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by candeira 3376 days ago
Because, once it's working, you have an upgradable laptop: every time a new rPI comes out, you can swap it out.

Eventually you'll have a better/faster computer than the Intel Centrino, with potentially much better battery life, modern hardware (USB3+, better radio connectivity), better software support (for instance, mainstream Linux distros are now deprecating support for non-PAE CPUs).

I've been giving this some thought: I have a gutted MacBook Pro I plan to perform the same surgery on. Someone spilled soda on it, so the mainboard was already fried... therefore it's not even a downgrade. It's an upgrade from a brick.
3 comments
deng 3376 days ago
Reason I'm asking is: I have an old Centrino laptop as well as an RPi2 and RPi3. The Centrino is so much faster than the RPi's, it's not even in the same league. And as long as the Raspberrys are married to Broadcom, I think it will take quite some time until we have an RPi that has similar speed like my old Centrino. Don't get me wrong, I love my RPis, and if my old Centrino breaks, maybe I'd do something similar, but I'd never trash it while it's still working. Just seems wasteful to me.
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wink 3376 days ago
It could also be not only about pure speed - look at what even the RPi 1 can do in terms of media playback. My (working) Centrino laptop can just barely play youtube html 5 videos. If you want a small mediaplayer (remember those portable DVD players? :P) this sounds totally viable.
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roryisok 3376 days ago
Ditto. I have two dead macbook pros with good screens / keyboards. The mobos are dead and nobody will buy them from me. This seems like a possible future project. I make writing software and I've always wanted to make a cut down Linux distro for writers (there used to be one but its no longer available). Rpi would be a perfect target, and a MacBook screen and keyboard would be a nice addition

I'd also love to stick a pi in an old keyboard computer like an Atari ST or Amiga.

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candeira 3375 days ago
My email is in my profile. I'd love to exchange tips and encouragement as we progress on this project.
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dublinben 3376 days ago
This is the concept behind the (much-better executed) EOMA68 project.[0] You can buy a single laptop chassis, and then upgrade or swap the processing unit as you please.

[0] https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop

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