How to build your own computer And why it will save you time and money

Where to start Decide what you want to do with your computer (play games, edit music or video files, or just perform basic tasks.) Decide on the amount you are willing and able to spend. Choose parts based on your budget.

Computer parts: the Motherboard The motherboard, also know as the Main Board, is the heart of your computer, though usually not that expensive. It is the part that connects everything together. It will determine the kind of hardware you can put into it.

The Motherboard

Although it may look complicated on first glance, everything only fits into place in one way, and there is almost nothing that can be plugged in or connected in the wrong way. When you find a motherboard for your computer, it will list its specifications which will tell you what you can put into your computer.

Choosing a CPU The CPU, or central processing unit, usually called a processor, is easy to set up. As long as you make sure to select a CPU that matches your motherboard, you cant go wrong. The only thing to consider is how fast you need your processor to be.

Choosing a CPU Since we know that we need a CPU that fits into an LGA775 socket, we only need search for an LGA775 processor to fit our needs.

Finding a CPU It’s quite simple to find a processor online.

Finding a CPU Several CPU’s will be listed. Find one that fits your motherboard socket and is fast enough and that’s it.

The CPU

Next step With the motherboard and the CPU selected, everything else is easy. The rest of the parts are generally cheaper and easier to deal with. The remaining parts are : RAM (memory), a Hard Drive, a Disc Drive, a Power Supply, a case and a video card.

RAM Ram stands for Random Access Memory. It holds active information for the CPU. The more ram your computer has, the more it can actively do at one time. For today’s computers, 2-4 Gigabytes of ram is standard.

Finding RAM The only step here is checking your motherboard specs for ram and finding ram, just like with the CPU.

Finding RAM

The motherboard we have selected used DDR2-800 RAM. The number 800 is a rating of how fast the ram is, and 800 is pretty fast. After searching for DDR2-800 RAM, select one of the options and move on to the next step.

Finding RAM

Finding a Hard Drive A hard drive only has two different kinds of connections, SATA and IDE. SATA is the faster type but all motherboards made in the last two years have SATA and IDE connections so chose a hard drive based on how much storage space you think you need and move on.

Finding a Hard Drive

Finding a Disc Drive Finding a disc drive is the same as finding a hard drive. A disc drive will either connect with a SATA or IDE connection and your motherboard will have both, so choose based on what you want it to do and the price.

Finding a Disc Drive

Finding a Power Supply Finding a Power Supply, or PSU is easy, but there are two things to consider. #1. power supplies have two types of connections, 20-pin and 24-pin. Make sure to get the right one for your motherboard. #2. If you are going to play games, you are going to need a larger PSU. Some high performance motherboards and video cards require additional connections.

Finding a Power Supply

Video Card … for gamers only Not all computers need video cards. Sometimes the motherboard will have a video output. Video cards are generally for playing computer games. They process the graphics. The better your video card, the better graphics you can have. Video cards tend to be expensive. Usually dollars for a top of the line card.

Finding a video card All video cards made in the last three years use a PCI-Express slot, or PCI-E. Choose a video card based on its price and its speed. It is easy to look up benchmarks for video cards to find out how fast they are, many web sites are dedicated to making benchmarks; such as Guru3d.com

Finding a video card

finding a case Cases are not complicated at all, and they are cheap. Choose one based on its style. All standard motherboards fit into an ATX case, and almost all cases are ATX, but just make sure you see ATX when you buy a case.

Finding a case

Assembly Now that we have all the parts, all we need to do is put them together. Everything only fits together in one way so its harder to mess up than to do it right. For the most part it will be like advanced legos. Everything will come with manuals however, and they will tell you exactly what to do. To connect the power button, see your motherboard manual.

Assembly

Why go through all this when I can buy a computer already made? Now that we our done with the computer, lets see how expensive it was.

Benefits A close comparison is shown. Notice that the HP computer is not only more expensive, but also slower, especially its video card.

Benefits With the computer we just built, one could play games like this …

Benefits And this..

Benefits With the compared HP computer, you can play games like this …

Benefits When you build your own computer, you can build it however you want. There are no limitations. By buying your own parts, you get better parts for cheaper. When you know how to build a computer, it is no longer necessary to buy a new computer when yours gets too slow or breaks down.

More Benefits Every computer needs an operating system, such as windows. When you build a computer, you need your own copy of windows. By having your own copy of windows you can always repair a software problem.

Even more Benefits When your computer gets too slow, you can upgrade the processor, ram, and or video card instead of buying a whole new computer. Often times a slow computer only needs a minor upgrade to become a fast computer.

More Benefits If you get a virus and you can no longer use your computer, all you have to do is reinstall windows with your windows CD, and your computer will be like new again.

So why not build your own computer when you can … Always repair a software problem such as a virus or file corruption. Upgrade just one or two parts to restore your computers functionality instead of buying a new computer when it becomes outdated.

And.. Building your computer is not that difficult. It may seem hard but It requires little knowledge and benefits you greatly. Over time you will save hundreds and eventually thousands of dollars by avoiding retail mark ups.

Brought to you by: Real Computers realcomputer.vpweb.com