I have decided to change OS from Windows XP to Linux. Eventually, I will be building a custom desktop for my media at home. Following my home desktop, I will be building a few desktops for a Point-of-Sale system in my upcoming store. I would like to have a lightweight laptop to transfer data from home and work.

I can't seem to find any manufacturers of laptop cases, so I guess I will need to puy a prebuild laptop pc and convert it. At the end of the project, I would like to have integrated bluetooth and be able to use an AMD Turion processer.

What are my options? I have found an Averatec and Fujitsu that meets the description however, I am uncertain as to whether or not they are bluetooth. The descriptions don't mention bluetooth however, I would imagine that in this day and age, most laptops will be bluetooth.

I'm sure I'll regret this, but...

If your just looking for something small and lightweight to transfer data between your work and home computers, why not just get a usb flash drive???


Now if your intending to use the laptop for more than a mobile transfer unit, you might want to reconsider if a ultra-portable is the most ideal for what you might do with it once you actually GET home or to work. Alot of ultra-portables have no internal drives other than the hard drive, IE: NO cd-rom, floppy, etc... and that's only one issue.

I see truck drivers with X series ThinkPads often. They have one laptop bag for the laptop, and one laptop bag for all of the external accessories that they need to use it.

I wouldn't get too wound up on the idea of doing much "converting". Most laptops you could end up with are going to change very little. You might increase the capacity of some of the removable components, but with a few exceptions, that is about it.

Sharing with us what else you might do with it would help someone suggest something most suitable.

BTW: The Averatec's I have seen are very nice and had optical drives. They would be a good choice for ultra-portable.

James

In addition to James' excellent suggestion of a thumb drive, consider an external HD, ideally 1 based on a 2 1/2" (laptop) drive. You could even make it bootable.

Aside on bootable mobile drives
About 6 years ago I had to move my computer from home to office & back every day I worked. I started out w/ a laptop, but soon found that I wanted a real mouse, a real keyboard, & a real monitor in both places. Add the ethernet, telephone (for fax), & power (2 -- wall & computer) connections & that's a lot of f'g wires to mess w/ 2ce a day. Eventually, I sold the laptop, built a 2nd box for the office (remember, the mouse, keyboard, & monitor were already there), & put the HD in a removable tray. It booted happily in either place & was smaller & lighter to carry.

I would deffinetly feel the need to have a laptop rather than a thumb drive; there are pleanty of circumstances when I feel a computer, not a storage device, would be necessisary. Now the debate is which one to use as the donor! I want it as lightweight as possible, 13-14" screen 4lbs. or so, and the most current and highest power AMD mobile chip...bluetooth too!

I went here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%...buy.net+laptop

found these:
http://www.buildorbuy.net/news.html
http://www.buildorbuy.net/jwhinery/xls/index.html

and finally this:
http://www.buildorbuy.net/laptops.html

The last one may be what you're asking for, or at least links to what you need.