Disappointed in the forum

[MatticMass]

I am admittedly and obviously completely new to the depths of actual modification of computers. Upgrading sure put pin mods and using spi clip was a lot for someone like me that just doesn’t know. I was hoping to find advice, useful information and or links to downloads or tutorials. So far Maro97 has been the only person to try to offer help. I was really hoping this was a community that teaches others and could bounce ideas off of each other. Again thank you Maro97 for trying to go above and beyond with offering a download link for a bios that would read the rtx 3080. Unfortunately wrong model. But thank you for being the only person to not make me feel pathetic and stupid.

[Linux]

The main problem is, that this community has rather few members and not everyone left is tinkering around with their laptops anymore. Like me for example.

 

Normally, i only login once a week, because there is not much interesting activity. This is not, what NoteBookReview once was. Unfortunately.

 

In addition, there are not many models on the market available, that can be used for modding. Almost none with current hardware. Which makes such a forum really difficult to maintain.

[jaybee83]

9 hours ago, MatticMass said:

I am admittedly and obviously completely new to the depths of actual modification of computers. Upgrading sure put pin mods and using spi clip was a lot for someone like me that just doesn’t know. I was hoping to find advice, useful information and or links to downloads or tutorials. So far Maro97 has been the only person to try to offer help. I was really hoping this was a community that teaches others and could bounce ideas off of each other. Again thank you Maro97 for trying to go above and beyond with offering a download link for a bios that would read the rtx 3080. Unfortunately wrong model. But thank you for being the only person to not make me feel pathetic and stupid.

 

5 hours ago, Linux said:

The main problem is, that this community has rather few members and not everyone left is tinkering around with their laptops anymore. Like me for example.

 

Normally, i only login once a week, because there is not much interesting activity. This is not, what NoteBookReview once was. Unfortunately.

 

In addition, there are not many models on the market available, that can be used for modding. Almost none with current hardware. Which makes such a forum really difficult to maintain.

 

yup, this forum has barely breached 2000 users, many of whom are just ghost / lurker accounts with no real activity. that and the fact that laptops nowadays are super locked down, both from a hardware (everything soldered), as well as firmware / software perspective. many of the former NBR players have since switched to desktops and only use laptops on the side as tools, but not really for tinkering anymore (i count myself among them).

[6730b]

Still a nice community !

[electrosoft]

On 2/9/2026 at 4:53 AM, MatticMass said:

I am admittedly and obviously completely new to the depths of actual modification of computers. Upgrading sure put pin mods and using spi clip was a lot for someone like me that just doesn’t know. I was hoping to find advice, useful information and or links to downloads or tutorials. So far Maro97 has been the only person to try to offer help. I was really hoping this was a community that teaches others and could bounce ideas off of each other. Again thank you Maro97 for trying to go above and beyond with offering a download link for a bios that would read the rtx 3080. Unfortunately wrong model. But thank you for being the only person to not make me feel pathetic and stupid.

 

We are a very small, tight knit community that started as a cast off from the original NBR forums which were already dying to the point they shut them down in totality. Those forums at one point were so large and influential that representatives from the major laptop makers would frequent them on the regular for interaction and feedback but with changing market conditions, social media and other means of delivery coupled with niche and specialized laptops dying out and being replaced with thin fast and cheap laptops the writing was on the wall.

 

You can't blame laptop makers for this as they simply go where the $$$ is and the vast majority of consumers have zero desire to tinker with their laptops and just want them to work, with good battery life and be light and portable.

 

Every year, we saw true DTRs dying off and those original representatives basically abandoning NBR till all that was left was Clevo and their last somewhat true DTR based on desktop chips was their 12th gen hybrid 15.6" model (Clevo NH55) which did poor enough to signal the end of DTR anything as we knew it with interchangeable CPUs and GPUs. The first real death stroke was Nvidia basically abandoning MXM and upgradeability standards.

 

-----

 

A community such as this is only as good as the enthusiasts who still have a passion for some older hardware and many of those, myself included, have moved onto more modern laptops because all the modding in the world will not approach the power modern models provide.

 

The best you can do with modern laptops is look for models that at least have or offer the possibility of flexible BIOS so you can at least tune your hardware. Prema still offers his BIOS services on some models commercially followed by MSI which still has their excellent unlockable BIOS options. Dell/Alienware does offer some limited options as does Asus.

 

You can also look to make mods to the actual cooling system itself from something as basic as upgrading the thermal interface material to modding the actual heatsink and fans themselves along with the chassis to improve air flow.

 

Good luck!