Who is building his own Compal Laptop?

I am going to build my own laptop, based on a Compal Barebook. I would like to do this because I like to build my own pc's and it is a little bit cheaper. Are there some other people who are doing that to?

Here in the Netherlands are there several shops who sell the Compal IFL90 WXGA+ as a barebook.

I know that I need:

Compal FL90 WXGA+ Barebook € 554
Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7500 € 280,57
2x 1GB PC5300 DDR2 SO-DIMM € 75,80
Seagate Momentus 7200.2, 160GB € 127,50

but I am not sure what I need more. Is WLAN and Bluetooth standard in the Barebook and if not, what kind of things need I to buy for:

WLAN adapter
Bluetooth Adapter
Hybride TV Tuner

are these al MiniPCI? And what types are used in the most Compal FL90 laptops, is there somebody who knows that?

 

When I was specing them out at XoticPC the wireless chips did *not* appear to be standard. This might vary depending on the reseller tho, so you should probably talk to them.

That being said, are you sure it's actually cheaper? When I was ordering mine the barebook was actually a tiny bit more expensive for some reason.

 

The laptop on XoticPC is not the same, because I would like to buy the SET.CFL90965PM2.42

But the specification sheet on It4Profit.com says:

Optional Data Link Protocol Supports:
IEEE 802.11g
IEEE 802.11n
Bluetooth
IEEE 802.11a
IEEE 802.11b

I am wondering why this is here, because everything is optional, if it has miniPCI, if you know what i mean.

And the laptop is cheaper, I have calculated it and compared it with prebuild Compal Laptops.

 

It was also more expensive for me to buy the barebones and the parts separately than to buy a Compal IFL90 built by Sager. But then again, I was looking at US prices, not European prices. (Reminder: when you compare prices, make sure to include shipping prices for everything and all taxes.)

Termight gave good advice. To know what comes with a barebones IFL90 and what else you need to buy, ask your reseller. From what I know (but this may vary from reseller to reseller), there's no bluetooth, no WLAN and no WiFi included. You need to buy them separately.

 

Ok. Well, bluetooth is not so expensive. Only € 12 or something like that. Wifi is € 29 and is WiFI and WLAN not the same?

Taxes are mostly inclusive in Holland, so I am sure of that. Shippingcosts are only € 30 in total, so that is not a problem. And the DVD Burner is already in the Barebook.

 

Hmm... just to make sure this is clear... If you buy a prebuilt machine, you pay for shipping only once. If you buy a barebones plus parts you pay for shipping on the barebones plus shipping on the parts. Typically, it goes like this:

cost of shipping barebones + cost of shipping parts > cost of shipping prebuilt

The difference is usually not major but may nullify any other price differences or may make price differences so small that they are not worth considering. I've seen some people saying they'd be able to save US$50 if they build their own IFL90. Saving $50 is not worth the hassle and risk of building one's own machine.

 

Ok. But a friend of mine is building a Compal Laptop to. And it is not 50 dollar, but maybe 100 euro, that's about 150 dollars.

And if I choose for another type (BTO, but that's from Compal) with a WSXGA+ screen then I maybe save about 200 euro, that's about 300 dollars. So that is a lot. And all inclusive with TV Tuner and Bluetooth and Gigabit-N Network on the BTO laptop!

Code:

Compal FL90 WXGA+ Barebook (6 cell battery)			554 euro
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500						280,57 euro
2x 1GB PC5300 DDR2 SO-DIMM					75,80 euro
Seagate Momentus 7200.2, 160GB					127,50 euro
Intel 4965AGN							27 euro
Bluetooth Module						12 euro
Variable costs							100 euro

Total:								1176,87 euro


Compal FL90 WSXGA+ Barebook (with DVB-T and 9 cell accu)	887 euro
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500						280,57 euro
2x 1GB PC5300 DDR2 SO-DIMM					75,80 euro
Seagate Momentus 7200.2, 160GB					127,50 euro
Intel 4965AGN							27 euro
Bluetooth Module						12 euro
Variable costs:							100 euro

Total:								1508 euro

But I am going to sleep now, have to work tomorrow.

 

It sure looks like you did your homework!

 

Yep in your case it is definitely cheaper to build it yourself.

