Laptop Modding

[SapperX]

Has anyone here done any modding to their laptop? If so, what? I have a dell inspiron 8600, of which I upgraded the internals beyond recognition. The problem is, the outside is so bland and boring. If nobody here has done it, is there any laptop modding communities or websites? I couldn't find any... thanks.

[peterhuang913]

What did the upgrade the laptop from and to?

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

I've upgraded my laptop's processor from an Intel Celeron M 430 1.73Ghz processor to an Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83Ghz processor...though no aesthetic modifications.

[SapperX]

Yea, I'm looking for ideas for external modifications.

Peter- I upgraded the mobo to a newer series' mobo, upgraded the processor from a 1.6 pentium M to a 2.0 ghz, threw in 2g of ram, upgraded to a little bit better graphics card (not worth it), and put in a 80gig hd from a 60. Overall it cost me about the same as buying another laptop, but it was fun to do and I sold my old parts for some profit.

[Jorsoft]

Upgrading laptops is fun, isn't it ...especially when you've got one like yours where the gpu is upgradeable. Good times!

I know you can buy laptop skins and that sort of thing. A cheap way to make your laptop look cooler. I'm sure you can also paint it but I don't know how or what type of paint to buy. I read an article on that some years back but I can't place where.

[SapperX]

Yea, most sites that do the skinning don't have them for my model, since dell is imprinted on the cover quite annoyingly. Also, I've considered painting it but it is very risky... I may go ahead and do that some time soon.

And upgrading laptops is very fun, although very hard/annoying! Soooo many little parts!

[Jorsoft]

You can buy generic laptop skins from Best Buy or where ever and cut out the area on them where the Dell imprint is. I did that for a while with my ABS laptop.

But other than that I don't think there's much you can do to improve the look.

[Disillusion]

I've done the following to my Dell 9300.

Upgraded from a 1.73 Ghz Penium M to a 1.8 GHz and pin-modded (overclocked) it to 2.4 GHz.

60 GB 5400 RPM hard drive to a 100 GB 7200 RPM drive.

1 GB of RAM to 2 GB.

ATI X300 video card to nVIDIA 6800 Ultra card.

6 cell battery to 9 cell battery.

I also made it into an XPS clone by putting all XPS plastic on it.

You could always paint your laptop. A friend of mine painted his. I painted one once as well. It's not really hard, just lots of prepping if you want it to look good.

[SapperX]

How did you paint it? Is there a guide anywhere online?

Also, nice job with your laptop, seems like an awesome machine.