Computersight -

*For readers that are unfamiliar with any technical term used here, I have provided a glossary at the end of the article*

While designing and building your own custom computer does pose certain risks, those risks are far outweighed by the fun and sense of accomplishment that comes with powering up a computer that you built with your own two hands. Not to mention the significantly higher ratio of performance to cost than one of the propaganda machines that are so readily produced and subsequently forgoten by their profit addicted manufacturers. Companies like Dell and Gateway rely almost entirely on the ignorance of the buyer to keep prices disgustingly higher than the actual worth of their products. Which brings me to the whole reason behind this article, I will teach you everything you need to know about computers to be able to build your own, and, in turn, take away one more sale from the corporate giants that prey on our nation’s decaying education system.

When building your own PC there is one question that must be asked first, for it will effect nearly every other decision you make until the moment you you turn off your computer for the last time. The question is as simple as any, “What will I mainly use this PC for?” Now, the answer to this question can be as specific or as broad as you like, after all, its your computer. You may only want to use your PC for music, movies, and other media, so your focus will be on high-speed hard drives, high-quality audio, and high-res video. Perhaps surfing the web is your protege, in that case you will focus on networking, and RAM. But most likely if you are building a custom PC your probably looking for one of two things, business, or gaming. These two things will require the most from any computer, especially if you work in areas such as 3d graphic design, software development, or a scientific or engineering field where calculations are generally large, extremely complex and the results must be very precise or they are useless. These applications rely heavily on RAM, graphics(depending on whether or not you use graphic models), and are extremely dependant upon the CPU. Many of these needs are shared with computer gaming, however, there is an enormous reliance on graphics, the game producers know that, no matter how creative, original, or fun their game may be, it will be poorly received by the gaming community if it’s visual experience is not pleasing to the eye. Therefore, a tremendous amount of time, effort, and money is poured into new games, putting more stress on a computer’s graphics capabilities. while RAM and CPU are also crucial to a exceptional gaming experience, a relatively new addition to PC gaming has added another requirement for some aspects of gameplay. With the veritable explosion of online multiplayer games in recent years, spearheaded by the cult MMORPG; World Of Warcraft, many of today’s most popular games now require at least an average Internet connection, putting emphasis on your PC’s ability to maintain, and minimally restrict a connection.

To many people, technology is intimidating, those who have seen the inside of their computer have witnessed the complex circiutry, with thousands of tiny things that you think you heard someone call a capacitor, and these little lines in a green board running to small black squarish things with miniscule little metal parts sticking out, and you may ask yourself, how the FiretrUCK am I going to build one of these? Well, I have good knews, you aren’t, you get to do the easy part of the assembly. You don’t need to design circuitry, or place those tiny little parts, all you do is buy the seperate finished components and snap them together! Your first order of business is to pick a motherboard. The motherboard is the main part that all the other computer parts will attach to. Think of a computer as a city, the motherboard is the infrastructure, it provides all the connections neccessary for the different parts to connect and talk to eachother. On a low budget PC the motherboard (from here on refered to as the MOBO) is the part where you want to spend the most money, you will want something with plenty of room for upgrading parts, as a general rule, you will want a MOBO with a very common socket type (socket type is the specific pin layout for connecting the CPU), for computers with intel brand CPUs, socket 775 is the most common and for computers using AMD brand CPUs you will want socket AM2 or AM2+. Make sure to leave plenty of space for RAM upgrades, if it is within your budget try for a MOBO with 4 slots. Other factors that should be considered are the interface types the MOBO supports, an interface type is the kind of connectors the MOBO uses to connect things like CD/DVD Drives and Hard Drives. The most recent interface type is called “Serial ATA” more commonly refered to as “SATA”, SATA connections support up to 3GB/s and are smaller, making them easier to snake through a potentialy crowded computer. It is also a good idea to get a MOBO with IDE connectors as well, while IDE is older tech, it is far from obsolete. However, if the MOBO supports SCSI (pronounced scuzzy), and not SATA, it is probably safe to bet that it is a long since obsolete board, and not worth your money. Depending on whether or not you plan to periodically upgrade your pc is up to you, however, if you do want to do so you may want to consider what kinds of expansion slots you are looking for on a MOBO. There are several main kinds of expansion slots AGP, PCI, PCIe and PCIe 2.0, with AGP being the oldest of the technologies and PCIe 2.0 the newest and fastest, capable of speeds up to 16 GB/s. When you go to consider the types of expansion slots you want think about what kinds of things you may be putting ing them, whether they be graphics cards, sound cards, USB expansions, etc. Graphics and sound cards are generaly your best bet for PCI 2.0 while USB and LAN or other network cards are suitable for PCI. AGP is quickly on its way to becoming obsolete and it is probably wise to avoid it if possible. Other features to consider are the MOBO’s FSB (front side bus) which will tell you what CPUs the MOBO is compatable with, RAM compatablities, and any other technologies the MOBO might offer. FSB is measured in MHz, and every MOBO is usually compatible with a few or more speeds, the most common of  these speeds are; 667MHz, 800MHz, 1066MHz, and 1333MHz. The bus speed of the CPU must match one of the MOBO’s FSB speeds or problems could arise, or you could damage your MOBO and/or CPU. You will also need to check the MOBO’s memory compatability, there are a few different classes of RAM to date, the most common of which are SDRAM DDR, DDR2, and the latest and greatest, DDR3, however, SDRAM is now obsolete and not recommended. To further complicate matters, there are single channel, dual channel, and with DDR3, triple channel versions of each version of DDR. The short story is that dual channel is faster than single channel, and triple is faster than both. If the MOBO supports dual channel, you should consider the fact that it will noticebly improve your PC’s performance. Like FSB and CPU bus speed, RAM compatability is also measured in MHz at 667MHz, 800MHz, 1000MHz and 1066MHz being the most common speeds. while this only scratches the surface of all the different options offered by MOBOs it is enough to get you started.

