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Comment by holtalanm | Hacker News Reader

This is really cool. I've wanted to do something similar for a while now. I've lately just taken to buying stupid cheap laptops from chinese manufacturers. That way if they go belly-up I'm not out more than a few hundred dollars.

I may have to try building one of these sometime though.

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> I've lately just taken to buying stupid cheap laptops from chinese manufacturers. That way if they go belly-up I'm not out more than a few hundred dollars.

If size and weight is not a big problem you can just buy a bunch of old Lenovo T410/T420/T510/T520 from Craigslist/ebay. They are fully serviceable and you can replace all the parts on your own

My most recent purchase was the ChuWi Lapbook 12.3 which is about as light as a Macbook Air.

I'm not concerned with weight so much as having at least a 1080p screen. I find anything smaller makes it harder to actually get much done without a second monitor. I guess I'm spoiled a little since I have a triple-monitor setup for work most of the time.

I keep having similar thoughts as well. Something based around a raspberry pi, with a thinkpad style keyboard, including the pointer stick. Then have a small (~7inch) touchscreen and you're good to go.

I've been inspired by this:https://gizmodo.com/heres-a-pretty-legit-gibsonian-cyberdeck...

Me too! I put together something similar a while ago [1]. It was great fun to build, but doesn't make a very ergonomic computer :)

[1] http://makezine.com/2017/06/15/commute-deck-keyboard-device/

Have you heard of the GPD pocket [1]? It's not so far from what you describe, although I often find myself wishing it had an extra inch or so: the keyboard is pretty cramped.

[1] https://www.windowscentral.com/gpd-pocket-review

I hadn't heard of the GPD (thanks for sharing). I have been keeping an eye on the Gemini: http://www.zdnet.com/article/a-retro-computer-brings-touch-t...

Interesting. I've found that used business-class laptops from several years ago do nicely. I use a ThinkPad L420 and EliteBook 8460p daily, and they both work well for me. They are reliable and robust.

My old employer once had a batch of L512, they did not feel great. X or T series got much more love from Lenovo and should be easy to get pre-used.

Agreed. I wouldn't buy an L series myself. The EliteBook is mine and the ThinkPad belongs to my employer.

I need more RAM (for chrome's greedy self) than a pi can offer. But that is the only area where that sort of project falls short. Other than Chrome all I need is VPN capability and a terminal.

agreed. I use the cheap machines I mentioned as a cheap light-weight development machine. I required probably at least 6GB of RAM for the machine to run smoothly, which is still pretty low for a dev machine.

Raspberry Pi laptop: https://pi-top.com/

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