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    Project OCTITRON - From the Ground Up Custom laptop project

    Discussion in 'Notebook Cosmetic Modifications and Custom Builds' started by K-TRON, Sep 15, 2009.

  1. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    Thanks for those who were interested for your support and ideas

    You can thank those who love to abide by rules, for me pulling this thread.

    Sorry for the inconvenience to those who actually cared.

    This thread was a test to see if the community actually appreciated good quality work and craftsmanship in an area which many do not explore.
    This test ended like I thought it would, a fail. So the community will just not hear about it from me.

    Do not make threads asking about my project.
    The community caused me to pull this thread, so you guys got what you deserve, nothing

    K-TRON
     
  2. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    +1 mad props for pure WIN... I hope to see some more pics of your progress!
     
  3. Kamin_Majere

    Kamin_Majere =][= Ordo Hereticus

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    How in the world did you get all of the componets in there at such a thin form. It looks smaller than the 8800GTS would be standing off of the motherboard.

    Amazing work man... simply amazing

    Then i would say Octi it is. If you could get 8 cores and 32GB of RAM for the same price then i think the extra 4 cores are largely going to be a waste. Laptops us mere mortals have arent going to reach that level of power for another 3ish years (though 12 cores would give you top of the line preformance longer (not counting GPU's)
     
  4. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    OCTI FTW

    its more then enough for a mid size server :eek:
     
  5. Clutch

    Clutch cute and cuddly boys

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    I vote you send it to NBR staff for a review when you are done.

    Great work, hope it turns out.
     
  6. catacylsm

    catacylsm Notebook Prophet

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    Your crazy man,

    Great work, looking foward to progression!
     
  7. lilyang

    lilyang Notebook Evangelist

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    looks awesome! reminds me of that giant dell xps 20 inch monster-thing-foldable-desktop-notebook
     
  8. Serg

    Serg Nowhere - Everywhere

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    I am really looking forward for updates on this.

    By the way, are you using a Synaptics or ALPS?
    The display is it TN or ISP? And backlighting?
    Which GPUs?
    What KB? I think the T61p KB is one of the bests according to what I have read around, but I prefer the design on the Elitebooks (IMO)

    I think 8 cores should do enough for the time being. Perhaps you can upgrade later to the 12 cores when they become cheaper?

    Though, good luck on your design!
     
  9. hiddensanctum

    hiddensanctum Notebook Evangelist

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    HOLY.......8 Cores?!
    You are insane xD
    Major Props!
     
  10. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    he wants server CPU's
     
  11. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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  12. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    K-tron please remember the people who are really interested in this :eek:.

    I know the thermal design (taking into account which grade materials your need as well as the 3d model work) as well as measuring down to the exact mm for screws/mounts is insane. I REALLY wanna see this to the end.!


    Now with that being said , do you really ever think you will "need" all 12 cores ? I mean i know i'll get into the mindset i need more and more and then regret it later. But i am not 100% sure how you will be using this laptop and exactly what for. You are one of THE most intelligent people on here and the only one that can handle something this nice. So i think you should weigh your options and make the decision.

    You will be packing more then most desktops and about a mid to low range server in this so i think 8 cores will be enough. :p (can't believe i have to comment on helping decide between 8 or 12 cores on a laptop :eek: )


    Will

    i tried to make decently constructed grammar-erized paragraphs :p..... (took A LONG time :( i hate my brain)





    Edit : what kind of speakers ? Laptop speakers ? Or do you want small desktop speakers ?

    And I have a couple keyboards laying around :D I have some ... I don't know if they are what you are looking though
     
  13. Serg

    Serg Nowhere - Everywhere

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    oh wow. My apologies for my original post.
    Will edit my post.

    Update: posts edited and deleted.

    UPDATE2: what kind of KB are you planning to use? An external one?
    The design for heat dissipation must have been quite complex *hat off* my respects!
     
  14. avanish11

    avanish11 Panda! ^_^

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    Wow that looks amazing Chris. Keep it up :)
     
  15. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I am sorry, due to the lack of respect given on this forum, and the derogatory acts of numerous members, the contents of this message have been pulled

    K-TRON
     
  16. spookyu

    spookyu NBR Zombie Expert

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    K-tron I take back anything I ever said bad about you XD that is hugely impressive. A question for you, I see the heat sinks and the fans you're using, what was your thought process for keeping this monster cool?That would be the FIRST thing to scare me away from a project like this (err, well other than the money), I find myself at a loss to envision a design that crams all that in there and takes into acount decent air flow :D that would be my hang up. How'd you end up doing it?
     
