[Coda]

Building laptops yourself isn't really a thing that happens. ;)

The main problem with the laptop you have right now is that it was a bargain-basement model when it was new. You could probably recover some performance by getting Windows 10 and doing a clean install of it, but that won't help with the hardware issues.

If you want to game, you're probably better off with a desktop. They're usually cheaper than laptops of equivalent specs. They have better cooling, which is important for stuff that's going to be using a lot of power. You don't want to play most games with a touchpad. And they can have much bigger hard drives.

You don't necessarily need a full-blown gaming rig; midrange equipment will play games acceptably well if you don't turn the graphics settings up all the way.

A few points of advice in terms of what to shop for, whether desktop or laptop:

* Get one with an i5 processor. i7's cost too much for not enough benefit for your particular needs, and a computer with an i3 going to be built as a budget machine so everything else in it is ALSO going to be low-end.

* Make sure you have at least 8GB of RAM. 6GB is an acceptable compromise if you can't find one in your price range with 8, but it WILL make a difference. This is easily upgraded in a desktop.

* Games take up a lot of space, so you should probably prefer a computer with a larger HDD (1TB or higher) instead of getting one with an SSD, which would give you faster loading times but much less space.

* Integrated Intel graphics have come a long way in the last few years and they're not the complete crap they used to be, but if you intend to play higher-end 3D games you're going to want to shop for a computer with GeForce (nVidia) or Radeon (AMD) graphics. (I personally prefer GeForce.) Again, this can be upgraded easily in a desktop, so if you get Intel graphics and it turns out not to work for you that's something that can be taken care of at a later time.

Building your own PC isn't generally something I recommend nowadays unless you're trying to put together a high-end machine. For midrange systems, an off-the-shelf computer is usually cheaper than you can build from parts.