture Card, GPU, and USB 3.0 Card on my laptop. While I use the adapter for "external PCIe", if you 3d printed a housing, you could attach the PCIe port to the inside of my laptop to make it a bulky but portable and pcie-customizable system.

 

However, in the cases listed above, the ability to switch CPU, RAM, and storage (in the case of the Compute Stick and SBCs) can be limited, in which case you might want to look into a battery-powered NUC or thin mini-itx system. Working with the NUC would be like working with the laptop though, except with the added concern of power-delivery, so I wouldn't advise it.

 

On the other hand, a battery powered thin mini-itx project may be interesting. Naturally, you get CPU, RAM, normal SATA ports, and often one full size PCIe port to work with, but you also can get an LVDS port and accompanying power port, which can connect to many conventional aftermarket laptop screens. While power delivery is an even bigger issue in this case, it would likely offer the most customization. 

 

or, y'know, buy a laptop that already offers CPU/RAM/Storage customization, add some external PCIe adapters, make a custom housing for it, and call it a day. 

 

 

[HunterAP]

MXM GPU's are the best SFF solution for GPU's, but you need a compatible mobo, which itself is hard to find since it'll be pulled from another laptop or an SFF prebuilt/barebones kit, and MXM GPU's are insanely more expensive than regular sized GPU's.