The Notorious DIY Laptop

[dalauder]

Anyone have any better ideas? The DIY kits are too limited in choices and come preassembled and aren't my idea of true DIY.

Did you read what we had above? We went over many of the topics you've introduced.

Your primary challenges are a screen and a battery that can connect to the system and power it for at least 30 minutes unplugged. Everything else can be worked out I think--but is very challenging.

Desktop processors typically are rated for 65W to 125W. Laptop CPUs are 15W to 45W. My wife's i7-2630QM laptop uses 25W idle/web browsing when on battery. Few desktops use under 90W. Mine uses 195W idle (that PhysX card is doin' me in). So power draw is not your friend.

Power draw also relates to heat output. Laptops usually have fans in them, some of the slimmer ones might have passive cooling. If you're using 50W idle instead of 25W with significantly underclocked desktop parts, you'll still have to figure out how to dissipate a lot of heat.

You'll need an SSD as your hard drive because any case made by hand will have too much movement for a mechanical drive to last very long.

 

[Schroeder]

If you *really* don't care about size, you could have an external battery inside, and a PC power supply inside...

Using that method, the monitor and power supply could connect to the 'external' battery.


And then, you could put the LCD inside plexiglass... And I've also heard of using laptop hinges to make it connected...

Theirs this old site that I saw that had a lot of good ideas...
http/trekkiejt.webs.com/

 

[ComputerGuy9969]

Hello I know I'm Late but think about this,

You don't have to use metal. Some materials like PVC Foam work

Via makes fanless embedded AND so does panda board, both are good for netbook creations

but the biggest factor is this the Intel DH61AG, it is slim, it uses socket LGA155, they make 65watt and 35watt processors, plus it uses so-dimm. I'm making a netbook with a panda board and somewhere down the line I'll probably make a laptop. For the LCD I'm using a USB powered one.

I can make a very slim netbook with these parts:
Display- $100
Panda Board- $175
External Battery- $40-$75
SD Card- $0-$10
Hard Drive- $50-$122
PVC Foam- $35
Glues,Screws,Etc.-$30
Converters- $25
Total-$400-$500

or a laptop with these:

Display- $100
Slim Dvd Drive- $50
Intel DH61AG- $125
External Battery- $150 (Needs Extra Power)
Hard Drive-$50
PVC Foam- $35
Glues, Screws, ETC.-$30
Cpu- $70-$200
Ram- $30+
Total- $640 (Cheapest)

 

[dalauder]

I'd recently seen some USB powered LCDs--that's a nice workaround for the screen--although constructing a reliably mount may be challenging.

I'm interested to see what you're using for a power supply/battery. Could you include a link?

The battery and LCD were really the only BIG challenges.

Keep in mind that fanless embedded systems are intended to dissipate heat through the case walls (low specific heat steel/aluminum/plastic) and that foam is a great insulator.

The problem with these laptop projects is that it is almost certain that you get a better laptop for less money if you buy OEM. Consider that a typical netbook comes with Windows and only costs $200-$300. A DIY doesn't include Windows and runs you $400-$500.

 

[gvnmcknz]

Thin-ITX boards look hopeful

http/www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/479749.htm

Anyone understand the LVDS eDP connections for LCD Panels?

gvnmcknz

 

[WR2]

Hello gvnmcknz;

It's better to start your own topic than post in one already 10 months old.

 

[gvnmcknz]

Hello gvnmcknz;

It's better to start your own topic than post in one already 10 months old.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi WR2,
Get what you're saying, but prior post was quite recent.

There's not a lot of stuff out there about DIY Laptops / Portables that I can find.

I'll take consideration of your advice though.

Regards,
gvnmcknz

 

[Rocket-Man]

It is the potability mechanics that are the real problem. I desk-top just sits there; a laptop has to be carried. The structure has to support very delicate components .
A DIY laptop will only work with the advent of a mechanical case standard that controls the specifics of the screen, battery, Keyboard etc.

 

[webmasterpdx]

You could always get an old laptop close to what you want with the right display and keyboard and start from there. Then, maybe put in a newer sata SSD or hybrid drive. Finally, you have to get the right motherboard. You could try to use something like that raspberry pi board (if it will fit) and have a reasonable Linux laptop. You'd have to desolder the I/O connectors and make them remote over little cables to the edge of the box. These include USB and ethernet. everything else might be doable over internal USB (DVD player, etc). Use the existing laptop's bay. I don't think raspberry pi supports sata, so you might have to get a USB to sata converter, etc.... and get a linux driver.

