gwilks98

I've built my last 3 PCs because it makes sense to: I can be my own warranty. Parts are cheaper. I don't have to screw with pre-0installed bundled software trials. I get what I want on my machine and it's a beautiful thing.

But why hasn't the build your own laptop concept ever taken off?

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Jeffbx

Because there are no standard laptop cases or motherboards, and a good portion of the parts inside a laptop is proprietary to the manufacturer. Every company makes them to their own specs.

DarkFury

Laptops being a "miniaturized" platform from a desktop really have a bunch of proprietary parts of them. Also, due to size limitations, there really isn't alot of space within them for expansion, therefore most manufactuers of laptop parts treat them mostly as "appliances" rather than a combination of individual parts to make a whole.

Another thing about laptops is that for some of the parts, the cost of the sum is greater than the whole. For example, a busted laptop screen could easily cost you from $600 - $1000 to repair, but the whole laptop could be purchased for around that cost, therefore there really isn't much incentive to build around a platform such as this.

Maybe if laptop parts weren't so "integrated and proprietary" then we might have more expansion opportunities, but as is... you generally depend on the manufactuer of your particular laptop to provide replacement parts if any for it.

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Paymaster

You can "sorta" do this. Search for "Whitebox Notebook". Asus makes one that is sold without processor, memory, hard drives or operating system.

You can also look for a notebook built on the "Intel Interchangeability Initiative". The following components are then available directly from the manufacturers, rather than from the final branded seller.

- Hard Disk Drive
- Optical Disk Drive
- Liquid Crystal Display Panel
- Battery Pack
- Keyboards
- AC/DC Adapter
- Customizable Notebook Panel

Having said that, I am not sure how much of this has "caught on". I don't know anyone who has dealt with this...

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DarkFury

Only problem with that solution is... by the time you buy all of those components... you'll pay more than just having Dell build you one.

I guess it just depends on how much you REALLY want to build your own for.