Open Lunchbox: Yet Another Open-Source Laptop Attempt

[chimpy]

Just Give Me A Good Workhorse

A little off topic, but:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5WM2033037

It is refurbished, but if your laptop can match it I'll definitely be interested and I'm sure other tech savvy people will be too.

[Adarion]

"to build modular laptops the same way desktop PC?s are made."

That would be wonderful. One of the main reasons why I dislike Laptops to a certain extent are the lousy keyboards, screen and that you can't exhange, add or remove parts. Thus, you can't repair anything and have to throw away the whole thing even though just a single component may have failed.
And the use of an AMD APU ... oh, yes, baby!
The sight of having coreboot support and the whole thing designed with the availability of freedom drivers in mind makes it sustainable and me thinking "shutupandtakemymoney".

[duby229]

"to build modular laptops the same way desktop PC?s are made."

That would be wonderful. One of the main reasons why I dislike Laptops to a certain extent are the lousy keyboards, screen and that you can't exhange, add or remove parts. Thus, you can't repair anything and have to throw away the whole thing even though just a single component may have failed.
And the use of an AMD APU ... oh, yes, baby!
The sight of having coreboot support and the whole thing designed with the availability of freedom drivers in mind makes it sustainable and me thinking "shutupandtakemymoney".

I've been repairing laptops for a long time. If some part needs replaced someody on ebay has it for sure. Everything from bezels to screens to heatsinks. Dealers on ebay have everything. Hell, if all you needed was the screw sets, somebody has just that. If you can think of a part, it's there.

I still like toshiba the best though. Easiest to take apart and reassemble.

[reepca]

Sounds good to me

It's always rather bugged me that the only way to purchase a decent laptop has been to buy one completely pre-assembled with little to no customization choices (often the only options are "do you want 6 or 8 GB of RAM?" and "SSD or HDD?") that you are then stuck with with no opportunity for upgrade or tinkering. It means that either you wait a long time to buy a high-end laptop that can do everything you want or you buy an entry-level laptop that you will have no use for if you *do* get a high-end one. Basically it's a lot of parts that can't be re-used or switched around, and it annoys me.

I'm rather hyped about the AMD APUs, though - which socket(s) are you looking at? I'm particularly interested because since AMD launched their mobile Kaveri APUs in June of last year, not a single fx-7600p has been seen in America. The thought of being able to ignore what amounts to an embargo of AMD APUs with 1080p screens makes me gleeful. I should probably look at the website and get a better idea of the project before posting, but it sounds like a great idea and I wish you the best of luck.

[Michael_S]

The thought of being able to ignore what amounts to an embargo of AMD APUs with 1080p screens makes me gleeful.

Seconded. I've been annoyed that new Intel laptops with 1080p screens are available in the $600-$800 price point and new AMD laptops with 1080p screens are in the $1100+ range if you can find them at all. That's ludicrous, especially since the strength of AMD's mobile APUs against Intel right now is that the AMD products are cheap. I can get a new laptop with an A10 processor for $500, but I have to pay $600 more to get better than a 1366x768 resolution? It honestly makes me wonder if Intel has been doing more dirty deals with the PC vendors to cripple AMD further.

I've been repairing laptops for a long time. If some part needs replaced someody on ebay has it for sure. Everything from bezels to screens to heatsinks. Dealers on ebay have everything. Hell, if all you needed was the screw sets, somebody has just that. If you can think of a part, it's there.

I still like toshiba the best though. Easiest to take apart and reassemble.

I understand that. But I will say that repairing and upgrading a PC is pretty idiot-proof. If I can manage to replace anything not soldered to the motherboard on a desktop, then anyone can do it. Many laptop upgrades and repairs require more skill.

[tuxd3v]

I Will buy if it have a decent AMD APU from 2015

It will be a huge advance for users, have the possibility to update their products, without the need to buy a new Laptop

Like I said, if it have a Last gen AMD APU from 2015(will be released in 2015), the first HSA 1.0 enabled , i will buy one

Ho, open hardware and open hardware???

GIVE ME IT NOW

regards
tux

[Ansla]

Maybe for a buyer looking for a laptop with Intel CPU this idea may sound ridiculous as there are thousands of models and one of them would most likely fit all requirements. But try looking for a laptop with AMD APU and filter the list of available options by any 3 criterias between "at least full hd", "mate display", "less then 15" display" and "illuminated keyboard" and you you most likely get 0 results.

@openlunchbox did you try contacting AMD to cooperate on this project? This is also what AMD needs badly because of the scarcity of regular options.

[Adarion]

... someody on ebay has it for sure.

Well, partially yes. But the prices are quite insane sometimes. And there is nearly no standard. Every vendor, every series of laptops has unique features and parts. So there is no universal replacement like normal PCs have. Also, as Michael_S stated

...repairing and upgrading a PC is pretty idiot-proof ... Many laptop upgrades and repairs require more skill.

repairs require more skill in the cramped environment.
And what do you do when something that is soldered is broken? Replacing the whole mainboard is very expensive unless you know how to de/solder a 40+ pin TQFP or even a BGA. A single SMD resistor, maybe, yes.

The thought of being able to ignore what amounts to an embargo of AMD APUs with 1080p screens makes me gleeful.

It honestly makes me wonder if Intel has been doing more dirty deals with the PC vendors to cripple AMD further.

Me too. I wouldn't be surprised if there was something.
I mean, with one run of their APUs in the recent 2 years I remember they showed off a reference build. That had an HD IPS screen (glare free) and all sorts of greatness. Never seen something like that again. It is absolutely incredible. But I have seen a lot of nasty back deals intel did with vendors to prevent AMD from entry into the market. (E.g. here in Germany a "popular" (totally lame but popular among normal people) distributor group (having real markets) who never ever sold anything with AMD inside.)

I found one single (Acer??) model that was below a "moon price" (1200 USD+) with at least a glare free 1080 screen (still 16:9 but at least 1080). I think it was also available without MS tax (came with FreeDOS).

@openlunchbox did you try contacting AMD to cooperate on this project? This is also what AMD needs badly because of the scarcity of regular options.

Seconded.

[duby229]

Well, partially yes. But the prices are quite insane sometimes. And there is nearly no standard. Every vendor, every series of laptops has unique features and parts. So there is no universal replacement like normal PCs have. Also, as Michael_S stated

repairs require more skill in the cramped environment.
And what do you do when something that is soldered is broken? Replacing the whole mainboard is very expensive unless you know how to de/solder a 40+ pin TQFP or even a BGA. A single SMD resistor, maybe, yes.

The only thing I wanted to reply to is this.

Most laptop MB I can desolder the power plug and solder a new one in, for everything else I'll just replace the board. Repalcing the board is still often times cheaper than replacing the laptop. But -any- time I have to replace any MB, I use that opportunity to try and sell a new computer.

Whenever I see a board that needs replaced, it's usually a good thing.

[openlunchbox]

@Ansla We have been in contact with AMD since the 80's. They are behind anything that sells.

This project recently started back up again as just making updated motherboards and other parts for older very popular Thinkpad models like the T60. After talking to hundreds of people about what they really wanted in a laptop we decided to offer the parts to make complete units

There has been a wide range of requests from 12"-17" for the base and LCD, from desktop APU's to ARM SOC's for the CPU modules and from 50Wh to 500Wh for the batteries. All the modules are interchangeable with each other. If you want an ARM cpu with a 15" display you can have it. If you want a desktop 100W APU with >500Wh of battery you can have that as well.

We will post the 3d models for the modules on openlunchbox.com soon to show everyone how it all works and invite everyone's comments as well.