The essentials:
• Case
• Power supply
• Motherboard
• CPU
• Ram
• Hard disk drive
• Video graphics accelerator
• Operating system
First - Part selection
When building a computer you’ll need to do your homework, but its fun, rewarding and keeps you from having to send things back.
The Computer case is usually the part that people spend the least money on, however it will protect all those sensitive components. Cases come in various sizes, know as form factor and some will have a power supply already installed.
Things to consider:
• The form factor (ATX, AT, microATX, FlexATX and mini-ITX)
• The style that you like
• With or with out a power supply
• Hardware that it comes with (Stand offs and screws)
The computer case has to appeal to your eyes, but it is of least importance to me. Among this; the form factor must be able to match the motherboard. So make sure that you get a case that will allow the mother board to fit to. Often computer cases will be able to fit several motherboard footprints allowing for a change in the future. Typical case is an ATX mid tower as listed below.
Extra hardware makes it nice when the mother board has none.
Notice that this case has no power supply. No problems, we would have to just find one that fits our motherboard. Power supply’s are rated in Watts and also come in ATX and AT types; basically you’re looking for the plugs that insert into the motherboard, hard drives, CPU, and often a high end graphics card. You can get gender changers to fit a plug into a different plug but this is typically for a serial hard drive or fans. Most important is to get a power supply that has enough power output and fits the type of mother board you are getting. Typical power supply is an ATX around 450 Watts. Below is a ATX power supply
Motherboards
The motherboard is the main piece of hard ware that everything connects to, hence the name motherboard. Motherboards come in various form factors that I mentioned earlier. Among the form factor a mother board will have a socket. This socket refers to the type of CPU that can connect to it. For example
This board has an AM2+/AM2 socket meaning that you will be held to this category of CPU. A Pentium CPU would not work on this board. Also make sure to read over the manufactures specs to verify that it has been tested to work correctly with the CPU you want to use. A lot of CPUs will fit the socket, but it is no guarantee that the motherboard will work with the CPU.
Other things to look for on a main board (motherboard is often called a main board) are as follows:
Memory (RAM), how much memory and what type of Ram will the board take. Some newer board can hold 16gigs given that it is a 64 bit system. As a side note a 64 bit system can technically hold a maximum of 17.2 billion gigabytes, 16.8 million terabytes, or 16 exabytes of RAM. That day will be bitchen.
Expansion slots
• AGP 4X/8X Video processing
• PCI video processing as well as a expansion for wireless cards and other expansion cards
• PCI Express 2.0 x16 video processing
• PCI Express x1 video processing
• PCI Express x16 video processing
Hard drive interfacing sockets, SATA will not work with IDE. So you must know this when selecting the hard drive. Most new mother boards will have SATA and IDE but you need to make sure that your hard drive will fit.
Still using Floppy? Well for some reason it is still got a spot on the motherboards. I have not used a floppy disk for almost 6years now but hey my board has the connector for one.
Other things to consider are below. Notice that this board has an on-board VGA port. This means that technically I would not need a graphics card. Its good to know because you could save money if money is tight by not having to purchase a vedio card. Not all boards have a on board VGA port so beware of this.
Some more technical issues when looking for a main board is its FSB speeds and driver support. If you wish to install Linux for example you may wish to see if drivers are available from the manufactures web site. This may not be necessary but the more you know the limits of the board the better you can tailor other parts to it.
Video cards, the video card is by far one of the most vastly debated pieces of hardware there is. AGP, PCI, PCI express all are used to help the computer digest huge numbers that are translated to your eyes as pretty pictures. If you run a main board without a video card then most of the CPU will be spending its time trying to run graphics. During a game this would cause the CPU to slow down or even not work correctly at all. Thus a Video card is a gamer’s most expensive piece of hardware. Not only gamers but video editors and 3D software relay on huge number and complex calculations.
