Build Your Own Computer - And Save Your Money

When it comes to getting a new computer, most of the
times people have 3 choices: The first choice is to buy a
computer from a computer store where the computers are
already pre built, the stores usually have a wide variety of
choices. The second choice is to purchase a computer from
someone like dell where they customize the computer for your
needs, and the third and probably the best choice it to
build the computer yourself.
When you are building a computer yourself it is not as
hard as it may seem, and it will certainly be cheaper then
buying it from a store or getting it custom built. Another
advantage of building a computer yourself is that you will
be able to fix it without paying the expensive tech support.
In this tutorial I will teach you how you can easily select
the parts for the computer, and put it together. After
reading this tutorial you will be able to do it by
yourself.
The first thing you need to do when building a computer
is to pick out what you want it for. You have 3 categories
to choose from, Gaming, Entertainment, and business.
The gaming computers are usually the most expensive.
They are really expensive because they include the best
components to run the new games such as fast processor, a
lot of RAM, and a powerful video card. In todayÆs standards
you would need at least 512mb of RAM, about 80+ Gigabyte
Hard Drive and a video card which should be a powerful one
like ATI Radeon 9700 or 9800, or nVidia Geforce FX 5800 or
5900. If you get a computer with components like that you
will be able to run all new games, and the computer will be
powerful enough to do everything that you desire, not just
gaming.
The entertainment computer can be the cheapest ones. I
would recommend at least 256, but preferably 512 MB of RAM,
a hard drive which is about 60 Gigabytes and any standard
video card would do. Of course this computer should have a
DVD drive thou, because what is an entertainment center
without DVD support. The only problem about these kinds of
computers is that they are designed so you would not run any
new games on it, so if you will they are going to run slow.
The business computer can be about the same as a gaming
computer, but you should try to find a computer with a lower
end video card, that would probably save you around
$300-$400. You can put in a video car such as Geforce FX
5200, or ATI Radeon 9200.
The parts you need to complete the computer are: Case
with power supply (should be at least 350 watts)
Motherboard, Processor, Processor cooling, Video Card,
Network card (if the motherboard does not include it), Hard
Drive, CD/DVD-ROM, RAM, and optional accessories such as
fans, floppy drive, sound card (Requires if motherboard does
not have intergraded.), and higher performance cables.
When you are picking your motherboard you got to make
sure that you are picking the right type. Right now there
are two different processor manufacturers on the market, AMD
and INTEL. For gaming and performance computers I prefer
AMD, for the rest it does not really matter. You have to
pick the motherboard which supports your processor type. You
also have to make sure that you have proper cooling for the
processor; if you do not then the processor will not be able
to work right, overheat, and fry. For AMD and INTEL
processors I would recommend Scythe Kamakaze HSF combo. This
is one of the quietest and good performing heat sinks on the
market. You can buy it at www.quietpcusa.com.
The part of putting together a computer is fairly easy,
it is basically a big puzzle, here is no soldering or
anything of that sort required. All the components come with
detailed instructions on how to put them it, and
troubleshoot if they are broken. A lot of motherboards and
other components are different, so the instructions might
vary a little, but most of the time they are the same.

Dominic Ferrara is the author of "Build Your Own Computer"
and has a site at http://www.buildcomputerscheap.com