Building Your Own Computer

What parts do I need to buy?

Click the links below to get more information on the basic workings of each peripheral:

Quick Peripheral Tips:

CPU - It would be a waste to spend your money on a top of the line CPU. For almost half the price you can buy the second fastest CPU available and upgrade in a year or so. The CPUs available for your motherboard will be way faster than what you first bought. Make sure to read my tip below about motherboards so you can get a serious upgrade in the future.

If you are thinking about overclocking your CPU, be sure to buy a really good (and expensive) CPU fan. And NEVER EVER turn on your computer without the the CPU fan being hooked up. I have had too many laughs at co-workers who have brought their PC in for us to fix only to find out they thought they could just turn it on real quick and fried their CPU. Visit our Computer Performance Guide for more information.
Motherboards - Read up on the Chipsets and their capabilities. Many times a chipset will come out capable of using CPUs 3 times more powerful than what is currently on the market. That is what you want! You get a Motherboard with that and then you can double the speed of your computer in a year just by replacing the CPU. Now that is a killer upgrade. A great place for detailed info on motherboards and chipsets is Tom's Hardware.

Video Cards - Computers in general are all really fast these days. When it comes to some serious gaming it is the video card that will make or break you in game performance. If you are not planning on doing any gaming, here is where you can save a lot of money and buy a low end video card.

RAM - The bottom line, the more the better. RAM is like the stock market, it's prices fluctuate. So stock up on it when it is cheap. The cheapest I have seen it is about 10 cents a megabyte.

Hard Drives - Just like RAM, the more the better. I can remember back in my college days I spent $320 on a 1.6 GB Western Digital Hard drive. I thought I had almost infinite space, nine months later it was full. If you are really serious for performance, drop the extra cash and buy a SCSI Hard Drive, or stripe 2 or more IDE Drives using a PCI IDE RAID controller. See our Hard Drive Performance Guide for more information.
For the best place to get a Hard Drive Cheap see: Computers & Networking at Overstock.com Auctions!

Modems - Even though it seems like everyone has a broadband connection they only make up less than 25% in the United States. If you plan on using a modem, buy a name brand. I have noticed that generic usually do not perform as good when you have line noise.

Sound Cards - Another device that really enhances gaming including 3D effects and special sound editing and generation features. If you are building a business machine don't skip out on buying a sound card. Usually you can buy a motherboard that has them built-in.

Creative Savings Center - Save Up to 75%!

CD-ROM/DVD - Here is where you can end up spending a lot of money. At the bare minimum you should get a high-end CD-ROM drive, but the options take off from there. All DVD drives will read CDs but you can also get DVD/CD-RW combo drives and DVD-RW. One thing to consider for those building a business machine, CD-RW & DVD-RW drives are a great way to back up your computer and important data.

Computer Case - This part of the PC is finally getting the attention it deserves. Consider a case that has rounded edges on the inside so the sharp corners are not exposed. I have cut myself on a case a few times and blood on a motherboard really sucks!

Also consider the power supply (Which is usually included when you buy a case). A crappy power supply has caused me many headaches when I have been troubleshooting why my machine was crashing. It ended up that the power supply was not sending clean power. Remember power supplies are measured in Watts. If you get a 150W power supply it will not be able to run a machine with several drives.

Finally special customized cases are available. Typically computer gamers will build their computer in a custom case to show it off at LAN parties. Custom computer cases vary from custom paint jobs, plexiglass windows filled with interesting light effects, to brushed aluminum. There is no end to the amount of customizations. Cyberguys.com is loaded with custom cases, lights, fans, and neon accessories to really trick out your computer.

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Building Your Own Computer

What parts do I need to buy?

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