decent but cheap-reasonably priced i7 laptop motherboard with upgradable CPU

[Droidriven]

I want to put a laptop together for the challenge and because believe it or not it would be easier for me to buy the components along the way and put it all together myself than it would for me to buy something along the lines that I want straight out or all at one time. Financing one or getting with a credit card is out of the question also, I refuse to pay more 2-3 times what it costs for something that I'm not going to be satisfied with.

Ok, to the point, I'm looking for any i7 or i5 laptop motherboard that is reasonably priced that has upgradable CPU socket instead of a soldered in CPU, also part of the deciding factors are what is available that is compatible and max RAM it supports, 8GB min but prefer more if possible, I would basically just be finding a laptop design that has a motherboard that supports what I want and then buying the best of the compatible parts that are made for it along with case and screen that are made to fit the motherboard design and put it all together as if it were a factory model, just with all the best components that its series will support. I know it would be time consuming and probably more expensive this way but its partly I want the challenge, I have plenty of time and I can buy the pieces along the way within my budget and relatively have an infinite maximum on how much I spend on the total system until I had all the components on hand then put it all together.

Sorry for the wall of text, I just needed room to explain myself. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[hang-the-9]

There are no generic laptop motherboards, just look for an MSI or Clevo motherboard, those are likely more compatible with things than things from Dell, HP and such.

Of course you will then be stuck with finding out what type of screens that motherboard will support, what the port cut-outs are, etc... which means at you may as well just buy the full laptop since you'll be buying all the parts to one. You can't pick and choose a motherboard from laptop vendor A, stick a cooling system from laptop B, a screen from laptop C and a case from laptop vendor D, it's not nearly the same as building a desktop PC where it's all standard sizes and part connections.

So if you buy a motherboard from an MSI system, you will then need to get the cooler parts from that same or close model, and the case from that model, and the screen from that model, and so on. Which means you will have built that same model except with no warranty and at more cost.