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Interested in building a laptop by yourself? There are lots of reasons for this statement. In many cases, the prebuilt laptop that you purchase from the market may not have all the specifications and features that you wish to have.
If this will turn out as a too difficult deal for you, then check our guide of the best laptops, we are sure you will find the one there.
How about building a laptop having your desired features by yourself? Just follow this guide and execute the below steps carefully, along with patience. Below, we have divided this guide into three different sections, followed by grabbing the parts, assembling them and installing the operating system and drives. So, let’s begin.
Section 1: Grabbing the Parts
1. Before grabbing the parts for your laptop, the important and fundamental thing to know is for which purpose you want to build your computer. You will need to be very clear about the primary usability purpose of your laptop. Let’s consider some examples. If you want to play high-end games on your computer, then you will need to build your laptop with high-end specifications that will be directly proportional to the cost at the end. On the other side, if you need a laptop for browsing, email checking and word processing, then you can move forward with basic specifications integrated laptop. Usually, they are portable, small in screen size than others and don’t weigh a lot. The battery is about a significant aspect that we can’t ignore.
2. Now, we can begin by selecting a processor for your laptop. There are many processors available in the market, and not all of them are bad, and not all of them are good. It depends on your requirements. You can buy a processor through online retailers. The good thing is that you can compare processors on their portal. The standard criteria while selecting a processor is speed versus cooling and power consumption. You can choose either Intel or AMD processor. AMD processors are cheap as compared to Intel processors. Never buy a desktop processor. You can buy a mobile processor.
3. Now, you have to select the notebook shell. The motherboard is integrated with the shell and never ignores the keyboard layout and screen size because you can’t customize the shell. Resulting, stuck with keyboard and screen size you selected. On retail portals, you can enter white book shell or barebones notebook.
4. Buying memory for your laptop is the fourth step. Purchase a SO-DIMM memory that will easily fit into the motherboard in your shell. You can go for 8 GB or 16 GB of memory. It will be best for performing all day to day tasks. Keep in mind that you may face shorter battery life due to faster memory, but at the same time you will get better performance.
5. Next, you have to purchase a drive for your laptop. You can select between SSD (Solid State Drive) or HDD (Hard Disk Drive). However, SSD is much faster in performance than HDD because they come in NVMe version, and the best part is they are small because of their M.2 form factor. SSD is expensive when compared to HDD. For HDD lovers, you can buy a 2.5″ drive with RPM between a standard 5400 or 7200. HDD users can buy a drive of 500 GB to 1.5 TB.
6. If you love to play games or you are a graphic designer, then you can buy a dedicated graphics card. However, most of the laptop shells don’t fit a dedicated graphic card. Still, CPU comes with integrated graphics cards.
7. Buying an optical disk drive is optional. Even most of the laptops nowadays don’t come with an optical drive. Optical drives have been replaced with USB external optical drives, and most of the work can be done through memory cards and removable drives. If you need one, then make sure that selected optical drive fits into the shell in your laptop.
8. While purchasing a battery, you can’t ignore the shape and multiple on battery. There are many batteries available in the market. We highly recommend reading reviews of the battery before buying it.
Section 2: Assembling the Parts
1. Now, we have grabbed all the necessary parts. Here, it turns to assemble them on by one inside the shell. Therefore, it will require you to get a set of jeweller’s screwdrivers. Make sure they are magnetic. Keep laptop screws in a plastic bag to avoid losing them and get a pair of needle-nose pliers in case if a screw that falls into cracks.
Caution: First, buy an anti-static wristband will keep you grounded because electrostatic discharge can quickly ruin computer components, and your whole hard work can go in hell.
2. Flip the front side of the laptop so that shell is facing your face. Here, you can fit several components that you had grabbed earlier.
3. Now, remove the panel covering the drive bay. Here, you have to fix your 2.5″ hard disk drive. As per shell design, the bay’s position may vary. Most of the time, then it can be found located towards the front of the laptop.
