So, can you build a laptop the same way you can build a desktop?

[Army GI]

For the longest time, i wanted one of those AlienWare laptops. Now, I see, that their best model is probably twice as powerful as my old desktop. I can throw this space wasting clunker to the trash and use a streamlined hardcore gaming laptop.

If there is a way to build it up as good, if not better than the alienware's best model, where do I start?

[Noirceur]

For the longest time, i wanted one of those AlienWare laptops. Now, I see, that their best model is probably twice as powerful as my old desktop. I can throw this space wasting clunker to the trash and use a streamlined hardcore gaming laptop.

If there is a way to build it up as good, if not better than the alienware's best model, where do I start?
It will probably cost you an arm and a leg, and probably various other organs as well.

[Captain Colon]

It will probably cost you an arm and a leg, and probably various other organs as well.
Not to mention it'll probably have tons of overheating problems, if you want it to be a semi-sweet gaming machine. I played DoD:S on a pretty high-end laptop and it was nowhere near as sweet as it would've been on a PC of the same price. But since we lost the kid who owned the laptop's password I had to play on it if I wanted to taste the sauce. I was getting 20FPS at 1280x1024 without AF/AA...turned off HDR and managed to push it up to 30. I think that laptop had an X300 in it, not sure about CPU speed but it was as fast as my computer I think (which runs CSS at 30fps+ with 6xAA/16xAF and full HDR on a 9600 of some kind)

As far as BUILDING a laptop...never heard of anyone I know attempting it.

[Cloneboy]

I read an article in MaximumPC about building a laptop.

http://www.daileyint.com/build/buildtoc.htm


har har, seriously, though, this looks like a good starting point:



http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/05/04/building_your_dream_notebook/index.html

[Mirsky]

Friends don't let friends buy gaming laptops

[Rob_F]

Friends don't let friends buy gaming laptops

Yeah. My friend has a Dell "gaming laptop", and it's like carrying around a fucking city bus with you. It even comes with a special backpack for carrying it.

Here's something worth considering; my MacBook Pro can handle most games just fine, and it's one of the smallest widescreen laptops around. Now that they've worked out most of the kinks with boot camp, it's actually worth a look for gamers who need a laptop that's actually portable. Mine is the 1.8 GHz model, and even so it can still run HL2 at full detail settings in widescreen mode with a steady 30fps. Not bad for such a slim little laptop.

[Enforcer]

I can play Source on medium quality with 2X aa, 8xAF, 1024x768, full hdr on a 1.8ghz Pentium M (2MB Cache), 512MB Pc2700, 60GB 5400RPM, Radeon 9600 Pro 32MB. It's an HP NC6000. Best. Laptop. Ever.

[Army GI]

Oh, well forget that then. I'll just build a regular PC but with a flat monitor.

[Milkman Dan]

Barebook Mounting.

Definitely a good idea to stick with building a regular PC.

[FaKToR]

Remember the guy who moded the Xbox into a laptop? Start from there.

[Milkman Dan]

Yeah, that cost him the price of a 360 and about $1000+ for everything else.

[spartan]

Sure you can, it's just a matter of finding the proper barebones shell for you to start with. ASUS has a couple. I think the term coined for these are "barebooks" - look that up and see what you find.

If you build your own laptop the mainboard and shell is married (the monitor too if I remember correctly), so what advantage you obtain for upgrading headroom is somewhat diluted as you have to stay on that one barebones "kit". Regardless, everything else from the CPU RAM HDD optical drives and graphics cards are completely up to you.


I just choose to have a mediocre laptop and I keep myself an upgraded desktop for whatever needs a bit of muscle to play.

[FaKToR]

I wouldn't waste the time/effort and whatever else it would consume in making a custom laptop.