Gizmodo
And the fourth angel sounded the trumpet, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, and the Anti-MacBook Air was born, with an AMD processor, and all the necessary ports, and an optical drive, and a 120GB SATA hard drive, and fruit bats and even SoundBlaster Live! sound for just a mere $600. And the adorers of the False God screamed in pain and tried to kill it with their razorbooks. And they failed, for the Notebuc was too powerful and awesome and mighty inside its huge black leather retro suitcase.
Gastón Betancor, an electronic musician from Uruguay, is the designer of this beast, the Notebuc. A full PC inside a retro-styled pilot suitcase designed by himself and made by his father-in-law in wood, which he and his girlfriend bound in leather.
He did it for a simple reason: not enough money to buy a laptop. He needed something truly portable to take to his music gigs and a desktop didn't cut it. So he designed the case and put every component needed inside. "It weights a ton, sadly, but it's only one box and one person can take it around instead of having to carry a whole desktop around," Gastón told us.
The guts are quite simple and cheap, well-suited for his music performances: an AMD 3200 processor on a MSI K9VGM-V motherboard with 1GB de RAM and 120 GB SATA drive. The monitor is a simple 15" Viewsonic, and the only LED around is the one in the mouse. The total cost: $600. "It suits what I do," Betancor says, "and the other advantage is that it's cheaper to update than a laptop."
I asked him about getting a MacBook Air but, even if he had the money, he would probably pass: "If I get enough money to buy a laptop (and be sure of being able to keep it up to date), I'll buy one. But not the Air. Something cheaper." For now, he's thinking about putting the Notebuc in a smaller suitcase, although I can't see the point in a computer to be used in music gigs, where there's so many other things to carry around.
And besides, if there's one cool heir to the Osborne 1, the first commercially successful portable, this is it. [Beatncore via Gizmodo Spain]
Comments
Cool mod, and one that I would never own, for as long as I live.
i've had BM's that were "prettier"
That looks pretty good, if nothing else if you could make a fast enough computer to fit in there it might work for LAN parties.
shoulda used a CRT to really get some bulk into that behemoth.
Talk about a lifestyle machine. I'd rock that at a starbucks in a heartbeat. Are you taking notes, Jonathan Ive?
So this guy couldn't find a laptop with these specs for $600? Maybe being in Uruguay has something to do with it, but I have a feeling he wasn't trying very hard.
I routinely find various Dell Core2 Duo laptops on the Dell Outlet that exceed these specs for that price.
@RottNDude:
Being in Uruguay probably has a HUGE part. I was looking at selling laptops to Vietnam, but one look at the tariffs and I stopped cold. 100%-200% tariffs. So a decent $1k laptop here is close to $3k over there.
It's the exact reason why a Toyota Camry over there is almost $60k.
Nice mod, ugly computer, great writing. I'm still cracking up but revelations is always good for a laugh. I hope I don't burn. I haven't clicked but I assume the false god is Steve Jobs. Keep up the good work.
@RottNDude: His girlfriend is a keeper... beautiful job with the leather.
that's not bad..with exorbitant prices on certain things in places other than the U.S...why not?..
it works for him.
I wonder how much a eeepc would be for the people of Uruguay..
The tape and wires sticking out everywhere really add to it, I think.
Also, I could not really tell from the pics, but does he have it setup to only need one wall-outlet, or do the computer and monitor need to be plugged in separately?
First person to make a parody of the MacBook Air's commercial with this bad boy wins a cookie.
Geek Port! I need a Geek Port!
No OSX? No comparison.
- Xidius
My laptop cost $450 and does all of these things. Has the Uruguayan peso done worse than the dollar in recent months?
When I was in Central America last month I saw a laptop for $1499.00 that here you can get for $499 @ CC or best buy. Laptops for those countries are a luxory and they charge Importation taxes of %100 over the value of the goods yo bring into the country. Thats why if you want to buy a BMW325i you might have to throw out $60,000. if you drive a new Bovarian, Audi or Mercedes you are rich... maybe your parents own the only Beer company in the country. Cheers
@benitocarmona: When I lived in El Salvador my dad was the general manger of BMW over there and he was the only person to have a BMW in town, but there is a lot of rich people in my country so these prices dont surprise me. Your best option: Go to the U S and A and buy a laptop
Would be an awesome HTPC.