  17. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I am sorry, due to the lack of respect given on this forum, and the derogatory acts of numerous members, the contents of this message have been pulled

    K-TRON
     
  18. Serg

    Serg Nowhere - Everywhere

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    Indeed hats off to you.
    You have there a design that has beaten the best minds of laptop manufacturers! I am impressed of how good the design must be, so that the 100F are never broken, even at full load. Gaming rigs, with much lower specs, reach the 100F and some even pass it, while you have gotten ULTRA high-end hardware all together and still maintain it cool.

    Hey, if you dont mind answering this, how does the 8800M GTS SLI performs with all that OpenGL software you run? Theoretically speaking, the professional GPUs are much better than DX ones...(as I face the same problem, this will be useful for me and many more).

    I know CAD runs well on DX, Photoshop AFAIK is more CPU/RAM bounded, 3DSMAX is CPU IIRC, Rhino runs on mine, so I think you dont have a problem, but Maya and SW are fully optimized for OpenGL...

    Using a WACOM looks like a great solution!
    Good luck with your project!

    (oh, boy, I will behave! I want to know little secret of yours! :))
     
  19. Ripfire

    Ripfire Minecraft Architect

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    Wow, nice work man. Keep it going! :)
     
  20. spookyu

    spookyu NBR Zombie Expert

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    Hey yeah, this kind of got me thinking, if you're using all that OpenGL software why didn't you go with a quadro card? Since you don't game (though they are capable of it) that might have been more bang per buck :p though I gotta say 8800M in SLI for any reason, well...you don't NEED a reason XD
     
  21. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    they are more expensive as well

    and i think he had these laying around if i remember correctly
     
  22. spookyu

    spookyu NBR Zombie Expert

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    Mmmm, makes sense.
     
  23. Serg

    Serg Nowhere - Everywhere

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    Indeed it would sense.

    K-TRON sorry to ask so many things regarding your project, but AFAIK this is a worlds first, so I am deeply interested!
     
  24. Clutch

    Clutch cute and cuddly boys

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  25. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I am sorry, due to the lack of respect given on this forum, and the derogatory acts of numerous members, the contents of this message have been pulled

    K-TRON
     
  26. Alexrose1uk

    Alexrose1uk Music, Media, Game

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    Good work, I would never go for something so ambitious as I just dont have the time, resources or availability [the UK sucks] (not to mention the tools) that looks insanely impressive as a (just about) mobile workstation, if you dont mind me asking how much has it cost you?
     
  27. Serg

    Serg Nowhere - Everywhere

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    Yeah, those prof GPUs are expensive...

    EDIT: I dont trust notebookcheck due to this:
    [​IMG]

    So, disregard my previous post.
    Thanks!
     
  28. Mortis

    Mortis Notebook Consultant

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    This is so awesome !!
    Good work so far and best of luck !!

    Just curious though, what are you doing for power supply ? Will there be a battery in this beast ? or will it steal the souls and battery power of all the other laptops in your class ?
     
  29. spookyu

    spookyu NBR Zombie Expert

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    Yeah it's always the money in the end that gets ya huh? I completely understand that one. I'm just playing the devils advocate :D maybe help you think of something you didn't think of before to make it even more beastly.

    You know though a lot of that software you where planning to run is optimized to run on ATI & Nvidia workstation cards, it might be marginally more than 15%.

    Hey is this going to be a purely windows workstation or did you plan to also install some flavor of linux?

