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I myself personally don't care for laptops, but I suppose I oculd use one once I start classes. I know you can get laptop parts and all of that, just like with desktops. I'm just not sure where though. I have seen places before. Anyone have any links?
Depends on what you are looking for. Stores like microcenter and frys have laptop memory and hard drives. Newegg has stuff to upgrade your laptop also. Depends what you are looking to do with it.
is there a particular brand or model you need parts for? if i have that info i can probably point you to a supplier. i fix alot of notebooks here at work.
Well I'm not fully sure. I know I've seen at least one link before to an online supplier where everything could be purchased. As for brand, I'm not looking for an overall brand of computer manufacturer, if that's what you mean. But rather brands like Asus for the motherboard, or eVGA for the video card, and Intel for the processor.
so your trying to build it from scratch? Or replace existing hardware with newer/better stuff?
Im kinda looking in to do the same thing as him but from scratch. Thats if I get the job I applied for today!!! Ohh Yea cant wait!
The former. I know it can be done, it's just a lot more rare of a thing than getting desktop parts.Quote:
Originally Posted by D1337
You are going to have to pick a brand. Motherboards & video cards are built for specific make and model of laptop. You can buy them separate but you'll have to look, hard. If the PCMCIA isn't built into the laptop that'll be something else to track down. You will also have to fab up a case on your own or buy replacement parts meant for the make and model of motherboard you went with. Drives are pretty generic. Ram is easy. You will have to be careful when buying an LCD. It will probably have to be LVDS, seems to be the most common. Often it is proprietary to the make and model of motherboard. The keyboard will also have to be unique to the make and model of case and motherboard, same goes for touchpad or trackpoint. The batteries are not universal. It will have to mate up to the case you decided on. Depending on how handy you are you could fab together a permanent internal battery.
Can it be done? Sure? Is it easy, only the assembly, sourcing the parts will be an exercise.
I've lost the bookmark, but there are at least a couple of companies that offer generic "beige box" laptops. You'll have to make compromises though, looks weight, performance.
Certainly not trying to discourage anyone, but myself and numerous others have been down this path.
There is at least one guy who used a micro-itx motherboard, which simplified choosing the other parts. He has been on several forums, quite possibly even this one.
Good luck!
JM
I don't mind if it's hard. I don't mind soldering together something or even building my own case out of aluminum. I know it's going to be a challenge. I don't start classes until January 22nd though, so I still have time. I also like doing big projects, expecially ones that require a lot of thinking. I'm willing to give it a try. I also know that I've seen at least one site linked on here before where you could buy individual parts.
I've actually just managed to find a few guides myself on how to build your own laptop.
ya this is a little diffrent then what i thought you were trying to do. its one thing to get replacement parts but to go out and buy random parts and try to make sure everything will work togeather and that connectors are pinned out correctly and all that is going to be an absolutely HUGE pain in the butt. im pretty experianced with laptop parts as i mentioned before and this is something that i wouldent even want to undertake. if you can do it totaly make a worklog and you will definately get rep points from me.
personaly i would pick a laptop and then build a new case arround it but if you really want to go through the hassle more power to ya.
Most places say to get a barebone laptop, and then just build around that. Well, if I can just buy the motherboard that the barebone would have from some palce that sells replacement parts, and it just happens to have the right CPU socket and be compatible with an 8800 video card, then I'm all set.
Knowing the prices of individual laptop parts, your probably better off/spend less speccing out a laptop at a company. Just make one build to order. I know though, this is a modding community, so if you can do it, more power to you. Just too much headache for me though. :D
I'm willing to do whatever it takes. The bigger the challenge, the more fun it will be. ANyone have some ideas of where to start? Like, recommendations for a motherboard or motherboard brand to look into, or maybe a site that would sell them?
uATX by Via maybe. Or, find a laptop whose specs you like and order from their parts outfit. There are no "generic" laptop motherboards.
Alright, so I know how I'm goign to do this, I have it al planned out. Now I jsut need to find places that will sell me all the right parts. Sure, most laptop parts are made to fit specific models. But some laptop motherboards have slots and such for adding a new video card or RAM or whatever. So what I'll do is I'll find a motherboard, and then just build around that and get parts that will fit it.
I just need to find were to get them. I'm looking for a DirectX10 cable card. Not something powerful, just somethingwith DirectX10.
hmm, yeah, would be nice to know where to get laptop parts, I'm looking for an Acer travelmate 4654LMi compatible video card (6600 go or better) because I think it is broken (laptop does nothing anymore).
So far I had not much luck finding one, but maybe I didn't try hard enough...
About the slots on a laptop motherboard: In my Acer I had exactly 3 slots, one for a graphics card, that one you need, because there's no grphics chipset on my mobo. And two RAM slots, that's all. Other parts, like modem, network etc. are all connected with some sort of connector-plug-thingy
I wouldn't recommend building your own laptop. It's pretty damn difficult finding information on what parts are compatible with what laptops. Form factors play a HUGE roll in this because there aren't any besides cpu,hdd, and ram.
I suggest finding a cheap laptop on craigslist or something and upgrading the ram, hdd and possibly the processor (unless the cpu in it is already at the max rating for that board) yourself. Everything else I'd stay away from because you can run into trouble and then you have to worry about selling the parts you can't use.
I'm not a professional but I do buy used/broken laptops, fix them and sell them to make some extra money so I'm just speaking from what I've ran in to.
Craigslist will definitely be your friend here. I'll keep my eyes out for a stteal on a nice laptop if you're still interested and I'll give you first dibs on it on ebay... If you want it, I'll sell it to you for what I paid + shipping. If not, I'll just sell it.
silverdemon, after googling your model laptop, I found that it has "Integrated Intel 915GM with up to 128MB shared" which is onboard. You may be mistaking w/e is it that 3rd slot as a gpu. :(
You have to know that there are many acer travelmate 4654s, mine is the LMi version of that. I am sure it has a stand-alone vga card because I have it right here in my closet... looking fot picture now:Quote:
Originally Posted by Greco101
Here you can see the card fitted on the mobo:
Here's the slot-connector on the thing:
[edit]: did you find any sites where you can order laptop-parts? (say a vid-card for an acer:P)
You guys should be happy to know that I ordered a $1,500 Dell last night. Wewt.
All that on a dell? Garbage.