Here is the disassembly guide(it shows the placement of stuff and follow it in reverse order )

Compal IFL90/Sager NP2090 Disassembly Guide(PDF)

 

I was also thinking about building one but then i saw the nexoc e619

Core-2-Duo T7500
15,4"TFT (WSXGA+)
2x 1024MB
120GB HD 5400rpm
€1199

Only problem is that it has a qwertz keyboard but you can buy a qwerty keyboard and replace it.

 

Nice guide! But, I don't see the TV Tuner in it.. What kind of TV tuner is in the Compal laptop? Because I would like to buy a exact copy of that. Is it maybe MiniPCI?

I heard from a Compal manufacturer here in Holland that their TV Card is in the laptop with he Antenna Connection on the laptop itselfs (built in, it was something like MiniPCIe, but nog exactly the same. They said they had the official Compal TV Tuner, but what is that TV Tuner:

It is this thing, i see on the Marasst website:

 

Steephh, that card cannot possibly fit into the Compal. Right off the bat, someone with experience building computers would recognize this as a desktop card. There is nothing esoteric or obscure about this. It should be immediately evident.

But you should also be able to infer that from looking at the disassembly guide and the user manual even if they do not show you the card itself.

Are you sure you have the know-how to build your own laptop? A mistake can be pretty costly, you know.

 

This a desktop card? It doesn't look as a normal desktop card... It's for a laptop, it's on the Marasst website: http://www.marasst.com/product-1-IFL90.htm and there are 2 holes for screws.

And i thought that it needs to be at the same place as the robson memory module, so you need to choose between them.

EDIT: You can also place it at the other slot, but there are only 2 slots so you can't have wlan, robson and tv tuner.

 

Find me the slot on the IFL90 that will take that card. The user manual talks about a mini-card for the TV tuner. This does not look like a mini-card but like a good old desktop card. (Ok, not a standalone card but a module you would add to a graphic card for instance.)

The page at Marasst that has that image was produced by marketing people. I would not go by their idea of what a TV-tuner card for a laptop should look like.

And no, the choice is not between Robson and the tuner. There are 3 mini-card slots: one for robson, one for the tuner and one for WLAN.

 

Ok, all such laptop cards I had worked with in the past had a connector which was much denser than in that picture. (More connexions and the connexions were much closer together.) However, I looked at Robson in particular and found a similar connector. I still think that this "TV tuner" card looks rather beefy for a laptop. The Robson cards I looked at just looked like they have a smaller profile.

Still, I admit that maybe I'm wrong and Steepph was right.

This does not change the fact that the TV tuner card would have its own slot on the motherboard. The only thing I saw that could possibly be it is on page 17 of the disassembly manual. Right under the wlan card, there seem to be another connector for a card. It can be seen on page 36 too. (I'm going by the page number of the page in the PDF file, not the original page number in the manual.)

 

The tv-tuner card is mini pci-e so it must go in the mini pci-e slot ... Marasst is the distributor for the compal ifl90 to nexoc, zepto, n4all... So why would they put wrong information on their website?

 

I'm not disputing the fact that the tv tuner is mini pci-e. I'm disputing the notion that you have to chose between it and robson. The user manual produced by Compal says there is one slot for robson, one for wlan and one for the tuner.

As to why Marasst could put misinformation online, if you had followed the whole Compal IFL90 saga you would know that misinformation is unfortunately fairly frequent. The latest screw up happened this week. People who ordered the IFL90 got the FL90 instead. Since this is a screw up that happened to people ordering from different resellers, it seems the origin of the problem is Compal themselves. If Compal can't get their story straight, what are the chances that the resellers are going to have perfect information.

Actually, as I'm writing this I'm remembering that very early on either XoticPC or PowerNotebooks had the wrong pictures for the IFL90. A poster pointed that out and it was corrected. Resellers make mistakes, that's life.

 

But there are only 2 slots so you can not get all the three things. Then the manual is wrong.

Sorry to tell you but IFL90 is the same as FL90... http://www.marasst.com/product-1-IFL90%20MA.htm This is the other version but it's also an IFL90 (VBI).

 

The IFL90 is not the same as the FL90. Read carefully the posts in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=145721

Regarding the information put out by Marasst... If you accept that a manufacturer can be putting out misinformation, then to be consistent you have to accept that a reseller can be putting out misinformation. Therefore Marasst can be wrong. The fact that they are selling the machine changes nothing to that.

Edit: and as far as the number of slots go Marasst agrees with the user manual! 3 slots!