Building my own custom laptop?

A

audiobahn1000

Member
From what I have read its not really possible. So what can one do if they want more options then a specific manufacturer can give? For example I need a lot of hard drive space, a high end video card and I would like a touch screen monitor / tablet PC. Any suggestions?
 
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dell offers good customization of laptops. so does alienware if your willing to pay for a pretty case
 
Dell is trash. I want good product. I have already gone through hell and back with their garbage. And they dont offer a notebook that I have seen.
 
if you want a good laptop, i'd get an ibm thinkpad, and call it a day

or get a cheap laptop for your mobility needs, and build yourself a desktop
 
audiobahn1000 said:
Dell is trash. I want good product. I have already gone through hell and back with their garbage. And they dont offer a notebook that I have seen.
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i would like to know how dell is trash. Why does everyone bash dell. I have a dell laptop right now, i love it, though i need more for gaming hence, my next desktop.......a dell. I don't know why you bash them.
 
Does anyone make a tablet PC that is good enough for gameing that doesent cost $2,000? Or would I need to spend more to get such? I guess the tablet feature is not required but it would be nice to take notes on in class.
 
kgordon said:
i would like to know how dell is trash. Why does everyone bash dell. I have a dell laptop right now, i love it, though i need more for gaming hence, my next desktop.......a dell. I don't know why you bash them.
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For one their technical support service is but the worst in the industry. They know NOTHING! I have talked to almost every technician that works there and they are all idiots and hard to understand. In fact when I call I end up teaching them stuff... That’s sad because I am not even an IT yet. I am just a car audio installer with computers as a hobby. Then there is the thing about their financing. They sent me some computer I didn’t want and when I sent it back they expected me to pay $200 for the return. I argued with them to the death to get the fine lifted off my account. I almost had to threaten legal action. Over and over supervisors told me that the fine would be lifted. It took months before it did lift. And every time I called back they said "well sir our policy is…”. I told them that I didn’t even what their shit and I had no idea why they were sending it to me an I wasn’t going to pay a cent for something that never even arrived at my house. And of course well they were "working it out" they expected me to make payments on this fine that shouldn’t have even excited.


Then there is the factor of quality. They use CHEAP parts. You pay for a $500 computer and that what you get... Have you ever opened a Dell up? Open yours up once. If you did the first thing you would notice is how empty the case is. There is nothing inside them! Its like 95% free space... It has no guts.
So I got rid of that POS Dell in two months and built the computer in my signature. I paid about $1,700 for the equipment in my signature. You could take Dell's $3,000 model and it would not hold a candle to my computer. My comp would destroy anything under $3,000 from Dell..

Then there is the million-dollar question. Do you get lots of “band for your buck” with Dell” Lets find out…

I just went on Dell's website and customized an XPS710 system. I made it as close to what I have now (in my signature) as possible. If an item listed on their site was not upgradeable to what I have, I went with the next best thing UNDER what I have. So all and all if you wanted to get a computer that was as close to my computer listed in my signature as possible from Dell you would need to spend $2,970 and it STILL would not be as good as the one listed in my signature.

So basically my comp can outperform Dell's $3,000 XPS710 and I paid $1,700 for it. And the thing I like the most is that Dell charges $30 for a 3.5" floppy drive. I paid $4 for mine when I got it from Newegg.

So there are many reasons why Dell is trash. The only advantage to going with Dell that I can think of is that you use to be able to get an entry level comp for $350. That’s nice for someone why doesn’t care about quality and only cares about surfing the net. But then again on the other hand for that same $350 you could go custom and get way more.

Dont throw money away on a piece of shit. Ask the people on this forum to help you build a custom comp. No matter what amount of money you are looking to spend, a custom comp in the same price range will crush any Dell.
 
audiobahn1000 said:
For one their technical support service is but the worst in the industry. They know NOTHING! I have talked to almost every technician that works there and they are all idiots and hard to understand. In fact when I call I end up teaching them stuff... That’s sad because I am not even an IT yet. I am just a car audio installer with computers as a hobby. Then there is the thing about their financing. They sent me some computer I didn’t want and when I sent it back they expected me to pay $200 for the return. I argued with them to the death to get the fine lifted off my account. I almost had to threaten legal action. Over and over supervisors told me that the fine would be lifted. It took months before it did lift. And every time I called back they said "well sir our policy is…”. I told them that I didn’t even what their shit and I had no idea why they were sending it to me an I wasn’t going to pay a cent for something that never even arrived at my house. And of course well they were "working it out" they expected me to make payments on this fine that shouldn’t have even excited.


Then there is the factor of quality. They use CHEAP parts. You pay for a $500 computer and that what you get... Have you ever opened a Dell up? Open yours up once. If you did the first thing you would notice is how empty the case is. There is nothing inside them! Its like 95% free space... It has no guts.
So I got rid of that POS Dell in two months and built the computer in my signature. I paid about $1,700 for the equipment in my signature. You could take Dell's $3,000 model and it would not hold a candle to my computer. My comp would destroy anything under $3,000 from Dell..

Then there is the million-dollar question. Do you get lots of “band for your buck” with Dell” Lets find out…

I just went on Dell's website and customized an XPS710 system. I made it as close to what I have now (in my signature) as possible. If an item listed on their site was not upgradeable to what I have, I went with the next best thing UNDER what I have. So all and all if you wanted to get a computer that was as close to my computer listed in my signature as possible from Dell you would need to spend $2,970 and it STILL would not be as good as the one listed in my signature.

So basically my comp can outperform Dell's $3,000 XPS710 and I paid $1,700 for it. And the thing I like the most is that Dell charges $30 for a 3.5" floppy drive. I paid $4 for mine when I got it from Newegg.

