Actually building a computer or laptop...is it possible for the average person?

I don't mean just assembling the parts. I mean assembling the parts that make up the parts. Right now I'm building a robot 100% from scratch. Yeah, I know.."in order to create an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan. But what I mean is I'm making the microcontroller and using photosensors and the like.

Has anyone built a computer on here before? I know that it would be no where near as powerful as anything on here. Perhaps I should try building a calculator or something more simple first. I've just graduated high school, and I'm going into engineering next year, so I should have some resources available.

 

Short Answer: No

Sure its possible, but its not cost effective. You can buy chips and read the schematics. Take a look at laptop schematics.

 

Quit being such a negative nelly.

Link to computer you can build yourself

But yeah, building anything close to what most view as a modern computer would likely be a very frustrating and ultimately fruitless effort I think. If you are hell bent on doing it start small... there are a bunch of hobby kits out there that cater to this sort of thing

 

Kind of reminds me of this:

Z80 Microcomputer

I think that any intelligent enough person could do it, they just need the motivation to.

 

A cheap netbook and USB extensions might actually be an easier way to go about it from a programming point of view.

 

Computers were fairly easy to build with kits in the 70s, and the ones in the 80s can be built with some skill. I had some friends in college that built ones in the 90s from scratch, but it was starting to become difficult and a lot of work. I have no idea if you could build anything modern. But you can certainly replicate the kits from the 70s and 80s. You might take a look at,

List of early microcomputers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are some very primitive kits(historical really) for microcomputers described there. Mind you, none of these would even run puppy Linux.

 

Sweet! I think I'll try a 70s computer from scratch. I've gotten quite handy with the soldering iron with robotic microcontrollers, so perhaps I can put my skills to the test. I don't care too much if it's "modern"...I have other computers for those needs. I just like seeing physically how they're assembled and the logic behind how they work. Before too long, that'll be something that nearly no one can understand, which, quite frankly, scares the sh it out of me.

If after researching a bit more and deciding I will indeed pursue this, I'll be sure to take pictures and document it.

 

Why not aim for something that you can actually use? like a:

• router
• wifi hotspot
• small web server
• even a better robot

 

I don't really understand what your definition of building a computer is. What parts are you allowed to use? And what parts must you make yourself from the parts that you're allowed to use?

If you're building a processor, are you allowed to use an FPGA? Or are you using more basic chips like multiplexers and flipflops? Or are you limiting yourself to only the basic logic chips? Or can you only use wire, resistors, capacitors, and inductors?

There's so many levels of "building from scratch". You haven't really defined your level.

 

Well first you've got to get the silicon out of the ground, then build the CPU...

 

Buy an arduino board,you Can do anything with those,can learn some programing too.

 

Well actually, you've got to build a planet that contains silicon, then extract the silicon from the ground

 

Yes, you can build a "computer".
You will be doing a TON of reading and throwing away some failures, but yes it can be done.

The question though is, is it practical and usable.
What do you intend to do with it? From an engineering standpoint, it's cool, but useful, not really. If I remember right, someone recently did this and actually go it to boot Windows. It was an older version of Windows and it took DAYS. But hey, he got it to work. I would bet he spent well over $100 to accomplish it though.


If you need a computer to actually control something though, there are FAR cheaper methods, methods that vary depending on your needs and funds. You can get an old P100 micro notebook for cheap (I think NEC made them, also look into the Virgin Web Player) if you want to use DOS or something. However for a bit more you could use a netbook or small laptop or even a ITX based Atom. Check out the Acer Atom based desktop, they run about $200 for a computer the size of a Mac mini. Better yet though, buy a used netbook, install VNC remote desktop and remove the display, you get a small, low power system with a battery. Craigslist is a goldmine for them, if you spend more than $200 you probably got ripped .