CPUs are much easier to pick than MOBOs, as a general rule, you should try for a CPU clocking in at at least 2.20 GHz for a single core CPU and 2.0GHz for a Dual or Quad core CPU. Other than those recomendations, you are only limited by your budget and your MOBO’s compatablilities. RAM is also another easy choice, relitively speaking. You will want at least 2GB of RAM but 4GB is recommended. You should also look to get DDR2 and Dual Channel is always a nice touch. As for speed, you will should try to avoid 667MHz, but it is not realy that big of a deal. Your next two concerns are a Hard Drive and a Disk Drive. while 100GB may seem like a big number you will be supprised how fast it is used up. for example, with a 100GB Hard Drive about 7-8 GB will be used for the file system, about 10GB for an Operating System, and about 1-2GB for hardware drivers, so right away you have used up almost 20GB, leaving you with 80GB to work with, and with the average computer game taking about 2-3GB, and a single movie almost 1GB, 80GB will be gone fast. However, because this is custom computer building on a budget, a 100GB Harddrive should suit our needs for now, there is always room for upgrades in the future. As for a Disk Drive you will want at least a dvd drive, or else you will not be able to watch movies or read sertain disks, if you feel you have enough cash to burn, your may want to look at a CD-+R or other type of CD/DVD Burner Drive. with both of these components, the important thing to note is the interface type, and to ensure your MOBO not only is compatible with that interface, but will have enough headers for however many drives you install.

So now we have a MOBO, a CPU, RAM, a Harddrive, and a CD/DVD drive, there are three main things left to get. firstly, we need a power supply, a power supply is what take electricity from the outlet in your home, and transforms it into voltages usable by the computer. You will most likely need at least a 350w power supply, but I recommend a 400w or more supply. Now, it is very important that you take a close look at what connectors the supply has, if you are running a PC with SATA components, you will need SATA power cables, if your PC has IDE components you will need Peripheral connectors. you will also need to check how many of each connectors there are. Another very important thing is to check the ATX power and PC power connectors on the MOBO, the ATX connector will be either 20 or 20+4 pin connectors, and the PC connector will be either 4 pin or 8 pin, if the supply does not have these connectors then it is useless to you. If you have chosen to make a gaming rig, you will definately need a graphics card, and at least 512 MB of video mem is my recommendation, however, i prefer to use at least 1GB. Picking a graphics card is pretty easy, you should only need to make sure it’s slot type matches one on your MOBO.

So, now that we’ve got all these parts, what are we going to do with them? where are we going to put them all? Well, now you’ve come to the most fun part of the design, choosing a case, only one thing plays into what case you can get, other than money, and that is the form factor. I recommend ATX, ATX MOBO, ATX supply, and now, an ATX case. Once you’ve picked out your case, you just need a few case fans if they are not included with the case. and lastly you should pick up a CPU fan, or you will fry your chip, after that point, good luck salvaging the warranty. the only thing left to do is read the instructions specific to your components, and if that fails, google would be happy to help you find an answer.

Congratulations! You have finished building your very own computer, now get out there and kick some alien ass!