Advantages of building your own PC (How to Build the Perfect Computer)

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Product:	How to Build the Perfect Computer
Date:	19/01/04 (1246 review reads)
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Advantages: a lot of money can be saved, satisfaction of doing it yourself

Disadvantages: some parts can be a little delicate

I, personally, have never, and will never, buy a ready-built PC from a supplier such as Dell, Pc World, or Tiny. Don't get me wrong, they all do tend to provide an excellent service for people that require that kind of service. But for me, I'm a more hands-on dive-in-and-fix-it-myself kind of person.

Huge savings can be made by building it yourself, and also by buying a ready-built PC from independent PC shops (I will tell more further down).


Parts you need to buy to build your own PC:

Basic componenents are as follows......

Motherboard (aka mainboard)

This is basically what allows all the different components to 'talk' to eachother. Everything, in some way, is connected to the motherboard. There are a great many choices on the market, but I would advise not to buy one purely on price. A safe bet is to buy one in the middle price bracket.

Processor (CPU)

This, I suppose, can be referred to as the brain of the PC. All the processing is done here, so, naturally, the faster rated the processor is, the better it is at doing it's job! For both performance, and cost, I would choose an AMD one over an Intel any day.

Heatsink & Fan for Processor

As you probably know, with all the processing the CPU is doing it heats up a lot. So you do need to buy a good heatsink and fan to draw the heat away and keep the CPU running as well as possible. These tend to be rated by maximum CPU speed, and are also specific to each CPU manufacturer.

Memory

The main types of memory (RAM) available these days is DDR, RDRAM (RIMM) and SDRAM (DIMM). DDR is the most common and is basically an advance on the now mainly obsolete SDRAM. RDRAM is technically better than DDR, but is very expensive and as such is not used very much (albeit in server machines).
The more memory your PC has, the faster it will process, as more RAM means more infomation can be processed at any one ti
me.

Graphics Card

This is needed to display ANYTHING on your monitor. Current standard seems to be leaning towards 64MB graphics cards, which are getting cheaper by the day. The better the graphics card, the better the quality of graphics and effects! Most modern graphics cards have an inbuilt processor of their own so take much of the processing away from the main CPU.

Quite a few basic motherboards have an inbuilt graphics card, which generally is more than enough for work use, and some games. But for anything more such as 3D graphics, a seperate graphics card is a must!

Almost all Graphics cards are AGP (Advanced Graphics Port), which means they can transfer data to/from the motherboard and CPU many times faster than the old PCI slot graphics cards.

Sound Card

Almost all motherboards have a basic sound card built into them, but many people prefer to pay a little extra to get something of a better quality.

Hard Drive

Another bigger-is-better item. Anything you install on your PC, be it Windows or games, is installed to your hard drive. Average tends to be 80GB currently, but there are hard drives with bigger capacities, and faster access speeds finding their way on to the market which is driving down the cost of your average hard drive.

CD-ROM Drive / DVD drive

As 99% of software is supplied on CD, this is an essential item. Very cheap to buy and simple to install. CD Writers are a little extra, but can be very useful for backing up files you do not want to lose.
At the moment DVD drives are somewhat of a luxury, although more and more software is being released on DVD as opposed to multiple CD's.

Floppy Disk Drive

A bit of an outdated system, but still very useful for saving small files, and also essential for booting up your pc if, god forbid, it all goes wrong some day!

Case (Including Power Supply)

This is where all the compone
nts will be placed. You'll more than likely need an ATX case to fit all the parts to. Be sure to get one with a good power supply, as you do not want to be left with a PC that won't run because it is startved of power!

Cables & leads (Usually supplied with Drives and Cases)

The cables I refer to are what connects Hard Drive, Floppy Drive, and CD-ROM Drive to you motherboard. Essential obviously, but sometimes you need to buy these seperately.

Monitor

A good 17inch monitor is all you will basically neeed. They can be bought for very competitive prices currently as people are leaning towards LCD screens (which, I don't doubt, will be the standard within a couple of years)

Speakers

Without these your sound card is useless!

Keyboard

Without one of these you are kinda stuck! So many different makes available, so you can be choosy and find one you like for only a small cost.

Mouse

Another essential input device. Many different types such as Optical (no rolling ball), infra red (no cable), and of course, the bog standard mouse that I prefer!

Modem

If you need access to the internet, one of these is essential. A standard 56k modem will do you for dialup access, but you will need a specialised cable/ADSL modem to access broadband.



Building your PC:

Once you have all your parts back home you are faced with somewhat of a jigsaw!

Before doing anything, I must warn you that static electricity can kill a PC component in seconds. Ground yourself by touching a water pipe, or even by touching the metal PC case!

One other precaution. Remember PC components are very fragile. Any bending or forcing is likely to break the minute electrical connections (such as on the motherboard...I have done this before!)

Easiest way to start, I find, is to install the CPU onto the motherboard, and the the heatsink & fan (rememb
er to connect the fan power lead from the case!). After this, add the memory, and then fit the motherboard into the case (usually easy to do, with clip on fastenings already present).

Next, fit all the drives into the case by slotting them onto the runners at the front and fixing them into place by tightening screw along the sides of the runners. Connect the power cables fron the case to the drives, and connect the drives to the motherboard (making sure you get the connectors the right way round!)

Then, attach all power cables from the case to the relevant slots on the motherboard (usually pretty straightforward as each connector is labelled, and each slot is identified in the motherboard's manual).

Now, fit the graphics card into the AGP slot on the motherboard (identified in the manual again), and any other cards you have such as modem and sound. Fix these into place by tightening the screws at the rear of the case.

Finally fit the cover back on to the case and plug in everything else at the rear of the case, such as power leads, keyboard, mouse, speakers and monitor.

Switch it all on and proceed to install your software (Windows first of course...unless your a Linux fan!)

Drawback include... being very fiddly in places trying to fit the tiny connectors, and the risk of damaging parts. Although saying this, I've only ever broken a motherboard once (sadly it was one I had sold to a friend and was fitting for him!)


Buying the PC parts:

Speaking from experience, the best places to buy from are independent retailers such as Glasgow's Priceless Computing, World of Computers, or Creative Computing. Very cheap, and they have online catalogues and shops (web addresses available, leave me a message and I'll give them out!)
These companies also sell ready-built systems at a small premium, which still work out surprisingly cheaper than big high street chains.

Some exampl
es:

(prices from Priceless Computing)

*Ready-built*

Case
AMD Athlon 2800XP CPU
Motherboard (with sound)
256MB DDR RAM
80GB Hard DRive
56k Modem
Lan card (for networking)
Heatsink & fan
DVD drive
CD writer
64MB GEForce graphics card
Floppy drive

All for £399... just need to add speakers, monitor, keyboard and mouse (which they sell for under £100)

Building it yourself would come in at £450 so basically you are paying and extra £50 if the build it for you, which is pretty damn reasonable!

An Identical system from the likes of PC World would cost at least £800 (in fact the closest match I could find was £899 at PC World!)
Only big difference is you get an operating system with PC's from big retailers. Think of it though... Who doesn't already have a windows CD?!

So as you can see... opting for the build it yourself route can save you roughly 50%! Shocking isn't it?!


I hope this review is of use to many people, as I have saved myself a lot of money over the years by being a skinflint and taking the cheap route (plus it is very satisfying to know that you did it all yourself!)

thanks for reading

Marc

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