How-to guide illustrates process of upgrading your laptop

Conjuring up your own desktop is pretty far down on the list of "world's most difficult tasks," but actually building your own laptop is another thing entirely. As we've seen with Ben Heck's creations, assembling a lappie rather than buying a pre-fabricated model is a serious undertaking, and while Computer Shopper's guide to constructing your own is more of an "upgrade an existing" walk-through, it's still chock full of interesting tidbits. Ever had the urge to snap up a barebones lap warmer and have your way with it? Head on down to the read link, and don't be afraid of getting your hands covered in thermal adhesive, okay?

[Idlemind @ Apr 25th 2008 9:36AM]

MMM Therman adhesive.... great on toast...




(dont try this at home kids)

[Idlemind @ Apr 25th 2008 9:38AM]

make that Thermal



guess it DOES mess with your brain..

[K Nang @ Apr 25th 2008 9:42AM]

ENOUGH of your spamming!
be gone!

[iBSOD for iPhone @ Apr 25th 2008 9:47AM]

I've opened my dead HP laptop and i dunno what has gone bad. It doesnt start up, i think water moisture has caused it... but i think the rest of the stuff is fine, like the cpu :(

[Andrew @ Apr 25th 2008 9:51AM]

when I upgraded the RAM on my hp laptop I didnt read the manual on how to remove the keyboard and I just kept removing screws, before I knew it I had the entire cooling assembly disasembled.

http://pixblix.com

[steven1350 @ Apr 25th 2008 9:54AM]

I've opened on a Dell Latitude C600(old p-iii 650Mhz), and let me say laptops have changed quite a bit. Instead of using a socket like the tutorial shows, my laptop used a screw to secure the CPU in place (no joke). There was no thermal paste, just a lousy heatsink and fan. No SATA hard drive(just some lousy piece of crap), no wifi, and ram which is slow as hell.

[Pochi @ Apr 25th 2008 10:04AM]

I had that same laptop. That thing was rock solid. I loved it.

[Idlemind @ Apr 25th 2008 10:05AM]

That brings to mind an iBook that my friend fried. He just wanted the drive to move his data and gave it to me when it was done. I realized that laptops are becoming personal items and using someone elses, in time will gross us all out....

I blogged it with pics here...

http://web.mac.com/idlemind1999/IDLEMINDEDSTUFF/Blog/Entries/2008/3/26_C.S._%E2%80%9CEWW!%E2%80%9DNY.html

[Idlemind @ Apr 25th 2008 9:55AM]

I learned at a young age, when taking apart something (especially for the first time) have an empty desk and cover it with a paper tablecloth.

You can write notes on it, draw arrows, etc. and you can group the screws and such. I also use double sided tape to keep them from wandering off.

[Earl Jr. @ Apr 25th 2008 3:06PM]

That's a good idea. I do that when working on my RC stuff but have never thought to apply it to electronics.
a grand +1 for you sir.

[tanooki2003 @ Apr 25th 2008 10:48AM]

My biggest challenge was upgrading my old Libretto 30CT. I have changed the processor from a 5x86 to a n AMD Geode clocking at 300MHz.
The hard drive is a dual CF drive, both being 2GB. I have upgraded the old TFT display to a more modern XGA screen.

I stil to this day use it as my PDA, and with thanks to the excruciating hours and days I have spent trying to get the MB to work with a Geode I now have the Instant On feature like a PDA

[kal326 @ Apr 25th 2008 10:59AM]

Its a barebones laptop build, its like building a kit car....

It would be more impresive to take an existing off the shelf laptop and upgrade it. I am waiting for the warranty to expire on my HP 9548us so I can stick a faster core2 duo mobile in it. The 5450 that is in it isn't all that great.

[Richard Lai @ Apr 25th 2008 11:37AM]

Funny that this article came out now, as I was trying to upgrade my Asus A8Ja from T2300E to T7200 yesterday, but for some reason even after copying the T7200 microcode from another BIOS (A8Jp) to the A8Ja BIOS (using mmtool) and then reflashing it, it still doesn't boot up. Any ideas?

[DA @ Apr 25th 2008 12:10PM]

I've upgraded my Acer 5675wlmi Laptop with the follow:

Intel T2300 (1.66Mhz) to a T2700(2.33Mhz)
2GB ram to 4GB ram
100GB HDD to 320GB HDD
pci-e Intel a/b/g wireless card to a intel Intel a/b/g/n card


Not as bad as pretty thing it is, well worth the performance increase. Upgrade cost me about a little less than $400 (ebay, fry's, online deals, etc...).

[Patriks7 @ Apr 26th 2008 2:02AM]

wait what?
u wasted 400$ to upgrade an ACER?!
-.^
ive had an acer before and its really a laptop for 1 year
i would never waste my time and money on that
now if id have those parts just lying around then i might waste some time
but 400$?

[DA @ Apr 25th 2008 12:13PM]

correction: Acer model is 5672

[nizzy1115 @ Apr 25th 2008 12:51PM]

Too bad its still an Acer.

[tnkgrl @ Apr 25th 2008 1:40PM]

I dunno... It's a lot more interesting and fun/cool to take an existing notebook/laptop/UMPC that's not user upgradable or that's missing features and hack/mod it!

Like this: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/modding-the-asus-701-eee-bluetooth/
Or this: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/oqo-model-02-hsdpa-mod/

[torqueo @ Apr 25th 2008 3:51PM]

Until I can barebones-build something similar to my Thinkpad X61s, this is useless to me. Heavy, big, low-battery, underpowered laptops are a dime a dozen.. why bother making your own?

[XGM @ Apr 25th 2008 4:47PM]

And as a Mac owner (MacBook pro to be exact) I learned how to upgrade mine.

1: Create an account on ebay, and sell it.
2: Head to the Apple store (or online) and buy a new one.