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What You Should Known Before You Build Your Own Computer

Building your own computer has so many more advantages over buying from a retail store. Ask you self how many time you have purchased a computer in the last 5 years. If you have only purchased one, then I can guarantee you that your computer is slow and very outdated. Owning an outdated computer severely limits the amount of things that you can do with your computer.

Of course, building your computer is no easy task. You first have to learn everything about your computer, or computers in general. The learning process is actually the hardest part of building your own computer. You have to keep current with changes in technology, you have to know your budget and you have to know where to get the parts you need. Ultimately, you need to know what parts you need.

Before buying any computer part you will have to learn the difference between OEM products and retail products. The reason for this is that OEM parts do not include everything you need to get the piece of hardware working. For example, if you bought an OEM floppy drive you would not have any cables to connect it to your motherboard. You also would have no screws to mount it no your case. So be sure that if you do purchase OEM that you have the needed accessories to get it working properly. If you are a first time buyer I highly recommend that you purchase everything retail. OEM can be cheaper but unless you live in a heavily populated city, your chances of finding the accessories that are needed for that hardware you will have a hard time tracking them down.

So what does one need to build their own computer. Here is a short list of everything you need (assuming you buy all retail items):
1. Case (make sure this comes with a power supply)
2. Motherboard (note the socket type and the type of RAM it needs)
3. RAM (make sure your motherboard supports it)
4. CPU
5. Graphics Card (again, make sure your motherboard supports it)
6. Hard Drive (on most motherboards you can get either a SATA or a PATA hard drive)
7. Floppy Drive (anymore now this is totally optional)
8. CD-ROMs (you can usually have up to 4 if you opt for SATA hard drives)
9. Sound Card (this is optional, it really depends if your motherboard comes with onboard sound)

Now that you know what you need, you can start ordering. I suggest that you order the parts in this specific order. If you don't, you take the chance of making hardware mis-matches. In other words, you can end up with a CPU that doesn't work with your motherboard. Even purchasing the items in the above order can still make it possible to buy hardware that does work together.

So, going down the above list in order, lets talk about special things you need to take note of.

Case
You have to be certain that the case you want comes with a power supply. The amount of power the supply can output is usually measured in Watts. While a 50-300Watt power supply is more than enough for average computers, if you plan on beefing your system up with other demanding hardware you should aim for a higher amount of wattage with your power supply. Having a 500-700watt power supply will usually give you the freedom to not have to worry about having issues with power. The last thing you should note about the power supply that comes with your case is how many pins it comes with. There is a cable that runs from your power supply to your motherboard. Some power supplies have 20 pins while others have 24 pins. You need to know this before you order your motherboard. Motherboards also come with a variety of either 20 or 24 pins.

Motherboard
There are really only two things you need to take note of on your motherboard, socket type and supported RAM. The socket type will tell you if you are going to have an AMD or an Intel based computer. Certain motherboards will only work with certain CPUs. So be careful and make sure that your motherboard will support the CPU you want.

RAM
The technology with RAM is changing at a very rapid speed. There used to be a time where you could buy one type of RAM and it would work with both AMD and Intel motherboards. Those days are long gone. Now you have choices of DDR, DDR2 or the new DDR3. The type of RAM you need is largely dependant on your motherboard and your CPU. Be sure that the RAM you choose is compatible with your motherboard and your CPU.

Graphics Card
Your motherboard and power supply will be the deciding factors in which type of graphics card you get. There are 3 main different types of graphics cards. PCI, PCI-Express and AGP. Different motherboards require a certain type of graphics card. Also, be sure to check to see if your graphics card need extended power support. This is typically a 4 prong connector coming from your power supply.

Refer :

Tony Coffee is has spent the last 8 years building and helping people buy computers.

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