4. Inserting the hard disk drive is our fourth step. Most of the notebooks require the hard drive to be mounted to a bracket that fits around the drive. To make sure that the hard drive is secured to the bracket, you can use four screws. Spontaneously, you will get the idea that you have installed the hard disk drive in the right direction.
5. Now, it’s time to side the bracketed hard drive into the bay. Make sure to apply enough pressure to seat the drive using the grip tape. Two screw holes are generally lined up on most of the bracketed. Once you have successfully inserted the drive, then you can use the specific screws to secure the drive from the environment.
6. Once, you have successfully inserted the hard disk drive then you can install the optical drive into the laptop shell. The optical drive installing method varies as per the structure of shell in your laptop. Most commonly, the optical drives are inserted from the front of the bay opening. After that, they get to slide into SATA connectors.
7. After installing the optical drive, you have to remove the panel of the motherboard. Don’t be hurried. You have to proceed with patience as removing the panel covering motherboard is (difficult) than removing the panel comprising the hard disk drive, remove all the screws, and you can try it if needed.
8. Once the panel covering the motherboard is opened, then you will get access to memory slots and motherboard. It’s turn to install the memory. Now, insert SO-DIMM memory chips into their slots at an angle. Far, push them down to click them into place. Never force a lot of memory sticks such that they can only be installed in one direction.
9. Here, the memory got installed in the shell of your laptop. Simply, look for the CPU lock around the socket where the CPU is installed. It will require you to turn it into an unlocked position. This action can be proceeded using the Flathead screwdriver. Upward the CPU to see the location of pins.
You have to find one corner missing the pins. You have to line up with the notch on the socket. It will get fit in the socket one way. If CPU doesn’t get seat itself, never force it. It may break the pins. After efforts, once the CPU got installed, then turn it into the lock position.
10. Next, we have to install the fan that cools the CPU and other components. You will get a fan packed along with CPU. The thermal paste must be applied on the bottom side where it gets connected to the CPU. If the paste is not present, then use it before installing the fan. Make sure that exhaust must line up with the vents on your shell. Never force the heatsink and fan assembly in. Still, you can wiggle it in instead. If required, you can also place a dust filter to prevent dust from clogging the heatsink. Make sure that thermal paste doesn’t get all over your components. Until the right position is located, you have to keep heatsink angled. After successfully installing the fan attach the fan’s power cable to the motherboard.
11. At last, after successfully installing all the components. You can simply secure them by screwing the back panels. That’s it.
Section 3: Installing the Operating System and Drivers
Before installing the operating system and drives, make sure that the battery is inserted in the laptop. Before booting the computer, properly check that battery is charging correctly.
If the battery is working correctly, then we recommend running Memtest86+. It will ensure that memory is working properly. You can download the Memtes86+ for free from the internet. To boot it, it will require a USB drive or CD. Once the result is OK, then you can proceed with installing the operating system and drivers.
1. If you have installed the optical drive, then you can proceed with it, but if not installed, then you can create a bootable USB drive with your operating system files. It depends on you. You do either install Windows OS or Linux OS.
The window has a wide range of support for software and hardware, but It is expensive. On the other side, Linux is a free operating system that is supported by a community of volunteer developers. You can install any Linux version including Mint, Ubuntu or Debian. If you are going to install Windows, then we recommend to always go with the latest version of it.
2. After successfully installing the operating system. You will need to install the drivers for hardware. Most of the time, operating systems installs the required drivers automatically. However, if some required is missing, then you can use the CD packaged with components that you can purchase earlier. Once the drivers are successfully installed, then your laptop is ready for you.
What is next? Keep your brand new shining computer nice and clean. That’s it!
Don’t forget to comment below if you have any questions or if you are facing any issues while following or executing the above guide. We will give our best to solve all your queries. Stay tuned with us for more updates.
