Computersight -

First of all, you would need to think about what type of PC you’re going to need. Usually they are in the three categories of Word processing and media playback (such as watching movies and listening to music).

If you intend on building a PC based on simple tasks such as word processing, the price of the components all together should cost around from $800 to $1 000.

If the computer is intended for the gamin or video editing, you may need to consider from $1 500 and possibly all the way up to $3 000 and more.

REMEMBER: You (supposedly) want to build a PC that is pretty up to date and can support programs from the upcoming 2 to 4 years. So consider spending more than $1 500 if you are not going to change PCs every 2 or 3 years.

So now that you’ve decided what kind of PC you want to build, the next step is choosing what type of system components you would need in order to build your new PC.

If your system is aimed towards basic tasks such as word processing and media playback, your system’s minimums should be:

CPU – Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E6000 Series and higher

RAM – 2GB RAM (Generic will do) DDR2 is recommended for its price and performance

Graphics Card – NVIDIA GeForce 6000 Series and onwards

Motherboard – Gigabyte EP35-DS3L and upwards

Operating System – Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium or Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Why Vista? Sooner or later you are going to want or need to upgrade to Vista but XP currently is not a bad choice

Keyboard and Mouse – Any quality brands will do according to your budget (eg. Logitech, Microsoft)

Monitor – Any size from 19” and onwards is fine, though do consider a widescreen monitor if you constantly use Word so you can view pages side-by-side, but of course, this would depend on how much you are willing to spend

Speakers – For listening to music inside a room, you can get a set of 2.1ch speaker system for less than $50

Extras – Webcam, Microphone

Chassis – Any quality chassis with good ventilation and that suits your taste (as in design) is good

Power Supplies – I personally DON’T recommend generic power supplies that came with the chassis and suggest that you purchase your own (e.g. brands such as Cooler Master, Antec, Corsair etc are recommended) with 450watts or higher

Hard Disk – A 250GB Drive should do you fine unless you’re intending to rip libraries of movies and music albums, your new PC’s HDD space is dependant entirely up to you

Optical Drive – A DVD burner should be enough for most users – with LiteScribe if you wish

If your system is for gaming or video editing, start considering more on the performance than the price. Below are my minimum suggestions:

CPU – Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E8000 or better (E8500 recommended) or if you have the money, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 or better

RAM – 4GB branded RAM for gaming and 8GB branded RAM for video editing (Corsair Dominator would be excellent and DDR3 would be awesome)

Graphics Card – NVIDIA GeForce 8800 and better (NVIDIA GeForce 8000 or 9000 Series are ideal for extreme gamers)

Though a good video card is not entirely necessary if you intend on just video editing, I still advise that you still purchase one that is at least capable of handling Vista Aero smoothly without causing too much system drawback, plus you might decide to do 3D rendering in the future

If you are an extreme gamer, think about a SLi configuration or Crossfire

Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 or better (the motherboard does not necessarily have to be from Gigabyte, but it’s just one of my favourites

Operating System – Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate or Microsoft Windows XP Professional 

Why Vista? Sooner or later you are going to want or need to upgrade to Vista but XP currently is not a bad choice

Keyboard and Mouse – Shop around for gaming keyboards and mice, there are plenty from Logitech

Monitor – 22” and larger with at most 5ms – consider a widescreen

Speakers – I suggest that you purchase higher end set with at least 5.1ch but if you’re not really bothered about the sound 2.1ch should be fine

Extras – Webcam, Microphone, Gamepad, Joystick etc

Chassis – You might need to consider a gaming chassis – major brands such as ThermalTake, Cooler Master and Antec provide chassis purposely designed for gaming systems to provide good ventilation systems

Power Supply – A power supply from major brands such as Antec, ThermalTake and Cooler Master with at least 1000watts if made for gaming and at least 750watts for video editing

NOTE: These are just suggested, if your graphics card requires more or less than I said, please follow what its manual says!

Hard Disk – 1TB of HDD space should be enough for a gaming PC though if you’re also doing video editing or have media libraries, I would advise that you put some money into purchasing quality hard drives – Seagate and Western Digital suggested – and the PC should total up with at least 2TBs especially if it is like a family’s central PC

Optical Drive – DVD burners are probably the way to go, though if you are into Blu-ray, I would get a DVD burner alongside with the Blu-ray drive personally, particularly if I’m burning lots of DVDs (Blu-ray drives tend to burn REALLY slowly with DVDs)