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Rebuild Laptop vs buying new.....

post #1 of 6
6/17/08 at 3:31am
Thread Starter 
I have an older Acer Travelmate that I am thinking about totally rebuilding. I have been checking out motherboards and chips online. As cheap as individual parts are now I wonder if I could replace the motherboard and components on a piece by piece basis, mostly for the experience of doing it. It works ok for now, but I wouldnt mind trying to build a powerhouse, that is if I can find perfect fit parts.

Would I be able to replace the monitor with a glossy LCD? Right now it stays in low power mode (dim) and it will probably have to be replaced eventually anyway?

Any input would be appreciated.....
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post #2 of 6
6/17/08 at 7:07am
what is ur current model?

cheers ...
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post #3 of 6
6/18/08 at 12:41pm
hmm so i am guessing you want the whole tear down? like replacing the mobo, cpu, gpu, and the works? Thats a lot of work hahah, I am not sure there is a lot of cost savings to be had. Again time (ie your labor time) is money also. Unless there is serious savings to be had, i would rather op for new laptop. Even with lower laptop part prices its no where near cost effective as making your own desktop. So i guess a question you gotta ask yourself is the time you will invest on searching out parts and building really worth the potential savings.
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post #4 of 6
6/18/08 at 5:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rookie208 View Post
I have an older Acer Travelmate that I am thinking about totally rebuilding. I have been checking out motherboards and chips online. As cheap as individual parts are now I wonder if I could replace the motherboard and components on a piece by piece basis, mostly for the experience of doing it. It works ok for now, but I wouldnt mind trying to build a powerhouse, that is if I can find perfect fit parts.

Would I be able to replace the monitor with a glossy LCD? Right now it stays in low power mode (dim) and it will probably have to be replaced eventually anyway?

Any input would be appreciated.....
while you can replace some aspects of your notebook (including the LCD if you figure out the power and size requirements and type of connector), the only motherboard that will fit in your current chassis is your current motherboard. You simply cannot order or find a more powerful motherboard for a notebook. If you know a lot about computers and have access to a motherboard manufacturing plant, you could theoretically design a new motherboard compatible with your chassis, but most people do not have that kind of knowledge or access. If you want something more powerful, I'd suggest you buy a new system.
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post #5 of 6
6/18/08 at 10:03pm
even in theory you could design and have the access, but even so it would be so much more expensive than buying a new one (economics of scale)...

if you only need more memory and a bigger hdd, go for upgrade. if not, new one.
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post #6 of 6
6/19/08 at 4:51am
or take the time and "collecting" parts from damaged machines (a motherboard here, a card reader there, an optical drive everywhere ...)

cheers ...
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