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We all know that it is possible to build a gaming desktop PC. But have you wondered if you can build a gaming laptop? This may have occurred to you after realizing how great it would be to build your own gaming laptop as you would a gaming desktop PC. The answer to this question is no, you cannot build a gaming laptop in the same manner of which you can build a gaming desktop.
Building a good gaming laptop is difficult even for popular manufacturers, so imagine how impractical and extremely difficult it would be to build one yourself. Aside from the time spent in sourcing the needed parts and putting them together, you would likely spend a lot more money than getting a gaming laptop from a reputable manufacturer.
However, we did come across a few DIY barebones gaming laptop kits. These gaming laptop build kits found on newegg.com and ebay.com would be a great basis to start from for someone looking to build their own custom gaming laptop.
Here is a video featuring the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S to demonstrating just how difficult it is to build a proper gaming laptop. This will give you an idea of the extensive design and engineering that goes into creating these gaming laptops so that they perform well and cool properly.
Why You Can’t Build Your Own Laptop by Paul’s Hardware:
Building a gaming laptop requires a lot of things, from sourcing and knowledge of the various parts to cooling and battery life. Moreover, the laptop should be powerful enough to handle the system requirements of current and future games.
In truth, rather than building a gaming laptop, you are much better off buying a gaming laptop from well-established gaming laptop manufacturers such as Asus, MSI, GIGABYTE, Razer, Acer, etc.
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Gaming Laptops for Battlefield 5, Fortnite, PUBG, and More…
Key issues to hurdle in building a gaming laptop
In building a gaming laptop, you will have to address the following issues:
Lack of standardized laptop components
A huge hurdle in building a gaming laptop is the fact that there is no standardization of parts. Gaming laptop components are typically commissioned and designed for the original equipment manufacturer and are usually not cross compatible.
For example, a motherboard from one laptop won’t fit into another laptop. The same goes for other components of the laptop. Simply put, you can’t just assemble gaming laptop components together like you would with compatible gaming desktop components. This makes the process of build a custom gaming laptop extremely difficult.
Determining and sourcing the parts
The next major concern in building a gaming laptop is determining the parts and sourcing them out. First, you need to determine all the parts of a laptop then buy and assemble them. This is easier said than done.
Unlike desktop computers, parts of gaming laptops are not readily available to end users. Components like the GPU, CPU, motherboard, case, and more must all be compatible. The components of the cooling solution must also be taken into account as well.
Upgrading laptop components
Suppose you somehow manage to put together a custom gaming laptop. The question then arises of how you are going to upgrade that gaming laptop as more demanding games are released. You would essentially have to go through the whole process of finding new and better laptop parts once again.
Except for the RAM and solid state drive (SSD), laptop components are difficult to upgrade, unlike their desktop PCs counterparts. This is a major concern if you are building a gaming laptop which requires advanced components to handle resource-intensive games.
Gaming laptops are not exactly designed to be user-upgradable. This could hurt you in the long run due to future games being more computational and graphically demanding.
Of course, you can install more RAM into the laptop if the motherboard has available slots. You can also upgrade to a faster HDD or an SSD with ease. But, those upgrades will not be enough to allow your custom built gaming laptop to handle newer and more intensive games.
Upgrading CPU and GPU
Upgrading the CPU and GPU is a different matter altogether. For one, they need to be compatible with the motherboard. Moreover, different CPUs and GPUs tend to generate varying amounts of heat. There’s a possibility that the components may generate too much heat for the cooling system of the laptop. 
Building a gaming laptop in the future?
This leads us to the question— is there any chance that the components of gaming laptops will be standardized and interchangeable in the near future?
It remains to be seen whether customized gaming laptops will ever take off in the future. Maybe the market for customized laptops isn’t that big to justify the costs of developing standardized laptop design and components similar to desktop PCs. Why build a custom gaming laptop from parts when you can just buy a more optimized manufacturer gaming laptop such as the these.
The bottom line is that building a gaming laptop is not exactly the best route for any gamer to take. It still makes sense to buy a gaming laptop than building one.