Building a Whitebox Notebook PC

shades_of_blue · Post by **shades_of_blue** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 3:33 pm

BklynKid install the power4gear utility. with it installed, super performance mode will switch it to 1.6with high performance knocking it back to 600 untill the power is needed. or you can go into your bios and look for 'cpu sidestepping' or something like that and change automatic to high performance. the names are probably wrong, but you get the general idea.

bobby, i'm sure he's talking about a usb cdrom. although you could use a usb key, if you have a large enough one. iirc nero has an option to reformat usbkeys to act as a cdrom drive.

PJV · Post by **PJV** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 10:56 pm

But won't the flash drive only work with puters that have a boot from usb bios? Or can you start from a floppy and get it to work? Just wondering.

bobbybrown · Post by **bobbybrown** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 8:03 am

Thanks everyone! My optical drive still had not arrived but I got around the problem with a usb hard disk. I booted from the usb hard disk and installed from there. Seems like most newer bios will accept booting from usb drives.

BklynKid · Post by **BklynKid** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 5:21 pm

Thanks shades_of_blue. Indeed I noticed today that the Power4Gear utlity is absolutely necessary. Wish somone would rewrite it though and give it a better interface/icons (I'm a neat freak).

Post by **Apoptosis** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 6:30 pm

yeah I noted that fact in part 3 of the notebook series. Great utility, but aweful user interface!

BklynKid · Post by **BklynKid** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 9:13 pm

Someone should put in a request with Asus for them to release the sourcecode.

I might try.

BklynKid · Post by **BklynKid** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:17 am

OK if someone provides me with decent icons I can put them in there.

I'm currently looking for some myself ATM (don't have the skills to make any myself), so any suggestions are welcome.

BklynKid · Post by **BklynKid** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 6:05 pm

People who are tired of the crappy GUI of the Power4 Gear utility can try my version if it.

Nothing changed but the font, the about window (it handled resources poorly) and the icons of course.

Also I didn't have any better icons to put in, and this is especially apparent for the High and Super performance settings, so if you have any good (matching, to XP theme/type) icons I could use lemme know.

To install make a backup of your old BatteryLife.exe (by default in C:\Program Files\GENERIC\Power4 Gear) and then drop it in there.

http://www.bk-kicks.com/mad/power4gear/

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

[edit] Updated High and Super performance icons to something more familiar and more relevant.

bobbybrown · Post by **bobbybrown** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:23 pm

Much nicer, thanks!

Post by **Illuminati** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:28 pm

email me a screen shot and I'll post it up.

BklynKid · Post by **BklynKid** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:25 pm

Don't know your e-mail addy, so here it is. Here is yet another updated version as well (will differentiate filenames from now on).

The tray icons, from left to right are Super Performance to Battery Saving:

http://www.bk-kicks.com/mad/power4gear/

Glad you guys are enjoying it.

Also I'd like to share how poor the actual programming of this is. Originally the icons inside the configuration menu next to the names of the power schemes were loaded via internal BMP. On top of that it had the same pictures (of the low quality crap) as icons, in both 32x32, and 16x16. The 32x32 (except for the main, aka Super) were then ONLY used in the About window. So through maybe a few more minutes of code cranking the guys as Asustek could have eliminated the BMP all together, and simply loaded everything via ICO... anyway, what shocked me the most was that there was actually a string in the program (never used, among others) with the content 'Hello World!'...

Morphine · Post by **Morphine** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 4:49 am

Hi everyone

I have read all the 3 parts of the article I found it to be quite informative. I have always dreamed of building my own notebook outa scratch and i guess the time has come. But unlike many of you I'm not into gaming or graphic intensive apps. I need a notebook to access the net, do bit of programming (VB, VC), running a RDBMS (Oracle) etc.

If there is one thing the article doesn't address is the price factor. The only reason I want to build it on my own is to get it cheaper than a branded one. My budget is $1000.

I'm looking for pentium 4 [clock speed no bar]
1 MB cache
512mb memory
DVD combo
14 inch screen
40gb HDD

Graphic card is not a issue. Any decent card would do

Is there a way to build one which will cost me less than $1000?

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:18 am

1k is going to be tough. What we have learned through this is that if you are looking at some of the big name companies and going to buy a $1500+ laptop then your better off building your own. but when it comes to sub $1k generaly they can do it cheaper because they can buy parts in bulk and you cannot.

BklynKid · Post by **BklynKid** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:10 am

Sorry for another update. But I managed bring the executable filesize back down from 120kb down to 84kb -- significant enough to spam the forums once more.

http://www.bk-kicks.com/mad/power4gear/

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:40 am

Spam away you made the front page!

Post by **Apoptosis** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 11:01 am

Morphine,

Welcome to the forums and I hope our three part notebook article series helped you out and gave you some good ideas.

As for a sub $1,000 notebook you might want to check out the retail market for pre-built models. Walmart just signed a deal with ECS computers to build notebooks for sale in their empire, but at a $1-5 profit per model sold. There already is little if any markup on the low end models.

Best bet: Check local discount chains for cheap notebooks (best price versus performance value for what you are looking for.)

Morphine · Post by **Morphine** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 12:34 pm

Hi admin,

Its to bad we don't have Walmart in New Delhi

and if i ship it I have to pay custom duty.

I have heard of these chinese sellers. There prices are quite competetive and unlike ASUS even the screen is sold separately. I think I could get all the ingredients for less than $900. Have any of you heard of this?

Like I said performance is not my highest priority, I could even do with a celeron. I will check out and keep you guys posted.

admin i kinda got the feeling that you are not happy with the outsourced technical help you're getting from india. Why? Is it our accent?

I worked for a while in a DELL's outsourced techhelp (Wipro spectramind) at delhi as a manager, I thought you guys were happy

Post by **Illuminati** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 2:40 pm

Morphine... please post your above post as a new thread... I see it as a good conversation, but as getting very off-topic from this whitebox notebook thread.

Thanks.

BklynKid · Post by **BklynKid** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:52 pm

w00t, front page!

Thanks Legit Reviews for exposing me to whitebox notebooks. I'm loving my M6Ne! :D

viro · Post by **viro** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 9:47 pm

great job on part 3!

I have all the parts ready for my M6Ne.. only thing i'm missing is.. the M6Ne. Once I cash this delicious check, I'll be 1 M6Ne richer.

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