laptop chassis

[suthers]

does anybody now were I can find a laptop 17inch chassis, Ive being loking for one for weeks but I can't find anithing.
Thanks in advance,
Jules

[Solar]

Are you looking for a case (i.e., pure plastic, nothing in there), or for a barebone (i.e., add CPU / RAM / HD and get going)? The former, I'd try eBay for a defective / scrapped notebook. The latter, try googling for MSI L71x / L720 lifebooks.

[suthers]

I havent found anything.
What I meen is just the case ( as solid as possible) with nothing else.
I am lokking for a 17inch chassis with if possible a preinstalled LCD with a good resolution.
Thanks in advance,
Jules

[Solar]

Note that laptop LCDs in most cases do not have a standard connector, but are wired to the gfx chip by some proprietary interface. (As testified by many HW hackers that tried to mod Amiga 600's into laptops.)

Moreover, laptop mainboards are usually designed with a specific casing in mind, and don't fit other casings.

That being said, I couldn't think of any other source for such a casing but eBay, garage sales et al., right because of the limited usefulness of such a thing outlined above.

[Kemp]

This pretty much falls into the same category as your processor upgrade question. Unlike a PC, almost everything about laptops is custom-made or modified in some way so unless a part is specifically made for your laptop you'll have to get your hands very dirty with modding and hope you don't kill anything.

[suthers]

Is there anything that can be modded in a laptop, this is getting really anoying, I've tried to mod lots of things and each time it terns out to be impossible.
Thanks in advance,
Jules

[Kemp]

My mate replaced the wireless board in his laptop with one more suitable to war-driving... *ahem* discovering publically accessible neworks. Even that required a lot of disassembly, stripping and extending of wires, soldering and praying that it would go back together ok and nothing had died (and that the connections were right).

[Candy]

Is there anything that can be modded in a laptop, this is getting really anoying, I've tried to mod lots of things and each time it terns out to be impossible.
Thanks in advance,
Jules

I'm taking my laptop out of its case, to use in an embedded (physically) environment for controlling real embedded apparatuses via serial link (which that old laptop has ) and I'm going to replace the harddisk with a cf card (1gb harddisk for a 1gb cf card of equal price - thank *** for technological improvement) and rip out the fdd, so it'll have no moving parts. Also, I need to think of a replacement for keyboard/mouse that doesn't make it look like a computer hacked into some other thing.

[Kemp]

Wireless keyboard and mouse? No visible connections and you can use them wherever you want (range and LOS constraints permitting).

[Solar]

"Modding" a laptop?

Hell, they come with PCCard and ExpressCard slots, Bluetooth and IR receivers... there's nothing you cannot connect to a notebook, mod away! ;D

But I see where you are coming from: How do I make my laptop "special" so it isn't just a stock XYZ brand notebook. How about this? (Yes, that's an airbrush. Yes, that's my - former - notebook he's airbrushing.)

[Kemp]

By mod I meant more replacing parts internally and possibly messing around with the case to accomodate the new parts. Obviously doing the current mainstream idea of modding to a laptop is just pretty much pointless. Despite widespread belief, neon lights and windows do not make a good machine.

My point was that replacing most things should in theory be possible, but also very hard and requiring some ingenuity to get things to play nice.

[Solar]

By mod I meant more replacing parts internally...

I know. Your chances are improving, though - there are efforts to create a form factor / connector standard among laptop manufacturers, which should boost available "mods". Until then, your best bet is pick & chose from the available models...

[Kemp]

Do you have any pics of that laptop post-airbrushing btw?

[Solar]

None that are online, not to my knowledge. I'm not sure I even have some on disk. Perhaps I get around making one or two shots at home in the next few days, but I'm quite burned out from work ATM and not really in the mind for it...

[Kemp]

Heh, don't worry about it then, I just asked in case there were already some online.