So there are many reasons why Dell is trash. The only advantage to going with Dell that I can think of is that you use to be able to get an entry level comp for $350. That’s nice for someone why doesn’t care about quality and only cares about surfing the net. But then again on the other hand for that same $350 you could go custom and get way more.

Dont throw money away on a piece of shit. Ask the people on this forum to help you build a custom comp. No matter what amount of money you are looking to spend, a custom comp in the same price range will crush any Dell.
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I see why you dont like them, you got jerked around. I have however never had a problem with them, never needed IT help, and a friend of mine had his fans die in his laptop and they came out the next day and replaced them. Also as for price it depends on what you want, im getting a decent gamming comp from them because my dad gets deals, otherwise i would build one. As for opening one up, i opened up my desktop downstairs the other week and it was pretty damn full. So i guess its just based off your experiences, some good, some bad. It will happen with any company.
 
Why root for the overdog anyway?

Im with you Audiobahn. Although I have to admit, there must be thousands, at least hundreds, of people who are, have, will work at tech support for dell, as long as they are genuinely interested in trying to help, I dont really mind if they "waste" my time. But only because Im one click over from a total absolute computer novice. One time, I told them that my mouse and keyboard was having button clicking problems and they made me turn off the computer, go into Control Panel, download this, re-tool that and even after a good 1-2 hours of bullshit on the phone, they still wanted me to call another time to re-continue the troubleshooting, like my soon to expire warranty would solve the problem.

Anyway. I couldn't agree with you more about their high price and cheapness of the parts they use, although of course they are much cheaper than IBM or even most other "major" brand names. I used to think they were really price-cutting competitive, but within the last few months, I realized that if I were to use the same cheap cases, PSU's, Graphics cards etc. I could almost make the same computer for half the price.

Thats funny that you said, you had to give the Dell tech a refresher. Again, Im only a beginner, so I cant really talk too much, but one time I accidentally called the regular 1 year warranty support tel. number and I couldn't understand what Punjabi was saying-no offence. Even with the 3 year gold support department, its still a crapshoot, mostly they just want you to try anything and everything possible- I think some of them just like to treat you a like a cat with a string of yarn.

Of the, about 6 times Ive called for Dell support, only the last one was semi-decently normal. I told him that I know very little about computers, but Im very interested to learn and build my own. He even told me that Dell takes really good care of him, so he cant talk bad about Dell, but naturally he still wanted me to re-consider buying the parts and trying to build it on my own. (I hope hes not right- but as long as I pretend Im performing human microsurgery and install all the parts like they were ticking time bombs, I hope, I assume, most vendors have a decent return policy, in the slight chance a part arrives defective)
Anyway, he gave me his private email- but I've got to be wary of him trying to dissuade me anymore from trying to build my own. Do the tech support guys work on piece-rate commission or what?

As far as going to Dell's website and trying to customize every which possible type, size, brand, etc. and compare how much it would cost to do it myself, I have gone to their website so many times, its almost like a slot machine game, watching the big price tag rise and fall, at the click of a button.

As far as the massive problem you had with their financing, that really sucks. If that happened to me, it would only motivate me even more to just do what they do and start trying to build my own computers, even though Im still a little shooken up from that guy trying to scare me about all my computer parts arriving damaged. Dell in one way is pretty amazing to me. They came out of nowwhere, so it seems to me, but more amazing is the massive advertising splurge they made a few years back, when every channel, every commercial break without fail, DELL, DELL, DELL. Do you know how expensive it is to advertise, a 30 second ad spot, nationwide, on just an average weekday, less than average popular TV show?-(10 years ago, in England(population 55M), a 30 second ad during "Friends" cost 40,000 pounds=$67,000.) I can only guess that Dell spent hundred of millions of dollars during that non-stop enfilading ad campaign however long ago, at least on the West coast.

Well, now that I got that off my chest, and made this thread go so far off the subject, I feel like writing a book "expose" on the rise, and with your help, the fall of the Dell corp. machinations.

Sorry, but Im exhausted. I tried starting an almost exact same thread, and everyone was telling me, why?, just buy an IBM, its only the most expensive laptop I know of.

I wanted to say I found a really good website, with really good pictures, and clear explanations of building your own laptop, but I cant remember the site, and I havent been able to find it since I first saw it. It might be this one, but I dont remember reading any of it, so. . .

http://www.directron.com/laptopdiy.html

But since this thread has re-stimulated my interest and energy, I quickly just found this barebone laptop company, I cant ever remember seeing before. . .

http://www.marasst.com/
I like to let others test the water before I do.

Although your intention to custom build a touch screen laptop was already on my wish list, I could never find any, but that was about 3 months ago, so hopefully I'll get a new wind to deep search again soon.

Theres also the ones from ASUS, but I wont buy from them because I got into a big fight with them, so there on my blacklist too. You think you got problems?

I just found this. . . .http://www.thenerds.net/index.php?page=productpage&pn=IT7686BC
-Im pretty confused by it- but it sounds like its describing a Touchscreen laptop?
Anyway, I could give you another barebone laptop name, like MSIcomputer, but still no touchscreens. I still have my hopes on a laptop with built in scanner copier, and of course foldable up/downlink satellite device capability-but thats pretty much it for me.

I'll keep looking. Heres another, pretty much just repeating.
http://store.alphapcstore.com/asoemlaco.html
 
Does newegg.com sell parts for building a custom laptop? I am kind of limited to their site because they have financeing that I can use to pay over a period of a few months that I like to take of advantage when I buy computers.
 
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