Guide To Building Your Own Computer
Have you ever thought about building your own computer? Actually buying a motherboard and a case along with all the supporting components and putting together the entire thing yourself?
It may sound like a daunting task but it is becoming increasingly popular to build your own computer. In many cases, it saves money, and it ensures you get what you want. It also guarantees that you avoid proprietary designs a lot of companies use to keep you returning to them for new parts. Best of all, having built the system yourself, you become very familiar with that system and with computers as a whole. But, at the same time, pre-built PCs have come down in price quite a bit. Today, one is given to question whether it is best to build a PC yourself or to just buy one off the shelf.
If you're a real PC enthusiast, this question may be a non-issue. The answer may be as evident as the color of grass. This is predictable, naturally. There's really something to be said for selecting your own components. There is also a certain sense of gratification with having built a PC. One spends a few hours (or fewer for those more acquainted with the process) to put the thing together. Then comes the moment of truth when you hit the power switch for the first time.
But, besides the joy of it, is it worth it? Is it a practical use of your time? Will it really save you money? The answer to that question nowadays has become a bit gray. A few years ago, the answer was obvious. Pre-built PCs were generally built from OEM, cheap parts. The performance was average to simply dreadful. The choice was evident: If you desired a decent PC, you'd better build it. Today, the line has blurred. Where many off-the-shelf PCs today still use cheaper components in an attempt to save money, there are more pre-built PCs today which do use quality hardware and whose performance ranks up there with the best of them.
Component Selection
Most commercial PC buyers (except for the ones who build higher end models) don't make a big deal of which components they use. They will, of course, tell you the specs of the system, but often do not elaborate on the brands of the equipment they use. Most lower to average priced pre-built PCs use more or less generic hardware. It gets the job done, but what you get is what you get. Upgrading your pre-built PC can be a problem for this reason.
In contrast, building your own PC means you can handpick all of the components in your system. You can guarantee you get good, name brand hardware which will have proper manufacturer support and driver support. Most importantly, you can ensure you get hardware that will perform. One facet of pre-built is that compatibility issues are taken care of by the manufacturer, but there is a trade-off made in that guarantee.
Price
Generally, you can get more bang for your buck building your own PC. In many cases, you'll find equally priced and comparable PCs, where one is pre-built and one would be homebuilt. You can buy PCs cheaper than you can build them, but when you consider the hardware choices inside, the price is offset in favor of homebuilt.
Support
Available support is a significant concern for do-it-yourselfers. When you build it yourself, there is nowhere to take the PC for service. On the other hand, pre-built machines generally do come with manufacturer support. But, support is anything but consistent. Some manufacturers have problematic records on support whereas some are quite good at it. The good news for do-it-yourselfers is that the community of people who do this sort of thing themselves is expanding. There is a lot of data on the internet, and community sources for assistance.
Warranty
On pre-built PCs, there is commonly a warranty on the entire system, and in many cases, you're offered an extended service plan at the time of purchase. Home built PCs do not have full system warranties, of course, but if you purchase good name brand hardware, most of the components will themselves hold warranties. You'll want to keep all of the warranty information for each of the components your purchased stored in one place.
Software
Pre-built PCs often come with a lot of software on them, most importantly the operating system itself. On the flip side, though, these PCs many times come with too much software, meaning garbage that you don't want and that just clutters the hard drive and badgers you to buy stuff. On homebuilt PCs, you might pay a bit more for the software per unit, but you'll get what you want and only what you want, plus you can set it up how you desire.
The first step in building a computer is deciding what type of machine you want to build. Do you want a really low-budget computer for the kids to use? A high-end gaming computer? Or maybe you need a powerful machine with a lot of disk space for video editing. The possibilities are endless, and the type of machine you would like to build will control many of the decisions you make down the line. Therefore, it is crucial to know exactly what you want the machine to accomplish from the start.
Let's suppose you want to build a powerful video editing computer. You want it to have a dual-core CPU, lots of RAM and a terabyte of disk space. You also want to have FireWire connectors on the motherboard. These requirements are going to drive you to seek out a motherboard that supports:
- Dual-core CPUs (either Intel or AMD)
- At least 4GB of high-speed RAM
- Four (or more) SATA hard drives
- FireWire connections (possibly in both the front and back of the case)
Then it all needs to go in a case with sufficient space to hold multiple hard disks and enough air flow to keep everything cool.
Next, select an optical drive. If you are making a cheap machine, get the cheapest CD-ROM drive you can find. If you want to burn DVDs and CDs, make sure the drive can handle it. You will also need to choose a hard disk, and make sure that it matches the PATA/SATA status of your motherboard. Finally, choose an operating system: Windows Vista, XP or Linux in its hundreds of different forms.
Where To Buy Your Components
Now that you have picked everything out, it's time to purchase your parts. You have three options:
- Mail order on the Internet - All varieties of stores sell computer parts on the Web. Visit a site like HowStuffWorks Shopper to compare prices. Don't forget about eBay.
- National Retailers - Places like Tiger Direct, Fry's, and CompUSA have stores in most large cities that will sell you components. They also have people on staff who may be able to answer questions.
- Local Parts Retailers - Any big city will have a number of smaller, local stores selling parts. Look in the Yellow Pages or online. The people working at a shop like this can frequently answer lots of questions, and they may also be inclined to help you if your machine doesn't work after you assemble it.
Now that you have your parts, it's time to build. This is the fun part and where a lot of reading a diagram studying helps. There are endless websites, books, ebooks, forums, chat rooms, you name it, dedicated to people who have endeavored to build their own computers and then share their knowledge.
These are great resources to use during your project and certainly as research while you are still trying to make up your mind about whether or not to take the plunge. You can also use our site to compare Internet Service Providers that will connect your new PC to the Internet at blazing-fast broadband speeds.