Can a NB Be Built From the Ground Up (NO Barebones)?

Issue: Put simply, I have to complete a senior project for HS. I have two options, and right now building a laptop from a barebone is not considered "challenging" enough by my teachers.

Question: Is it at all possible to purchase every single component for a laptop and build it? If I can, then I may be able to do this project. Thanks for any responses.

Note: (This is my primary choice because I'll need a laptop for college, and this would kill two birds with one stone...)

 

No... not really. You could buy a barebones and take it apart and put it together maybe?

You could consider buying a completely broken laptop and fixing it up with spare parts from eBay? There was somebody who converted their mini Mac into a laptop.

(Personally, I'd do something a little more meaningful for the senior project)

 

Anything can be built from the ground up, with the right resources and equipment and know-how.

That being said, I doubt you have the equipment or resources (even if you have the know-how). Barebones is about as baisc as it comes for the normal guy on the street.

 

i agree w/ rouge monk, anythings possible just not as ez

 

Actual PCkid, you could do what I did for one project. Build a self contained PC, wasn’t a laptop really but I made the case and such off the CNC machine.

Sure you could do this; but as others have said, you may not have the tools available to you.

 

That's a pretty hardcore high school project.

I never got anything like that.

 

you will be hard pressed to find the necessary components (which will lead to a very expenstive notebook and low bang per buck ratio)

then you will have to make sure everything fits (ie the shell of the laptop will fit everything have the right fan ports)

then you need to get the right screws etc...

you also need to make sure you get good airflow to prevent overheat

it's pretty much impossible to do.

you just can't readily go and buy a notebook motherboard and it's pretty hard to make sure everything fits.

keyboards, and lcd though are easy to aquire.

building a laptop from scratch is an extremely difficult and expensive task with a high possibility of you damaging the compents via ESD, over heat, etc...

building from a barebone laptop is extremly easy and you probably can't bs enough about it to fill a page for your project.

good luck finding the components

note: i highly recommend against you builidng your own laptop from scratch

 

Why not build a complete notebook from parts on Ebay? Buy ten 'dead' laptops of the same model, each with different problems (dead CPU, dead mainboard, broken LCD and so on). Then combine those into a single fully-working laptop.

 

problem is, he wants to use the laptop for college too

getting a good laptop out of 10 broken one probably won't last very long and probably won't be the best deal (bang per buck ratio).

 

Well then... I don't think I'll be buying broken laptops to make a nice one...

However, if I can buy all these parts separately (can anyone post any sites where such parts can be bought, please?), then it might just be "challenging" enough for school.

To hmmmmm: I myself would never reccommend building a NB from scratch either. A desktop, sure, but for NB's, I'd stick with the barebones but that's too easy for me (I've already built/rebuilt 6 PC's).

To Yan: Actually, this senior project isn't so great. In addition to 2 AP classes, 1 Chem. II Honors class, and then 2 more AP's in the spring (on top of reading 4-5 books outside of the 5 in-class books-by January, I'm looking at a busy year ).

To root: I don't really need another PC (need portability), though that would be cool, as I've seen alot of crazy custom cases out there...

I have $1300 in the bank, and I'm supposed to find a mentor to help me out on my project. Perhaps I can just buy a barebone and fully disassemble and re-assemble it... Or to plan B: pyrotechnics (if I can find a "mentor"). Thanks for the replies.

(Any ideas for plan C?)

 

hahaha

i know your pain PCKid777

i just got out of IB and into 1st year university

i'm guessing your project is somewhat like an EE

sorry i can't think of a good project off the top of my head

good luck though

 

Do you own a car? if so, design and install an integrated nav/entertainment system for it. One of my former roomates was doing this for his car, but stalled somewhere in writing his OS and hasn't finished yet.


Laptops are so closely integrated in parts that short buying lots of dead ones and resurrecting as someone suggested, it would be hard to start with any less than a barebones. Suppose you could try something like putting the guts of a newer computer in an older case though.

