Stripping laptop to make low consumption desktop pc

[SlaveToSilence]

i've just completely stripped my toshiba satellite pro L20 down to its motherboard and had a look around, underneath there's a huge copper heatsink with heatpipes to the back with another heatsink and a fan which exhausts the air

im talking to you from it right now, its actually quite quick for what it is, 1.4ghz 512mb ram upgraded ati video card..
enough for internet/films/music/msn/downloading
i've plugged my TFT, ethernet, keyboard and mouse into it and its running on the battery at the moment but will be plugged in soon.. lasts about 1 hour on battery, or as i think of it, intergrated UPS

its only got one fan which rarely comes on so its completely silent, only noise is the hard drive which is no noisier than someone writing with a pencil

im going to find a new way to house it and put a 120mm fan blowing air over it at about 500rpm, which should prevent the 40mm fan from ever turning on, the heatsink is huge


i will take pictures later, its 10am and i havnt been to bed yet :p


is it possible to get little 2.5 inch laptop ribbon cables? so the hard drive doesnt need to be hard plugged into the side of the motherboard

same for the dvd rom drive?


i hope you enjoy reading about how i get on, feel free to ask if you have any questions about doing this yourself, its like a mini ITX but faster! with the added bonus of built in ethernet, wireless, battery, external brick/picopsu style etc :p

didnt cost me anything either because i had the laptop lying around not being used.. and it could easily all be put back together if i need it as a laptop

no doubt someone will find a flaw in my plan lol feel free to criticize :p

[Gojira-X]

Are these 44 pin laptop internal Ribbon Cables what you are looking for?

The dvd-rom drive will be more complicated due to the different size of the connector. You might find a solution at mini-itx.com as they have linkes to alot of projects. You might find that someone has found a solution to that problem.

[SlaveToSilence]

i need one which is like an extension, positive at one end and negative at the other, or however youd call it, because at the moment it just slots into the bottom of the laptop case which isnt going to be there anymore :p

that looks like the right thing but its got the same connector at both ends

(the right one would be able to plug into itself in a loop like an extension lead)


Thanks for all your help

[dperrella]

How's this?

http://www.mycableshop.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=IDE44X24

It's a 24-inch M/F cable. They also make custom 44-pin cables (choose your length and connectors, but I doubt they have the connectors for your DVD drive. You might have to buy a USB DVD drive or USB enclosure.

[ddrueding1]

Great idea. You have inspired me. I'm going to crack into my old laptop and build a dedicated computer for my HTPC out of it