    Edit: Lmao, I was just re-reading the specs you put up, and I got to the part about it lasting 8 minutes on the first battery you tried XD. Do you know how it holds up on the new one yet? Or any speculations? At least long enough to get it from one table top to the next :p
     
  30. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I am sorry, due to the lack of respect given on this forum, and the derogatory acts of numerous members, the contents of this message have been pulled

    K-TRON
     
  31. Alexrose1uk

    Alexrose1uk Music, Media, Game

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    Ouch, with idle power consumption that high it MIGHT be worth looking into the new ATI graphics cards coming out shortly; the reason being is that the load wattage projections are similar to the 8800s you're planning to use (approx 150-190w), but the idle power usage is sub-30w, which is unprecedented for a high end card.
    This might help drop your power usage idle by about 100-150W, based on an average high end card consuming around 80-100w on idle, depends on whether ATI are any good for you and battery life will be important. The additional benefit of these cards is they will be able to offer multi-monitor as one display for programme purposes [Eyefinity], basically a higher featured, more compatible version of the Matrox TripleHead2Go, if you're using CAD, that sort of high res could be a godsend if you can add additional monitors at your own rate. The fact, at least for games they're going to be roughly in the same region as an GTX295 per card might be handy too, but really depends on what you need.
    That said, then you could build a folding out 3 screen design :D
     
  32. spookyu

    spookyu NBR Zombie Expert

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    My vote goes to the fold out 3 screen design and ATI card XD, well not realisticly but that'd be pretty amazing.
     
  33. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    At 40 pounds I don't think he is aiming for super mobile .... Just maybe long enough to switch outlets or in case of power failure ....

    The amount of money to buy a new 5 series gpu would be quite a bit as well
     
  34. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    K-TRON
     
  35. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    What's taking the most weight is the chassis and heat sinks right ?


    Btw ktron stay on for that pic I am dis assembing right now
     
  36. spookyu

    spookyu NBR Zombie Expert

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    Well yeah that's what I figured in both cases, but it's fun to speculate :p
     
  37. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    Check your gmail ktron
     
  38. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    K-TRON
     
  39. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    i doubt they are what you are looking but i have so much stuff i will keep looking around .



    do you have a certain size you want ?
     
  40. Tinselworm

    Tinselworm Notebook Deity

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    where's the keyboard?
     
  41. sean473

    sean473 Notebook Prophet

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    Ktron, how do you even lift 35 pounds of weight? That's very heavy you know..
     
  42. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    that isn't helpful or constructive

    .....

    K-tron

    if you want the best sound for small speakers you will wanna get some speakers liek this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882105334

    they are made for heavy use and tweeters are always loud
     
  43. spookyu

    spookyu NBR Zombie Expert

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    Curious, I don't think you said anything about this. Did you get a wireless card stuffed into this thing too or no? If so did you end up running the antenna into the back of the LCD like some laptop manufacturers do?
     
  44. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    IMO easier to put a USB
     
  45. Alexrose1uk

    Alexrose1uk Music, Media, Game

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    I dont think those would work; the crossover is high; you'd lose too much of the sound. K-Tron is after virtually full-range speakers; although there will be limitations because of size; not to mention he needs a small amp, preferably internal, USB powered to feed the speakers.

    Thinking back Koss/Headfi or someone similar partnered together to make full floorstander speakers from multitudes of headphone drivers IIRC, perhaps if you can find this, it might give you some ideas.
     
  46. Mortis

    Mortis Notebook Consultant

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    If you want to save a bit on the power consumption, you could probably sell the 8800 GTS cards and get one 260 or maybe just have one 8800gts.

    What part of the laptop is the hinge attached to ? If it is the back or bottom panel then you could consider replacing the upper palmrest panel with say a 5mm acrylic sheet ? It will defo reduce some weight and is quite strong and cheap to replace if you break it. It is pretty easy to work with as well.
     
  47. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    Tweeter was more of a suggestion as to something to look for


    Speakers are my shibang
     
  48. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I am sorry, due to the lack of respect given on this forum, and the derogatory acts of numerous members, the contents of this message have been pulled

    K-TRON
     
  49. The_Moo™

    The_Moo™ Here we go again.....

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    and all built into one .....

    so

    octi > desktop
     
  50. Serg

    Serg Nowhere - Everywhere

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    K-TRON, have you not thought of Aluminum alloys? Theoretically speaking, they are light and very durable.
    I have played around with both aluminum and silver in their pure forms, and they are weak, but if alloyed with chopper, they become quite strong. And I am sure it is not that complicated to do this, since I could on a U project, so I dont think it will be outrageously expensive.

    I am suggesting Al since it is durable, lightweight and common, so it should be pricey...
     
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