Upgradeable/Custom Laptop...Do they exsist???

[SwaleSmith]

Sooner or later unfortunatley I may have to get rid of my desktop I always enjoy the odd spot of gaming, have tinckered witht he idea of alienware laptops etc but there very pricey and not upgradeable when the hardware become inferior which seems to happen rapidly.

So my question is there a decent looking laptop in exsistance which is upgradeable for example graphics CPU ram and even better mainboard in sucha way that a desktop is????

This of course would be a desktop replacemant so size and weight would be less of a bother to me infact a bigger screen would be better, power to play the later games is the priorty.

 

[Sleekit]

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/misc_content/ocz_diy_gaming_notebook_15/1

 

[retrogamer1990]

read this thread

 

[SwaleSmith]

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/misc_content/ocz_diy_gaming_notebook_15/1

Problem with this is no ability to upgrade GPU and 1280x1024 resolution is a little lower than I'd like

 

[monkey7]

It's a tad (very) hard to find, but try looking for the Asus S97V barebone. Some BTO laptop shops sell it, bought it from one of those.

1680*1050 res, nVidia 9650MGT 15.4". Has good cooling (P7450 @ 45*C load, GPU @ 55*C FurMark eXtreme burn) and has superb battery time with its 9cell (extended, stock is 6) battery.

Only con: it has small feet below it, which quite poke into your lap when using it as an actual LAPtop.

Btw: I paid €900 incl. components and shipping for mine, but you'd be lucky to find it for that price.

EDIT: also the overclocking is - as on all lappies - nearly nonexistant. I don't know if the GPU can be replaced, haven't looked at its guts yet.

 

[Kojak71]

Mobile GPU cards were tried for a while, but it died out very quickly. Given how much power these GPUs use, it's going to stay that way for some time. At the moment there are two technologies which might get around this.

At GDC a couple of weeks ago, OnLive made an announcement about cloud gaming. Essentially their servers run the game and your laptop/pc/console plays back the video output. Theoretically sounds great, it can run on even low powered netbooks, but it remains to be seen whether they can resolve lag issues between the controller and the action appearing on the screen. At the moment, the cost of such a service hasn't been published.

The other technology, which has been mentioned for a fair few number of years, is having an external dedicated GPU housed in a box. Originally Asus announced they would be doing this, http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2007/01/09/ASUS_unveils_external_notebook_GPU/1, but nothing ever became of it. AMD developed XGH (an external PCIe bus) but so far only Fujitsu have a released one laptop supporting this (http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2008/12/amds-xgh-external-gpus-may-soon-see-the-light-of-day.ars). I think this sort of technology is truly promising, it allows your laptop to be powerful enough for gaming when at home, but still portable enough for other uses.