OCZ DIY

The OCZ DIY Gaming Laptop is one of these bare bones systems (specifically, a rebranded Compal JFL9). The package includes the case, motherboard, graphics chip, 9 cell battery, and LCD screen, as well as related components like the heat sink and exhaust fan. The CPU, hard drive, RAM, operating system, and networking chip are all sold separately, though OCZ included these parts with our review unit. Thanks to OCZ's richly detailed documentation, assembling the laptop was a breeze.

Essentially, the process entails flipping the notebook over, unscrewing each of the three system panels, and installing the hard drive, RAM chips, networking card, and CPU. You then screw in the exhaust fan and heat sink, replace the panels, and boot up with a Windows installation disk. (There's something to be said for a system that ships with absolutely no trialware.) You also have the option of replacing the bezel touch controls and optical drive, although the documentation doesn't mention anything about the latter a pretty big selling point considering that you can upgrade to a Blu-ray drive as they drop in price.

All told, we had the laptop up and humming in just about two hours (including OS installation), using only a multi head screwdriver. The DIY Gaming Laptop's dimensions (14.3x11.3x1.5 inches, HWD) and 7 pound weight make it sturdy bulky, even but no more so than any other 15.4 inch notebook from Asus, Dell, or Lenovo.

You'll find a healthy mix of ports, including four USB inputs, FireWire, S-Video, and VGA jacks, and SD memory card and ExpressCard slots on board networking options include an Ethernet jack and Bluetooth.

Our one gripe was the omission of HDMI connectivity. Opening the system's lid reveals a glossy 15.4 inch WXGA (1,440x900 resolution) display, which looked very sharp, although the color fidelity was a bit bland and viewing angles left much to be desired. The keyboard felt sturdy, similar to the ones on Lenovo's ThinkPad line, and the touch pad, while a bit small, was accurate. As a gaming notebook, the OCZ DIY performed on par with pre-built systems with similar specs, although many newer laptops with the same Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT video card will pack faster GDDR3 memory (instead of GDDR2) for better performance.

Armed with stock drivers provided from Compal and no GPU overclocking, the notebook scored 3,028 in 3DMark06 at native resolution, 20 frames per second (fps) with all high effects and anti-aliasing on in F.E.A.R., but a paltry 10fps in Company of Heroes with high settings and DirectX 10 enabled. That's solid performance considering the 8600 is a year old graphics card that can still hang with ATI's newer Radeon HD 3650 found in higher end models like the Asus M70S and the Toshiba Satellite A305-S6845.

You might even be able to surpass the 3650's stock performance with some system tweaks, although OCZ's warranty only covers factory settings. Unfortunately, the OCZ's GPU is not user upgradeable, but the company says it will be offering models later this summer that support socketed designs, which you will be able to upgrade later on. There's not much variety on the market, however, and even fewer places to purchase laptop graphics card upgrades.