i was wondering if i coud get some guidance on this. my aunt asked if i could build her a laptop since i just recently build a great gaming machine. her needs are rather modest: internet browsing word processing the occasional movie (integrated graphics should do, right?) i also think she wants to run vista, but i'll probaly put xp on since it runs smoother. vista capable will just be an upgrade option im completely new to this and would like to know if its even possible to build this and where i can get the parts. (i hear some sites sell chassis but not openly). her budget is about £400-£500 if possible and i'd like to make it slightly future proof for her eg. extra ram slots. any help would be appreciated thanks
home building a laptop isn't as easy as a desktop and for £400-500 you should be able to get a pretty good core 2 duo laptop with 3GB of ram and a decent sized hard disc. The one thing missing from your spec is the monitor size which will dictate the price of similar specced machines, which also goes hand in hand with the weight etc.
the best you can do is buy a barebones laptop (everything except hard drive, ram, expansion cards, etc.) and install the stuff yourself. do the math first though, it might be better to just buy a Dell with ubuntu installed on it. (because seriously, ubuntu is fun)
laptops sell in such bulk these days that big shops make a (relatively) small profit per unit sold so building one is, well there isn't much point to be honest. If you do want to though, the barebones idea is pretty good. But really, keep an eye on the money going into it.
You can get a Core Duo (t7something) for £375 from Dell with 2GB/120GB X3100 graphics. No need to build your own
thanks for the replies, it seems more feasible to just buy one it seems. there isnt much of a margin for saving money as there is for a desktop build. maybe if/when i build a gaming laptop is might be worth it. that dell doug mentioned seems like a good buy. i'll talk my aunt into buying one instead of making me work. once again, thanks for the replies
The problem with trying to build a laptop from "scratch" is that there is a limit to how customizable it can be. More and more components get soldered on the motherboard, so basically the only thing you can choose is WLAN cards (Basically Broadcom or intel...), memory and CPU. GPUs are normally soldered on, and on smaller laptops even the CPU are soldered on. As others have said, there is nothing to save on trying to put it together yourself.
Expensive... unless of course you use a briefcase and desktop PC components, but that last time I did that it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped There are some good examples of it though on here if you look up Briefcase PCs it works just as well, but if it's for your gran it might be a bit heavy to carry the entire thing around
yeh,just buy a new one. cheaper and easier. the point of self built machines is price and hardware flexibility. all you're asking for here is something that will play movies...i mean heck just buy a eeepc and an external monitor! it'll still work out cheaper! hehe
