The best I have been able to do is make one good working laptop out of two IBM thinkpads that were not working - they were nearly identical to start with though - so it really wasn't that hard.
Between my family and I, we have three identical Gateway 600YG2 notebooks. At least they started out identically:
Notebook #1: mine
CPU: Intel Mobile P4-M @ 2.20 GHz and roughly 70 C idle
Chipset: Intel 845MP and 82801CAM (ICH3M) half-dead
GPU: ATi Radeon M9000 on 15.7" 1280x1024 screen
RAM: 1 GB PNY DDR-333 (at 266) + 512 MB OCZ DDR-266
HDD: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 100 GB
Optical: Dead 10x4x24x16x CD-R/RW DVD-ROM drive
WLAN: Intel 2945 mini-PCI
LAN: Reaktek 8169 PCMCIA card (built-in PRO/100 wireless died)
Keyboard: dead F4 and F5 keys
Case: Shows some wear
Notebook #2: My brother's
CPU: Intel Mobile P4-M @ 2.20 GHz HS full of Cheez-It crumbs
Chipset: Intel 845MP and 82801CAM (ICH3M)
GPU: ATi Radeon M9000 on 15.7" 1280x1024 screen
RAM: 256 MB Mitsubishi (?!) DDR-266 + 512 MB OCZ DDR-266
HDD: Toshiba 60 GB 4200 rpm POS
Optical: Dead 10x4x24x16x CD-R/RW DVD-ROM drive
WLAN: ORiNOCO Gold 802.11b mini-PCI
LAN: Intel PRO/100 VE
Keyboard: Full of Cheez-It crumbs
Case: Beaten up badly with most vent slot fins missing
Notebook #3: My mother's
CPU: Intel Mobile P4-M @ 2.20 GHz HS cleaned, lapped, max load is 61 C
Chipset: Intel 845MP and 82801CAM (ICH3M)
GPU: ATi Radeon M9000 on 15.7" 1280x1024 screen
RAM: 2x 256 MB Mitsubushi DDR-266
HDD: Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60 GB
Optical: Fully functional 10x4x24x16x CD-R/RW DVD-ROM drive
WLAN: ORiNOCO Gold 802.11b mini-PCI
LAN: Intel PRO/100 VE
Keyboard: Clean
Case: Looks new
The beaten-up one that was my brother's has donated a few parts to mine, especially that nice 1 GB RAM DIMM he paid something like $200 for and won't work in his new Core 2 Duo Sony notebook :lol: Also a few screws to replace a couple that had fallen out of mine over 5 years of hard use. I really probably should switch the motherboard on mine out as it has a dead NIC on it and the chipset is flaky to say the least. I'll mess with it when I have time, but I'll have to find that first.