Micro Center Service Center Highlights: The Custom Rebuild

MicroCenterOfficial · April 2023

Written by @Vaganza

Micro Center’s Service department offers everything your computer could need, from simple OS reinstalls, to data backups, to software and hardware installations, even as far a fully custom water-cooled systems using hard tube installations. For many of us in the service department, we all have our favorite things to do. Personally, I love working with Custom Build systems, especially a nice challenging hard lined watercooler. There’s something magical about putting together some custom components that the customer researched heavily and brought together, often with guidance from our BYO team, and many times on their own. It leaves the new PC builder a feeling like they have a little more buy-in and, when it is all said and done, that they have a system that is entirely their own.

Of course, it might not be possible to do a completely new build. Maybe you have budget constraints, or maybe you have a part you just love too much to get rid of. Thankfully, Micro Center has a solution. If you’re looking to reuse old parts in a new build, we offer a service called “The Custom Rebuild.”

Bring your old PC to us and we will work with you to create a PC using a combination of new parts and old favorites. Our technicians will even take a look at the components you are wishing to reuse and test them out, ensuring you have all that you need to make the new build work. We’ll also reach out with recommendations if we run into a hiccup along the way.

We understand that not all rebuild PCs are the same. Which is why we offer couple of ways to approach a Custom Rebuild:

The New Case:

If you are looking to replace a few (or many) elements and just keep one or two, this is the choice for you. We’ll be putting together what is basically a new build in a new case, but we’ll move over any parts you want to keep. If you love everything about your PC but the case, we’ll even move ALL of your components from your old case into a new case. We’ve even moved all the components from a pre-built PC computer into a different case for someone because they liked the parts but wanted a better-looking case.

No matter the reason, the same care we show to all our builds is put forth to make sure you have a completed system that will work for you. With the updates we’ve gotten in Windows 10 and beyond, we have had a lot of success in migrating fully intact, unwiped storage drives without any boot issues, even with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM. In many cases, it’s as simple as updating drivers and your PC is running like nothing changed!

The Old Case:

On the other hand, you may want to keep an old case but really want to do an upgrade to the system. In many instances, people will often keep things like disk drives, power supplies, and old hard disks in the case but want to replace the motherboard, processor, RAM, upgrade to an NVMe drive, and/or upgrade the graphics card. Like with New Case builds, we’ll do a check on the components you are keeping and make sure your power supply is still enough for the upgraded graphics card.

In Old Case rebuilds, we usually see some wear in the case and often a lot of dust. For those builds, I do accept the challenge and clean up the case, sometimes removing all components, not just the kept parts, to bring the case back to its old glory. My favorite of this style build is the sleeper PCs, where a classic old case is filled with high-end components. The tricky part of these builds is frequently cable management, as old cases rarely tucked the power supply neatly away. The larger challenge, however, is trying to install an all-in-one water cooler in a case that just won’t accept the radiator. But, in these instances, we can always reach out and offer a solution, whether it’s a different AIO or a quality air cooler.

It’s not just the building I love with these - I do get a kick out of before and after photos of these systems and often will hear a “wow” at the counter when the customer picks up the system. That always makes me smile.

With all services here at Micro Center, it is a great idea to open up about your tech issues with the technician working on your system. Even if you think your questions may be “simple,” we are happy to help answer them (and often find them more complex than you might expect!). We also offer a lot of services that many don’t know about and these questions can help us better serve your needs. We can generally work with anyone’s request, and we’ll be upfront with you if there are other options that may better meet your needs.

If you're ready to upgrade your PC, stop by your Local Micro Center or view our services online!

More from the Micro Center Community:

Looking for more information about Building a PC? We’ve got PC Build Guides as well as articles on How to Choose Parts for you Custom PC Build, Product Reviews, and Part Comparisons. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to post a new discussion and the Community will be happy to help!

Note:

We cannot guarantee complete rebuild functionality without a disk wipe, as there are still rare issues that arise from changing out motherboards and processors without a fresh OS install.