Building the Competitive Whitebook

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White-box notebooks, or "whitebooks," are no longer the hard-to-find novelty items they were only a year ago. Buyers now realize that a growing number of companies, such as Wintec and Nortech, are ready to provide customized whitebooks. They also know that tier-one suppliers such as Intel, AMD, and Dell are beginning to promote their presence in the whitebook market, too.

To help you stay ahead of the competition, this TechBuilder Recipe will show you how to quickly and easily build a whitebook. It also updates my earlier Recipe on this topic, Build A Custom Whitebook. Back when I wrote that earlier Recipe, whitebooks were pretty much inaccessible to all but either the highest-volume resellers or those willing to delve into unknown territory at relatively high prices. Since then, however, manufacturers have caught up with Intel's unrelenting marketing muscle behind the Centrino platform. This has made buyers aware of fresh new opportunities for customized notebooks from trusted partners.

Also, while early whitebooks were technologically sound, finding reliable, dedicated distribution partners was a challenge. What's more, the hardware platforms were somewhat limited, as early whitebook entries were aimed at users of thin and light machines (that is, those weighing about five pounds). Today, more accessible channels of distribution have come online for new whitebook chassis, the framework of any system. So system builders can finally add high-end, desktop-replacement machines to their product catalogs.

Since an ideal whitebook shouldn't take significantly longer to build than a whitebox PC, today's whitebook platforms offer a solid mix of flexibility and ease of construction. In fact, the latest wave of whitebooks offer as much internal expansion as possible without requiring technicians to remove multiple layers of parts and screws. Building a whitebook requires fewer components overall than a desktop, because a number of the components that would be specified separately in a desktop build are already integrated into the whitebook chassis provided by companies such as Sabio Digital, ASUS, Chaintech, and FIC. Consequently, system builders have a chance to create a unique machine from the ground up.

What's more, building a better whitebook does not require in-depth training. You may need to forge new distribution relationships to obtain the more specialized notebook components, such as the required 2.5-inch hard drives, mobile-grade CPUs, SO-DIMM (Small Outline, Dual In-line Memory Module) RAM, and optical drive upgrades. But most of the required parts are available in growing quantities on the replacement and primary whitebook markets. So there's no excuse for system builders with only modest industry connections to take part in this market.

The chassis and components I deployed for this particular Recipe were kindly supplied by Sabio Digital, a whitebook supplier recently launched by former Gateway executives.

Ingredients

• Notebook Chassis: I used the Sabio SD-KN1A, a notebook chassis that is aimed at builds for power users and desktop replacements. When fully assembled, it weighs just over six pounds. The slots and sockets are all easily accessible on the bottom of the machine. With an 8X/24X DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical drive pre-installed, our sample unit would cost less than $600 in quantity one.

  The Sabio chassis includes the case, motherboard, keyboard, touchpad, battery, and integrated wireless antenna, along with all necessary screws for securing add-on cards. The motherboard provides four USB 2.0 ports, a single four-pin IEEE 1394 port, 56K modem and 10/100 Ethernet, along with one PCMCIA slot, a multi-format flash memory reader, and S-Video out. The display is a 1280 x 800 widescreen LCD.

• Intel Pentium-M CPU: Intel's mobile CPU has proven to be the new standard in the notebook market. It offers a compromise on speed to gain battery life. Intel has found that prioritizing low-power consumption over breakneck speeds has impacted the market quite favorably. For this Recipe's CPU component, I recommend Intel's 1.6 GHz CPU, an entry-level choice that still provides enough muscle for power travelers.

• 2.5-inch IDE hard drive: I suggest a 40 GB, 5400-RPM Fujitsu model for your test install. It is a high-capacity, high-speed drive without a tremendous sticker price. But virtually any standard 44-pin notebook drive will do. The Sabio SD-KN1A chassis does not use a custom cable or card-edge attachment, and the pins of the drive will mate directly into a socket on the motherboard.

• DDR2 SO-DIMM memory module: The Sabio SD-KN1A chassis sports two slots for system RAM, allowing a maximum of 2 gigabytes of memory. I recommend you use a single 512 MB, PC2-4200 MHz module. That's more than enough to run Windows XP, but still leaves one memory socket free for high-end expansion.

• Intel PRO/Wireless 802.11a/b/g Mini-PCI card: This card provides the wireless networking portion of our mobile notebook. The low-cost 2915ABG model covers all popular WLAN standards in a single package, giving users the ability to connect anywhere.

• Windows XP Home OEM edition SP2: This is the standard, though you may of course substitute another Windows variant, Linux, Solaris, or any other OS your customer requires. In fact, providing OS flexibility is a big selling point for the independent system builder. It's rarely an option from large notebook suppliers, and most OEMs simply are not prepared to fulfill orders for alternative OS notebooks in any real quantity. System builders, on the other hand, can be poised to take a large chunk of that business.

• Logo/brand stickers (optional): The whitebook chassis is completely unbranded. A square area on the lid will hold a sticker or metal plate logo. And there's ample room on the keyboard area and display border to add an insignia to your customized whitebook.