Some features to look for in selecting a video card
• On board memory and type
• Speeds
• Drivers for your operating system
• Power consummation
• SLI ready
Graphics cards have memory that ranges from 128Mb to 2gigs. This is also categorized in the type of memory i.e. DDR, DDR2, DDR3 and I read the other day that DDR5 will be out very soon. Speeds are important so make sure to get the card that will suite your needs. Take a look at the manufactures web site to be sure that Drivers are available.
The CPU, The Central Processing Unit is the heart of a computer. There are several to choose from and it can be tricky. CPU’s come in a 32 bit version and now a 64bit version. AMD and Intel are the industry leaders and at one time use to be one company.
CPUs Specs are as follows
• Multi-Core or Single-Core
• Operating Frequency 3.0GHz or 1.0GHz clock speed
• L1 Cache (fast on board memory)
• L2 Cache (fast on board memory)
• 64 bit or 32 bit
The Heat sink and Fan cool the CPU. The CPU is the hottest man made object per square mm ever invented, so cooling it is crucial. Often a CPU will come with a cooler but then again you may have to get one separate. Make sure It too fits the CPU socket.
Hard drive, Hard drives are pretty simple considering all the other parts you’ll have to weed through. Mostly you can look for storage capacity, SATA or IDE and RPM’s. I like to go a bit further and try to get as much cache as I can. Remember cache is a type of very fast memory. Non-technically speaking it is acting like a buffer, so if you have a lot of it them you can consider it a bit faster than a hard disk that has none to little cache. A typical hard drive would be the one below, a 400GIG SATA 3Gbit/s with 16Mb cache rounding the coroner at 7200 RPM. True there are SCSI 15000 RPM and others including IDE. Consider them all and yet shop around for a great deal.
RAM, Ram is a type of memory that allows programs to run faster than if they were to run off a hard drive or optical drive. Basically your computer reads code off of the hard drive and puts it into RAM. So the more ram you have the more code you can put into it. A 32 bit system can hold a maximum of 4gigs period (2³²)! This is a lot of ram but with more complex systems being developed 64 bit systems can have a SHIT load of RAM. Your motherboard will have limits that affect the type of RAM you use - hardware speaking, and your operating system will limit the RAM as well; depending on factors that I will not mention in this current writing. RAM has some features that you need to know like capacity, Cas Latency, clock speeds, and type. Capacity is typically units of MBs or GIGs in today’s standards. A typical stick of RAM will be in the order of 2Gigs. Cas Latency is something that you wish to have as low as possible. Compare expensive RAM sticks Cas Latency and inexpensive Cas Latency you’ll see what I mean. Clock speeds is important as well. I will not go into detail but clock speeds are a measured as seen below
Optical Drives, Optical Drives are basically a type of hard drive that allows you to put a disk into and read / write to it. Various drives are listed as:
• CD Burner
• Combo Drive
• Blu-ray DVD Burner
• DVD Burner
• Slim Combo Drive
• Slim DVD Burner
• Slim Blu-ray Combo Drive
Optical drives also have a cache ranging from 1.5MB, 2MB, 4MB, 4.5MB, 8MB so pick what your budget can handle. There are still older CD-R Drives that run at 16X, 24X, 32X, 40X, 48X, 52X. You can plug them in as a SATA or IDE.
Operating System, Operating systems are out there to pick from but the world is addicted to Microsoft Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, and now Vista. You can install Linux systems and most are Free. Just know that drivers are sometimes a burden. This issue is beginning to clear out more and more with Linux however. Picking an operating system is a tough one because one may have built up a 64 bit PC only to hold it down with a 32 bit operating system. So do your homework wisely.
Now when you order your PC and before it arrives do some research and learn about ESD damage and what a good POST well tell you. Often a lack of a driver will make for a bad POST. People don’t read manuals and often the computer case or motherboard will have a manual that shows you the best way to hook things together.
Putting it all together
more soon...
I think this one works 
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