what's the issue?

My current laptop, the Dell XPS 17 9710, is a beast of a laptop. It has an i7-11800H, an RTX 3060, 2 TB of NVMe storage, and 40 GB of fast RAM. It can easily handle any task I throw at it, from 3D rendering to machine learning to gaming. However, it has one major flaw: the battery life.

Even on the 'quiet' power profile, the display at the lowest brightness, the CPU at 0.8 GHz, graphics acceleration disabled, and all background apps closed, the battery life is abysmal. No matter what I do, I can't get more than 2 hours of battery life out of it. As a student, this is a major issue for me. I need a laptop that can last me through a full day of classes, and the XPS 17 just can't do that.

Don't get me wrong, I love my XPS 17. Its design is beautiful, the build quality is top-notch, the performance is outstanding, and the display is gorgeous. But the battery life has me constantly tethered to a power outlet, carrying around a bulky power bank, or worse, being left without a laptop in the middle of the day. I need a laptop that can keep up with my busy schedule, and the XPS 17 just isn't cutting it. That's why I've decided to build my own laptop.

what the hell?

...I hear you ask. 'There are dozens of new, fancy laptops using ARM chips, with battery lives the likes of which we've never seen in Windows before!' And that's true. I'm awfully jealous of my friends with Snapdragon X PCs. But, honestly, it's not just about the battery life. I want something that's mine.

I have a few needs that I'd love to have my own, custom hardware for, that I've never had the opportunity or excuse to implement. For example, I often mess around with servers and SBCs that run headless. Instead of carrying around a portable monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse, why don't I just make my custom laptop have a display-in + a USB-out? That way, I can use my 'laptop' as a monitor and HID!

what's the plan?

Recently, Jeff Geerling made a video ↗ on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5. In it, I saw the Radxa CM5, a competitor that's supposed to be a drop-in replacement for the Pi. The Radxa CM5 seems to be 54% faster AND more efficient than the Pi. Not only that, but the idle power usage is a ridiculous 1.2 W. That is a mere 3.2% of the XPS 17's idle power usage! What I do at school mostly involves writing code, browsing the web, and taking notes. I don't need a powerhouse for that, and an RCM5-based laptop seems to be perfect for that.

I'm going to design a PCB around the CM5 I/O board, and I'll try and source a 17' display that I can use. A 4:3 OLED would be ideal, but I'll take what I can get. I'll try my darndest to get Framework components to work with it, such as the keyboard/trackpad and especially the battery, but I'm not holding my breath. It would also be great if I could get a separate battery slot for 18650 banks, so I can swap them out on the go while the laptop is still running. This would also let me get an even longer-lasting battery life without having to worry about airplane regulations. Integrating PD and USB 3.0 would be a dream, but I'm not sure if I can get that to work very easily, I'll brush up on the PD and USB docs for that. I need to keep PCB iterations to a minimum, as I'm a student and I don't have a lot of money to throw around.

I'd love to keep some of the GPIO pins exposed, so I can use them for debugging or for interfacing with other devices; and I think that I'll replace the Ethernet port with Wi-Fi if possible, as I want to keep SATA just to play it safe with eMMC not being as reliable. I'll see what other features I come up with as I design the PCB.



I've already bought the CM5, the I/O board, and an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi card. I'm going to start designing the PCB soon, and I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Wish me luck!