Does it fit into a Manila envelope?
Whatever_ Put some wheels on it - like those modern day Briefcases - Backpacks and Suitcases and move on_
People, I have a very sad unfortunate bit of news for you all.
It doesn't blend.
I was looking into doing something along these lines back in 1998 or so. I was looking for a way to bring a complete computer with me on deployments to the Middle East (I was in the Air Force at the time). Laptops were EXPENSIVE, but you could build a decent computer for games and stuff pretty cheap; I had most of the parts laying around anyway. The hold up was the monitor. LCDs were too damn expensive and a CRT was too damn heavy. I just learned to do without for a few months.
This post makes no sense....
@Xidius:
Absurdly, I have two things to address regarding your four worded comment:
1) Your username is already linked. There's no need to add an extra signature. Of course you may want to reassure readers that, indeed, Xidius was authored yet another winning comment and not some evil impostor that eats puppies and molests trees, but I promise that we'll keep an eye out for any funny business in your future posts. Your username's authenticity is safe with us.
2) Not to drag a OSX v WinOS (v Linux) argument into this thread, but the "no comparison" thing doesn't sit well with me. All desktop environments allow you to browse and archive files, operate various software suites (many times available across several OS platforms), and configure the UI for both superficial and productive reasons. All have vulnerabilities and have the potential to crash and burn spectacularly. To say that an entire plethora of hardware choices are effectively banned from your purchasing decision due to an OS is PURE CRAZY JUICE '@#$@#JF;QR;!!!!1!!!.
(end unwarranted rant, begin medication refueling...)
in some ways its better than a Mac.
And upgradeable, and fixable - for a bad post gig experience. I once built a floor mounted analog delay unit.
Boy it sounded sweet - cumbersome but still sounding.
@Kaiser-Machead:
be on the look out for a suitable blender...
[www.arnoldeqp.com]
@jibbly: uh jibbly wibbly, i hate to burst your bubble but for me, the hardware decision is based upon OS. I use OSX... and because I don't want to go the hackintosh route, an entire plethora of hardware choices is in face effectively banned from my own purchasing decision as well as I am sure that of plenty of other people who use OSX. Not trying to be a dick, I'm just saying yes, my hardware choices are limited, and yes that is a real possibility for those of us who use OSX. I rock a macbook pro, and its connected to my Rane Scratch Live setup right now. Wish I could see apple.com from Uruguay. or is it something like apple.ur?
@ Kavendano14 Really then your dad was the General Manager of Omnimotores? Cool I am from there too we bought a bovarian down there. you went to the American School or British school. which year you graduated?
It's nice to have a Guanaco in the forums.
@Simple_thinking: Actually the price of laptop in VIet Nam although higher than that of the US is no where double the US price. A decent laptop in Viet Nam would cost around 400 more than the US equivalent. Also the sale tax for cars had decreased recently. A 2.4 camry is $52000, still the price is ridiculous.
This is kind of like the iPod vs. the Zune! This one fits in office moving box but not the manilla envelopment.
what...the fuck...is that?
Yes that's cool but can if fit in to a manila envelope?
@sansovino:
gimodo is your geekport
does it have DB-9 serial? Centronics parallel? SCSI? ADB? PS/2? i think those are all necessary to *someone*... thus they should be included in all laptops.
Come on, 600$ can get you something better than this. And it will be a laptop too...
he should get an EEE
I hate to point this out, but doesnt it need to be battery powered to be classfied as a notebook? really its just an all in one computer.
so he has a father-in-law AND a girlfriend? Where is his wife???
Watcha gotta do is put some legs on that bad boy. And the legs fold up into a handle that you can pull it around by. Like the pullable luggage with little casters built into the bottom.
This reminds me of something I saw at a LAN once, one of the lovely local geeks had a file server set up inside a metal briefcase using an external monitor.
Incidentally a computer is pretty much all you see at a lot of electronic music nights. That and 4 hacked gameboys if you're truly insane.
try taking that thing through airport security, Let alone in the Carry on bins
no wait, Let me pull out my Macbook AIR
Pulling a notebook from a manila envelope: Meh.
Pulling a FREAKING XBOX HUEG black leather handcrafted custom case with a full computer on it: OMGWTFROFLOLCOPTER!
actually its OMGWTFBBQITBLENDS!
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