Project GhettoBook (23 inch laptop)

[foothead]

After at least 6 months of planning, I think I'm finally ready to begin construction on my 23.6 inch laptop project. If you haven't been keeping up with my plan, I intend to take the electronic components from a laptop and use then plus an ASUS MS248H LED monitor to build a bigger laptop. The case itself will be made of 1/8" black acrylic sheets. I'd rather not give too much away, so I'll leave it at that for now.

The point of this project is to build an easily movable gaming rig, not an ultra-portable computer. I know it's ridiculously impractical, but that just adds to the fun.

I recently purchased a beat up HP DV7 2270us for $250 for this project. Specs are: Core 2 Quad Q9000 @2.0 GHz, 4GB DDR3 @unknown, HD 4650 1GB DDR3. I won't post any more, because the rest of the specs are likely to change before I'm done. Anyway, here's what the screen looked like when I got it:



Sorry I don't have a better picture. I thought I had taken one with my good camera, but it turns out I didn't.

Here it is stripped down to just the components I need:



And here are some batteries I bought. This thing is gonna use some serious power.



I'll post some early sketches as soon as I can get to my sketchpad. It may take a couple days though, because I left it at my dad's house.

Right now, I'm getting ready to order tons more parts for this. Parts I still need to order are 2 U.FL to RP-SMA cables, a couple high gain antennas, 4 sheets of acrylic, a keyboard, a wacom touchpad, a hdd, a powered usb hub, some various wiring and connectors, a usb video card, an ASUS MS248H, PCI fans, some fan grille, rubber feet, lots of acrylic glue, a new webcam lens, some really tight hinges, and some RAMsinks.

[Cabbs]

Seems like a neat project. One of the pains of having a LAN rig is hauling around a case and monitor separate, this should simplify it.

[foothead]

Originally Posted by Cabbs

Seems like a neat project. One of the pains of having a LAN rig is hauling around a case and monitor separate, this should simplify it.

Exactly, and this will also be much lighter/smaller. It'll be nice because I can bring it with me whenever I go to my dad's house.

EDIT: Someone offered to sell me a pair of harman/kardon laptop speakers for $10. Should I get those or stay wit the altec lansing speakers I currently have?

[foothead]

Well, I seem to have forgotten to check on something important... What torque hinges should I get? I'm thinking something around 10 inch/lbs, but I'm not 100% sure on that figure. Maybe I'll go with a bit more and hope they aren't too tough.

EDIT: How well can I expect these to hold up?

[Cabbs]

Can't tell you how the speakers compare, but I laptop speakers usually aren't anything to rave about.

I'm not sure about the hinges either. It would be nice if they released the specs for the ones you usually see on laptops.

[foothead]

Originally Posted by Cabbs

Can't tell you how the speakers compare, but I laptop speakers usually aren't anything to rave about.

I've heard a few that are pretty good. The Altec Lansing speakers I have now beat my sony desktop speakers I used to use with my iBook, and I've heard good things about the Harman/Kardons and JBLs. The rest seem to be getting better, except for apple. No idea what they're doing.

Originally Posted by Cabbs

I'm not sure about the hinges either. It would be nice if they released the specs for the ones you usually see on laptops.

Yeah, I know. If I could figure out what they use on the 19" and 20" laptops, it'd give me a pretty good idea of what I need. All I could really find is that Ben Heck uses 8 in/lb hinges for his xbox laptops, and that took me like an hour to find.

[Cabbs]

Do you know the weight of the monitor Ben used and the monitor you're using? If you have those two numbers it should give you a ballpark.

[foothead]

Originally Posted by Cabbs

Do you know the weight of the monitor Ben used and the monitor you're using? If you have those two numbers it should give you a ballpark.

I have no idea how much his weighed. Mine should be about 5 pounds.

I asked my dad, and he calculated that I would need about 16 inch/pounds. I guess that's what I'll be going with.

[aPanzerIV]

Awesome, cant wait to see it all come together. you bought that laptop for $250?

[01001010]

Originally Posted by foothead

I've heard a few that are pretty good. The Altec Lansing speakers I have now beat my sony desktop speakers I used to use with my iBook, and I've heard good things about the Harman/Kardons and JBLs. The rest seem to be getting better, except for apple. No idea what they're doing.

They are not JBL quality.