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New netbook announcements can tend to be fairly boring.  Most of them hold pretty much the same form factor and specs, just with slightly varying designs and company logos slapped on the lid.  When OCZ announced their Neutrino netbook it seemed like just another netbook with nothing special about it.  Turns out OCZ is actually trying something a bit different.

OCZ is normally known for creating memory and other PC components, not actual machines.  To go along with this, the Neutrino is being released as part of the company’s Do-It-Yourself program.  Anyone can purchase the most barebones of the netbook, including everything aside from the RAM, hard drive, card reader and installed OS.  The idea is the buyer will be able to find the best prices for those aspects of the netbook, and customize it to their wants/needs.  The obvious market would be for hardcore techies who build their own machines already, but OCZ is packing in full instructions so anyone should be able to build the netbook themselves.

The idea of building hardware usually results in some higher end, yet ultimately cheaper desktop machines.  The bones of the Neutrino started out at $279, with the rest of the parts also requiring purchase, which could lead to cheaper prices than most netbooks.  Assuming you already have the OS disc, or plan on using Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based Linux distros, a quick Newegg search results in a $60 2.5” 250GB HDD, and $20 for one 2GB RAM stick.  Without tax and shipping, that would bring the Neturtino total cost to $359 without a card reader.  So you’d be saving a few dollars for the opportunity to build the machine yourself, and finally know what the inside of a netbook looks like without ripping it all apart.  Seems a decent deal to me.

Read [OCZ Press Release]