 

yeah, you could do some kind of engine modification design something from scratch for a car... make recorded measurements of its performance. or "similarly" make a modification on a barebones that either has aesthetic appeal, or something advanced. like for example, write a program that reads and records information from people's fingerprints. such as a laptop with a fingerprint reader...? "design" a program (Cough cough download or buy cough cough) that has the ability to identify people, and pre program people's fingerprints like they do in csi and stuff like that into your laptop and input the information... you could try this if your into stuff like that... it just seems like a convincing arguement to say that look im building a laptop that i can use in detective work. ask people to hold a cup or something tell them its for your project! it should be interesting... hahaha its pretty easy to do, need a black light, ninhydrin (or another chemical) agent that depicts the fingerprint, and some kind of tape that copies the fingerprint over, use the tape on the biometric fingerprint scanner and viola you have entered people's profile on your computer... you could do the same for the students in your class, but to minimize the work, just tell them to put their fingers on it (saves you tons of time) now this is convincing!!!

 

Hey, thanks for all the input... unfortunately, I'm near my deadline and finding a mentor to "tutor" me for 15 hours (minimum) is hard to do... I like that fingerprint/CSI idea, though I don't think I have the time to plan the project and turn in my proposal (contracts, proposal, etc. due this friday.) HW has taken up my days from 3PM till 8PMish (dinner/shower included) so I'm tight on time (reason for delayed posts)... Dang, I wish I posted sooner and thought of that (knocks head into wall).

My fall back plan is networking an entire computer lab, though even the 3 poss. mentors I called haven't called me back.

As far as this forum goes, it seems really good. Thanks guys and I plan to come back for future questions.

 

Networking an entire computer lab is relatively trivial. I'd offer to mentor you if you wanted, but I don't think you live in Denver... hehe.
I think the guys above have some higher-level projects thought out for you The fingerprint thing could be interesting, if you say, used a scanner for it instead of the fingerprint reader, and say, loaded those images into the comparison program, and then could correlate who touched which things on the computer. But even that might get a little complicated.

 

here's an idea for building a notebook...someone did something similar with an XBOX 360 i believe.

1) Buy a Penium M, CD (Yonah), or C2D (Merom) micro-ATX motherboard
2) Reduce it's size by cutting corners where there is no circuitry, band saw is good for this.
3) Reduce height by re-soldering as much as possible in a horizontal, rather than vertical, position. make sure you use electrical solder.
4) Find a way to adjust the position of the PCIe slot (either using cables or whatnot. This way you could mount it elsewhere in the notebook and make it form fitting. BTW, get a lower powered GPU with passive cooling or a slim active cooling GPU.
5) Repeat for any PCI slots you'll use.
6) Insert all components into motherboard, then mobo in case...make sure there is cooling.
7) By a chear LCD monitor (17"), disassemble, and reassemble into the notebook LCD in your aluminum case.

This sounds really complicated, and it is. However, if you have the budget and time, you MIGHT be able to pull it off.

Please get help to do a lot of these steps; I claim no responsibilty if you get hurt (and I hope you do not); get adult help for the harder things.

 

I've also seen a guy make a PS2 (one of the new, smaller ones) into a handheld unit going through similar steps. He bought a battery and LCD screen, took apart a controller, etc. Pretty neat, actually.

 

although i would still say buy a notebook for college

 

Maybe you could do something with a MiniITX motherboard. That site is UK based for their store; it has lots of good project ideas though.

I do, however, doubt that you'd make yourself any sort of "laptop" that's practical for taking to class or something, but maybe you could make sort of a "luggable" desktop that's easy to move from school to home.

 

Good luck on your project PCKid777. It's nice to see a student with such high ambitions.

Unfortunately even though it's not impossible, I would say it's not feasible. Laptop ODMs spend a lot of time and money developing their new systems--and they have the facilities and equipment to do it as well--not to mention large budgets.

There are many pitfalls: finding compatible parts, creating a workable cooling system, creating an efficient power system, getting mismatched parts to "come together" without looking like a cubist's project.

 

That's a good idea Kaylya. Not quite as portable as a notebook (still requires mains power), but he could build a small, self-contained PC that was functionally similar to the iMac. Or maybe a car-audio PC or something like that. Heck, even build a Media Center PC using MythTV and Linux, and learn a new OS

 

i'd say this kid deserves a lot of credit for trying to do this...

even if he doesn't, the idea shows a lot of thought.
if he doesn't succeed, he'll learn a lot...i like that
if he does succeed, well holy cow!

regardless, i hope you figure this out and manage to do great on this project