Building/upgrading a notebook

Hello,

I've been looking to purchase a new notebook soon. I've looked at several of the major retail brands, and decided that I really like the size of the 14" widescreen notebooks. However, I've been unimpressed by the flimsy construction of the models I've seen, and after browsing this forum for a few weeks, I'm fairly certain I'll be getting a Z63a.

Now I'm on a bit of a budget (say $1400, but obviously as little as possible ) so I've been shopping around to see where I can get the best value. While I will most likely buy a complete system due to the warranty, I was wondering if anybody here has experience buying a barebones system and then buying the parts separately and assembling it yourself. I've done this a dozen times for desktop PCs, but I've never owned a laptop and was wondering how difficult this would be. I only ask because I've seen several good deals on notebook hard drives and memory online, and I think I could save quite a bit by purchasing the parts individually (though I must admit that I've only begun to look).

Now being that this will be my first time owning a notebook, I'm definitely leaning toward purchasing a complete system, but I'm still curious as to anyone's experiences with building their own Asus notebooks, since I'd probably want to at least upgrade some of the components in the future.

Also, since this is my first time posting here, let me say that the information posted by GregM, Justin, and many others on these forums has been extremely helpful, as I've been having a pretty difficult time finding a lot of information on Asus products... as of a few weeks ago I had no idea they made notebooks!

Thanks for your help,
Chris

 

Building with barebones isn't that much cheaper, at most you'll prolly be saving $80-$150, but at times, that's alot of money

There aren't much parts, a 7k60, 2x 1gb sticks, a 1.8ghz PM, a/b/g Atheros, and the barebone itself is prolly what you'll only need.


I'd build my own too, because it'll be fun, but I'm too much of a pansy to do it myself

 

Building it yourself should save you physical moolaa from the get go, but you also have consider your time to build it. If you want to do it for fun it could take a weekend and you'd think nothing of it, so a few hours won't be difficult. You do have to consider that time though and the lack of warranty you'll have down the road.

Is it worth it? I couldn't say..... at best, you might break even......... so if you want to do it yourself, do it because you want to and not becasue of money.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm not really seriously looking into building my own, I'm mostly just curious as to the difficulty, since I don't hear about many people building their own laptop. Ttime is not an issue, since I enjoy building systems. Is building an Asus notebook no more difficult than building a desktop PC? How about the difficulty for future upgrades (e.g. change the hard drive, more RAM, etc)?

With regard to the warranty -- most of the stores I've looked at have at least a one-year warranty on the notebooks they build, with the stipulation that any unauthorized servicing voids the warranty. However, it's not clear to me what happens if you buy a barebones system. Is there no warranty whatsoever on these systems? The components that I would buy separately all have their own warranties obivously, but is there any kind of warranty available on the motherboard, battery, and case?

 

Building your self is a snap. The worst thing that can happen is your ram will be incompatible. The ods of that happening are slim but it has happen to us many times so at times we have to stock more then one brand. A few things people forget:
Asus warranty is as good as any other. They work great with dealers. Tighter then any other manufacturer. With end users their support is not any better then the next guy except they are a little faster with repairs and shipping. Whitebooks from asus are suposed to be warranted by the dealer though they will help any soul that holds their notebook. You would receive quicker service from a few selct dealers though. Extended warranty is usually not available from most places that sell just the whitebook. As J said. In the long run there is more then a slim chance your self made notebook can cost you more by building yourself. Dealers make anywhere between 5-15% on this stuff. If you buy your self you can save upward of 10%. Is that worth not having dealer support and warranty? It all depends if you will need the support.

 

Personally if you bought only the barebone from me I would forward you straight to asus. You would be responsible to take the parts out of it and you would pay for shipping one way. This is nit the case with complete systems. Our warranty covers Full or "partial" systems. I imagine the same applies for most others.

 

Well, lets put it this way....... we don't sell barebones systems through our site because of warranty issues..... no one can "warrant" what you do..... but technically the barebones have a 1 year warranty from asus, through the dealer........ as long as they are build by a trained professional. Many cheap parts sites that will sell a barebone at a cost that looks good to most people are going to tell you that the warranty is through Asus and you call them if you have a problem......... that's very untrue, eventhough Asus has had to deal with this and has been trying to lose these simple parts dealers for more than a year........ It's a tough issue.... We've had Asus come to us and ask if we would take a unit back and fix it for someone who's bought from somone else and they find out they won't fix it for them........ We got sick of doing Asus' BS work and told them to try to eliminate these dead beat companies who are doing this...... Worst case senerio, Asus should be able to help, but the barebone warranty is stipulated in a way that says you must go back through your dealer.