Performance is Only Skin Deep

I don't know if any of you guys follow the Byzantine relationships of the computer manufacturing world, but I've been "neck deep" into it for a few weeks....whereas before I was only knee deep. Anyway, as more and more people are aware, even the big boys out there (Dell, HP) really don't build their own computers; especially laptop computers. Largely, these are sourced out of Taiwan , or at least designed in Taiwan and manufactured in China from companies that you may or may not of hear of such as: Arima, Asus, Clevo, Quanta, etc. And of course, they all have differing levels of quality and areas of expertise. As a standard, the HPs of world put out a spec, and these guys send out bids and design proposals which lead down the path eventually to their websites or Best Buy. Typically, with the true heavy hitters such as HP & Dell, those designs are pretty much theirs and you aren't going to find an almost identical product from Acer, or whoever, although there mights be a very similar product from a "captured" brand (eg. Compaq, now owned by HP).In any case, this is not true of second tier OEMs, "Original Equipment Manufacturer", who don't manufacture anything. But this is especially the case with "Boutique" OEMs such as Hypersonic, VooDoo and that darling of all gamers....Alienware. In fact, right up until Dell bought them out, Alienware (and virtually everybody else in that market area) bought from one Taiwanese ODM; Clevo. Where Clevo has made its name was the far outer reaches of performance in a "portable" machine. They typically use full-on desktop CPUs such as Intel P4 (vs. P4-M or P M), or AMD X2 (vs. Turion), plus really powerful (relatively speaking) video processors. The latest generation of them even have the capability of installing multiple video cards in an SLI configuration using a newly standardized mobile video card interface. Many have bays for multiple optical as well as hard drives. When you throw in 17" LCD displays, the multiple fans it takes to keep things moderately cool, some times 4 speakers with an onboard sub, then you have some really big and heavy machines! Oh and we can't forget the amount of draw that all this places on the power "brick", which often exceed 150 watts, which causes even that item is monstrous. All in all, you can easily end up with an "all in" weight in excess of 12 pounds!

So your question might be (particularly if you know me well), what does that have to do with me? I don't game, and if indeed, if I were to end up having to sit at a desk to use a computer (and trust me, these computers NEED to be used on a desk), I'd want a full on tower with at least 2 monitors attached! Well....the thing is, is this; my son loves to play games on his computer and uses an IBM ThinkPad T42/15". I although I love the T4x series, and believe that the 15" SXGA+ resolution, ATI chipped T42 was a great design; its not really designed for an immersive gaming experience for a 7 year old. So, as a Frugal Propellerhead, but conscientious Dad, what do you do?
Find a Clevo on eBay sold for "parts", not fully working of course and see what can be done to:
a. Get it working
b. Make it look as cool as possible since I can't convince myself to buy an actual Alienware Area-51 notebook computer.
For you guys who are pretty good a projecting, I'm certain you can see how this could turn (yes, I know it could turn ugly, I don't mean that) into a series of posts on this subject.

So, at least let me start by giving you the particulars of what I know about it (its not here yet), and the parameters of what I'm working with:

• Its a Clevo D47V/EV- P4/3.2Ghz CPU, 512Mb RAM, 40Gb HDD, Combo Optical Drive, 17" LCD
• Boots to BIOS, but then, "No OS Found" error
• No, A/C adapter

What I think I know (piece together) so far:

• Socket 478 "Prescott" processor
• 2 200 pin DDR RAM sockets taking PC400 modules
• IDE HDD interface for PATA drives
• 20v, 6amp power spec., yielding a 120 watt draw requirement

What I really want to know ASAP, so I can make plans and gather parts:

• Is there a 130Gb HDD partition limitation in the BIOS
• Does it have the "deep" lower chassis of the Alienware M7700 that has multiple optical and hard disk drive bays, or the earlier shallower casing
• Is the resolution the underwhelming WSXGA 1440 x 900 LCD, or high res. version
• Will it take some/any of the Alienware case parts (would love to install the cool Alienware LCD lid), if so, which model

Roughly, my plans are, to get it up and running, then take it apart, and depending on whether it'll take the Alienware case parts or not, I'll either install those, or work on a really cool paint scheme for it. Make my 7 year old son a happy camper.