I am thinking about having a go at putting together a 'whitebook' as per instructions here http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20031202/ and here http://www.techbuilder.org/article.htm?ArticleID=48122 The articles make it seem perhaps deceptively simple. Anyone done anything similar, any warnings, im not neccessarily doing it for cost savings, more for the experience.
Or would small form factor be the way to go?
Rick
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On Sunday 07 March 2004 15:55, Ricky Bruce wrote:
I am thinking about having a go at putting together a 'whitebook' as per instructions here http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20031202/ and here http://www.techbuilder.org/article.htm?ArticleID=48122 The articles make it seem perhaps deceptively simple. Anyone done anything similar, any warnings, im not neccessarily doing it for cost savings, more for the experience.
As a company we played around with this last year, it was an easy way for us to obtain laptops free of the OEM licensing that is so common with big brands.
We were buying a "carcass" machine from the far east, it was then configured by us using OEM components to the UK locale and whatever spec the customer required.
Typically we were adding the following items to the carcass-
Hard Drive, optical drive, battery and charger, keyboard, memory, mini pci devices such as modem or WLAN and in some cases processor.
To be honest we have stopped doing it now. A few of the big names are doing such good deals on basic machines now that the cost savings were pretty much non existent. Also things that become important with a portable device such as clever use of space, ergonomics and component integration were just not of the same standard as some of the big names.
Also I think that brand recognition plays a much bigger part of the purchasing decision with laptops than desktops. So as a business trying to sell them it just makes sense for us to sell prebuilt brand name machines unless there is a VERY specific configuration that cannot be obtained that way.
But hey, as a home project it is easier to assemble one of these than build a Desktop machine, the carcass can come with a very good warranty and anything else that breaks is pretty much "off the shelf", In some situations it could make a lot of sense. Just take a close look at what you can buy pre-built for the same money before going ahead.
Small Form factor.
I have played around with the mini ITX format quite a bit, and for a super compact low noise machine they make a lot of sense. But until the new boards/ chips become available it is only possible to build fairly low performance machines.
I love shuttles, I think the quality of their product is great. The things are dead simple to assemble and really do look the part when finshed. Prices are reasonable too considering that you are buying MB,Case,Fan/Heatsink and PSU in one hit. Boards are well speced and have almost every input/output known to man. Just watch the Linux compatability with some of the models (AMD Nforce in particular) I guess spec for spec there is about an £80 premium for going the shuttle route compared to a standard beige box, but the quality of the end product is worth it in my opinion.
Wayne
Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On Sunday 07 March 2004 15:55, Ricky Bruce wrote:
I am thinking about having a go at putting together a 'whitebook' as per instructions here http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20031202/ and here http://www.techbuilder.org/article.htm?ArticleID=48122 The articles make it seem perhaps deceptively simple. Anyone done anything similar, any warnings, im not neccessarily doing it for cost savings, more for the experience.
As a company we played around with this last year, it was an easy way
for us
to obtain laptops free of the OEM licensing that is so common with big brands.
We tried a couple of built-to-spec machines. we bought them as built, but a local company i can't remember the name of actually put them together.
They seemed a fairly good deal, but the quality of the carcasses was low, and, as Wayne said, they dont use space particularly well.
The most memorable thing was finding out that if you typed on the keyboard while a cd was spinning the plastic just under the return key would contact the cd drive mechanics resulting in a horrible graunching noise.
for the experience, fine, but dont expect a good quality notebook at the end. personally, i'd advise a secondhand newish one for 500ish (would get you a 2.4ghz desktop replacement for example) if you want a notebook. you could always strip it down...
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Ricky Bruce -
Tristan Scott -
Wayne Stallwood