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Hey all you guys who make PC's, here's an idea on how to make some money. Build a good laptop, let me upgrade it, and support it. Apple right now makes some o

by swalsh 13y ago

Hey all you guys who make PC's, here's an idea on how to make some money. Build a good laptop, let me upgrade it, and support it. Apple right now makes some of the best hardware you can buy, and they are pretty profitable doing it. The problem is I can't upgrade it. I would spend a fair bit of money for a good quality (materials, and parts) laptop. No one seems to be doing that any more. Most laptops have these huge clunky plastic cases, with cheap parts, and terrible support.

sirkneeland 13y ago
I think when it comes to laptops, you basically get one of those "here's 3 things, you can have any 2" situations...those 3 things here being: -Beautiful -User upgradeable/serviceable -Affordable
- kdragon 13y ago
  I think the macbook pro has been one of the easiest laptops to take apart and service. There's no locking screw hidden underneath the keyboard that requires a plastic bezel snapped out of place (prone to breaking) in order to get to a hard drive or something. You simply take out all the bottom screws, and the entire lower shell is removed to expose everything, even the mainboard. It's a wonderful design, however Apple has since decided to solder the SSD and memory to the mainboard, making them non-serviceable. This is not a choice made to make the device more beautiful or more affordable. They did it to be greedy. We as consumers can have all three if we demanded it, but there's money to be made cutting corners and most people don't understand how to vote with their dollars.
  - tlb 13y ago
    Direct soldering reduces manufacturing cost, increases ruggedness and reliability (with fewer connectors) and reduces size and weight. You could argue for a different tradeoff, but there are reasons other than greed why Apple would choose it.
    - collyw 13y ago
      It is Apple we are talking about here.
maxsilver 13y ago
> Build a good laptop, let me upgrade it, and support it. How do you define "upgrade it." Lenovo sells the Yoga ultrabook, it's thin, affordable $800-$1,000, has a great (in my opinion) build quality using soft touch plastic, includes a Haswell processor, and you can manually upgrade the SSD and RAM. It has a cheap wifi chip (no 5ghz? really?), but otherwise fits the bill you described. Is the storage and ram enough? Or do you want more than that. Because I imagine it gets really tricky to build a thin, light, sturdy and reliable laptop that still lets you upgrade every single part.
- ajross 13y ago
  Having DRAM and flash that aren't soldered to the board is indeed an important aspect to "upgradable". I'd point out, though, that that "cheap wifi chip" would be less of a problem if it could be, y'know, replaced. There is even a connector standard (M.2, which is a combo mini-pcie and usb thing) for these things that doesn't suck. Except it never works because the vendors whitelist their components in the firmware.

by swalsh 13y ago

sirkneeland 13y ago

I think when it comes to laptops, you basically get one of those "here's 3 things, you can have any 2" situations...those 3 things here being: -Beautiful -User upgradeable/serviceable -Affordable

kdragon 13y ago
I think the macbook pro has been one of the easiest laptops to take apart and service. There's no locking screw hidden underneath the keyboard that requires a plastic bezel snapped out of place (prone to breaking) in order to get to a hard drive or something. You simply take out all the bottom screws, and the entire lower shell is removed to expose everything, even the mainboard. It's a wonderful design, however Apple has since decided to solder the SSD and memory to the mainboard, making them non-serviceable. This is not a choice made to make the device more beautiful or more affordable. They did it to be greedy. We as consumers can have all three if we demanded it, but there's money to be made cutting corners and most people don't understand how to vote with their dollars.
- tlb 13y ago
  Direct soldering reduces manufacturing cost, increases ruggedness and reliability (with fewer connectors) and reduces size and weight. You could argue for a different tradeoff, but there are reasons other than greed why Apple would choose it.
  - collyw 13y ago
    It is Apple we are talking about here.

maxsilver 13y ago

> Build a good laptop, let me upgrade it, and support it. How do you define "upgrade it." Lenovo sells the Yoga ultrabook, it's thin, affordable $800-$1,000, has a great (in my opinion) build quality using soft touch plastic, includes a Haswell processor, and you can manually upgrade the SSD and RAM. It has a cheap wifi chip (no 5ghz? really?), but otherwise fits the bill you described. Is the storage and ram enough? Or do you want more than that. Because I imagine it gets really tricky to build a thin, light, sturdy and reliable laptop that still lets you upgrade every single part.

ajross 13y ago
Having DRAM and flash that aren't soldered to the board is indeed an important aspect to "upgradable". I'd point out, though, that that "cheap wifi chip" would be less of a problem if it could be, y'know, replaced. There is even a connector standard (M.2, which is a combo mini-pcie and usb thing) for these things that doesn't suck. Except it never works because the vendors whitelist their components in the firmware.