How To Build A Laptop? [Things To Know]

Written by Muqadas Wattoo | Last modified on:

A lot of people in the world take pride in building their own things. Take a look at all custom PC owners and how proud they are of their gaming rigs. There’s something inherently satisfying in assembling something from the ground up. Additionally, when you build something yourself you can optimize it to fit all your needs perfectly.

In spite of all the potential advantages of building your own device, it doesn’t work for every particular item. Building your own laptop is a particularly hard task and it’s not like building your own custom PC at all. Building your custom PC is incredibly easy and you can save yourself a great deal of money. The same isn’t the case for building your own laptops though.

Many people will tell you that you’re better off buying a readymade laptop instead of building your own. A lot of people will also tell you that it’s entirely impossible to make your own custom laptop as well. However, if you’re willing to put in the effort and have the proper level of technical skill.

What Makes Building A Laptop So Difficult?

It’s easy to see why a lot of people would believe that building a laptop is something you can easily do. For several years now people have been building their own custom PCs. Due to laptops and desktops doing the exact same thing, many people think that building your laptop is an easy process.

Custom Laptop Building

However, that’s truly not the case at all. Building your own custom laptop is possible but only if you have a lot of skill and a lot of patience. There’s a multitude of reasons why building a laptop is so difficult. It’s easy to categorize each major issue to fully explain the difficulty of the task.

Unique Parts

Something that makes building a PC incredibly easy is the high level of compatibility. Whatever PC case you get you can easily fit inside a wide variety of hardware that is easy to connect and setup. In the case of laptops, however, there’s very little compatibility. It’s very difficult to find hardware that fits multiple laptop cases.

When companies make their own laptops, the internal hardware like the motherboard and the GPU are all custom made. They will only fit the specific laptop model they were made for. Furthermore, the companies don’t always sell the internal hardware that fits their laptop hardware.

Aside from additional rams and SSD, it’s incredibly rare to find components that can fit into multiple laptops. For certain specific parts, you might have to buy damaged laptops on the cheap. Finding these laptops can be difficult and slightly costly as well, then you’re going to have to take the laptop apart and get the parts.

If laptop parts were more interchangeable, building your own laptop would be considerably easier. There’s still no major indication that companies are going to start making interchangeable hardware for laptops, so if you’re going to make a custom build be ready to put in the hard work.

Finding A Shell

The first part of your actual custom build laptop needs to be the laptop shell. The case you’re going to get is incredibly important. The two most popular companies that actually sell barebones laptop units are Sager/Clevo. You can look at several different retailers that sell these barebones units that you can customize.

Due to the fact that several key hardware components are a part of the laptop body, you’ll have to look at a lot of things before you buy your barebones laptop. If you want a gaming laptop you’re going to have to buy a barebones shell that has heavy-duty hardware. You need to look for a body with a heavy graphic processing unit.

You’ll notice that companies like Sager/Cleo have laptop units that come with a rather large and clunky body. If you’re building a gaming laptop you’ll need the extra room, however, if you want a thin sleek looking laptop your task is much more difficult.

If you want a sleek looking laptop the only possible solution is buying a shell of the notebook unit you desire. You can find these laptop shells from resellers of the leading notebook companies. These shells are completely empty and unless you want to build it using the parts the company did, you’re going to need tools.

Tools

The fact that laptop components are all unique and hard to fit into any different shells. These issues in particular present a major challenge. If you try to build your own custom laptop, you’re going to need several tools. Buying a jewelers’ toolkit is absolutely essential because the laptop shell and the hardware all use incredibly small screws. If you use a screwdriver with a magnetic tip your life will be significantly easier.

Tools to build custom laptop

If you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of the build, then you need to have a lot of technical skill. Some steps in the process may even require you to solder certain objects to ensure the fill. If you don’t have easy access to a soldering tool, it’s best that you buy a barebones unit with essential hardware already in place.

Cost

One might think that building your own custom laptop will be a more cash efficient project.

Technical Skill

The level of technical skill you’re going to require to custom build your own laptop is quite a lot. Due to the fact that laptop parts aren’t interchangeable you’re going to have to make parts fit the hard way.