No matter what it's a complicated one-off job. Difficult to mass produce.

I think companies like Dell, etc, could make money selling their boards if they sold a laptop like this.

I think the main reason people don't do this is because you can get a quite powerful laptop already built for under $450.....which is less than building your own would cost you.

-Donald

 

[OneCupOfCoffee204]

I think it's possible if a generic case can be designed and marketed to fit one or two of the most popular laptop conformations. Just need someone to lead the way with a case. Once you have a case all else can be conformed to fit.
That is of course if there is enough of a market for DIY laptops. It has to begin somewhere, and in my humble opinion it has to be the case.

Rick M.

 

[keemo]

Well you could always make mini case with a smaller board and card (think mac mini)
or you can make it to be more boxy and install better cooling psu and cpu

 

[dalauder]

OP, you ever get anything going here? The best I've ever done with laptops is swapping CPUs, RAM, and Storage.

 

[erdos]

i've been thinking about DIY laptop lately, but after some considerations, it doesn't seem to be feasible.

 

[Jason1111]

I`m just about to finish building my custom laptop. It`s a mini-itx board inside a inspiron 9100 case that has been heavily modified.

The project has been so expensive, it`s not really worth the effort.

 

[hUe9]

I just ordered some parts fot my DIY notebook build, the GAH87TN and i3 4330T, i will be testing cooling of system by heatsing from dell studio 1749. As case i am going to use Escom Paradigma notebook, goal is two slots for 2,5" HDD, functional LPT,COM and external PCIE thru flexible riser.

 

[hUe9]

update: I chose heatsink from acer travelmate 290 because of smaller size and appropriate dimensions, removed some aluminium so it can fit on the mobo. I tested its cooling capabilities on old msi kt3ultra and athlon 800 (42W TDP) and it seems ok, so 35W i3 should be ok, question is, whether worse thermal transfer from core exceed the difference in TDP. In order to make it work, cpu must be delided, problem is, how to attach heatsink to mobo.

 

[hubertbloom]

I`m just about to finish building my custom laptop. It`s a mini-itx board inside a inspiron 9100 case that has been heavily modified.

The project has been so expensive, it`s not really worth the effort.

Did you report/publish this project anywhere? can you post photos? any info on the power drawn by that motherboard??

 

[hubertbloom]

I just ordered some parts fot my DIY notebook build, the GAH87TN and i3 4330T, i will be testing cooling of system by heatsing from dell studio 1749. As case i am going to use Escom Paradigma notebook, goal is two slots for 2,5" HDD, functional LPT,COM and external PCIE thru flexible riser.

Any photos?? Any info on power consumption?? Hope it is working out....

 

[biggs92]

Hey Greg, I'll be watching this space.

I'm also looking at building my own Laptop from scratch, but I'm saving up for a couple years and doing some research first too.
Check out thermally conductive polymers, they take up less space than metal alloys, are a hell of a lot lighter and can actually direct heat as opposed to dispersing it.

 

[Terry Fawkes]

First of all, I'm aware of the date of the initial post. I decided to continue from here as i don't want to start from the begining.

Sharings above are helpful but the inquiry is still open, any contribution is appreciated for the open items. Display & battery ?

As for the motherboard, I think AIO motherboards would be a good pick in terms of price, flexibility and performance.

E.g Asus Q87T. With it, you can use desktop cpu, intel's cpu cooling solution, laptop rams, 2.5" hdd/ssds. For me its powerjack(yes it has a powerjack like laptop motherboards) is a big plus so won't need to spend extra money for pico psu.

Guess what, it has also lvds/edp connector for lcd panels. Well these are the good news.
Bad news is I haven't found any step-by-step guide for connecting an edp panel to this motherboard(or any others). Any of you know how to do it?

What am i gonna need? Just an edp to edp cable? If so what are the steps to find the correct one?

As for the battery, any internal battery solutions you can think of(again for this motherboard)?
It doesn't need to last for hours, even 5 to 10 minutes would be OK, as long as it allows me to save my stuff, many hours would be great though. Or any tiny ups suggestions?

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