We've been running a regular series on the "Do it Yourself" segment for computer parts. FatYoshi has been detailing different computer builds every week, including an Ultimate Gamer build, Enthusiast Gamer , Mainstream Gamer and a Home Theater build. Those are great places to start for those of you that enjoy building your own PC's or tinkering with your existing one.  But what about the portability side of things?  Usually, laptops are not that easy to DIY and only a few companies have ever tried to sell a barebones laptop system.  OCZ is one of those companies, with their first to market with its barebones gaming laptop which launched mid 2008.  Not to be left too far behind, OCZ has announced that they will be launching a DIY NETBOOK!

The OCZ Neutrino will be the first DIY netbook and it will come loaded with 10.1-inch 1,024 x 600 LED-backlit display, Intel's 945GSE chipset, a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, twin stereo speakers, VGA output, Ethernet, two USB 2.0 sockets, 1.3 megapixel camera, WiFi and a 4-cell 2,200mAh battery.  The end user will be responsible for adding the HDD, the operating system, and the Ram.  According to OCZ's press release, its price will be $269 USD.

Considering adding a HDD and Ram won't be that expensive (probably under $150), this brings the total cost of the machine to slightly higher than $400 USD, which is in line with other "free OS" Netbooks (as you can easily obtain a free distribution of Linux if you want).  There's no word on how drivers will work for such open source OS but if you choose to go the Windows route, support will be native.

This isn't the best configuration for a netbook and it's certainly not the most powerful but it's a first step in the right direction for consumers that prefer to have a more open ecosystem to customize their electronics.  Keep your eyes close to the Neutrino, because if it's easy to Hackintosh, expect it to be the defacto choice, especially with the openly upgradable concept.