Why can't you build your own notebook?

[fss69]

This is probably a very dumb question by me, but I always wondered why there aren't DIY components for building your own laptop. Why is desktop different? Is it lack of standards? Perceived lack of interest in the market? Or is it something else?

 

[kr1mson]

from what i have seen, you can build your own laptops, but the hardest part seems to be the price.. typically, the hard drive and ram and a few things like that are easy/cheap enough to get separate, but as far as the case and motherboard, basically the whole chassis, is the tough part... getting all the external plugs, power supply options, and the absolute terrible lack of any "one way" of doing anything.


basically, it boils down to price. its cheaper to just buy one than build one.

plus, who would want to.. i hate taking a laptop apart enough to get a drive or the memory ou, let alone building one from scratch!

 

[nigerian_businessman]

You're on the right track. Lack of standards is probably the leading reason. Considering the massive markup on high performance laptops, there's also little incentive for companies to open up the market to cheap DIY solutions. The people who spend $3000+ on gaming laptops are the same enthusiasts who would stop buying them if they could build the same thing themselves for $1000 less. Implementing the standards to make DIY laptops a reality would basically amount to all the major OEM's shooting themselves in the foot.

A lot of the companies that make components for laptops also have their own laptop line. It's not like the desktop market where you've got the manufacturers being supplied by mostly independent OEMs.

 

[Peteman100]

You actually can. I'm looking into the same sort of setup myself. They sell you the chassis, which includes everything but the processor, memory, HD, and some other peripherals. I'm still trying to figure out who makes the best stuff though. Search for barebones laptops. I know Asus, Clevo (Sager), and some others make them.

 

[ashmedai]

Lack of standards is probably the leading reason.

This, and laptops are heavily engineered to optimize a whole mess of factors (size, weight, battery life, heat production vs limited dissipation capacity - just to name a few of the major ones). Modern laptops are still constantly being refined with regard to the above factors. Until they stabilize to some extent, we cannot get a stable architecture in the way we have ATX desktop architecture.

You can build a laptop from a kit as mentioned (which usually means you can choose your own processor but not much more!) but even those don't head into ultraportable territory as far as I know.

The interoperability of desktop computers is a remnant of the clone wars that was carried to us on the back of Microsoft's success. Even if laptop architecture settles down, we may not see BYO laptops becoming common in this way for a very long time - there's just not a market-driven reason to do it.

 

[SILVR 6]

You can build your own laptops you just have to know where to look. The Asus Z84J i have was very easy to build and is MXM3 compatible, so the gpu can be upgraded, it has an extra mini pci-e slot for adding a TV tuner. Now its about a year old and is based on the 945 chipset vs the newer 965 one. Mine has a GF Go 7700 so it still plays games alright.

I will agree that most of the time it is hard to find DIY laptops but there are a few to choose from.

 

[j-dawg]

As mentioned, you can buy barebones chassis kits from manufacturers such as Asus, but I've looked into it and it pretty much always ends up being more expensive than buying one from a manufacturer.

Buying a laptop is just as much a building thing as building a desktop, though, because you end up having to wipe the hard drive to get rid of all the bloatware, and then you have to install a ton of drivers. What a great experience!