Barebone build

Hey everyone I'm new to the forum here. I heard about building a gaming laptop from a barebone would be cheaper than buying one. I don't really know a lot about what matches uP to what so I figured I'd ask for some help. What would be a good bare one to get or look for and what parts do I need to buy? I am mechanically/ technically inclined so putting it together is not a problem. I just don't know where to start. I want to build something capable of running BF3 on decent settings. I will be really thankful for any help and I apologize if I posted this in the wrong area.

 

You might want to look here for starters
R&J Technology, Clevo Barebone Notebook kits, Laptop and desktop system builder


Barebone Notebooks & Laptops-DIY Notebook & Laptop Kits (Whitebooks)


Most come with a decent GPU but can always be upgraded ( especially the CLEVO's)
you would need the following
1.CPU. i5 or i7
2.4 GB of RAM at the very least
3. HDD or if you can afford to spend a little more a SSD
4.Wireless module
5. A copy of W 7
You can get all those parts on ebay or whichever place you prefer

 

Thanks for the links, I'll keep those two companies in mind when shopping for my next laptop.

 

This is incorrect. Although you can buy a Clevo without the GPU from rjtech, and yes you can "upgrade" to all the cards you can buy them with, you are limited to those cards only.

MSI laptops have been upgraded to all sorts of things, and I've tested about 6 cards to work in my MSI that do NOT work in my Clevo. All of the MSIs were upgraded to cards beyond what they were ever released with and there haven't been any problems with them at all.

That said the gtx 560m will probably be just fine for all your uses and you can't really buy any MSI laptops without the GPU.

More drawbacks of Clevos, the audio quality is very bad, and the fans are very loud.

About i5/i7, you must get a 2nd gen CPU for most of these barebones, denoted by a 4 digit model like 2720qm.

 

You might want to make some calculations because it might not compensate for you to built it on your own because you will pay shipping for each part instead of just one.

can you tell me more about those MSI?

 

Yes, the MSI gx740, gx660 and gt680 have been upgraded to the 6970m/6990m with complete success. Although the gx740 needs heatsink modifications.

I installed a GTX 460m on my MSI gx640 and it ran at full clocks no problem, although the fan wasn't spinning up correctly, my card was very strange and someone has recently hacked the EC for fan control. Heatsink needs more modification on this one.

Alternative names for the GX740 are gt740 and ms-1727, gx640 is gt640 and ms-1656, they are extremely similar.

The gx660 is the same as the gt660, some models ending in 3 and +R and in asia ms-16f1, the gt680 also follows the same naming scheme and is ms-16f2.
Also there is the gx780/gt780, ms-1761 which hasn't been upgraded yet but I've heard uses the same motherboard as the gt680.

All of the ***80 models have been released with the GTX 570m, which is pretty close to a 192 bit gtx 485m / 580m.

I tested a Quadro fx 1800m, a gt 240m, a 9600m GT and my strange gtx 460m all to boot and work fine on my MSI laptop, while everyone of these cards would prevent my Clevo w870cu from booting (30 seconds of beeping and then shutdown).