Gaming laptops often tend towards implementing more desktop-like hardware in the pursuit of pure grunt. But what if you were to simply buy desktop hardware yourself, and build your own gaming laptop? That would be very cool, as [Socket Science] demonstrates for us all.
The project began with lofty goals. The plan wasn’t to build something rough and vaguely laptop-like. [Socket Science] wanted to build something of genuine quality, that for all intents and purposes, looked and worked like a proper commercial-grade laptop. Getting to that point took a full 14 months, but the final results are impressive.
Under the hood lies an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and a XFX Radeon RX6600, hooked into an ITX motherboard with some low-profile RAM sticks. Those components were paired with a thin keyboard, a touchpad, and a portable gaming monitor. Getting all that into a thin laptop case, even a custom one, was no mean feat. Ports had to be cut down to size, weird ribbon cables had to be employed, and heatsinks and coolers had to be rearranged. To say nothing of all the work to 3D print a case that was strong and actually worked!
The full journey is quite the ride. If you want to go right back to the start, you can find part one here.
We’ve seen some builds along these lines before, but seldom few that get anywhere near this level of fit and finish. Oftentimes, it’s that kind of physical polish that is most difficult to achieve. All we can say is “Bravo!” Oh, and… video after the break.
What the actual…?
Damn I want to build one too!
impressive work.
I want to see more of this. Good desktop computer: $1200. Good laptop computer: $3000.
Grab an old Clevo for $300 and stuff a $300 3080 16GB MXM card in it. I ordered a special heatsink from China, it was only around $140. P750TM1, but the Dsanke BIOS is good for any 6th-9th gen. I’ve modded P770DM as well. 4 memory slots, so you can rock 64GB without breaking the bank. Use a
Mutant BGA1440 chip converted to LGA1151 if you want. QTJ1 is a 10980HK for example. Their are two styles of hybrid, IHS or bare die. You need the bare die. I cheated and ordered a cheap 6th gen bare die (to steal the frame) and a cheap 10th gen with spreader to de-lid.
Do you have details about this build (blog post or video)?
We need a motherboard standard for homebuilt gaming laptops!
LTX?
ATXL?
Axolotl
This comment wins!
The Mini ITX thin specification is really quite complete and really was created with this sort of embedded usecase in mind. Though actually finding the thin variation of mini-itx at least when I last looked was challenging (I’ve actually got an old cheap one in a box as the potentially sacrificial offering for a project that hopefully life will stop getting in the way of).
The other existing option that could be used as a standard would be the Framework 16 motherboards layout IMO – though I’ve got no hands on with them reading around the user experience it seems their PCIe connector is really good (though would require some work to then use desktop PCIe parts), but otherwise everything about it is ideal for building your own laptop around (unsurprisingly being a laptop already)
It seemed like Intel’s was working toward things that’d be perfect for a build like this with their NUC compute elements – the NUC 13 extreme can even host an unlocked 13th-gen i9 at 125w – if you can figure out how to keep it cool – and it supports full 16x PCIe 5.0.
.. but the flagship NUCs also just kept getting bigger, to the point that I’m not sure the 13 extreme is really any smaller than a comparable mini ITX board would be.
Even if you keep it cool, it’ll fry itself with voltage if it’s 13th/14th gen. It’s a shame!
Look into thin ITX with PIO (Parallel IO). There is one On AliEx for $80 shipped, takes 12-14th gen intel, power is DC 19-20v and has a PCIe power output. Uses laptop memory, but I see that as a feature.
I’m personally using the JW H610i – P which is a little dearer (but with Superbuy still only $100 all in from TaoBao).
i actually want to see a form factor which is pretty much an soc module that you can plug into a mobile chassis of your choice. from phones to full laptops and desktops. all under one architecture and one os (you could theoretically change architecture as well, provided the pinout is standard). you would build the chassis for durability and build the soc module to cost. idea is the chassis might work for a decade plus and the modules can be swapped out every few years.
The Khadad Mind pc kind of tries to do this with a main mini pc (that even includes a small battery) tha you can hot swap/dock with some accessories like a port hub or GPU dock. they even have a tablet module that the mini pc docks to the back of for a Microsoft Surface-type of device. though I doubt something like that could work with a phone like Asus tried with the Padfone in 2012.
Sounds like EOMA68. Sadly the concept hasn’t gained much traction (that I know of).
Grab an old Clevo for $300 and stuff a $300 3080 16GB MXM card in it. I ordered a special heatsink from China, it was only around $140. P750TM1, but the Dsanke BIOS is good for any 6th-9th gen. I’ve modded P770DM as well. 4 memory slots, so you can rock 64GB without breaking the bank. Use a
Mutant BGA1440 chip converted to LGA1151 if you want. QTJ1 is a 10980HK for example. Their are two styles of hybrid, IHS or bare die. You need the bare die. I cheated and ordered a cheap 6th gen bare die (to steal the frame) and a cheap 10th gen with spreader to de-lid.
Everest van you fond clevos?
Damn autocorrect.
Where can you find old Clevos?
i had a clevo once. perhaps around 2002 or so. it was an easy 30 pounds. it died when my mom decided to play solitare on it and spilled her coke in it. in theory i could have fixed it but when i opened it up i found loose smd caps everywhere and some of the power electronics blew up.
performance wise it was as good as a desktop and for awihle it was my top rig. but laptops are ewaste waiting to happen.
Where can you get a 16gb 3080 mxm for $300?
one thing i learned about sff builds, and this is one of them, is that they are freakishly heavy. you would think eliminating things like spinning rust and mirrors in giant box form factor drives and full atx power supplies would save some weight. but the weight savings ultimately finds its way into the heat sinks. you dont expect a hernia from a 12 liter case, but here we are.
laptop probibly falls in the <10l. i built a 10l business case out with a mini itx, 4th gen i7, and some dremel work allows me to put my old 1060 in it. its probibly half the weight of my main sff box since it uses a stock cooler and flexatx psu (i had to convert one of the cpu power cables to a gpu power cable, the gpu power reqs are not huge and two pairs is enough, thought for sure it would break something but it didnt) even though the case is double layer steel vs aluminum. the case itself i got for free in an amazon snafu.
You can use small, lightweight heatsinks, but the tradeoff is that it will sound like a jet engine with the amount of airflow needed to keep desktop parts cool. There is a reason the laptop chips run at much lower power levels.
From the future…. The future!