is there a reasonable way to build ones own laptop these days?
Most laptops have fine hardware, it's just that the default Windows installs come with a lot of ads to keep the price low (or more likely, the profit margin higher). Save yourself the trouble and delete the ads before they even get the chance to be executed.
On some units, you even lose ethernet, so you're not only stuck with a horrible screen resolution until you fix it, but you also have to load the drivers on via usb.
And finally: I don't know of a manufacturer right now that provides you with a real actual Windows disk when you buy your computer. You generally get instead an OEM "reinstall" disk which puts all that wonderful crap back on your system.
I really really wish Linux could get a serious hold on the consumer market.
So then Linux machines would ship with a ton of crapware too?
This is not the case with Windows, which was the point.
I can't figure out how to build servers cheaper than their equivalent abmx.com counterparts -- ignoring cases where I buy an 8-bay unit and then purchase the drives separately.
In fact, to go further out on a limb: it's been a while since I've seen any computer system in the consumer market for sale and thought to myself, "I could build one like that for less". Which sucks, because it would be great if I could do that, stick my own label on them, and sell 'em.
I'm sure you can wipe it and install Windows (or a better OS) from scratch yourself.