How to build a notebook - if you really must

Can you build your own notebook? Yes, with some caveats. We asked Aussie notebook maker Pioneer Computers Australia to build a DIY notebook with components that are available off the shelf. Pioneer’s master builders, Cosmin Vonu and Josh Miller built us a powerful notebook for gaming – which is not surprising since their company makes it a practice of shoehorning the latest technologies into notebooks and sending them to us for review. One example was the first notebook running a Core i7 chip (the over-the-top Dreambook D90 i7 reviewed last month).  But as you can see in the spec below that there are significant differences between building a PC and notebook. While you can build a PC from the smallest individual parts, a notebook comes in bigger chunks with its  final configuration is heavily dependent on the barebone system that underpins it and the kind of battery life you expect.  (All prices in Aust dollars).
 

CORE SYSTEM

BARE BONE SYSTEM: DreamBook Power M98 Bare Bone - $2899
Unlike a PC, where the motherboard, case, cooling and screen are available separately, in a DIY notebook you buy a chassis which already has a motherboard and screen built-in (like a PC case with fans already included). This is because the components need to come together into a very snug fit that is impossible to achieve if designed independently. The basic building block of a DIY notebook is what’s called a barebone system. In our case, we have chosen a powerful barebone system with a massive 18.4" 1920 x 1080 Full HD display for serious gaming, but barebone notebooks of all kinds are available from different vendors.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.10 GHz Processor T6500  - $119
[64 bit 2M Cache 800Mhz 45nm]
Barebone systems can accommodate various CPUs. The one chosen for this notebook build can support Quad Core Or even Extreme Quad Core mobile processors, but Intel’s T6500 CPU for notebooks still produces all the grunt required for most gaming and we think it’s the best value mobile CPU available.

MEMORY: 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1066MHz DDR3 RAM  - $199
Our barebone system can support up to 8GB of RAM at speeds of up to 1333Mhz, ideal for 64-bit OSes and games that support more than 4GBs of memory.  But the T6500 CPU we have chosen for our build can perform well with 4GB of 1066Mhz RAM.

GRAPHICS: nVidia GeForce Go GTX 280M 1G DDR3 - $934
[PCI Express Graphics   SLI ]
We wanted to show just how far you can go with graphics in a notebook so we’ve given this  system the most powerful mobile card in the market, the nVidia GeForce Go GTX in SLI configuration! This combination produces unrivaled gaming graphics performance on a notebook.

AUDIO: On board High Definition Audio - $0
The barebones system has an in-built high definition audio card based on the Realtek sound chip. It comes with all the expected features such as headphone, microphone, Line In and Spdif, but also has 5.1 surround sound speakers to give a full range audio experience for portable gaming and music playback.


HARD DRIVE: 3x 320GB 5,400RPM Serial-ATA 2.5” hard drives - $449
our notebook can handle up to three 2.5” SATA2 5400 or 7200-RPM hard disks (or SSDs up to 1TBs each) so we’ve taken the opportunity to cram them all in, using a RAID 0 configuration.

OPTICAL DRIVE: 8x DVD-/+RW Dual Layer Drive - $49
The notebook can take Blue-ray or even old HD DVD drives, but since this machine was built for gaming, we have fitted a DVD drive.

AC ADAPTOR, BATTERY, POWER CABLE: Included with the barebones system.

Core System cost $4,649

EXTRAS

TIPS ON BULDING YOUR OWN NOTEBOOK

1. You can’t build a notebook completely from scratch. You have to start with a sizable barebones system that already includes core components such as case, motherboard and screen. The components you can vary tend to be the CPU, RAM, graphics and storage.

2. It follows that you should select your barebones system wisely. In a PC you can start with something affordable and swap components in and out to end up with something powerful, but with a DIY notebook system you need make doubly sure it can accommodate the kind of components you plan to add down the track.

3. Think carefully about the kind of battery life you want, since that has a massive influence on the final design. In fact, a notebook could be described as being almost entirely a balancing act in making a battery last longer, with every single component playing a role. If you want to build a gaming notebook (like the one we’ve just built) then battery life is not an issue, since it will be plugged into the mains most of the time.
But if you want something portable, then start with a small screen and shrink everything else as much as you can tolerate.

4. APC would love to hear from anyone who has built a notebook and actually achieved a better result than an off-the-shelf machine. 

Are there better options? Let us know. We're happy to alter the build if better suggestions come along.